Swinging pictures of Amsterdam

 

 

 A few years ago, Aram his brother and creative partner Jurriaan (29) discovered a tool in his animation software that allowed him to make this fantasy. “I discovered that I could make statues move. That was actually hilarious right away. Each statue really danced in its own way,” he says. “Then we knew that this had to be a music video for the music Jurriaan also makes, under the name The Close Up,” To pay a true tribute to art in Amsterdam, the brothers chose 80 statues: a mix of well-known and lesser-known works, which had the potential to move well. “You have to work with the pose of the statue,” says Aram. “A knee only moves in one direction,” Jurriaan agrees.

 

 

Beautifull Tunisia

 

 

Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to share aspects of their story. The media used may include the digital equivalent of film techniques, stills, audio only, or any of the other forms of non-physical media (material that exists only as electronic files as opposed to actual paintings or photographs on paper, sounds stored on tape or disc, movies stored on film) which individuals can use to tell a story or present an idea. 

 

Photography

 

 

 

Polavision was an "instant" color home movie system launched by Polaroid in 1977. Unlike other motion picture film stock of the time, Polavision film reproduces color by the additive method, like the much earlier Dufaycolor film. In essence, it consists of a black-and-white emulsion on a film base covered with microscopically narrow red, green and blue filter stripes. It was instant in the sense that it could be very quickly and easily developed in the Polavision processing unit after it was removed from the Polavision camera, ready for viewing in only a few minutes. The Polavision cartridge is a small rectangular box containing the film reels and a small lens and prism for projection at an open gate. The film format is similar to the super 8 mm format, but without the Polavision tabletop viewer the only way a Polavision film can be shown is by destroying the cartridge and projecting the removed film with an ordinary super 8 mm projector or transferring it to video with a telecine system. The Polavision system was a major commercial failure, and was discontinued in 1979. However, the underlying technology was improved and used as the basis for the Polachrome instant color transparency system introduced in 1983.

Remix Movie

 

 

 

A remix is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The only characteristic of a remix is that it appropriates and changes other materials to create something new. Remixes should not be confused with edits, which usually involve shortening a final stereo master for marketing or broadcasting purposes. Another distinction should be made between a remix, which recombines audio pieces from a recording to create an altered version of a song, and a cover: a re-recording of someone else's song. While audio mixing is one of the most popular and recognized forms of remixing, this is not the only media form which is remixed in numerous examples. Literature, film, technology, and social systems can all be argued as a form of remix.

Local Laos

 

 

The basic genres of film can be regarded as drama, in the feature film and most cartoons, and documentary. Most dramatic feature films, especially from Hollywood fall fairly comfortably into one of a long list of film genres such as the Western, war film, horror film, romantic comedy film, musical, crime film, and many others. Many of these genres have a number of subgenres, for example by setting or subject, or a distinctive national style, for example in the Indian Bollywood musical.

Flight of the godwil

 

 

Film and television Organizations such as the American Humane Association monitor the use of animals such as those used in the entertainment industry, but they do not monitor their training. The Patsy Award (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) was originated by the Hollywood office in 1939 after a horse was killed in an on-set accident during the filming of the Tyrone Power film Jesse James. The award now covers both film and television and is separated into four categories: canine, equine, wild and special. 

 

 

Amsterdam Architecture

 

 

Finding a way to synchronize visual and audio tracks was essential to traditional filmmaking because film stock reacts to light, not sound. During a film shoot, the audio track was always recorded by the audio engineer with a separate system on separate media (so-called double-system recording). (For early sound films, playback of the audio track was synchronized during post-production with sound-on-disc techniques, and the audio track was later added directly to the release print with sound-on-film techniques.) Failure to use clapperboards can prevent the film editor from synchronizing the visual images on film footage with the accompanying audio recordings

 

 

Capri Isle

 

 

Color grading is a post-production process common to filmmaking and video editing of improving the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices. Various attributes of an image such as contrast, color, saturation, detail, black level, and white point may be enhanced whether for motion pictures, videos, or still images. Color grading and color correction are often used synonymously as terms for this process and can include the generation of artistic color effects through creative blending and compositing of different images. Color grading is generally now performed in a digital process either in a controlled environment such as a color suite, or in any location where a computer can be used in dim lighting. 

 

 

Calamaris

 

 

Blogging also introduced opportunities for a new wave of amateur film critics to have their opinions heard. These review blogs may focus on one genre, director or actor, or encompass a much wider variety of films. Friends, friends of friends, or strangers are able to visit these blogsites, and can often leave their own comments about the movie and/or the author's review. Although much less frequented than their professional counterparts, these sites can gather a following of like-minded people who look to specific bloggers for reviews, as they have found that the critic consistently exhibits an outlook very similar to their own. YouTube has also served as a platform for amateur film critics. 

