22 mei 2012

Light painting



“Light painting” is a photographic technique that uses a light source and long exposure to create the effect of “painting” with light. As with other forms of animation, it can be used very creatively as it’s not limited by “reality.”
German collective LICHTFAKTOR are pioneers in this technique. The team has created clips ranging from multi-national collaborations with other artists to adverts for major brands.


 

 

20 mei 2012

Circus parade



;Filmtips:

Close-ups are used for distinguishing main characters. Major characters are often given a close-up when they are introduced as a way of indicating their importance. Leading characters will have multiple close-ups. There is a long-standing stereotype of insecure actors desiring a close-up at every opportunity and counting the number of close-ups they received.

Close-up shots do not show the subject in the broad context of its surroundings. If overused, close-ups may leave viewers uncertain as to what they are seeing. Close-ups are rarely done with wide angle lenses, because perspective causes objects in the center of the picture to be unnaturally enlarged. Certain times, different directors will use wide angle lenses, because they can convey the message of confusion, and bring life to certain characters.

13 mei 2012

Destination Sud de France



Digital storytelling" is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their 'story'. Digital stories often present in compelling and emotionally engaging formats, they are usually less than 8 minutes long.
One can define digital storytelling as the process by which diverse peoples share their life story and creative imaginings with others. This newer form of storytelling emerged with the advent of accessible media production techniques, hardware and software, including but not limited to digital cameras, digital voice recorders, iMovie, Movie Maker and Final Cut Express. These new technologies allow individuals to share their stories over the Internet .



11 mei 2012

Dreamful Ghent



Day for night, also known as nuit américaine ("American night"), is the name for cinematographic techniques used to simulate a night scene; such as using tungsten-balanced rather than daylight-balanced film stock or with special blue filters and also under-exposing the shot  to create the illusion of darkness or moonlight.


A great way to achieve this effect is to tune the white balance of the camera to a yellow source if there is no tungsten setting. Another way to make a more believable night scene is to underexpose the footage to the desired degree of night/darkness. This depends on the amount of light shown or believed to be in the given scene.

8 mei 2012

Wet Ghent




Until the 13th century Ghent was the biggest city in Europe after Paris; it was bigger than London, Cologne or Moscow. Within the city walls lived up to 65,000 people. Today, the belfry and the towers of the Saint Bavo Cathedral and Saint Nicholas' Church are just a few examples of the skyline of the period.
 

The rivers flowed in an area where a lot of land was periodically inundated. These richly grassed 'meersen' ("water-meadows": a word related to the English 'marsh', but not meaning exactly the same: a 'meers' is not permanently under water) were ideally suited for herding sheep, the wool of which was used for making cloth. In fact, Ghent was, during the Middle Ages, the most important city for cloth.


 


6 mei 2012

Holland House


Digital point-and-shoot cameras have become widespread consumer products, outselling film cameras, and including new features such as video and audio recording. Kodak announced in January 2004 that it would no longer sell reloadable 35 mm cameras. 

According to a survey made by Kodak in 2007 when the majority of photography was already digital, 75 percent of professional photographers say they will continue to use film, even though some embrace digital.


5 mei 2012

Ghent on Light




The World Soundtrack Academy (WSA, or World Soundtrack Awards), launched in 2001 by the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent, is aimed at organizing and overseeing the educational, cultural and professional aspects of the art of film music, including the preservation of the history of the soundtrack and its worldwide promotion. The event takes place yearly in Ghent, Belgium with the ceremony usually at the Bijloke Concert Hall.

28 apr 2012

Peace of Muenster



The Peace of Münster was a treaty between the Dutch Republic and Spain signed in 1648. It was a landmark treaty for the Dutch republic and one of the key events in Dutch history; with it, the United Netherlands finally became independent from the Spanish Crown. The Dutch Revolt, or Eighty Years' War (1566–1648), was the revolt of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands against the Spanish  Empire.

Despite not formally being recognised as an independent state, the Dutch republic was allowed to participate in the peace talks; even Spain did not oppose this. In January 1646, eight Dutch representatives (two from Holland and one from each of the other six provinces) arrived in Münster to start the negotiations.  On 15 May the same year peace was made. With the peace, the Netherlands was recognized as an independent country.



27 apr 2012

Altstadt of Munster.




On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling shots into a coherent whole. A film editor is a person who practices film editing by assembling the footage. However, the job of an editor isn’t simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates, or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film.



 


26 apr 2012

Und wir fahren



In film theory, genre  refers to the method based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed. Most theories of film genre are borrowed from literary genre criticism. As with genre in a literary context, there is a great deal of debate over how to define or categorize genres.[citation needed]. Besides the basic distinction in genre between fiction and documentary (from which hybrid forms emerged founding a new genre, docufiction), film genres can be categorized in several ways.

Fictional films are usually categorized according to their setting, theme topic, mood, or format . The setting is the milieu or environment where the story and action takes place. The theme or topic refers to the issues or concepts that the film revolves around. The mood is the emotional tone of the film.



