Monday, February 17, 2014

Moving Pictures notes

- Video is a familiar medium
     - different than film and television
VIDEO = a means of preservation that retains the recorded material in a state of permanent availability and manipulation
- today video can be produced and edited entirely on a computer
- video can be easily manipulated because of its large pool of material
      - Brecht pointed out the risk of enforced conformity and indoctrination
- Names to know (N2K) - Nam June Paik (Electronic Superhighway)
- Vilem Flusser (N2K) - 1991 = "dialogical memory"
- Video art is often considered self-reflexive?

- 1960s = "broke with conventional genre notions"
- the medium was often interdisciplinary - plastic arts, music, dance, theater, etc. were all combined with video art
- difference between American and German television - German television only broadcast at night -> different types of media coverage
- Paik = such a presence -> "Exposition of Music - Electronic Television"
- Germany - overarching theme.. really into video art

- video depends on the current state of technological development more than almost any other artistic medium
- 1967 - Sony put the first analogue video device on the market
- (N2K) - Les Levine, Andy Warhol - some of the first artists to use the portable video equipment immediately after it appeared
- new innovations were created to distort television images - synthesizers were later developed by a number of artists to allow for direct video manipulation

Monday, January 27, 2014

Homework 1/27

Taking a tour of the FCP X Interface
- event vs. project folders
       - when choosing files for both, they need to be named EXACTLY
- event folder = repository where you store and organize all of your media, video, audio, still images, graphics, etc.
- for audio skimming is used 2 hear clips (shift s)
- ALL tab = indication of length and clip height
- project folder = sequences or edited programs (where the magic happens)
        - window -> show, viewer/ project = dual display
        - play/ pause = spacebar
        - function + left or right takes u to the end of a clip
        - project library for new projects -> click on the little film canister

Creating and Organizing events from scratch
- 1. create a new event
        - file/ right click (both give you a new event)
- IMPORT MEDIA - navigate/ select media
- it's important to have proper organization and awareness so your project moves smoothly
- organizing = copy files = new media is created
         - import folders -> organized outside of final cut, this is great for organization in the future
- HUD = heads-up-folder - this is where you can see specifically where ur media is being created

Playing and Marking clips in preparation for editing
- B-roll
- list view - navigation method -> JKL (total control)
         - i = begin
         - o = end
         - L = forward
- thumb nail -> change the seconds
- slow mo = hold K, press J and L keys in order to hone in exactly for audio
- press F and favorite -> 2 save/ rename
- in essence, your marker is like a digital post it note

Understanding different types of editing tools
- think story lines rather than tracks
- 4 different types of editing tools/ key strokes
         - Insert = W, playhead @ the end and press W
         - Append = E -> grab a shot and press E -> the shot automatically goes 2 the end no matter what              (nice and easy)
         - Overwrite = D -> write over, select in an out then press Ctrl D
         - Replace = you physically have to do this, there isn't a short cut -> right click and replace


Monday, January 20, 2014

Homework assignment # 1

Understanding resolution for video
Resolution = the amount of detail an image holds
Pixels = an actual unit of digital image
- You can change resolution can change at will 
- HD = 1080 HD & 720 HD - only two resolutions (big deal) 
- Rule of thumb: you can't crop video, so don't do it

Choosing a video frame rate
- Video today is usually filmed at 30 frames per second - keep things simple (so smooth)
- Think of video as a lot of little still photos moving together
- film was originally 24 frames per second - our eyes are used to this
          - the contrast between 24 frames per second and 30 frames per second is enough for our brains to register the difference between film/digital video because our brain is used to associating that look with the original film look
- 60 frames is like slow mo? And can be used for sports movements - good stuff

Understanding the challenge of shutter speed
- Overarching theme: shutter speed is different from video to still photo
- High shutter speed -> good for still frames (think freeze frame)
           - good for detail -> chattery (not smooth)
- 1/125 can work in video if the action is not too fast or complicated 
- The higher the shutter speed, the less normal/ more unusual your video will look

Getting the right exposure
- Manuel exposure is usually pretty good - auto exposure is annoying
- Look for blinking when checking for the correct exposure
- Use a histogram and check f-stops
- ISOs - capture quality video easily from 100 to 400 and even 800