Early Test's

I now a have a working version of my hombrew software, it needs a bit of clearing up and testing but now i can produce test images. At the moment these are limited to a few hundred input images, even though the capture software will allow 100'000's of capture the G7 dies and i have yet to find a power adaptor so i might just make one.

This test only used about 300 input photo's and displays only about 5 minutes of captures. The Brownish squares at the bottom are some kind of distorted image data or fault in the program. As i do more test i will solve these issues. I have been unable to output enough frames in any format video or still's that would allow an image to be made at a 1:1 pixel to image ratio. Below is an even earlier test where the scaling had not been resolved and the images colour data was not being represented correctly, this is properly because of the way it was being stored and accessed from memory for the GLPro program. As can be seen when clicked on. The full size images display a fair amount of noise, im not sure how well this can be circumvented, especially given that i want to print them so large. I would accept some compromise except i was aiming to produce the most seductive prints, maybe a bit more effort in the image subject matter might help the balance.

Current Status:

Third year has begun and my enthusiasm proportionally waned. It's hard to quantify exactly what is is about an education at UCE that can be so draining. As yet i have not been assigned a tutor to guide this project but this might turn out to be a good thing. As long as i work.
The first version of the program to reconstruct images is now being tested, i hesitate to say that i have only directed it's development rather than written it but this is mainly because of time constraints. It's written in an age old language, GLPro but it it does the job kind of. I gathered 24Hrs of HDV footage at 1440x1080 so i could gauge the look of images relative to the number of images input but as yet have only managed to process 65,800 of the 2.1 million frames that make up the HDV video file - this is because of a peculiar limitation of Quicktime and MPEG Streamclip to open files over 6.5Hrs or 300Gb in size. By now it's obvious that i have avoided any talk of the content or subject matter that may be contained in these static timelapses. This is for a mixture of reasons, im still developing the idea conceptually in my mind and im of the unfortunate persuasion to not really believe in myself needing to be involved in the authorship of any media. In essence im not really interested in subject matter layer but the process's below that. This is something that needs far more exploration and a dash of theoretical justification to keep tutors from telling their has to be a concept whiles they fail to see it just not in the form of expressing myself with pictures of peoples pets.

Technical Demands

From a purely technical standpoint the creation of each image will be demanding. To obtain a high volume of shots over a period of days will require the camera to be operating 24/7, so tempted as i am to do it with my DSLR it's mirror mechanism would almost defiantly fail. My research has lead me to the Canon G7, mainly because it can interface with a iStopMotion and it's whopping 10 megapixel jpg's. Neither of these are the ideal but are the best for getting the job done in my time-frame. Canon's own software has a time-lapse function but is limited to a measly 1000 exposures and short of using the SDK to create a personal version the choice is between iStopMotion or GBTimelapse

As i envision the final images being printed 30x40 on SuperGloss i would love to be able to work in Raw and get the most out of each image but with the possibility of upto 500,000 source images this is impossible. That said SuperFine Jpg's are almost as good and at 10Mp will certainly scale. Of course their is a possibility that they will need some treatment as small sensors are notoriously noisy and i have a plan! Either batch de-noise, massively time/processor intensive or de-noise each segment used but de-noising software requires bigger area than a few pixels square (tiles) to calculate from my program for cutting them up would need to be modified to provide bigger tiles for this stage.

Looking back over this text it makes little sense to anyone unfamiliar with the concept. I will gather my thoughts and write with clarity the idea soon. In the mean time i'm going to source images at 25fps via HD video camera, even at 25fps it will take 28hrs to capture enough frames to create a final image at 1920x1080. Hopefully all will become clear.....

3rd Year Brief?

After much anxiety and unease i have finally settled on an idea to pursue for my third year studies. Much of my early thoughts for a self directed project were concerned with quantization and the influx of many forms of human information into computers. I felt a strong urge to explore motion, mainly prompted by the knowledge that Biad's VRU had a animazoo capture suit and a loose idea of capturing the creation of a sculpture in the making. However this idea failed to gel in my mind and realizing the technical limitations of having to learn maya and some form of programming language to really get the best out of the data.

I have looked back at two years worth of university work to find an appropriate goal. Out of all the work i have produced only two pieces were of any real interest. ClipTag an Autonomous User Generated Narrative web-page that created short movies and an early video/image making program that created what i have loosely termed Static Timelapses.

