Oh... and

Surprisingly, a reasonable proportion of the clips have pretty good sound. How technology has enabled that to be the case is beyond me. I'm going to try and use as much of it in the videos as I can, so long as it works with the soundtracks... more soon

website

Websites are inherently digital. What would an analogue website look like?

- A more-or-less working version of the website is up online now, however I'm still having trouble with the database for the embedded video links. I think that as time runs out I'll have to resort to removing the functionality of the website and adding all the links myself. That is a shame as it means the project can not yet be fully automated as I had always planned.

On the plus side, I've had some more interesting video's which I will put up on youtube and try and post on here in a bit.

Videos

I've had some pretty cool videos recently, although they have all been over my email (from people I know and various degrees of seperation outwards) - as I am still having problems with the website. I'm going to start editing the films in the next couple of days for upload to fourdocs at the weekend.. The music is almost done and I'm feeling pretty positive about how they will turn out. I guess I have found out how difficult it is, and how long it takes to set up a project such as this - one that relies on public participation. The project was always intended to be an ongoing one though, and the videos will be a good sample of what it is possible to make, and will be made in the future.

So far...

Everything from:

176*144 to 600* 800 resolution
9 seconds to 11 minutes 38 seconds
trains
planes
cars
busses
trees
walks
rivers
dogs
thunderstorms
day
night

A Logo?

It was not really my intention to make a logo for the project, but I had to put something together quickly that I could include with emails and post up online...
It is based on the 'digital watermarks' many people give their images and video clips to prevent them from being copied when they are put online. The watermark is a device that transfered easily from the analogue use to the digital. The same is true of the font - 'courier'. The 50% grey is used as it is the normal tone to use when creating watermarks. (R128:G128:B128)

*edit* ok for some reason it isn't very legible when uploaded here... I think its because it's scaled down so much and the colours are all wrong - the actual thing is legible down to about 2cm by 2cm

website

first test of the site is online!

plug-ins and music

I have found a cool plug-in for iMovie that gives the kind of effect im after, it basically enlarges the pixels of the video, producing an obscuring 'identity protection' look. I like it because it also looks a bit like the interferance digital tv sometimes suffers from. I think it will tie all the different resolution/aspect ratio/colour balanced clips together well.

I know of some musicians who will re-create the soundtracks that I choose for my films... working on synths and with drum machines the sound will undoubtedly be very different to the 'stand-in' tracks I have at the moment, but I am confident they will sound right for the project.

Stuff

man this sucks, spent ages writing a nice post then my mac crashed (?!) so I lost it all. grrr! So to sum up in bullet points;

- making a website is tough but it will be online in a few days

- pc gone to pot but hopefully will get stuff of the HDD

- making a test film using video submitted by friends and family

- going to set films to music because of phone sound recording limitations. Music will be commissioned due to 4docs legal requirements.

- here are some stills;

No news is good news (and 4Docs)

Ok so no posts for a while, I have been very busy working on the website, due to go online at the beginning of next week, and annoying everyone I know with chatter about video projects, their friends and so on.

Not many submissions yet, but as the project doesn't have a definite direction at the moment, thats hardly suprising... When the topics are settled, and the websites up, hopefully that will get the ball rolling.

However, I have had a very positive responce from the good people at 4Docs (www.channel4.com/4docs) who seem to be interested in getting involved with the project. I'm calling them monday to settle some detais - project direction and purpose ahoy!

More soon