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!
Read more…
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.
Read more…
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.
Read more…
To celebrate some good news that I will be posting about in upcoming days, I’ll be giving out my new DANGER PINS at the next few performances. Just come over and say hi!
Hope to see you all at the Kodomo + Danger show tomorrow night at Monkey Town! Â I can’t think of a better way to bring in the new year…
I’m keeping my fingers crossed… I’ll be calling a couple of potential design studio spaces this week to see about taking my biz out of my crooked little apartment and into town. Wish me luck!!
A drawing sample from students in class
Friday night I trekked out to Washington, DC to join the Motion Graphics Festival. The workshops all sounded wonderful, but it especially piqued my interest when I read that VJ Shantell Martin was teaching a workshop in live-painting. On the practical side of what I do, my instinct was to take the After Effects class, but the VJ side of me couldn’t let go of the opportunity to hang with other visualists from around the world, so I signed up.
The class introduced the idea of using a wacom tablet mixed with painting software to drawing live and intuitively to music, while recording your session and being able to cut it up and re-use it as animation in performance or later for editing. I found this particularly useful because I never record what I’m doing directly from the screen. There is a program called I Show You which does this perfectly, creating a high res quicktime file.
While much of my personal VJ style has been to mix motion graphics & after effects work, with video files, I’m interested in seeing what direction the concepts I learned in class could take on for me. Definitely a lot of fun, and definitely a new tool to play with and explore.
Thanks to all of you who I met this weekend. I hope our paths cross again soon!
New projects are underway for upcoming summer festivals and collaborations. One that I’m particularly excited about is a project called Chrysalis.  It’s an inflatable, multimedia dome, which stands at 100′ in diameter. 12 projectors will be affixed and mounted on the inside to create a 360 degree live video performance. DJs, VJs, musicians, dancers, and puppeteers will be performing from within, and will create an incredible, experimental, interactive, multimedia experience. The project was conceptualized by my friends of Waking Dream and Light Harvest Studio.Â
Tonight I designed a flyer to promote a few upcoming fundraiser dates for the project. I’ll be projecting visuals in the dome on Saturday July 18th, with Waking Dream, Light Harvest, and Levitation Theory. There will be endless amounts of music both nights, and camping available for free.
Make sure to mark your calendars for July 17th, 18th, and a pre-event fundraiser at the House of Love on July 11th.
Click here for location of the dome in Google.
Â
Photos below taken by Waking Dream and Light Harvest Studio.
Â
May 4, 2009 |
Design,
Gigs,
Music,
vj
 Work in progress of a series of Danger pins that I’m currently creating.
Â
Just a quick reminder that I’ll be at the Delancey Wednesday this week, projecting in collaboration with the music of Kodomo. We’ve been working hard for the last few months to get things ready and this will be our first performance together, and my first choreographed video performance. Should be a great night, especially with the dozens of other musicians booked for that evening!  I’m excited and hope to see many of you guys there!  9:30 sharp, 40 min set.
Also, I wanted to note a change in dates for the June gig at Monkeytown with Cutlery. Instead of June 11th, we’ll be there June 25th. Sorry for the mistake!
In other news, I’ve been busy feeling the motion of seasonal changes and moving forward on some new projects. Soon you can expect to see an updated portfolio reel from me and possibly an upgrade to the Danger identity that I’ve cultivated for the last few years. Hopefully a full launch of my site is around the corner as well. For now, the process of revising my portfolio has officially begun after building my last round two years ago. It’s amazing how quickly time passes, and how quickly the showcase of your work becomes outdated!
I’m also currently working on making tiny 1 inch “DANGER pins” that I intend to give out at shows, and am having a really fun time with designing them. Right now they are based on the concept of “dangerous things that you’re afraid of”. If you have a special request, please leave comments here!! I’m open to suggestions! Â What are you afraid of? Â Above is an early rough example of one that I’m making for someone who has a fear of giant squids!!Â
Lastly, I’ve got a new toy that I’m excited to get started playing with. I finally purchased a new digital camera after my beloved Olympus Camedia 5050z died half a year ago. I am now toting a Canon SD780 and looking forward to my memory card showing up any day now so I can begin to experiment! Keep a look out here for massive photo posts to come!
Last Thursday and Friday I was privileged to spend my normal workday at the F5 Motion Design conference held at Roseland in NYC. I kept my eye on this conference from the early stages last year and watched it bloom into one of the biggest, baddest lineups of designers from all over the world. After being exposed to all the presentations, I’m personally going to keep my eyes on 1st Avenue Machine, Dvein, and Moment Factory. These guys blew my minds eye and have opened me up to some new ideas & approaches to design. Here are some of my other favorite speakers from the day, to note a few:
Dvein, Prologue, Psyop, Black Heart Gang, 1st Ave Machine, Imaginary Forces, Rachel Maddow, Moment Factory, Jonah Lehrer.Â
Since having worked in the corporate world of video production for the last few years, I haven’t had much opportunity to immerse myself in the art world (or even the commercial world) of motion graphics the way I wish I could. Thankfully, conferences like F5, after effects meetups and the VJ world have brought this back into my life in many ways. Most nights after I come home from day to day editing, I begin to collage my own new work and find myself experimenting into the early hours, to create a bigger, more original and more ecclectic library for future live video performances.
The F5 conference reminded me just how powerful motion graphics are, and how much I love that world & the people who make that sort of magic happen. Not only did the conference showcase some of the best work I’ve seen in years, but there was a really interesting discussion about the state of creativity, and how it works from a scientific angle. We talked about how to better access innovations from the left side of the brain, and how we should be open to all new endeavors that allow us to create connections, and draw inspiration from experience. Insights seemingly flourish best when not forcing creativity. Some highlights for me were seeing & hearing all of the bizarre places that people reach to for inspiration.  Found everywhere from rubberbands that were made into stop-motion spaghetti to one person dipping their hands & feet in cement just to see what it would feel like to wear on their limbs for a week!  Ideas are formed in some of the most oddly beautiful ways and it has always been a passion of mine to explore how other people’s brain’s work.
Later this week I’d like to transcribe my notebook that I had with me for the two days and capture the raw thoughts I had while listening to these fabulous heros of mine. Â As a result of the festival I’ve already taken some of the advice and put it towards a new identity scope for my danger visuals.
A few frame grabs from new Danger intro visuals
Lastly  I want to mention how VERY excited I am to say that a new collaboration is underway with electronic musician Kodomo. It looks like May 6th will be our first performance at the Delancey for the next Warper Party. Details soon to come!!
