The first snow fall by 16:9

The First Snow Fall on Vimeo

This clip by 16:9 is making me jealous....

more work

I've committed myself to more work this week but there are two projects that I want to work on.
The first is Marks music video Clip. I presently have 'a' draft of a clip, but its really patchy, and I want to start again.
The other is a project based on my fav shot from my 'what I do when I'm bored' clip.
the concept is to sample the sound itself and use it to make the music.

what is allways there.

Grand vent sur le bord du fleuve 061203 on Vimeo

One of the great things about Vimeo for me is imperative of the moment. Fragements from life that are abstract and strange and kind of overwhelming. Clips like hihihi's above.

Ep 12

Conditions Ep. 12 on Vimeo

This weeks work is minimalist.
It began as a diversion from something else I'm working on.
I'm quite proud of it.

still working

I've been working on a video for a friend but I need to put that aside for the time being.
So instead I'm working on this.

something new

I have not done anything with traditional editing for a while, so during the week I worked on this piece. Even though the quality is uneven, it was a lot of fun to make... Also I'm leaning how to use the video on my still camera to interesting effect



what I do when I'm bored on Vimeo

Ep 11

conditions ep. 11 on Vimeo

words follow

on from each other.

they lead you to an alternate
air

space to breath...

there will be time

I've been away for a while...
there is the pretext of working on my thesis

but this would not be the whole story:

There has been music
but none of it published...
made public

there have been plans too...
always plans

but the gap between the planing and the doing...
well that just seemed to get wider and wider

sometimes you just need to stop a while and take stock

The next project will be back to more obscure ambient forms
the perceptual edge...

so...
let us go then...

northen lights

finally...

Finally, a new plan.
after a week off for no other real reason then I was out of idea's (I pretended that I was doing work on the thesis) I've finally thought of a project that is worth doing.
The concept is of a puzzle-art space in my virtual museum.
No music this time. Just sound effects and the source sound from the clip I'll be using.
its a complicated project, involving lots of tracking and matting and masks so I'm giving myself two weeks to complete it.

Ep 10 is up

Conditions Ep 10 on Vimeo

Work and quality

The concept behind the conditions project has always been about productivity first. I spent a long, long time on a short film I made last year, and while I'm proud of the result, I also recognised that there were limitations to the work /output ratio. While I developed many good skills, I had to ask: was it worth all that time?
So now I've moved on to the conditions project, and I have to say that this approach has proven to be very satisfying. I've explored interesting conceptual idea's and developed good work flow practices. Getting something done each week is immensely rewarding. It means that I don't obsess over unchangeable details. It means that my concept and approach is clearly defined and executed (to a certain extent).
To quote the A-team:
"I love it when a plan comes together"

But then there are some weeks where it doesn't come together either.
This is one of those weeks.
The concept this week is of a gallery space. But neither the space, nor the way I've chosen to shoot and edit it have proven to be that interesting. The space is too sparse. The vimeo user clips clips that I'm 'exhibiting' are great in themselves, but I've just not been able to use them well.
While I still will release something tomorrow... Well I apologize in advance

mixing it up

This weeks piece is going to have actual edits in it.
I'm a little afraid of this.
The truth is I'm doing that because the formal idea of the week has not panned out like I wanted.
Oh well, that's why I'm calling it experimental.

work and play

How much is enough?
How far is far?

The progress this week is slow. Stilted. I've been spending a lot of time doing other things. I feel the need to press on. But I'm also running out of time.


The formal idea this week is the same as last week. More video phasing. I feel like there is a lot that can be done here, so I'm pushing on. The major change is in the environment: kind of a gallery space. I'm using other peoples work (with there kind permission) as part of an exhibition space. The emphasis, as always is on the abstract.

moving on

A few days ago one of the Vimeo users, Leo Bridle said some really nice things about Ep 8. I was pretty stocked about the comments in themselves, but then I went and checked out his works and was in turn really impressed. He is very talented. Check out his stuff. Its really nice when somebody so talented likes what you are doing.
As for me, the challenge is to move again.
This week is going to be a gallery space.

I've composed some music (but I still need to tinker with that)
Next design the space.
Then animate...

Is core the new X?

