Ouch!

New York Video Festival
 

With so much talk about film this film look that, it's good to see that some people are doing interesting work that is meant to remain as video. Hope some of you New York people will get out to see some of these and report back:

The New York Video Festival
July 23 – 27, 2003
At the Walter Reade Theatre
sponsored by the FilmSociety of Lincoln Centre ("Film Comment" magazine)


http://www.filmlinc.com/nyvf/nyvf.htm

Looks amazing. To bad I have no way to get there and see these films. Please go and see I want to know what some of these are about.


Rob:D

Link to this on IMDB

That sure is something completely different, but interesting. I
for one don't know a lof about "recycling"....

Star Wars video prompts lawsuit
 

That's interesting... not long ago I was on a website that was apparently collecting money to buy the Star Wars kid an iBook. They were claiming that they did indeed collect enough to give him one. I wonder if that was a scam?

Public access TV show, for fun. Good idea?
 

Hey, it's been sucking around here for me, nothing to do, and i'm thinking about doing a local public access tv show for fun, and I don't know if it's worth all the work/effort to put a half hour show together every week to play on our little local public access tv station, even if it sucks. It would have to be better then anything on there now though, since the only thing on there is mostly church videos (VERY VERY bad ones, words can't describe how bad) and i've seen some other bad "sketch comedy" show on there.

The main thing that has me bummed about it, is actually how BAD our local tv access is. The ONLY format they support is VHS, so you have to take your nicely put together quality minidv tape down to VHS to send to them to play, thats ridiculous. A internet buddy of mine, his local access TV station is awesome, they have $7000 DVCAM cameras for you to use, a full featured edit suite, support many formats...etc..etc. I'm not asking for all that, but atleast they could support MiniDV, atleast, thats just sad.

Good idea, or not?

I would definately do it. It will be a great learning experience, where you will be under preassure (obviously your own) to provide quality material. Even if they don't have the best gear, you can still get an impression of what running a regular broadcast show is like. Im guessing you will be working solo, so you will also learn about being a producer, editor, writer, and not to mention camera man. If you have the chance to do it, and you have the time, Go for it. Just have fun.

If you have the opportunity then go for it! You could do just about anything you want - your own scripts, etc. You could even do tutorials on mini-dv and how to shoot things, what not to do, how to edit, etc. I'm sure there are plenty of people in Dayton with consumer cams that don't know how to properly use them and might appreciate the input.

Also, I agree that you'll learn a great deal - even if the equipment isn't top-notch!

Let us know if you do it and how it goes.

Baltimore/Washington Area Photo Store?
 

Hi All
I was wondering if anyone who lives in my area might have the name of a good photo shop--one that would have a nice selection of stuff in stock that you can inspect. Nothing really like that in my town anymore (Frederick, Maryland USA). I'm not really talking about the national chain stores or mall stores...

Mail order is OK, but it's nice sometimes to actually see the items in person...

Hope this is the best place to post this.

Thanks!
Chris

DV shot films and beyond
 

May I get this off my chest, once and for now? Can I, huh? Oh, thank you thank you. Ahem. Uh, a small list of favorite dv shot films:

1. Julien Donkey Boy, by Harmony Korine, 1999.
Best film of the 90's. Cinema's last stand. Cover your bleedin' HDTV with gas and set it on fire. Breakthrough in Grey Room.

2. Waking Life, by Richard Linklater, 01?02?
Refreshingingly overtly, colorfully :) intellectual, AND an American film. Go figger.

3. The Cruise, by......blank....blank...?, 1999.
Inspiring in many ways. Genius on either end of that vx1000. These guys make the modern age wholly worthwhile after all. The fool and the madman!

4. Hmm, those might have been them. The xl1s work in Pinero was just fine. Very good movie. Bamboozled cannot be ignored, with the exception of a few warped w/a shots. Not a great dv film, but adequate enough to speak it's mind, loudly, and enunciating every syllable. Didn't need anniversary party, personal velocity, full frontal, blair witch (we don't owe this ffflick a thing, folks).......Dancer in the Dark was an almost, thanks to bjork's lack of trust in a vision other than her own. Any others, anyone? I'm not looking for a list of everything dv when I ask. What blows your mind? Why do you care about film? DV? Have you grown as a person because of them? Or is it the mere techno race thrill that drives you wild, along with the next camera to come out, the next next next......


some films that have radically altered my concept of cinema, art, the universe and my self percieved place in all of it, not necessarily in that order:

Stalker 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky Russia
The Mirror 1974 Andrei Tarkovsky Russia
Sans Soleil 1982 Chris Marker France
Persona 1967 Ingmar Bergman Sweden
Blood Wedding 1981 Carlos Saura Spain
The Color of Pomegranates 1969? Sergei Paradjanov Russia
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting 1979 Raul Ruiz France
Tetsuo: The Iron Man 1992 Shinya Tsukamoto Japan
La Belle Noiseuse early nineties Jacque Rivette France
Koyaanisqatsi 1983 Godfrey Reggio USA
Heart of Glass 1975 Werner Herzog Germany
Badlands 1975 Terrence Mallick USA

My website's new look
 

Here's a link to the new look. I think it's killer and easy to navigate. Plus the logo is cool and unique, as is the color scheme!

www.mpsdigital.com

What do you all think? If you like, the guy who designed it hails from England and makes high quality websites and can work within your budget. (He deserves the plug, because he worked well within my budget.)

His email is angelo@mpsdigital.com

Thanks all,

heath

my new web site and production company
 

MoonRocket is the name of my production company. A school project motivated me to work on the web site. And it's sort of complete. The site is meant to advertise my video production services, showcase my work and offer yet another online community for those who are interesting in all the happenings of 'the biz'.

I've been working on some short films but I would like to become more agreessive in the next few months. I'm excited about some of the ideas I hope to explore in the future, but for now most of the stuff I've done is nothing more than an excercise.

Moon-Rocket.com will be closely related to my blog, vectormatrix.net - With my blog I hope to explore my thoughts and lessons learned from my attempts at short filmmaking.

I also got my first paid video project as a videographer for a wedding. And I'll be sharing this experience and the final product in the next few weeks.

If anyone from Toronto or the GTA is seriously interested in working on some short film stuff, get in contact with me. I've tried using those posting boards for crew and casting jobs, but I end up getting 40 emails from people who end up bailing out just as I'm ready to begin filmming.

I like the horizontal composition of your website, and the Moonrocket identity is good. I think you should standardize on the fonts that appear on that page, though.