This video is just a preview for the film I just recently went to see at the Durango Film Festival in Colorado. This documentary was shot in your traditional format of interviews and fly on the wall sort of scenes. The beginning credits were incredibly well done and the introduction to the project being documented was really engaging and also emotional stimulating. The film work was clean crisp, well edited and extremely personal. The project itself called for a certain aesthetic criteria for the documentation. The project was basically about this guy who goes by someguy who, inspired by graffiti-bathroom walls, took on this project of making 1000 journals to place in the world for the unknown finder to discover and hopefully use. He created a website to track, discuss, facilitate, and document the projects process. Well, the journals ended up traveling the world and touching the hands and hearts of many people globally stirring up quite personal issues and striking journalistic touchstones across humanity that speak to the creative outlet of speaking the silence in journals- publicly. Well, someguy wanted to take the next step in the project later in its development to push it out in to the public even more- whether through a gallery installation or book publication. However, the nature of the project leaves a lot of journals out there floating in space that are not exactly track-able. And how do you chose which journal entries to keep and omit when the artistic framing calls for delimiting the material? I think this video documentary is really quite suitable for framing this project and allows it reach many viewers, giving them a solid idea of the project as a whole and its ephemeral-ness, while being able to see a good portion of the journal entries recorded. All in all- this documentary covered it subject really well and accurately and clearly framed the project but compositionally- as far as the art of film goes, the concept and relay of information couldn't have been really farther pushed graphically and the tempo of the piece generally stayed at one level. ---Kinda makes you want to journal.

A window into the process of a choreographer. This short clip reveals this choreographers thoughts and concept for his creative process and then allows the viewer to enter the rehearsal space with him and see how the process is practiced and how he uses his experience, impulse and imagery to push the performers. The camera work is nice, clean and simple- allowing the subject to be observed completely and instigating the need to see more. The choreography itself is strong, innovative, and exemplifies the bodies creative capabilities beautifully. The choreographer that we see here became the artistic director for the Nederlands Dans Theatre in 1976. Nederlands Dans Theatre explores new techniques of performance combining the conventions of dance and theatre with subtext, narrative, and political layering. Again, great clarity, simplicity, and window into the artist's life.

Andy Goldsworthy - Sculptor

This breif excerpt from the film, Rivers and Tides, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer reveals a glimpse into the work of Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy's sculpture is ephemeral to the mercy of the environment. Time and change are essential elements to the concepts of his work. The majority of his work is outisde and is often only witnessed by the documentation of the peice. The films resolution through the internet is a little unresolved but the shots are tight, the audio levels are excellant, and the shot by shot reveal of the peice Goldsworthy is working adds a nice dynamic to keeping the viewer curious and engaged. The cinematic timing and stillness with the moment of the peice's ultimate fall due to the wind allows the image and action in the frame to speak for itself, and let the power of the moment come through the technology. This economy of using minimal editing suites well for a documentary about a visual artist and their work, letting it be about the subject instead of about the vehicle capturing the subject.

Carpe Diem


The style of editing in this short film is

Short Fiction Film- "moment of decision"

I was interested in this short film because of its not only interesting and unique concept, but the technical tightness. Its resolution and quality of picture is excellent. The frames are really tight and controlled. The story is clear and the magic of the story is really engaging because of the director and cinematographer's mastery with the camera. The juxtaposition in the story between the beautiful and the weird is great. The lighting and sound was spot on. Crisp, clear and clean.

Butoh

Butoh. The dance of the darkness. This form of dance emerged out of Japan, and became a more predominant art form after the bombing of Hiroshima. This 'dance' form was about the portrayal of death. Tatsumi Hijikata, one of the Butoh founders has some amazing literature out there about the art form that I highly suggest you look into if this strikes your curiosity. This video, of a Swiss performer, (Butoh has since become a global art form for many culture's to express the extreme juxtaposition of death and beauty) Imre Thormanne at the Hiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Shiga, Japan in the summer of 2006. This video follows and aligns the frame very well with performer. Perhaps a great sense of space with a wider shot- may have been a better establishment of space. However, a lot of other Butoh video's out there on the web have very poor quality and are the typical low-quality video of the theatre experience. Theatre, I must say, is absolutely ir-replaceable by film and certainly does not do the work justice, but then again film has provided me with a lot of opportunities to get a sense for dramatic theatre art forms that I have not yet had to opportunity to experience live. The art of Butoh makes for an outstanding visual image. It would be interesting to create a Butoh piece specifically for the digital video medium.