After every trip, I am immediately fueled into an active wanderlust, longing to go somewhere else…
I always come up with the most visual ideas when I’m outside my routines and experiencing different cultures, conversations and vibrations of people in other places. Traveling is something I became obsessed with years ago when I first started designing. Having only been back in town for a week, I can happily say that Austin sparked a new light for me. It’s the beginning of spring and the beginning months of my studio. There are good energies all around, exciting shows on the way and hopefully more travel in the near future. New visuals on the way!
Two shows are on the horizon that I’m really excited to be a part of and wanted to let you know!
First up is APRIL 15th at 10PM I’ll be projecting live visuals for Only Son during their last residency show at Bowery Electric!!
Then, MAY 22ND at 7PM, an exciting collaborative audio/visual Moviehouse show at 3RD WARD, called Four by Four. The projection screens are split four ways and each VJ gets a section to simultaneously visualize & interpret the live music. VJ’s include Sketch Projector Shantell Martin, Daniel Hai, myself, and one surprise guest.
By Day 3 I was hitting my stride and in full information-absorption-networking-documenting mode! I trekked to the convention center with my laptop & I began my day with a panel called Real Time Video Blogging led by the makers of Rocketboom, a witty, successful NYC-based daily video news blog, and Amanda Congdon of Sometimesdaily.
A lot of the session seemed pretty common sense to me, but there were good tips to remember. They suggested that if you are interested in starting your own documentary style blog series, to first and foremost, always get a lawyer involved and make sure you are legally contracted, no matter what the project big or small. Find your personal niche to write about, create a mission statement and figure out who your audience is. Then get involved with larger projects that attract a similar audience so that you can attach your name to them and generate threads of new contacts back to your site.
A great site for copyright free stock video material to use in your blog if needed: archive.org. I’ve known about them for years, but haven’t yet put any of it to use in my own work. Personally I think they need a more organized website to be useful for my needs, but there is a tremendous amount of free material on there.
Video blogging in itself is something I’d like to try my hand at, but have never been good at turning the camera on myself or interviewing people at random. Those are two things I’d like to work on for future documenting practice. After this experience at Burning Man, I promised myself I would learn how to speak in front of the camera properly!
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On Day 2 my number 1 priority was seeing Michel Gondry in person. He is one of my all time favorite visionary heros, who has inspired me endlessly in creative projects. I waited an hour to see the man and get 4th row at his seminar. Gondry echoed a similar practice to something Ze Frank had mentioned in Day 1’s panel. The emphasis to pay attention to every single off-the-wall idea that you have. Don’t dismiss it out of fear or logic. Pay attention and put energy into them. Give them breath before you kill the idea. Test it out and reinvent each step of the way to be as open as possible to all concepts.
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I finally have a quiet moment to myself to digest, decompress and formulate information. I have an overwhelming amount of data swarming through my head and need to transcribe it all along with the words scribbled throughout my trusty notebook.
Day 1 began when I left the windy rainstorm that took over NY, as I departed Laguardia at 6AM. I was on 2 hours of sleep and on the cusp of delirium. Somehow in that state of mind I thought it’d be a good idea to upgrade my flight to first class since the self-check in machine asked me if I wanted to. The big shiny button was too enticing not to push. Plus it was 5AM and I was feeling claustrophobic and sleep deprived. Though for the most part I just really wanted some decent space to set up my laptop and do some editing. Yes – Editing at 6AM! I was in the mood for some god awful reason. Most likely motivated by the fact that later that day I was aiming to hit a Final Cut “Supermeetup” that would allow me to share my work with a group of editors. I had to cut down a reel into 10 minutes, so I spent that morning cutting deliriously before the sun rose.
This is my 4th trip to Austin, and yet only my first experience at SXSW. I organized my schedule to reflect over 95 panels during the course of my 5 day stay. Saturday I arrived, just narrowly escaping the hurricane behind me, and got in just in time to catch a conversation late in the day with Ze Frank.
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In just a few days I’ll be boarding a plane to Austin, TX to join the SXSW festivities. You will most likely find me sipping a Lonestar and attending something nerdy between the days of March 13th through the 18th. I’ll also be VJing at an event on Congress called House by Southwest on the 17th, (St. Patricks day!)
Keep checking back here to the Dangerblog, because I have decided to create a daily write-up for each day that I’m out there. I will be experimenting with a pocket Mino HD flipcam lent by my good friend Jack from Steelblender. Thanks Jack!! It shoots 60 minutes of HD footage, is as tiny as an ipod, and has a built in USB for quick import. I’m sure by the end of this trip I will want one for myself.
I’m looking forward to all of SXSW, documenting the trip and meeting a lot of new folks. Drop me a line if you’re going, or stop by the show on Wednesday night at Silhouette!
Mar 5, 2010 |
Gigs,
Music,
vj
Last minute show announcement!
I’m VJing for my brother’s band tonight. It’s a special birthday bash for the singer!
8PM-2AM
