Filming practice

For our 211 tutorial session we were given the opportunity to practice using the video cameras that we will be using to do our footage with. Our task was to take at least one variation of a long shot, mid shot, close-up and extreme close-up and everyone in the group was expected to have a go at filming and familiarize themselves with the camera.

Starting project two

I located my site today. It is called Otari bush and is located in the suburb of Wilton. To accompany this site I am going to explore the idea of exploration and discovery. The site gives ample opportunity to show this idea with long and winding paths overhung by large native trees.

Review

After the review session I found out that the credits from the previous post were supposed to be incorporated into either the video or the website. I was unaware of this fact because we were not provided with the full submission requirements only a brief outline of what to hand-in.

Credits

Videos from Archive.org that need to attributed:

• Alternative Views #543 & #544: Holy Terror by Frank Morrow

http://www.archive.org/details/AV_543_544-HOLY_TERROR

• Allies Fight Fierce Nazi Counter-Blow,1944/12/20 (1944)

http://www.archive.org/details/1944-12-20_Allies_Fight_Fierce_Nazi_Counter-Blow

• Nazi Murder Mills, 1945/04/26 (1945)
  

http://www.archive.org/details/1945-04-26_Nazi_Murder_Mills

• Hitler Speech

http://www.archive.org/details/HitlerSpeech

• Why We Fight: Divide and Conquer by Frank Capra
  

http://www.archive.org/details/DivideAndConquer

• Why We Fight: The Nazi Strike by Frank Capra
  

http://www.archive.org/details/TheNazisStrike

• First Pictures Atomic Blast!, 1946/07/08 (1946)

http://www.archive.org/details/1946-07-08_First_Pictures_Atomic_Blast

• I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds

http://www.archive.org/details/IAmBecomeDeathTheDestroyerOfWorlds

The website

For the website I decided to use the second iteration of my clips since it is far more serious in its tone. To display this in the background I created an image of a cross in black and had it decay at the edges by using a brush on it. Around it I had black brush splatters at the edge of the screen to give it a very gritty feel.

The third iteration

For the third remix video clip I used the audio from the beginning of a religious programme as Hitler and another German officer walk up a set of steps. For the rest of the clip the audio is comprised of religious advertisements with video clips of Hitler speeches over the top to make it appear as though he is selling these services.

Second iteration

For the second video remix I have taken a far more serious tone with the editing of the video. The opening sequence is from the "Holy Terror" documentary talking about how the planet earth is dying of sin. The footage playing over the top of it is from a nazi concntration camp. The rest of the video has members of the nazi party with the sound over the top from christian groups. The final scene comes across as quite philosophical with an atomic blast going off with someone saying "some call it free will, God calls it murder."

The first iteration

The first iteration of my remix video has the narrative driven by the audio clippings I made from the documentary "Holy Terror" with images of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler to back it up. The sound bytes go over the top of Adolf Hitler speeches making it apear as though he is saying it. The intro is overlayed by the "our father" prayer while members of the nai party gather, giving the impression that they are singing it.

Learning avid

I familiarized myself with Avid today before doing my proper videos in an attempt to be fully prepared by the time that I start editing my videos in it. The tutorials involved importing video, mixing different video with different audio in the background and trimming the video.

I found Avid quite easy to use once you pick up the basics of overwriting or splicing-in different media. The only point of frustration was importing source video and the amount of time it sucked up. To counter this obstacle I cut out all the segments of footage I wished to use in Quicktime and saved them as separate videos which could be imported quickly.

Story-boarding and developing concept

This is the storyboard for the first video. The beginning of the clip is composed of the "Our Father" prayer with images of nazi troops marching and then cuts to speeches made by Adolf Hitler accompanied by audio snippets from the "Holy Terror" documentary.

For the second storyboard a montage of clips from a documentary about nazi concentration camps will be shown with an audio track about sin taken from "Holy Terror." The second half of this remix will be composed of an atomic blast going off with an adorning voiceover talking about god and murder.

The third of the clips is going to have a voiceover going the whole way through it taken from religious advertising and infomercials. The accompanying video will display Adolf Hitler speeches and show him selling these religious products.

Watching the videos

After watching through the "Holy Terror" documentary I got the idea to use the audio from the documentary and then adding footage from world war ii over the top. Specifically footage of Hitler and the Nazi party, by doing this I am establishing a link between the radical christian movement and the actions of the Nazi party.

This page from my workbook shows the times for images that I want layered over the top of the audio from "Holy Terror."

Coming up with a concept

When I first started trawling through archive.org I did not have any idea of what my remix was going to be about. One of the categories on the site was titled "news and public affairs," through that link I found a collection of documentaries called the Alternative View. The list of documentary titles gave me a lot of options for the idea I wanted put across through the video. "Holy Terror" was the title of the documentary I decided to use for my content. It is about extremist christian groups and the threat they pose to society.

These pages taken from my work book show the times of key quotes from the "Holy Terror" documentary that I believe would be valuable to my remix.

Remixing

The concept of remixing has been around for years but most notably came to prominance during the time of ancient Rome incorporating thae ideas of Ancient Greece. Remixing involves taking something created by somebody else and altering it suit your particular vision. This is most recognisable in the music industry where the advent of computers has allowed artists to easily sample a sound from another artists song.

The relevance of the aticle "Remix and Remixability" by Lev Manovich to project one is that he predicts the direction in which technology and the use of the internet is heading. He believes that all content is remixable from the internet and that it is becoming a trend for creators to provide access to the inner workings of their projects for others to expand upon. the affect this has on project one is the sheer amount of copywrite free content available for redistribution in our own vision.