23 apr 2012

Baroque Munster




 

The bishopric of Muenster covered most of the Northern part of what is now Northrhine-Westphalia. It is mainly flat or hilly at the most. That is one reason why there are so many castles - usually water castles - left, that are still inhabited. Castles on the top of the hills were too difficult to keep up and to get to after they lost there strategic value.

17 apr 2012

Image of Maastricht



Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that is not custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of great use to filmmakers as it is far cheaper than shooting a needed scene. Stock footage can also be used to integrate news footage or notable figures into a film. Stock footage comes from a myriad of sources; including the public domain, other movies and television programs, news outlets and purpose-shot stock footage.

 

 


 

16 apr 2012

Mobil Muenster


Bicycling Münster



The bicycle, also named "Leeze", is the most commonly used means of transport in Münster. A daily total of more than 100,000 people are on the road by bike, and there are twice as many bicycles as residents, namely 500,000. Those who want to experience the true Münster feeling should therefore get on the bike.





14 apr 2012

Maastricht fortifications and Jeker river


Maastricht is known for its picturesque squares, romantic streets, and historical buildings.  City Fortifications, including:  Helpoort - a 13th century town gate, the oldest in the Netherlands. Fragments of the first and second medieval city walls.

 Hoge Fronten (or Linie van Du Moulin) - remnants of 17th and 18th century fortifications with a number of well-preserved bastions and an early 19th century fortress Fort Willem.




12 apr 2012

Amsterdam sketchbook



The sketchbook is more frequently used in displays of contemporary art, as well as historical retrospectives, now that 'intimate' and 'ephemeral' records are increasingly seen by some as more informative than the planned and finished drawing, painting or sculpture.

The form is also now being used as inspiration for the development of online/digital sketchbooks. The World Wide Web has made a big difference to the scope to access documents such as the sketchbooks of famous artists which previously would only be seen in an exhibition. A number of the sketchbooks of famous artists have been digitally recorded and are now available online.

11 apr 2012

Jewish museum in the Netherlands


The Joods Historisch Museum  is a museum in Amsterdam dedicated to Jewish history, culture and religion, in the Netherlands and worldwide.


The location, occupies four former synagogues on Jonas Daniël Meijerplein square, across the road from the Snoge or Portuguese Synagogue

The exhibition on the ground floor focuses on Jewish traditions and customs. The presentation is inspired by the former interior of the synagogue. Ceremonial objects from the museum collection are shown in locations where they used to be placed in the synagogue. This gives visitors a sense of the surroundings in which they find themselves and enables them to taste the original synagogue atmosphere.




 

10 apr 2012

Path to the Aasee



Filmtips:
A film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film, generally referring to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle. To show the film to best advantage, special screenings may take place in plush, low seat-count theaters with very high quality (sometimes especially certified) projection and sound equipment, and can be accompanied by food and drink and spoken remarks by producers, writers, or actors. Special screenings typically occur outside normal theatrical showing hours. The different types of screenings are presented here in their order within a film's development.



7 apr 2012

Bread and Butter



Diegetic sound is that which is to have actually occurred within the story during the action being viewed. It is sound that comes from within the narrative world of a film (including off-screen sound). Continuous diegetic sound helps to smooth temporally questionable cuts by overlapping the shots. Here the logic is that if a sonic occurrence within the action of the scene has no breaks in time, then it would be impossible for the scene and its corresponding visuals to be anything but temporally continuous.


 

6 apr 2012

The famous canals of Amsterdam


 


When the citizens of Amsterdam decided in the 17th century to extend their town, they dug their city canals in semicircles around the old centre. On each canal or gracht were tree-lined streets on both sides of the water. But these proud Amsterdam citizens were quite the jokers. They called the first and paramount gracht after themselves: the Heerengracht: the gracht of the Heeren, the Masters of Amsterdam.


The second one they called the Keizersgracht: the gracht of the Emperors; and the third one, further from the centre, the Prinsengracht: the gracht of the Princes. In that way they indicated that the Heeren – being themselves – were more important than Emperors, who are (of course) more important than Princes. A kind of practical joke.



5 apr 2012

Balcony of Munsterland




In the 12th century the county of Tecklenburg emerged in the region that is now called the "Tecklenburger Land" in the western foothills of the Teutoburg Forest. It was annexed by the neighbouring county of Bentheim in 1263, and Tecklenburg still had a count until the 19th century.

Tecklenburg retained some of its medieval townscape to date. Main sites include the ruined castle (now serving as open air theatre during the Summer) and the Stadtkirche (the main, old church) including tombs of the dukes of Tecklenburg and others prominent in the history of the county and city.


Today, the city of Tecklenburg (from a perspective of size really not a city but a town) is a tourist destination.



