Digital Motion dot net

I like simple, but well executed, internet art experiments; especially when then combine more traditional forms.

David Crawford’s Stop Motion Studies are little slices of time, capturing motion, but in an obviously artificial way. Constrained to subway shots, he catches people in the quasi-personal-but-very-public times when they are seemingly relaxed, but also very aware. I think that these are incredibly effective at showing the thoughts in people’s minds much more than a single still image could be.

Urban Ghost is similar, yet different. Urban Ghost catches people in motion, on the street (for the most part), not in repose. These are not people consigned to getting there when they get there. These are people doing something, moving forward, even if they are just looking in a store window. Their dynamism is expressed in the single frame rather than in the multiple frames of the stop motion studies. As I said in my post on another blog, it reminds me a lot of Gary Winograd in the journalistic, yet voyeuristic nature of the images.

I heard about Stray Cinema on This Week in Media. They are an “open source” movie: they have all their takes on the site for download, and they are asking people to make their own edits of the film. Sounds like it could be a very fun and instructive exercise for a budding editor or director. Kind of like Panaroma Ephemera, but with more chance of promotion opportunities to the world.

It’ll be really interesting to see the different takes on the film. Hopefully, they will post all of them on the site.

[via The Long Tail]

The Television Revolution is at the Gates

This article is over a year old and still seems precient. We’re starting to see Indy filmmakers try to raise money this way, but they don’t have the dedicated audience that someone like Joss Whedon or Aaron Sorkin does. If someone at that level decided to go audience funded, they could kick start a whole new industry…

I’m embarassed that I didn’t point these guys out before. A nice way to get some more notice for your short-form video products: Undergroundfilm.org – Independent Movie Distribution.

As with any site like this, better read their agreement before giving it the ok. In general, their heart seems to be in the right place, but you are basically signing away all rights to your film for free. That means that if they make a zillion bucks off of it, you get zero. At least, their rights are non-exclusive and are simply cancellable (unlike many other sites). Also, they are a non-profit according to them. As I said, they have their hearts in the right place, and I have only heard good things about them.

How To Choose CD/DVD Archival Media » Ad Terras Per Aspera

this is a great article. It definitely jibes with my experience. After having some bad scares with DVD-R and CD-R media going sour years later, I’ve switched to archiving on both Hard drives and DVD (hard drives are actually cheaper per MB these days), but it is always important to know the differences between brands and types of media. I have to second his recommendation for Verbatim DVD+R DL, it is the only one I’ve found to work consistently.

WGBH Lab: Sandbox

This is a small group of clips, but hopefully there will be more. Right now, focused on science animations and little natural clips.

I’ve been following pure:dyne for a while now. It seems like a great thing for live media performers (music or video) or for those who want to get into production but don’t have the cash to purchase a bunch of software.

In a nutshell, it is a version of linux customized around multimedia with a bunch of open source and freeware audio and video production software included in the installation. It can be booted from a CD or memory stick (so you don’t have to install it on your PC or Mac).

From Create Digital Music, I hear that they just hit a stable build, so it might be time to try it out.

This is a Flash9 mini-photoshop. It’s got a long way to go, but it is pretty amazing how much is there. It really should dispel any myth about Flash being a rich enough platform for serious development.

Fauxto… like photo.

Harts Audition: Soundbooth Beta 2 Now Available

Adobe Labs Soundbooth site

Cool Edit Pro remains my all-time favorite tool for audio editing. It was almost worth keeping a PC around to use it when I switched over to mac. I’m freaking ecstatic that the CEP guys (now Adobe Audition) have finally produced a mac version. Now I can finally blow off the CEP wanna-be soundtrack on my mactel. I’m still bummed that I won’t be able to use it on my G5 though…

Your Gallery – Show your art to the world

It’s kind of a cool idea/major risk for a real-world very prestigious art gallery to open up its website to all artists, un-juried. It is also very cool and a major risk to have a video section on that site. For the moment, there is a chance for video artists to network and share their world. Get on it before it gets sued out of existence or canceled due to insane bandwidth costs…