video 4 new media:interactive video

VJ-Group Presentation

2006-11-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

"In principal it's making a DJ mix but using video clips than sound in REAL TIME"

ITP VJ PROJECT

General research into the the world of VeeJaying and visual performances.

Interactive Video Workshop: Assignment 2

2006-09-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

Article Review
Chapter - Interative Narrative [beyond branching]

The big buzz words being thrown around in the world of interactivity almost seem to end with - Immersive & Without Closure. The idea seems to revolve around making all Interactive Experiences free-flowing, without rigid barriers where the spectator can be a part of the whole experience. The fundamental question here I guess is how much should the participant be allowed to affect the outcome of the story! Though the story is being told for his experience and enjoyment, I think it is a must to draw a line where the maker of the experience controls certain variables in his art to give it somekind of form and overall shape in terms of his idea.

The analogy of river, as having calmness and rapids in its flow is a very good one to compare with a well-rounded interactive experience I feel. This kind of re-iterates my earlier point wherein the viewer is fully immersed as a contributor to his own experience as well as a spectator.

Interactive Video Workshop: Assignment I

2006-09-13T15:23:00.000-07:00

Chapter Review
Chapter - Interactivity by Nicky Hamlyn

Art - be it in any form - avant garde, experimental, film based or construed in any other form has to be participatory to make it FIT to qualify as Interactive. Hamlyn, drawing from various examples of interative art forms, basically is reinforcing that the viewers/participants should be able to make free and active response to the art he/she is experiencing. In talking about "Two Sides to Every Story" , I feel Hamlyn is trying to propound that art experience need not be complete in itself but rather the spectator should come back to it over and over again and sense new experiences everytime he interacts with that piece of art. Viewers of the piece should have the flexibility to interpret the art in a way they wish to.

He adds that human interactions or we being a part of the art, as we are experiencing it, is vital to the existence and manifestion of the art to its form. There is need for participant to be a PART of ART to make it meaningful and fully Interactive.

Final Project 2nd sem

2006-04-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

So I went ahead and shot my video. I hailed a cab and interviewed the cabby.He was from Tibet!! The last 2 weeks I have been mentally planning the execution of my edits. It was an interview at the end of the day but I am trying to find ways to make it presentable, since most of the shot are inside the cab. Lets see how goes:)

Final Proposal?

2006-03-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

Not yet I guess! I have this really cool concept but have no idea how to execute or even start. The concept goes something like this if it is do-able-

I hail a yellow cab, with my camera on.
Ask the driver if he'she is interested in doing this project.
If No - i lament and do something else:(((
If Yes - i get in the Cab (the camera is still rolling) and ask the driver to do a $50 worth of taxi ride by taking me to HIS/HER favorite places. The plan is to stop briefly at these various spots and do rapid interviews. I want to make this humourous so the questions i plan to ask will probably be regarding - the weirdest incident, funniest passenger, most horrible incident, best moment, cab history bla bla bla etc...

my major concerns - legal issues???( i have a feeling i'll need to sign an agreement in a project like this??? not sure though) & gathering the nerve to actually hail a cab with my camera rolling and getting a really nice cabby who is interesting enough.

oh well , some other ideas-

music video again ? (i dont want to be in it yet...)
sushi-sunday ( a brunch video at a friends place..hmmm not sure about this either)
5 boroughs in 5 minutes ( not very exciting)
kungu fu spoof ( where do i start?)
"My Home has no Name" (excitied about this .....interview with the Homeless ... don't know how they'll react or is it even safe...not that i can't fight but....)

at this point in time i wish someone else came up with an idea for me. :)

Mid Term Video

2006-03-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

Prayash - Music Video

This is a Nepali (mellow-rock!!!) song I wrote in 1999 with a good friend(Buntay) of mine and we recorded this around that time in our apartment in CA. Prayash in Nepali can mean and imply a lot of things like - to try something out, endeavor, put an effort/attempt, be determined or plain simple a metaphor to mean "to try and take on the world..."

This video project my first ever attempt at visualizing a song, first ever, as a part of our class project requirement. I am personally very happy and elated with the outcome(despite the minor glitches...which i'm sure i'll be better able to overcome with more experience). Once again like the song's title Prayash(an attempt) this is truely the first attempt.

Last note: we had no finances to hire actors/actresses and the time to do a story line. so that guy gallivanting around East River in New York is me. Without further ado...Happy watching:)

Watch It!
Watch It!

Video Project - Idea

2006-02-24T17:20:00.000-08:00

1)

It would be interesting to video how people behave in an elevator, you know, 4 or 5 strangers crammed in a small space, trying their best not to make eye contact, staring at the floor indicator or the ceiling. it's also a neat little commentary on urban isolation. You are physically close, but you try so hard to be distant. It is rather interesting. If there is a way (???? i don't know how or only the FBI has access to it!!!!) it would be cool to actually use CCTV footage for this video and cut it to music.

If elevator footage by itself becomes monotonous, we can find other places where people behave this way. i.e. they are in a crowd but each person in his or her own world, where it's almost rude to say hello. Maybe the subway trains for one (but again, I don't know what someone is going to think seeing an Asian with an Islamic look walking around video-taping in a subway...). you might be standing face to face in one, but not make any kind of contact.

2)

The other side is the internet chatroom, where perfect strangers talk to each other. One could do a video about this couple who work in this office building but never say hello. They take the same elevator out, take the same subway home, without making any kind of contact, in fact studiously avoiding eye contact. Then when they get home they run into each other in a chatroom, and maybe even have cybersex, without knowing who the other person is! It's weird, but in our times, it happens all the time.

