The summer is in full swing, my blog has been quiet for the last few weeks, and I’ve been struggling to nail down one big opening date for my studio party – HOWEVER, I finally decided to set it in motion and see what happens!
Next weekend I’ll be having an official open studio night, Saturday, August 7th, featuring multi-projector live video mixing, and a poster exhibit displaying my new design series. It is a private party, so please, if you are interested in coming – Email me to RSVP.
If you can’t make the opening party on the 7th, you’ll be happy to know that another date is also potentially in the works for a Kodomo show on Saturday, August 21st. Hope everyone is having an adventurous and creative summer!! See you soon.
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.
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. 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!!
http://www.vimeo.com/4009909
Inspired by the hauntingly beautiful music of the Cutlery ladies and the poetic words of Nick Cave. I created this piece with an old wooden frame & collaged imagery found from fashion photos from around the world. It almost came together in a seemingly unconscious way, and became an animated photo album that expanded from the corners of my imagination. The photography was altered, animated, arranged and woven into these treasured memories. This piece was created to be projected during the Cutlery’s live performance of this song, and was debuted on the four walls of Monkeytown last Friday night. Looks like we’ll have another gig there in June!!
I recently started digitizing my last batch of footage from my little San Francisco excursion, and while I have some personal criticisms for the way it came out, I am also seeing a lot of good useable stuff as well that I’m excited about. Macro shots of grassy fields, waves under the golden gate, colorful San Fran architecture, street traffic, sunshine through the tall trees and some hot dukati shots, thanks to my good friend Adrian who lives out there and offered to model for me. Thanks Adrian!
Last year I was really inspired by Pipilotti Rist, who created a huge video installation at the MOMA. A lot of her work was seen from a sort of bug’s eye view, and I took that inspiration to do a bit of that style filming on my own at all the beautiful parks in SF. Looking forward to cutting some of that up this week and integrating it into my footage library.
I’d also really like to create a new reel for the hollydanger.com front page, as it is supremely choppy and outdated at this point. The page itself is also unfinished and in limbo, waiting for me to add my entire portfolio to it, and link over here to this blog! Cliche to say, but there really aren’t enough hours in the day. Last night I just finished my 3rd round of package designs for a canadian musician that I’m working for. Things are looking really great, but I’m afraid of how many hours I sit slaved to these machines working on projects! I have a full time 9-5 job during the week editing videos, then I come home to freelance work & VJ stuff on the side. There are barely any hours left to sleep & eat.
Thank god I love to do this stuff, I just wish that I had ways of doing it all faster so I could do more of it.
This week I’ll be receiving my new video controller in the mail!! I splurged last week and bought the OHM. I should be receiving it in the next two days. Perhaps just in time to learn how to use it, and give it a try at the Monkeytown gig on Apr 3rd. I think I’m also going to drop the dime on a new laptop to make sure everything runs smoothly. It’s about time for a full round of upgrades!
San Francisco in a four day glance:
Sunny, brisk, energetic, bellowing light, ocean, colored, gritty city hills, homeless, bold coffee, honey-fruit plates & tea lounges, wine & dinner talking to bartenders and travelers, solo wandering, cameras, old friends, dukatis in the street after ethiopian food, scooters in soma, fantastic fashion & tattoos, geekgasms at multimedia mezzanine show, amoeba, celebrity sightings, architecture, trolleys, parks, love, haight and art gallery hostels with barefoot patrons..
My trip recently fueled a new little video piece, and I wanted to share it here:
http://www.vimeo.com/3592323
The Haight was breathing with gritty, hot, fantasies that day. It’s a nostalgic place full of history, fashion, and subtle unmentionables. Along the outskirts of dirty memories and coastlines that linger, someone is always willing to tell you stories over scotch in the evening, and put a flower in your hair as you undress the sunlight.
Mostly found footage collected from very many obscure locations, mixed with my textures & experiments.
The song is called Lust, by the Raveonettes.
There have been two things I’ve had my eyes on since I began VJing. One was a new mac book pro, and one was Livid’s wooden OHM controller. Both wildly expensive, and beautifully crafted.
I told myself this year that if VJing came as naturally to me as I hoped it would, that I would allow myself to invest more deeply into pursuing this path. Not only has it become a natural progression and flow from my video & design work, but it has become the most exciting exhilaration that I’ve had towards art & work that I’ve felt in years.
I’m a little overwhelmed with the amount of requests that I’m receiving to nurture this newfound talent and perform with bands at shows, but I’m loving every sleepless second of it.
I’m currently working feverishly at my studio to prepare new material for electronic musician Kodomo and start playing live with him. It’s a project that I believe is incredibly strong, and I hope to open up doors to playing for venues such as the Natural History Museum for One Step Beyond, Monkeytown, and any venue that knows how to house a quality multimedia show. Personally I love museums and would love, love, love to find myself in gallery shows in the future.
I’m also starting a new venture to work with cute & chic girl band, The Cutlery. Their sound is hauntingly beautiful and echoes from the soul. Harmonies are accompanied by banjos, violins, oboe, electronics, jingly janglys. I see lots of silent era sepia toned opera films, starry nights, and longing sunsets for their visual scene. We have our first gig together this Saturday night at the House of Love, and April 3rd at Monkeytown. It’s a short set, 7:30-8PM, so get there early enough to grab a seat. Monkeytown has great beer and food, plus it is such a cool, cozy, brooklyn spot. Definitely one of my favorite venues.
Looking forward to it all, wide eyed and excited!
Nov 19, 2008 |
Video Projects
Never in my life have I shot & edited a wedding before, but when I was asked to do it, a favor for a friend, with a castle as the backdrop, I agreed. I’m in the process of cutting a DVD worth of all the material, but first, I decided to cut a short version to music as a little synopsis of the ceremony. The music is by David Gray, called “This Years Love”. I shot this with a SONY HD V1U.
The cut and soundtrack are in a very rough state but it has come a long way since the beginning. After sifting through 8 hours of footage I’m proud to say, here is the first stage of this montage.