 

Garden of Museum van Loon

 

 

The audition is a systematic process in which industry professionals select performers, which is in some ways analogous to a job interview in the regular job market. In an audition, the employer is testing the ability of the applicant to meet the needs of the job and assess how well the individual will take directions and deal with changes. After some auditions, after the performer has demonstrated their abilities in a given performance style, the audition panel may ask a few questions that resemble those used in standard job interviews (e.g., regarding availability 

 

Amstel Church

 

 

The Amstel Church is a Reformed church building in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the southern part of the Grachtengordel neighborhood, near the Amstel River, between the Prinsengracht, Reguliersgracht and Keizersgracht. The church was designed by Daniël Stalpaert and was originally intended as a wooden emergency church, erected to provide for church services in the fourth Golden Age extension of Amsterdam laid out in 1662, but it was never replaced by a more permanent building. The building is no longer in use as a church. Some parts of the building have been converted to office space, and the church is used for classical concerts.

 

Coffee run

 

 

Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software tool set used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D-printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, virtual reality, and, formerly, video games. Blender's features include 3D modelling, UV mapping, texturing, digital drawing, raster graphics editing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animation, match moving, rendering, motion graphics, video editing, and compositing. 

 

Museum van Loon

 

 

 In the heart of the Amsterdam canal district lies Museum Van Loon, a magnificent private residence built in 1672 by the architect Adriaen Dortsman. The first resident was the painter Ferdinand Bol, a pupil of Rembrandt. The interior of the house has remained largely intact during the last centuries and still evokes the splendor of the 17th century.  In the rooms, a large collection of paintings, fine furniture, precious silvery and porcelain from different centuries is on display. Behind the house is a beautiful garden, an oasis of quiet in the modern inner city. The garden is laid out in formal style, and is bordered on the far side by the classical façade of the coach house. This original unity of canal house, garden and coach house is nowhere else to be seen. If you want a glimpse of the world behind the façades of the world famous canals, a visit to Museum Van Loon is definitely worth your while.

 

Energy Junkies

 

 

Hard and soft light are different types of lighting that are commonly used in photography and filmmaking. Soft light is light that tends to "wrap" around objects, projecting diffused shadows with soft edges, whereas hard light is more focused and produces harsher shadows. The hardness or softness of light depends mostly on three features of the source: the size of its surface, its distance from the object, and the thickness of its diffusion material. A large, distant light source with thick diffusion material will produce softer lighting than one that is smaller and closer to the subject, with thinner diffusion material. 

 

Italian Experience

 

 

The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII in 1896. The first films date back to 1896 and were made in the main cities of the Italian peninsula. These brief experiments immediately met the curiosity of the popular class, encouraging operators to produce new films until they laid the foundations for the birth of a true film industry. 

 

Sluice to sluice

 

 

 

The script format for documentaries and audio-visual presentations which consist largely of voice-over matched to still or moving pictures is different again and uses a two-column format which can be particularly difficult to achieve in standard word processors, at least when it comes to editing or rewriting. Many script-editing software programs include templates for documentary formats. 

 

Het Groote Museum of Artis

 

 

There are many different types of video production. The most common include film and TV production, television commercials, internet commercials, corporate videos, product videos, customer testimonial videos, marketing videos, event videos, wedding videos. The term "Video Production" is reserved only for content creation that is taken through all phases of production (Pre-production, Production, and Post-production) and created with a specific audience in mind. A person filming a concert, or their child's band recital with a smartphone or video camera for the sole purpose of capturing the memory would fall under the category of "home movies" not video production. 

 

Amsterdam: Canals

 

 

 A remake is a film, television series, video game, or similar form of entertainment, that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same story as the original but uses a different cast, and may alter the theme or change the story's setting. A similar but not synonymous term is reimagining, which indicates a greater discrepancy between, for example, a movie and the movie it is based on. 

 

Heave Accident (making-off)

 

 

In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, the set or on the set is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the EPK (electronic press kit) video, due to its main usage as a promotional tool, either concurrent with theatrical release or as a bonus feature for the film's DVD or Blu-ray release.

Particles and pixels

 

 

TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian media organization that posts talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED's early emphasis was on technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins. It has since broadened its perspective to include talks on many scientific, cultural, political, humanitarian, and academic topics. TED Talks have been offered for free viewing online, under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license, through TED.com. As of December 2020 over 3,500 TED Talks are freely available on the website. In June 2011, TED Talks' combined viewing figure stood at more than 500 million, by November 2012, TED Talks had been watched over one billion times worldwide.

