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Why I am happy that youtube is being sued
I am happy that youtube is being sued because out of the hundreds of video sharing websites out there it is the most devious. It has taken hundreds of hours of content produced at great expense by teams of professionals and offered them in poor quality for nothing on their site. To make it worse it’s made them billions of dollars.
How can the mega corporations, through the intermediary of the RIAA give so much trouble to those who share music let allow youtube to thrive. It doesn’t make sense.
What about all those video sharing websites that went about making content and distributing it the right way? What about those who decided that they would provide a service at no cost to themselves. I’m speaking of those guilty of unlawful distribution of video material.
It’s a website about deception, look at lonelygirl, look at the coke and mentos adverts. Look at the ball in groin laughter. It’s all a form of sadistic pleasure. Why would you want to be manipulated in such a way.
On the positive side it was fun to see the world cup celebrations and I uploaded some video of my own in response to other people’s content.
When it’s used as a video version of flickr it’s an excellent website because it’s an audiovisual window onto the world where a vast wealth of video content may be accessed. Good snowboarding, post it, good party, post it, personal work you’re proud of, post it.
Everyone of us is a content producer and distributor and everyone of us is challenging himself to create something that other people will enjoy. Geocities was about websies, the original sixdegrees was inspired by the film to show that everyone is related throough less than six people to everyone else. Blogging allowed people to reount their lives to anonymous audiences, flickr allowed the sharing of instants and video sharing websites allowed for the sharing of moments.
Is it voyeuristic to look at online videos and photographs made by friends and random strangers and is it exhibitionist of them to show that content? Is it wrong to look at it?
I would participate in this more actively were it not for the droit d’image. I don’t want others posting pictures of me without my consent and I won’t post pictures of others without their consent.
Doesn’t mean I won’t keep looking. It’s fun to constantly refresh the most recent pictures on flickr and see all the events that have been taking place around the world.
Human – A Yann Arthus-Bertrand documentary
The French have an interesting history of documentary film. Jean Rouch explored social questions with his film Chronique d’un été, a revolutionary film at the time because of the tech that they used. The Cinéma Eclair and crystal sound sync. A few decades later Yann Arthus-Bertrand is following in Jean Rouch’s footsteps with a net cast far wider. Instead of Paris and France we see interviews with people from around the world.
The documentary is split in to volumes and each volume is divided in to sections. At the beginning of each section you have footage showing the diversity of landscapes in which people live as well as the people themselves. You see images of a caravan on a dune, images of a river delta, a fishing boat being unloaded.
People are answering questions about love, abuse, work and more. You feel compassion for these people because they stare straight in to the camera and they are speaking to us, who are in the audience. We feel compassion for these people, we are moved to laughter by some and to tears by others. There are some beautiful images created by what the people say.
One person speaks about buying things. He says that we don’t buy things with money but that we buy them with time. That is a beautiful and more accurate image than we are used to. I love gadgets and sports so I often think of how long an investment will take to offset. I used to think “in a week” I will have covered the expense.
Another image painted by words that I like is that of wealth and comfort. When you are poor the river is empty and so every stone is a challenge. With wealth you do not need to worry about the stones because the river is full.
This is an observational documentary, typical of the cinéma verité movement and the French and German school of documentary. We are not told what to feel or think. We are presented with evidence and we are to draw our own conclusions. It can be perceived as slow and dull by some and beautiful by others.
It brings us to the “All Seeing Eye” that Vertov discussed at the very birth of the documentary genre. His ideal was to have cameras that would film and document “life unawares” as they went about their daily lives. In so doing the cinema was an observer, without interacting. Of course these are just interviews so there is some interaction between the camera operator and the talent on screen. They are meant to speak from the heart, without censor. They were meant to give us an honest representation of who they are and how they feel. It gives us a serious glimpse in to the lives of others.
it makes me think of the interviews I have listened to, of the stories I have heard told when I was logging and transcribing footage for a video archive. Some of the things people speak about are timeless and others are contemporary. With this documentary record of people’s thoughts and emotions so a moment in time is preserved. I have yet to watch the next volumes and will do so in the evenings. I recommend you take the time to watch at least part of these documentaries.
Vittorio Brumotti in Livigno
For years I have enjoyed watching the Tour De France and often call it the French Landscape program. In this case we start with Vittorio Brumotti cycling with his team before becoming distracted and going to enjoy some mountain bike trails, some balancing on barriers, floating in a swimming pool, enjoying a running carpet and more. It shows the area of Livigno and what it has to offer in summer.
You might remember him for a video from earlier this year or last year. I like that road cycling teams have athletes who can show their balancing and other skills. It makes the sport more entertaining to watch. Remember when he cycled in the plane graveyard and on that barrier?
IBC and Automated Camera Systems/Solutions
One guy was going around IBC on a segway that was modified for steadycam work. Rising from the platform was a rest where you could put your legs to keep upright whilst to the side the steadycam mount was free to move for steady shots.
That’s just one of the contraptions. Simple automated camera heads could be found at Sony’s stand, JVC and other companies. Each one had a remote control which would allow you to select between up to 18 cameras depending on the cofiguration. One system in particular allowed you to preset shots before a shoot whilst providing a touch screen. Press the thumbnail and the camera head will go to that shot automatically. Press another shot and it reframes to that one. Adjust the speed and everything is automated.
There were some jibs automated of which the most impressive was a noiseless machine that could be programmed to within a millimeter of where you wanted the camera to be at different times. What made that one most impressive is that it’s plugged into a virtual studio. As the camera moves around it moves in accordance with the virtual elements so the presenter can use screens, props and more to illustrate the story. That’s not all though. If the camera turns beyond a certain point then you see nothing. The camera points right at the crowd but you see the virtual studio. It’s fun.
Pedestals are also remotely operated so there’s no need for more than one camera operator per studio. It’s all about reducing costs and making broadcast of a high quality more affordable. The positive side is that for less interesting and creative shoots you don’t need to tie up a camera operator as he stands around waiting for things to happen. Once it’s programmed the machine runs.
The question is what this means for the future. How will the remotes be improved to make controlling the cameras easier? Most of the remotes are not as easy to control as standing at the pedestal and operating the camera yourself. They require a level of experience and speed that is not there quite yet but it will come. Will this mean that camera men will have more fun assignments like documentary shoots, festivals and other types of events to cover? There’s the vision mixing to take into consideration but that’s another post topic.