After a few years of nomenclature silliness where 'X' was slapped onto nearly everything it seems that we have a new contender in our midst's... 'core'.
'Core' is smart and sexy, and if you smack it in and around enough doubling concepts then you are in business.
this silliness doesn't stop me wanting one of those new core 2 duo iMacs but it still kinda dumb.

Interlinked

Ep9 has just been picked up by the nice people at The Daily Reel for their daily 'top ten' list. Its a good thing.

CC Ep 9

This weeks project experiments with phasing This concept is inspired by Steve Reich’s musical experiments in the late 70’s with tape loops playing at different speeds. In this case the camera’s positions synch in and out with each other.
This also marks the final week for the ‘agitator motif’ as the primary focus of the animation. Saying goodbye to an old friend…

early finish

quick turn around this week. Almost done

cheating

all apologies to the guitarists in the world. This weeks music uses a sampler...
It does sound pretty though (if a little too clean...)

the good new is that the music is done now. And I'm just about about to get stuck into the video. This week is the final week for the agitator motif and I'm planing to use a bunch of techniques developed in the past month.
Things to do:
basic motif animation (and render)
Basic 3D comp: use 4 cameras attached to different rotation points (and render each camera)
Put together the four different renders (in shifting panels)
then the final render...
It seems like a lot, but its not really.

what goes up

I just had to put this in. 106 Balloons taking off into afternoon sky. So nice.

Ep 8 is up and running

This week is a little simpler than I originally planned. The music is also simpler (and hopefully more accessible.
Cheers.

Same old same old

nothing major to report.
Music is done
video is in progress.

just stuff getting done.

have some other things on my mind this week...

its probably the sugar

after ice-cream cookie sandwidges for dinner I found myself stirring around 4 am with an idea for this weeks video. I was Kind of inspired by a short film I saw last week by the Eames brothers where the perspective shifts constantly by the power of ten.
The idea is that the clip gets progressively more complex (more layers of particles) as it progresses until finally it breaks the computer...
Overlaid over this will be a bunch of silly comments in text boxes.

moving on

dream landscape.
Difficult images.
consequences...

This weeks clip is going to involve turning the 'agitator motif' into some kind of particle array.
cut and swirl
All against a stark white background.

As per usual, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to achieve this.
Something to do with duplicating layers, and then 'cutting in to them'...
Sounds a little violent.

all clicks, all cuts, all the time

Ep. 7 is up on You tube.
A full day early...
Now I can take Sunday off.

Clicks and Cuts

This weeks project is more minimal than last time: but also shorter.
The music consists of syncopated clicks interspersed with a an alternating burst of white noise (my fave type of noise....)
The video uses the same design element as last time, with the agitators and the lights timed to the music. I've created two rhythmic sound tracks that I'm going to use to trigger the editing. If all goes well I'll be further utilizing this technique for a larger project in a few weeks.

good light

Why is it so hard to remember.
When I find myself getting down.
find a procedure
and stick to it
things to done
order out of chaos

drift and focus

Sometimes after working on a project I find it hard to refocus. There was a certain amount of energy applied to getting the Ep. 6 on the 'air' so to speak. For this reason, this weeks podcast will be far more minimal.
there is work being done, but its far quieter...
simplified.
shorter...

Up on the web...

Up on U Tube... finally
Its probably the best way to see it at the moment.
Enjoy.

This is it

Here it is:

Contorted Conditions Video Podcast

(or)

http://a.andymill.googlepages.com/ContortedConditionsweek6Videopodcast.wmv

Its a windows media file only for the time being.
Latter I will add a quicktime

Cheers...

render time

Render time is the killer.
I left 6 'takes' rendering yesterday before I went to work, and only 1 worked out.
Not only do they take 6 hours each to render, but with the high quality settings I had it on, I soon ran out of disk space...
Oh well, such is the art form...
In this case one will be enough.
I think the principle of the project, to complete the music and video in one week should be adhered to.
And while I did have all sorts of idea's about automating the editing by using the sound waves, those ideas can wait for another day, another project.
Time to move on.
Last phase, then is to render the project to a small enough file for download.
And, of course to upload it.
stay tuned...