 

 

Oud Noord

 

 

Digital movies are projected using a digital video projector instead of a film projector, are shot using digital movie cameras and edited using a non-linear editing system (NLE). The NLE is often a video editing application installed in one or more computers that may be networked to access the original footage from a remote server, share or gain access to computing resources for rendering the final video, and to allow several editors to work on the same timeline or project.

 

 

Site seeing: Mediamatic

 

During pre-production, the script is broken down into individual scenes with storyboards and all the locations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects are identified. An extremely detailed shooting schedule is produced and arrangements are made for the necessary elements to be available to the film-makers at the appropriate times. Sets are constructed, the crew is hired, financial arrangements are put in place and a start date for the beginning of principal photography is set. 

 

 

Prosthetic X artwork

 

 

Imagine a future where we have a data organ that shows how healthy we are. An artificial extension of our body that indicates the quality of the air around us, and our exposure to UV.
This is the speculative scenario Prosthetic X is exploring, an art-driven innovation project that stimulates the thinking about how, why and who gains insight in your personal health data. Asking questions about our ageing society and our beauty standards, prosthetic X invites you to think about what it would be like if we would wear our data on our skin.

 

 

Biotoop: Mediatic

 

 

Mediamatic Biotoop is a breeding ground for art, design and life sciences. Here you will find many site-specific installations, a restaurant, waterside terrace, co-working spaces and labs. All exhibits are free of charge unless otherwise stated.

Pigeon towers used to exist everywhere to produce extra fertiliser needed to support growing populations. When artificial fertiliser was discovered most towers became neglected, as did their inhabitants. We want to change that. We build our towers with living waste mycelium from the oyster mushroom agri-industry. It takes a bit of practise and a bit of experience

 

 

 

Tutorial filmrecording

 

 

 

A tutorial, in education, is a method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture, a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete a certain task. A tutorial can be taken in many forms, ranging from a set of instructions to complete a task to an interactive problem solving session (usually in academia). 

 

Chromakey experiments

 

 

 In all of these cases, the illusion is created by a special effects technique known as traveling matte or blue screen. This technique allows actors and scale models to find themselves in totally imaginary situations -- in space ships, dangling from rope bridges over gorges, flying through the air (a la Superman) -- and have it look completely real in the theater. The technique is used so often now that you don't even realize it. News reporters are made to look like they are on location when they are not, and complete segments in TV shows can be created this way to make it look like the segment was filmed on location.

 

Green from Amsterdam

 

 

There is precious little that is natural … in any film. You distort speed if you want to show things like plants growing, or look in detail at the way an animal moves. You distort light levels. You distort distribution, in the sense that you see dozens of different species in a jungle within a few minutes, so that the places seem to be teeming with life. You distort size by using close-up lenses. And you distort sound. What the filmmaker is trying to do is to convey a particular experience. … The viewer has to trust in the good faith of the filmmaker. Nature documentaries have been criticized for leaving viewers with the impression that wild animals survived and thrived after encounters with predators, even when they sustain potentially life-threatening injuries. They also cut away from particularly violent encounters, or attempt to downplay the suffering endured by the individual animal, by appealing to concepts such as the "balance of nature" and "the good of the herd"

Spaardam neighbourhood

 

 

Spaarndammerbuurt - Amsterdam's hidden gem A short video about the Spaarndammerbuurt neighbourhood in west Amsterdam. The whole area was designed in the 1910s by the Amsterdam School Movement, a radical collective of architects who wanted to create something beautiful for the working masses. The crowning jewel of Spaarndammerbuurt is Het Schip, or The Ship. Originally built to contain a school, post office and social housing, part of it is now a museum.

 

Museum 't Schip

 

Museum Het Schip is located in the imaginative public housing complex designed by architect Michel de Klerk. This expressionist housing block was built in 1919 for the housing corporation Eigen Haard. Because of its shape, the building is popularly known as The Ship. It belongs to the top of the Amsterdam School, a movement in construction and decoration that spread throughout the Netherlands. 

 

Big Apple

 

 

A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common example would be a documentary film on an historical event composed of footage from various newsreels and other film documentaries on the same subject. New footage and/or a new soundtrack may also be included in a compilation film, but the compiled, older footage makes up the majority of its principal material. Compilation film does not include, however, a simple editing together of several short films, complete in themselves and distinguished as such from each others, which should be considered as film anthologies.