I guess this story talks about the weird times we live in, where we are increasingly creating walls around ourselves in the name of individuality, to the extent that we need mechanical intermediaries (a PC, the Internet, a chatroom) to make some kind of human contact. Phew!

3)

The third idea I have is about simply visualizing one of my own song which is not a love song but a song that talks about my life when I first came to US and how isolated and suffocted I felt as a naive young man from the other side of the continent.

Right now all I can think of is really fast cuts with that monotone-ish-blue-black-silver kinda effect splattered all around it. I maybe working in a group and we are evaluating all the options and should ZERO in on a concept soon.

Week III

2006-02-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

In Camera Edit [ project 1] -

I had a great time doing this video. When I set out to shoot the film with my earlier concept of "clicks" in mind(refer blog posting under week ii), I was just not able to do it. I guess the problem was shooting all the clicks in transition and being able to portray something meaningful - my brain refused to think!Instead I added some cheesy shots of myself in between, to show what I'd normally do while my T is being cooked(i don't always do that!).

This version however has been modified. I spent a good 4 hours ofter class trying to teach myself FinalCut and tried my hands at different effects. I am personally gratified that in those 4 hours I was able to learn the followings -

importing dubbed audio from a DV tape(if the audio format is .wma) is impossible
finally managed to convert .wma to mp3 using iTunes and add it to video and then use the 'cross-fader' function to slowly fade the sound towrds the end of the video
play with various color related 'effects' and apply a few of them in the video
using the 'razor' and 'arrow' function to cut and clip and use the 'speed' command to do slow motion effect.
and finally to convert the video to Quicktime format for the web.

Click on the link below to see the modified video.

Play Movie

Critique-

I sent my work to my cousins and folks back home for their evaluation(which though i knew would be a little biased, but still wanting to see their reactions nonetheless). I sent the modified version with added effects etc and was very happy to get honest response from all of them knowing that this was the first time I had tried my hands at doing something to this extent. They loved seeing me make Tea and was most impressed by the in-camera "i-stop motion type" shots I did with the tea cup trying ot find me.

As for me, I can't complain about anything at this stage and I am so glad to have figured out my personal camera after almost 4 years of owning it (thanks to this class) and be able to make this short clip that in totality made complete sense to viewers as a somewhat "comical" portryal of a snippet of my daily life here. I had a finished product at the end and being able to toss it around to friends and family - I had the best sense of achievement. It a brought a smile to everyone's face. Now that is success to me no matter how short-lived. I know it can only get better now.

Reaction to Reading-

(Composing Shots:Spatial Connections by stevens katz)

At first glance everything the article talks about seems kind of obvious. Key terminologies , mainly Full Shot, Medium Shot and Close Up at first don't seem alien at all since we have been hearing about and applying these concepts even without knowing while doing photography at home or away. But I guess when he starts explaining the various types of shots one can take with each of these categories, the article becomes a real eye opener. We as amateurs mostly Center-Focus the subject while composing most of our shots. However here he takes us through an enormous panoply of compositions that can be made within the confines of our small LCD screen.

"Line of Action" was a concept that made perfect sense because in making a movie I feel it is imperative to maintain consistency of screen direction and space while shoot group of people and avoid the hassle of having ot light a position more than once.

But at the end of the day, I personally feel that rules are there to give us directions and to remind us of conventions and what has worked best in the past. We are free to experiment and try out new angles and ways of composing shot but at the same time drawing inspiration from works that have inspired many and captured the fancy of many in the world.

Week II

2006-01-31T11:09:00.001-08:00

In Camera Edit
Idea-
I was thinking of encapsulating everything I do on a typical morning right after waking up and inbetween the time it takes for me to make my delicious cup of steaming 'Nepali Chiya' (tea).

Scene one-
Click of the oven heater- cut to rapid shots(2 second each) of - one spoonful of tea leaves being poured into a pot, shot of boiling water, teaspoonful of sugar and milk being added in succession.
.
.

...in between what happens is something to this extent(these are all click and turn on/off types shots only):

click alarm off - cut to
turn laptop on(push button) - cut to
turn lamp swithes off - cut to
turn bedroom door knob - cut to
lock bathroom door - cut to
flush - cut to
zip pant - cut to
zip jacket - cut to
close laptop - cut to
zip jacket - cut to
Tea being poured - cut to
Full cup of tea - cut to

Next scene-
Tea cup is on the floor in the foreground and me in the background with the camera foused on the cup. Then in every other scene I am get nearer to the cup and finally close enoung to hold the cup.

Last Scene-
Cut to - my face slurrping and sipping Tea with a big grin

Week I

2006-01-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

12 shots
For this Photo Shoot assignment I used the acronym "ITP" as a metaphor to try and understand the different meanings this program had to various students. In a nutshell, I wanted students to interpret 'ITP' the way they thought would elucidate the program more clearly than "Interactive Telecommunication Program" which to me personally , and many others in the program agree too, sounds kind of complex!
As a result I started out by scribbling on a piece of blank paper ITP=? - the Primary question I guess. Then I laid out only 1 simple rule everyone participating had to abide by and that was - whatever they wanted to rechristen the program - each word still had to start with 'I','T'or'P' and in the same order. Then I would take a photo of them holding that sheet of paper with the new meaning in front of them. Nobody sought anonomity. The result was a blend of humour and honesty as you can see from the new interpretations of ITP as it unfolded infront of the clicks of my camera -

ITP=?
I Think Positive
Interesting Tech People
Imagination Turning Profit (hmm...!!!)
Imaginative Techy People
Institute of Tech & Play
Interdisciplinarians Towards Provocation
Idealists with Talent & Promise
Interdisciplinary Teaching Place
Individual.Technology.Progress.
I Teach Programming
Ideas Through People
PLAY POWER-POINT