time crunch

Above is a screen shot from the animation in progress.
Its quite a mess at the moment, and while I might just be able to have something put together by tomorrow night, it will definitely be not as 'considered' as I originally planed.
Ah, but that's what you get for taking on such ambitious endeavours like this.
My plan its to set a number of camera's going from different angles
add more lights and tie the lights to different sound waves
and then Set a render cue going before I go to work.
Big ask...
I'd better get cracking...

getting past the faking it stage

Last night I completed and rendered the 2D element of the video.
Of course, having got this far, I've come to the next step and realized that I don't really have a clear idea about what that next step is.
I didn't have much of a clue at all beyond some 'concepts'.
So of course I go back to the drawing board.
badly drawn images on page...
concepts built on concepts...

so below is the new plan:


Cool, ain't it?

small steps

there is something to be said for a little bit of persistence.
After coming this close to buying an overpriced plug in I found, in a small tucked away corner of the program, the exact function that I was looking for...
One more step forward.
Making it dance...

Music Mix plan

It comes down to this: an abstract representation.
Everything comes down this.
Abstraction as meaning.
codes.

In my thesis work I am looking at how abstract patterns in film style effect our sense of time passing. Of course, you can't think about such stuff for long without wanting to apply it to other area's.

Just mix the damn thing...

Then move on to this...

Flutter structure

Been working on the sound mix this morning.
Really just getting use to the sounds and labeling them.

Last night I taught the membranes to quiver.
Fun stuff.

slow going

Day two of video/music project.
Above is what I have got completed so far of the video.
Slow going.
The music, however, is on target.
Somehow I've got to make the above move in a 'ambient' but interesting way in time to the music.
Then I've got to turn it into cubes, and make the cubes move in an 'ambient' but interesting way.
After that I'll add lighting and camera movement...

Long way to go...

New Project

While I haven't been really that good at posting my weekly ambient music compositions, I have still persisted with them. Each week I have found just enough time to create a new sound set and then do at least one mix.
Above is a concept note of this weeks effort.
On top of the music, however, I am attempting something more ambitious: a full video to go with the music.
Its folly, I know to think that I could execute this all in one week. But I'm going to give it a go anyway.
Why? Because the concept has me intrigued. I want to know if I can do it.
I just want to see what it looks like in the end.

Is this the future?

My research time has been suffering….
No good reason, anyway.

Music
Film
Thesis…

Pick one and do it well…

Morning

The days have been getting warmer
This is nice.

Soft light streaming in through the window.

its one of those days

where playing with the dog is much more important than getting things done.

time

time is something that I'm becoming more acutely aware of now then ever before.
There is a certain awareness of wastage.

but there is also a certain awareness of it as an ally.

Time is something to be embraced
unabashedly
with a full hart.

cool hours

even though its forecast to be fine and relatively warm spring day, I am still resistant to the morning walk.
it feels cold...

Mr C. looks forlorn.

distracted

Looking up how to create RSS feeds... oh what fun.
have been putting this task off for ages, and as usual its turning out to be a lot simpler the I had anticipated.
But then its never a wise thing to say something is simple before its done, is it?

I understand

little...

old ideas

return to the notion of speaking
quaint in its way

words are, to me anyway...

foreign

Let Mr C speak instead
far more eloquent that way

been away

Its been over a week, I know since I last wrote some thing. In my defence its been a big week. Been away. also, saw lots of flicks at the film festival. Am getting stuck into the Falling agenda.

Its early in the morning now and I'm trying to get stuff done.
Been busy.

no title

No words
no title
just Rads photo.

1st podcast

Yeah.
1st podcast.
It can be found in the links section to the right.
This is just a trial at the moment, but I have managed to get something up and down-loadable. I'm already thinking about changing the nature of the podcast for future releases. In particular, just leaving it as music alone. Or, alternatively inviting readers to send in their own spoken word pod-casts and matching it to the music. Anyway, regardless, this is a good initial step (regardless of the quality of the work).
quite steps
forward.

a new concept

We saw Bubble yesterday at the Melbourne film festival.
Harsh, gritty, digital video.

Possibly brilliant.

Another reminder that the art is in the pacing rather than than the quality of the images.

Took Mr C out this morning for a play
Harsh, gritty, muddy ground

Move forward. Pick up the ball. Bring it back.