 

 

Watch & Walk:Amsterdam

 

 

Walk and talk is a storytelling technique used in filmmaking and television production in which a number of characters have a conversation while walking somewhere. Walk and talk often involves a walking character who is then joined by another character. On their way to their destinations, the two talk. Variations include interruptions from other characters and walk and talk relay races, in which new characters join the group and one of the original characters leaves the conversation, while the remaining characters continue the walking and talking. 

 

 

 

Groote Museum: history

 

 

The history of film as an artistic medium chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. Although the advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined, the commercial, public screening of ten of the Lumière brothers' short films in Paris on 28 December 1895 can be regarded as the breakthrough of projected cinematographic motion pictures. Soon film production companies and studios were established all over the world. The first decade of motion picture saw film moving from a novelty to an established mass entertainment industry. The earliest films were in black and white, under a minute long, without recorded sound and consisted of a single shot from a steady camera. 

 

Gardens of Hamburg

 

 

filmarchives online provides easy and free access to catalogue information of film archives from all over Europe. Via the multi-lingual web portal film works can be searched for by content, filmographic data and physical characteristics. Search results provide information about existence and location of the materials as well as contact details to facilitate the access. The focus of the database is on non-fiction material; i.e. documentary and educational films, newsreels, travelogue, advertising, scientific, industrial, experimental, sports films, as well as animation films. filmarchives online is the result of the MIDAS project (Moving Image Database for Access and Re-use of European Film Collections). MIDAS had been initiated as a pilot project in the MEDIA Plus programme of the European Commission. It ran from January 2006 until January 2009 and was carried out by 18 institutions and archives under the lead of the Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF.

 

City Farm

 

 

 

The term "silent film" is something of a misnomer, as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds. During the silent era that existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, a pianist, theater organist—or even, in large cities, a small orchestra—would often play music to accompany the films. Pianists and organists would play either from sheet music, or improvisation

 

The Colour of Sounds

In movie industry terminology usage, a sound track is an audio recording created or used in film production or post-production. Initially, the dialogue, sound effects, and music in a film each has its own separate track (dialogue track, sound effects track, and music track), and these are mixed together to make what is called the composite track, which is heard in the film. A dubbing track is often later created when films are dubbed into another language. This is also known as an M&E (music and effects) track. M&E tracks contain all sound elements minus dialogue, which is then supplied by the foreign distributor in the native language of its territory

 

 

Harbour of Hamburg

 

 

A sound editor is a creative professional responsible for selecting and assembling sound recordings in preparation for the final sound mixing or mastering of a television program, motion picture, video game, or any production involving recorded or synthetic sound. The sound editor works with the supervising sound editor. The supervising sound editor often assigns scenes and reels the sound editor based on the editor's strengths and area of expertise.[1] Sound editing developed out of the need to fix the incomplete, undramatic, or technically inferior sound recordings of early talkies, and over the decades has become a respected filmmaking craft, with sound editors implementing the aesthetic goals of motion picture sound design. 

 

Midsummer nights dream

 

 

 A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare c. 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular and is widely performed. While one dreams, one does not normally realize one is dreaming. On more rare occasions, the dream may be contained inside another dream with the very act of realizing that one is dreaming, itself, being only a dream that one is not aware of having. This has led philosophers to wonder whether it is possible for one ever to be certain, at any given point in time, that one is not in fact dreaming, or whether indeed it could be possible for one to remain in a perpetual dream state and never experience the reality of wakefulness at all.

 

Dutch & Dykes

 

 

Early documentary films, originally called "actuality films", lasted one minute or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length, and to include more categories. Some examples are educational, observational and docufiction. Documentaries are very informative, and are often used within schools as a resource to teach various principles. Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic. 

 

 

City of Hamburg

 

 

 

A film distributor is responsible for the marketing of a film. The distribution company may be the same with, or different from, the production company. Distribution deals are an important part of financing a film. The distributor may set the release date of a film and the method by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing; for example, directly to the public either theatrically or for home viewing (DVD, video-on-demand, download, television programs through broadcast syndication etc.).

 

 

Coppelia

 

 

Coppelia combines enchanting animation and live action dance in a modern retelling of the love story between Swan and Franz, jeopardized by cosmetic surgeon Dr. Coppelius and his uncannily beautiful protégée Coppelia. Through Swan's quest to uncover the truth about the charismatic doctor, the townspeople come to learn that in an increasingly image conscious culture - it's never been more important to be yourself. 

