re context I recently had to show some of my online stuff theatrically (not at pixelodeon, which BOO HOO family obligations prevented me from attending and i've been eating up all the post event coverage). I thought a lot about the whole recontextualizing issue. If it was a lecture/demo sort of thing I'd definitely show the actual blog, or "simulate" the ipod experience or something, but this was part of a show that had my other stuff in it. I tried all sorts of things. I did not come up with a good solution. The stuff was so thoroughly designed for a small screen and an intimate viewing experience that it couldn't survive the translation. In the end I added some new material to string pieces together and added some text to at least cue the audience into the original context, so they at least knew the WHY of the pieces. It was ok but just ok. The images were just too big, too overpowering - these were pieces I would never have made for that context, and if vlogs didn't exist they wouldn't have been made at all.
On the other hand, people were inspired by the pieces, and thanks to having a Q&A afterwards it led people to the videoblog. It was still worth doing. Another curator elsewhere asked to show some of the same stuff, unaltered, and I didn't even hesitate. And it got me thinking, and in fact I am now working up a "live" version of Trace Garden (presented as a real time seance), but it's a COMPLETE reworking of it, which will take quite a while to put together. One of the difficult things for filmmakers right how is that we have pretty much lost control over the context of presentation. Vlogs are GREAT in that sense on one hand - you not only create the context, you control the look and feel of the equivalent to the theater or tv or whatever yourself. But theatrically, esp. with video, you have no idea what your work will look like in any setting - will they be able to see that figure in the shadows creeping up on the two people in the car? Depends on the projector, how much light in the room, etc. Why not just brighten the figure? Cuz its a different figure then. And further, if you are lucky enough to become popular, it IS going to be ripped, torrented, youtubed, poorly transferred to PAL VHS from a second generation copy of a rented tape, shown in a bar while a band plays, etc. So why not make work that will survive it all? for some people that's an option, but for many of us the things that make us want to get the camera out to begin with involve images that can't translate all that well between contexts. So for screening vlogs, I think its a case by case thing: sometimes Ryanne's approach will be perfect, for some vlogs something else, for some, well it isn't gonna be perfect, but it may be worth going for it anyway. Brook (who is obviously procastinating or he'd get to work!) oh p.s. Rupert I love that video. What you said, and also the wonderful little whoa! whoops! interruptions! _______________________________________________________ Brook Hinton film/video/audio art www.brookhinton.com <<vlog links are here TRACE GARDEN now available in flash format on Blip! tracegarden.blip.tv ________________________________________________________ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
