Wednesday 15 May 2013

Burning a Data CD/DVD

Please submit your final folio on a data CD or DVD. Below are the steps to follow if you are using the Burn program on the Macs at Uni.


Open the Burn application from the Applications folder.



Ensure the 'Data' button is selected from the 4 choices along the top.
Title the disk with your name.
Change the format to Mac + PC (this means you will be able to view the contents of the disk on both operating systems).


Drag and drop your final artworks from the desktop onto the Burn window.
Please ensure the works are titled clearly, so when we are marking we can easily identify your photos from your collage. Your still images should be .jpg and your video should be .mov files.


Click Burn. Insert disk. You can check the 'allow more sessions' box. This will allow you to continue to burn files onto the disk until it has run out of space. 
Click burn.
Wait for the magic box to put your pretty pictures and video onto the shiny round thing.
Label shiny round thing clearly with your name and student number.
Include a stamped self address envelope if you would like you disk returned.
Hand in to your lecturer with relief and a smile on your face.

VIDEO ART HOMEWORK UPDATE

It looks as thought the Video Art World website is down, so if you didn't get your video art homework done before this happened you may search the VideoArt.net site for work. It's not as extensive but I'm sure you'll find something there.
You other option is to search YouTube or Vimeo.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Final Cut - Stationary Splitscreen.

Drag two videos from the Browser into the Timeline ( into separate timelines, V1 and V2).
Click on the video in V2, this is in front.

In the Canvas window click and hold down this button:



Select Image and Wire Frame.

Now select the Crop tool from the Toolbox.


Hold your cursor near the left hand edge of the video in the Canvas Window until the Crop Tool icon appears. Now click and drag the edge of you video until it is in the middle of the screen.

If you Render and Play you should now have a split screen movie.

You can do this with as many layers as you like.


Final Cut - Altering Opacity with Toggle Clip Overlays.

Drag a video from the Browser into the Timeline.

In the bottom left corner of the screen click the Toggle Clip Overlays button.


You will see a line appear along the top of the clip in the Timeline.


Select the Pen tool from the Toolbox.

Click anywhere on the Line which we have just created in the Timeline.



Now click some where else on the line.


Move you curser over the first point. You'll see that the pen becomes a little cross.
Click on the point and drag it down to the bottom. This makes the opacity of the video at this point zero. I.e. you can see right through it.
Try adding more points to the line with the pen tool and experimenting with opacity.



Final Cut - Altering Speed, Reverse.

Select a piece of film in your Timeline with the Selection Tool.

Go to Modify > Change Speed.

The rate should be 100%.

If you change it to 50% your video will run at half speed.

If you change it to 100% your video will run at double speed.

Using the Start and End options will allow you to make the selection gradually slow down or speed up.


Experiment with them and see what results you get.

Click the Reverse option will make your video play from back to front.


Final Cut - Basic Editing. Razor Blade Tool

You can use the Razor Blade Tool to cut up your video and move the pieces around, or to remove parts of your sequence.

Drag a video from the Browser window into the Timeline.

In the Toolbox, select the Razor Blade Tool.


In the Timeline move the playhead to where you would like to cut your video.


Now place the Razor blade on this line in the Timeline and click.

Now move the Playhead to where you would like to make your next cut.

Place the Razor Blade tool on this line in the Timeline and click again.

The video in your timeline should now be divided into smaller pieces.

Choose the Selection Tool from the Timeline.


You can now click on the separate pieces of video in the timeline and delete them or move them around to rearrange the order of your film.

Final Cut - Adding Music to Your Video

If you want to add a song to your Final Cut video, you need to save it in the correct format.

If you are working on a Mac the song should be saved as an AIFF file.

If you are working on a PC the song should be saved as a WAVE file.

Converting you file.

1 Determine the audio sample rate of of your Final Cut sequence by selecting the sequence in the Browser and then choosing Edit > Item Properties.
The audio sample rate appears in the Item Properties window. The default DV preset uses 48 kHz audio. Make a note of the sample rate.

2 Open the song in Quicktime.

3 File > Export.
Choose where you want the file to be saved. This is where the AIFF or WAVE will be saved.

4 Choose Sound to AIFF from the Export pop-up menu.

Click the Options button.
In the sound settings window, set the Compressor to None and the Rate to the sample rate of your sequence. Also choose Stereo unless this is a mono audio file.

Click OK to dismiss the Sound Settings window.

Click the Save button.

5 Import the AIFF or WAVE into your Final Cut  project as you would with any other media file. You can drag the file direct from the Finder into the Browser window or choose File > Import > Files

Saturday 4 May 2013

Contemporary Australian Artists

Below are some contemporary Australian artists who incorporate video into their practice:

TV Moore works with paint, video, film, photographic and theatrical forms. Using psychological space, performance, narrative and non-narrative structures, Moore operates in a myriad of worlds where there are stories within stories. Histories within Histories.

Philip Brophy is an interdisciplinary artist, working in film, music and design, blurring distinctions between the art gallery, the music industry and commercial art in provocative, sensuous and challenging images. 

Soda_Jerk is an Australian two-person art collective that works with found material to trouble existing formulations of cultural history. By strategically reimagining historical trajectories, the artists are concerned with producing counter-mythologies of the past that open new possibilities for the present. Taking the form of video installations, cut-up texts and lecture performances, their archival practice merges the zones of research, documentary and speculative fiction (http://www.sodajerk.com.au/about.php)

... And someone you might be familiar with...

Sue Dodd uses the medium of pop music/video to create works that resonate like the bedroom posturing of an emotionally dysfunctional, media-saturated teenage fan, or the shonky image on a pirated DVD that could never quite pass as the real thing. The deadpan vocal delivery, robotic movements and simple manufactured beats (generated by GameBoy and palm pilot) underscore the poignancy and emptiness of our cultures addiction to superficial entertainment, constant novelty and instant gratification.