 

 

Fabrique des Lumieres

 

  The Westergasfabriek was built in 1885 by the Imperial Continental Gas Association, before being converted in 1993 into a cultural space. Located in Westerpark, ten minutes from the historic city centre, the Fabrique des Lumières will use cutting-edge, unique technology to create immersive exhibitions devoted to some of the most celebrated figures in art history. The venue has a surface area of 2,800m² and is intended for the inhabitants of Amsterdam and the surrounding region. The exhibitions, which are accessible to all generations, will be designed to complement the unique architecture of the site, with its seventeen-metre-high walls. In addition to the immersive exhibitions that focus on classical and modern artists, an area will be devoted to the exhibition of contemporary works.

Wonderland in Hamburg

 

 

 A maquette is used to visualize and test forms and ideas without incurring the expense and effort of producing a full-scale piece. It is the analogue of the painter's cartoon, modello, oil sketch, or drawn sketch. For commissioned works, especially monumental public sculptures, a maquette may be used to show the client how the finished work will relate to its proposed site. The term may also refer to a prototype for a video game, film, or other media.

 

Warming up

 

Animation is a method in which figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings. 

 

 

 

Dutch Labour

 

 

Video became an excitingly immediate medium for artists after its introduction in the early 1960s. The expensive technology, which had been available prior only within the corporate broadcasting arena, experienced an advent when Sony first created an economical consumer piece of equipment that allowed everyday people access to vast new possibilities in documentation. Understandably, this produced huge interest for the more experimental artists of the time, especially those involved with concurrent movements in Conceptual art, Performance and experimental film. It provided a cheap way of recording and representation through a dynamic new avenue, shattering an art world where forms such as painting, photography, and sculpture had been the long-held norm. 

 

 

Trippenhouse

 

 

A tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. In cinematography, the term refers to a shot in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly that is then placed on rails – like a railroad track. As a result, this type of shot is often referred to as a dolly shot. A handheld steadycam or gimbal may also be used for smaller scale productions. The camera is then pushed along the track while the scene is being filmed or moved manually when using a handheld rig. 

 

The bridge

 

 

Compared to a silent stage, a sound stage is sound-proofed so that sound can be recorded along with the images. The recordings are known as production sound. A silent stage is not soundproofed and is susceptible to outside noise interference; therefore, sound is not generally recorded. Because most sound in movies, other than dialogue, is added in post-production, this generally means that the main difference between the two is that sound stages are used for dialogue scenes, but silent stages are not. An alternative to production sound is to record additional dialogue during post-production (known as dubbing).

Green City

 

 

People grow green en green makes people grow 

A green environment actively contributes to the quality of life. People are happier and feel better in green surroundings. Besides, green places like parks and public gardens invite social interaction and exercise. People meet each other for a chat in a park, or join hands to maintain a green playground in the neighbourhood. Finally, research has shown that the presence of green plants and activities in natural surroundings contribute to safer and whole neighbourhoods. So, ‘green’ does contribute to a safer and more pleasant living environment as well.

 

Sound as guide\theme in film

 

 

Themes can be divided into two categories: a work's thematic concept is what readers "think the work is about" and its thematic statement being "what the work says about the subject" Themes are often distinguished from premises. Thematic analysis is one of the most common forms of analysis within qualitative research. Qualitative Interviewing as part of the research has many advantages. Possibly the greatest advantage of Qualitative interviewing is the depth of detail from the interviewee. Interviewing participants can paint a picture of what happened in a specific event, tell us their perspective of such event, as well as give other social cues. Social cues, such as voice, intonation, body language etc. of the interviewee can give the interviewer a lot of extra information. Interviews can also be highly structured conversations in which specific questions occur in a specified order. They can follow diverse formats. Typically the interviewer has some way of recording the information that is gleaned from the interviewee, with a video or audio recorder.

Budapest

 

Script supervisors are a department head and play a crucial role in the shooting of a film. It is the script supervisor's job to monitor the camera shots, seeking to maintain coherence between the scenes. In the most basic description, the script supervisor is the editor's and writer's representative on set, as well as being the right hand aide to the director and the director of photography. It is the script supervisor's job to make sure that the film can be cut together after shooting has concluded. In that sense, they back up every department, monitor the script during shooting and make sure that errors in continuity do not occur that would prevent the film from being able to be compiled smoothly in the editing room. In pre-production, the script supervisor creates a number of reports based on the script, including a one-line continuity synopsis providing basic information on each scene such as the time of day, day in story order, and a one-line synopsis of the scene 

 

Creation of art

 

 

Virtual art is a term for the virtualization of art, made with the technical media developed at the end of the 1980s (or a bit before, in some cases). These include human-machine interfaces such as visualization casks, stereoscopic spectacles and screens, digital painting and sculpture, generators of three-dimensional sound, data gloves, data clothes, position sensors, tactile and power feed-back systems, etc