Eloquent simplicity.

its all too exciting.

no title

speak only severe words
arrogant shards

snap

to recover
is to move on
sometimes directly into that which you fear most...

Today I finally put words down
I created an initial mix of this project of mine

Just me.
I am the only speaker so far.

To be frank it doesn't all sound good.
But, also, it doesn't all sound bad.
There is room for improvement.

It is confronting to here ones own words read back to you (even if you do the reading yourself).
I knew this would be the case.

I will post the mix up soon.

what it should be about

It should be about the pleasure of it
it should be about the texture
It should be about the ambition
the enthusiasm
the energy...

It should be about the challenge
It should be about the loss of the moment
the extinction, the transformation
of time itself...

It shouldn't be about the whether or not the toothpaste tube lid
was left off or not.

It should be about taking my dog for a walk
and leaving my partner in peace to watch Scorsese videos.

Move past the stagnation of the moment
Crush time itself.

hide

morning day
tall spacious Poppy's
all in a row

asking
just asking

the ideal

Start a business
take my dog into work everyday

that's all I want...

its late

Its late and I'm up playing with my new mobile phone...
its has lots of fancy things in it...
although most of them cost extra.

Its late and I'm having trouble sleeping...

Its one of those nights...

I wrote Falling in a similar frame of mind to what I'm in now. Its was all so quick: essentially one idea distilled through a series of short movements and written in less then 20 mins. I both trust and distrust the project for this reason. It came from something genuine within in me, like a performance mode of music. But whether this gut feeling is valuable or not I can't say. When Chris, my friend and a partner in cinematic crimes said I needed to change it to fit the contexts of a well formed story I flatly resisted. It is what it is. It is either poetry, or else...
...or else its a crime against humanity...

Rad was watching a Gilmore Girls repeat today, and I caught a moment of its where a side character exhibited his classically bad short 'art' film.... i recognised some of my own crimes in that film. And, as I looked at the flat compositional plains, I caught myself thinking: 'maybe he was going somewhere with this... maybe there is going to be some kind of structural gameplan that reveals itself shortly'... Of course there wasn't, but that wasn't the fault of the fictional characters... should I blame the writers here? Or the episode's director?

Of course, as I was watching Bresson's L'Agent (1983) latter in the night I was thinking the same thing again: maybe there is going to be some kind of game-plan that will reveal itself to me. And then I'll really get it then. Won't I?

In the end we only our gut feelings to go on, or perhaps we shouldn't ever trust those feeling lest they lead us to pain, disappointment and embarrassment. But then without these gut feeling, then what are we aiming for? What do we hope to achieve? Whats the point?
Yin and Yang
Order and Chaos.
clarity and....
noise.

Its quite late
And I'm very cold...

The new phone is sleeping now....

Noise is not perfect

As I'm working on my strange idea's I am comforted by the the fact that noise is not is not the same as perfection
Noise is about imperfection within defined boundaries...
film can be this too...

my obit

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

no title

a door…

a doorway…

a doorway swings…

inward

long night

When somebody close to you is sick its painful.
When Rad was away Mr. C. got sick (it turned out to be kennel cough).
For a couple of nights it was very hard because he couldn't rest and would get up occasionally to cough up flem and bile...
I was reminded of this last night when Rad in turn got a stomach virus.
... lets just say it was a long night...

The demise of greatness

Shitake mushrooms

Miso soup….

Seaweed…

Yum yum.

One of my favourite snacks at the moment is the Nori and the miso. Just lately I’ve started adding Ramen noodles for a big lunch bowl of warm goodness.

…mmmmmmm….

Rad thinks that Miso paste looks like poo.

She doesn’t touch the stuff on the same basis that she wouldn’t try ‘Scrapple’ in the states (because it has ‘crap’ in the title).

To be fair, I wouldn’t try scrapple either. All I now about scrapple is that it made out of the leftover remnants of the frying pan, and that the G mentions it in the same episode of Homicide where he gets shot…

Mr C needs a walk

in falling space

This is from Falling, a short film I am working on at the moment.
The image is a composite of myself in a 3D space that I created in After effects.
I am still experimenting at the moment...

hiLow

first words
ambient sounds
alien and misrepresented


Word of the Day

Gormless...

I like it because it has a kind of indirect onomatopoeia

So what does it mean I wonder...