The process works by gathering images that would create a single shot over a period of time. The above image is only constructed from about 1500 images/4hours, the pixel by pixel value that creates each segment of the image is tied to the total number of source images. Each whole image represents the a movement of time and challenges the 'decisive moment' philosophy of image making.

Passed.

The photography projects scored a remarkable 70%, although was limited by 'division of labour'. That basicly means that the format for deriving marks has no clear methodolgy for marking group work. Ironicly most of my last two years have been tainted by the course's never ending desire to make us students work in groups, 'thats how it is in the industry' being the motivating buzz-word for disgruntled pests like me who hate working with mindless or just plainly different people. Yes im a snob but when the majority of your project time is spent trying to transmitt a single idea that escapes your fellow team members becuase they only read Heat and think fine art is painting, it becomes tiresome and deeply unrewarding. Leading to feelings of self distrust and undermining what little self confidence your allowed to have before you are officially 'arrogant'.

So working with Pete was a breath of fresh air, we disliked the same things and shared similar course ideologies. And if and when im in the industry i can know that this course tuaght me to bite my lip at most people i will work with and seek out those who further and chalenge you.

It might be worth noting im writing this after looking at a healthy dose of third year work and munching on codine phosphate. I regrettably managed to sound like a complete asshole when talking to a potential guiding tutor for my third year work. Suggesting i was not sure where i fitted in being not very narratively driven and living for production values and technical mastery. Whatever i said under the influnce of the free stolen wine bottle i had drunk, it made me transmit my worst qualitys.

Essay Writting

It's noted among my peers and housemates that while my verbal skills can occasionally show prowess my essay writing skilsl are not even classifiable as skills. With a Friday deadline looming im doing my best to work, any concentration is often pieced by the searing howls of an angle grinder only feet from my top floor window as next door have their roof replaced. Around the three O'clock mark this intermitent (approx. every five minutes) noise found a new addition this time from the neighbors on the otherside who fancyed some light tunes as they renovated their flat (so at some time in the future thay could rape another students account while destorying the local community). Their light tunes where not doing my word count any favours, so i unleashed the beast.
I have never felt compelled to use my Hi-Fi as a weapon but safe in the knowledge my B&W 801 Studio monitors could handle a 1kv line amp my mere 150 watts per channel from a bi-amped Audiolab where going to be signifcanly louder than their tinny, incessant distraction. I donned my ear plug's and picked a current favorite track by New Young Pony Club...... I could hear nothing of their din, only the immense energy of NYPC bass throbbing though me, i knew it was good.
By five past three the Police where knocking on the door! I turned it down with an augument brewing in my mind but then they just drove off. Yet my ears are still assaulted by all the prevous noises.

Finished

This is the final film, its not perfect. Some of the masks drift as they are poorly animated. Its supposed to look like the rich tri-x images of Wales by Joseph Kudelka. I cant find any images of Kudelka' s online - Maybe books are better. 3950 frames later.

A mid-res version for download is available here & a HD 720P version as a torrent here.

Image manipulation

Facinating insight's into technical aspects of some leading edge visual effects. These are the kind that really appeal to me as they dont rely on CGI but use realtime events to create them, unfortuantly most of this stuff ends up getting used in advertisements as their is no other obvious destination for things that appear so gimmicky.
I like to think their would be a way to combine these manipulations of time and visal space with non-narrative film. Chris Marker used the now famous time-slice technique in Le Jetee in 1962 and recently was re-explored by Lars Von Trier in Dancers in the Dark, taking abvantages of digital work flow gave him and opportunity to cut between one hundred camera's with unique viewpoints.

Ron Fricke

Ron Fricke was lead photographer on Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi and is a noted technical inovator develping time-lapse and motion control system for the 70mm / Imax film system. He also directed and created Baraka, similar to Koyaanisqatsi in its use of non verbal visually lead narrative.
This Site has a good overview of non-verbal film but they appear to be very much in the spirit of The Family of Man exhibition, celebrating togetherness and humanity. Get an Imax out to Iraq, Lessons of Darkness style thats what i want to see.

Viola -

Bill Viola Interview - www.tokyoartbeat.com
Im not crazy about his mystical slant but his explorations into captured emotion in super slow motion are somthing to behold. The point about about mapping the haman mind in real time is yet another example of human desire (?) to quantize and formalize.

Diva -

Proberly one of the most gorgeous films ever, everyshot is a killer and so is the story.
A torrent of this perfect exercise in style and content is available here.

