Video Dreams and Noise Nightmares

Because of all the hooplah regarding "to motion, or not to motion", I took a couple of cameras that incorporate a video option and put them to a test in an extreme light situation. I went down to the train yard after dark with a friend to work on an idea for a music video incorporating a 5D and a Flip. When we went to shoot, it all looked great in the viewing screens. Even though we were dealing with a night situation using only existing security light, the screen gave the impression that all was working beautifully. The footage looked amazing as we shot it. Then I took it home. Upon playing it I found a sadly different story. The image was much more unstable and the footage looked hideous because of the digital noise. This was the result of both cameras. I expected this from the flip, but not the 5D. I was dissapointed and depressed. It seemed my hopes of having a camera that is capable of hard travels and extreme lighting conditions dissolved into the night sky.

I am going to try running another test this weekend with some sort of fill and hopefully a way to figure out how to get better control of the image quality while maintaining some sort of light and mobile system. Maybe the 5D wonder camera isn't as limitless as I had hoped. Or maybe, and I want this to be true, there is something that I missed, some information that will make my video dreams come true?

Chalk Hell

Last night a friend and I worked for another 12 hours on the second installment of the chalk-drawn animation episode of "Gun's Don't Kill People". We spent, what seemed like eternity slowly drawing, shooting, and then erasing each individual frame of the 10 seconds we had in the end. Animation isn't really difficult, especially if you are working with someone who is experienced at it. But it is extremely time consuming if you want the motion to look natural. We shot 200 hand drawn frames which now brings the total of the sequence to 720. We have one last installment to go which should bring the total to near 900. Stay tuned in dear listeners. I should have a link to the finished project in about a week.

Chalk Talk

I spent 12 hours in front of a chalk board to attempt to create an animated sequence to attach to a phrase for an experiment in motion. The idea was to use the chalkboard as a background to visually attach it to a schoolroom to make light of it. Because I am not known for my sketching skills, the rudimentary renderings lent themself well to the idea of a childlike message.

The treatment of the visual story was designed to create a feeling of the noir genre. The story will seem like a sort of french crime thriller that turns into a zombie movie all drawn as simple as possible. The phrase I am working with is- "Guns don't kill people, zombies kill people."

I will be working on this for the next couple of weeks. I will link it to the blog when it is completed, but here are a few stills.

Rock-For All Ages

Saturday was a milestone moment for a group of neighborhood teenage boys whose passion is music. The two of them have been pursuing a life that the internet has redefined, the life of a rock musician. This lifestyle has changed dramatically from the way it was only a decade ago. In fact the passion has actually come full circle from where it was three decades ago when the punk scene was emerging.

The defining moment for these two was their involvement in a music project with the San Pedro punk-rock icon Mike Watt. His first band the "Reactionaries" recorded their first album in 1979. To commemorate 30 years since it's creation, the S.P. community formed a collection of bands to re-record the album.

These two boys were chosen to play bass and drums in two of the bands. This is a small account of their experience of being kids in a grown-up world. I found the experience to be challenging, to walk the fence between a snapshot designed and a candid moment.

In God's Name?

This past weekend was one of unexpected photographic fulfillment. I live in Long Beach, a town which holds closest to its heart, its genuine sense of equality. It is something that the local citizens take quite seriously and guard vehemently.

This common bond of inclusive pride got put to the test this weekend, when a group titled the "Westboro Baptist Church", decided to bring their message of hate toward the Gay/Lesbian and Jewish communities. The weekend was packed with protest as the "W.B.C." set stakes at a high school, several temples, and the "Raggamuffin Festival".

You would think that such a campaign of hatred would incur anger and violence. But the town I live in is a special place, where people are much more level-headed. They are perfectly aware that the only appropriate counter-attack to hate is kindness. So a group which goes by the name of "Steal this Protest", devised their own protest with signs that were made to diffuse and confuse the poisonous message. Signs like-"cupcakes" or " we were promised donuts" were waved in front of the ones that slang slanderous debris at the citizens of a an otherwise tolerant community. The small group of soldiers in "God's" army were sent running back into the nether reaches of Kansas from which they came. Here is a photographic taste of what it looked like.

Thinking Green-2

Continuing to work on the "green" project and spent several hours rearranging the parts. I think I got some interesting results that fell in line with my concept. I was hoping to create images that were ad-friendly and text-ready. I liked the process of thinking out the combined image. I think I will use it to see if I can get some dramatic effect.

Here are some links to some blogs from a few of my friends.

http://alysesakai.tumblr.com/

http://ripitbro.wordpress.com/

http://emilymalan.tumblr.com/

http://mia-underthesea.blogspot.com/

http://sarahroach.tumblr.com/

Thinking Green

I was assigned a "green" stock project in which I was to produce a small series of images to introduce the concept of conservation. The easiest method would have been to photograph green objects, green clothing on people, green machines (wind turbines, solar panels and the like). But I decided instead to take a less nailed down approach and focus on the generation that will be handed the torch. This was a simple concept, but a not so simple execution. It took a series of portraits, looking for just the right natural visuals inherent with mood, and a few hours of retouching to pull it all together. I'm on the fence about the resulting images.