7.3.11 A Lesson In Flight

A four minute-er. I posted this once, then realized that I'd spelled a word wrong- had to tear it all down and repost. *sigh* the lessons in life continue...
At any rate, I've spent some time lately thinking about the importance of the things that I've done, the things I've learned, and where they're all taking me. How does anyone know when they're doing the right thing (or things for that matter). I do lots of things, but mostly for my own benefit, there is no larger picture to put into focus. A novice at many things, a professional at none. I enjoy the projects that I work on but often wonder if my lack of constant commitment keeps them from being anything other than an entertaining way to pass time.

A Lesson In Flight from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

This piece was shot in 1080p24.
Pulled a three out of a vat of numbers for next weeks video.

6.26.11 Blick 9

When I was in school, many of the professors stressed the importance of play. I vaguely understood what they were getting at but always felt like playing was undercutting the importance of stressing ideas. Now out of school for a fair amount of time and more aware of the professional art world, I understand why they pushed so hard for process over product. Sometimes ideas just aren't as fun or interesting as just playing with your tools and seeing where that takes you. That said, good process does not always lead to good product. Enter Blick 9. If I wasn't married to posting weekly, this would never see the light of day. I wasn't even sure if I should try to whip something up last minute the other day instead so that I wouldn't have to post this. But then I read something, that although seeming not connected, made me feel ok about calling this video what it is.

It's an excerpt of an excerpt (really? can you do that?)
It's an excerpt from 13 Years of Goodluck, which uses this excerpt from Notes from Underground by Stephen Duncombe

"The World of self-publishing on the Internet is not an alternative culture. There is no cultural price of admission into the digital realm, there are no arcane rituals to master or rules to follow (or even debate). The result is a multiplicity of voices and values. There is nothing wrong with this; indeed there is a lot that is good. But this diversity does not constitute a community, and as such, there are no coherent community values. This doesn't mean that there aren't any values express, but it does mean that in the absence of a set of counter-norms, the values articulated or manifested on the way can often conform to those of the dominant arbiters of cultural value: the marketplace and the cultural establishment. As such, blogs become calling cards for aspiring mainstream writers, Facebook and Myspace pages become advertisements for one's own celebrity, and so on."

If I could convey an idea like a professional, would I really want to?

Blick 9 from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

6.19.11 Anoxia

This video is roughly an hour and a half of video condensed into 3 minutes. There's a little more than three hours of actual footage which I wanted to use all of but my computer could only fit so much at once. As with so many times before, for some reason shooting onto VHS added an extra element to this piece that I'm convinced wouldn't have been there in HD, and really the image processor of this particular camera was doing its own thing anyway... love that camera.
I read an article about the nuclear leakage from the Fukushima plant and just how long and dangerous a ride we're all on. I've also read a lot recently about the dying off of species in the world's oceans. Time is the trickiest of natural elements. Clouds seem gentle; the wind gentle. If we could speed up time we'd be able to see the wind's graceful menacing. If we could stand back and look at ourselves over the long haul, how would our movements look? As individuals? As a whole?

Anoxia from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

6.12.11 She

Again this week I had a 3 minute video. There is a large part of me that knew this video needed to be made; it's been like a anchor attached to the back of my brain, though not as clear or tangible. How many women do you talk to in a day? What do they say? More importantly, how do they say it?

She from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

I also rolled yet another three, so it looks like next week will be another three minute piece.

6.5.11 Visions of a Fleeting Earth

Though I forgot to post the picture, I'd rolled a three for this week. This video is about comfort, ambience and disconnect. So much of our environment is or is becoming toxic. I'd recently read an article about a swarm of jellyfish overtaking a beach, and while this by no means is an indication of anything, it got me thinking about livable environments. The more toxic an environment, the more dangerous the living life. Gotta be tough to live in an tough environment. Toxic environments don't stop life, they stop gentle life. I know humans would like to think that we have the power to end all things, but in reality we have just enough power to end our own most violent and toughest of selves. Other forms of life, and the caustic forms they may be, would simply continue in that much more harsh a world. I, for one, can't understand why anyone would want that, and yet we grow our planet more toxic still. Comfortable with the ambience of our disconnect.

Visions of a Fleeting Earth from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

5.29.11 My Lover, I Love Ya

My first installment of HD video. I have a love/hate relationship with HD in the sense that it really does look nice and clean and crisp and wonderful, but it also is sterile. One of my least favorite things is that everyone shoots in HD now and it seems like everyone knows everything about getting the best image quality out of a piece of footage. But there's no character, no texture to the picture. I like being able to actually see the video, not just the image the video is capturing. I like the degradation of video tape, it lets me know that it's representing something, not try to fool me into believing that thing is right in front of me. I like the suspension of disbelief, the bit of curtain pulled back on the wizard. HD is a mask without a curtain, albeit a beautiful mask.

My Lover, I Love Ya from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

5.22.11 American By Birth

A little late but here nevertheless. 4 minute video: American By Birth. Well outside my comfort zone, can't say I've ever made a video like this before, both in physical content and in contextual subject matter. It's a little more narrative than I usually attempt. At any rate, I was trying to combine elements of advertising, war, and immigration from Mexico. Oh how we love our intrusive and obnoxious advertising, to the extent that we're constantly giving away information to companies to better equip them to sell to us. But show some compassion for our fellow humans in our neighboring country to the south? NIMBY. It makes me sad and angry, and we wont even get into America's warring tendencies.

American By Birth from Hettie Kauffman on Vimeo.

Shot with a Sharp VL-WD450 which I'd never used before. It has a night vision function called Super Cat's Eye which turns the picture black and white but let's it produce an image in very low light. Then there's also an IR switch that lets you shoot in zero light (again in b+w). It was pretty fun, crawling around the floor in the dark with a bunch of toys fit for boys. In reality though, I probably spent the most time on the audio in this piece just trying to slow the tape player enough to make my voice sound close to an army dude. Lots of trial and error.

Also, now that it's technically Monday as I'm typing this entry, I rolled the die for this weeks video.

2 minutes it is