Sententia

Somthing i often struggle with is the concept of meaning. Within the context of film this becomes even more complex as film is mostly acknowledged as a narrative based medium of storys. I have taken this project as an opportunity to ignore any desire to transmit or stimulate a meaning intentionally, i think of meaning as being a bit spurious when its intentional as it suggest's their is some form of 'correct' interpretation. Loosly realted is this article about Barthes "third meaning". Its an appealing idea but i feel akward. I can agree that removing an image from a context as strong a sequence in a film will offer a different responce but not meaning. Are meanings projected onto images if so, then do they come from it by triggring our intellect, our experience ect... - is that what meaning is.

Generative

Although not designed for this module ClipTag was made to create generative auto films. Taking advantage of the volumous amounts of photo's people post on Flickr with tags acting as meta-data relating to the images content or peoples general response to the image. ClipTag currently uses a set of user uploaded sound samples that are tagged, basicly mirroring the format of Flickr. When you visit the page a random set of events are triggered, firstly the script randomly aquires five sound clips and takes their takes their tags and passes them to Flickr to search, the top images returned for each tag are then combined with the sound of the same tag. The process creates shorts entirely based on still images and entirely independent of direct human authorship. Sometime the results are boring and tenuous but occasionly their are relationship between the sounds and images that just click.

Inspirations

Obvious links are always made towards Cindy Sherman when thinking about film photographically and whiles her works toes an intersting line, drawing out your own narratives from your own interpretations their are plenty of other artists exploring motion and the still image. Mark Romanek is a good example of someone who has talents in both fields although i would suggest he is more a fim man who ended up making music videos. The really interesting stuff begins to move away from images being anything to do with photography. BrendanDawes is a Manchester based Flash/Web designer who has created some fantastic little interactive elements, often they explore a simple very photographic facet like the Muybridge Zeotrope.

First Test:

Shot on first visit. Exploring image manipulation similar to working with an image in the darkroom or actually digitly as you can leverage far more control. I love the slow crawling pan, what it really needs is a sound element to deirect the senses. Sound will most likely be captured on location using a small world radio tranciver. As this is the highest part in Briton between here and the Urals their should be some interesting radion.

Clee Hill

Ok, so this is the location of the film. For me the decision was rather arbitrary but i think this offers a good opertunity to just try somthing without having any srong preconceptions of an out come. Clee Hill is sparse and rather desolite feeling reminding me more a Blake 7 shooting location than a part of the Shropshire.
The main features of the area are its sprawl of derelict concrete structure that if squinted at look vaguly like part of Stong Henge or Easter Island but of greatest interest to me are what locals call 'listening stations' although rather dissapointingly they are just elements of air-traffic control and naval nivigation transmitters.

Between the Moving and Still Image:

Any project involving the idea of a moving image for me starts with this film. Everything about it is photographically filmic from its long lingering shots that demand attention to its use of timelapse. Obvious critisms are usally based around its lack of traditional narrative, we are clearly all far too conditioned!

Relieving itself from the bounds of verbal narrative it uses a magical compasition by Phillip Glass to drive the images home. A true journey. And above all it has a curious feature that upon every re-watching you feel and see different things.
Project Brief

Tech Pains.....

The O2's are useless, not in the sense that they dont boot ect... but in the way they will only run Irix and are virtually impossible to cajole into running somthing sensible like Linux thus none of the software i need can be run. But never fear....... i found a whole set of SGI Origin 200/2000's ready for the bin at my uni!! These can happily forced into running Linux. I have 4x Origin 200 rackmounts and a single 4 or 8 processor Origin 2000, god knows what my uni paid but for me they are free. When i get a bit of spare time im going to spend a weekend configuring them as my first real working cluster for PFtrack.

They are in a sorry state but they have all been P.A.T tested in last year, so should be good to go. Also note the two Alpha DEC's that also found, might pop Win2K on these.

SGI o2

Courtesy of my uni, i now have five SGI o2's. Hopefully with a little tinkering and a bit of help these will form the backbone of my experimental render farm for Final Cut Pro and After Effects. Given that my PowerBook is on the verge of melting after two days solid rendering of HD i figured i needed somthing with a bit more number crunching power. Short of buying a new machine this seemed my best option and i have always wanted to say i have my own render farm. As yet i dont know their spec or even if they will boot.

I also want to try setting them up as a cluster to offload tracking work to from PFTrack but this looks a bit more troublesome as theirs no free software to do it but i'm on it.