2 apr 2012

The Language of Colour



Use colour wisely In some films, the directors have made choices about how the colour of their film will influence the atmosphere. How can you achieve the same effect when you're working in video? You need to consider colour before you shoot any video at all. Professional filmmakers have their set designers work with the cinematographer to choose a colour palette for the film. In some cases, this palette determines everything from the colour of the wallpaper in a room to the colour of an actor's tie. Working within a specific colour palette, you can give your film a more coherent look. Once you've shot your footage, you can affect the atmosphere of the film by choosing how colours will appear in the finished product. Using the colour filters available in editing software you can subtly alter the hue of your film and emulate certain processing techniques.



The Jordaan


The Jordaan is a district of the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.


Originally a working-class neighbourhood, the Jordaan has become one of the most expensive, upscale locations in the Netherlands. It is home to many art galleries, particularly for modern art, and is also dotted with speciality shops and restaurants.

Rembrandt spent the last years of his life in the Jordaan, on the Rozengracht canal. He was buried in the Westerkerk church, at the corner of Rozengracht and Prinsengracht, just beyond the Jordaan. The Anne Frank House, where Anne Frank went into hiding during World War II, is located on the edge of the Jordaan, on the Prinsengracht canal.


 

31 mrt 2012

Aufenthalt in Munsterland


 

For a still shot you can always use a tripod or other flat surface to rest the camera on. Too many action shots in a row can get kind of overwhelming, so for quieter or more relaxed moments in your video you’ll want to throw in plenty of good old “picture frame” moments. The camera – along with your viewer – can just rest there, in place, and soak in what’s going on.


30 mrt 2012

Wijck of Maastricht


Maastricht  is a city in the Netherlands. It is located in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg, of which it is the capital.

Maastricht is widely known as a city of history, culture, local folklore and education. The town is popular with tourists for shopping and recreation. The city has a large growing international student population.

Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river (Dutch: Maas) in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border




22 mrt 2012

Jewish quarter Amsterdam


The Jodenbreestraat  is a street in the centre of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.




In the 17th century, many Jewish emigrants from Portugal and Spain settled in the neighborhood. They founded several synagogues.



The street served as a marketplace until the late 19th century. In 1893, the city government ordered the merchants to move their stalls to nearby Waterlooplein square.





During the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, many residents of the Jewish neighourhood were taken away to the concentration camps and killed. After the war, the neighbourhood was left deserted and many of the houses began to fall apart and were eventually torn down.



 

20 mrt 2012

Bookstore made in Heaven


What does a city do with an 800-year-old church with no congregation? Well, it could make like the Dutch and convert it into a temple of books. The old Dominican church in Maastricht was being used for bicycle storage not long ago, but thanks to a radical refurbishment by Dutch architects Merkx + Girod it has been turned into what could possibly be the most beautiful bookshop of all time. The Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen, which opened just before Christmas, retains the character and charm of the old church, while being fitted with a minimalist and modern interior design that overcomes any suggestion of fustiness. From the images you can find on the web you can see that it is a bookshop made in heaven.



17 mrt 2012

Bouillon the one from Godfrey



The most famous of the Lords of Bouillon was Godfrey of Bouillon, a leader of the First Crusade and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He sold Bouillon Castle to the Bishopric of Liège. The bishops started to call themselves dukes of Bouillon, and the town emerged as the capital of a sovereign duchy by 1678, when it was captured from the bishopric by the French army and given to the La Tour d'Auvergne family. The duchy was prized for its strategic location as "the key to the Ardennes" (as Vauban called it) and hence to France itself. It remained a quasi-independent protectorate, like Orange and Monaco, until 1795, when the Republican Army finally annexed it to France.



 

14 mrt 2012

Amsterdam evening


  Filmtips:

Day for night, also known as nuit américaine ("American night"), is the name for cinematographic techniques used to simulate a night scene; such as using tungsten-balanced rather than daylight-balanced film stock or with special blue filters and also under-exposing the shot (usually in post-production) to create the illusion of darkness or moonlight.

Historically, infrared movie film was used to achieve an equivalent look with black-and-white film.

A great way to achieve this effect is to tune the white balance of the camera to a yellow source if there is no tungsten setting. Another way to make a more believable night scene is to underexpose the footage to the desired degree of night/darkness. This depends on the amount of light shown or believed to be in the given scene.



13 mrt 2012

Whaling war


Internet activism (also known as online organizing, electronic advocacy, cyberactivism, E-campaigning, and E-activism) is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience. Internet technologies are used for cause-related fundraising, community building, lobbying, and organizing.


11 mrt 2012

Burn-out




Open Images is an open media platform that offers online access to audiovisual archive material to stimulate creative reuse. Footage from audiovisual collections can be downloaded and remixed into new works. Users of Open Images also have the opportunity to add their own material to the platform and thus expand the collection.  Access to the material on Open Images is provided under the Creative Commons licensing model.

The 'remix' of film is nothing new.

From the very beginning of film history, films  often were semi-finished products: the films were sometimes cut by the exhibitor and other (own) material added to a new compilation. During the screening, the films were often explained by a 'explicateur' and set to music by a musician or orchestra. The ranking of the film  into a film program often was based on the preferences of the exhibitor.