A direct question such as this deserves a direct answer so I am going to try and do just that in a short succinct sentence.
Digital Video is a freeform visual medium that allows artists of every kind to express their views without restriction on their interpretation and vision and ideas of how they see the world, dreams, ideas, thoughts, musicality, hopes and aspirations.
That probably doesn't do the last 100 years of pioneer film makers justice but it sums up well how I feel about digital video.
The lecture itself was such a journey and amazing learning experience for me and opened my eyes wide to not only the history of film making but just how adventurous and creative those before us have already been. To think that in the 1940's people were doing these amazing animations and creating film techniques that will be used for so many centuries after they have come and gone is just gob smacking.
What would Mary Ellen Bute or Len Lye do with Flash I wonder?!
Digital Video in the current age for me means the culmination of everything I have ever found intriguing blended into endless possibility. I can animate, draw, photograph, create anything I want into a visual format and share it with the world in an instant.
So many technological advances have occured in the last 20 years in personal computing and home recording that now almost anyone has the ability to say 'I create Digital Video'. Handheld PDAs, mobile phones and of course the personal handheld video camera have become 'standard' and accessible by so many that everyone can have a flitter with the medium and become published from the home office, just as I can now.
CGI has played an enormous role in the evolution of digital video and as computational power increases exponentially we are seeing changes in the commercial Hollywood film industry that would have never been possible 5 years ago. Special FX people can create illusions of particles, wind, smoke, fire etc so real that Producers can no longer tell the difference. Examples of films that have 'wowed' me in recent times because of such advancements in technology have been the Harry Potter series, Transformers, M Nights Shyamalan's movies, David Lynch (my all time favourite surrealist film "The Lost Highway"), and of course, Finding Nemo as well as so many others.
Digital Video is a fascinating medium and I believe we are in an age where massive advancements will only lead to more incredible experiences and breakthroughs in film making and I for one, want to be part of it!
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Dan, Good to see your progress on your blog. Your comments and posts are an interesting distillation of what you've learned and provide excellent feedback so I have a clear idea of your progress. I've had a look at your YouTube site with your work from last year, which is impressive, and would like to encourage you to continue using it throughout out this course and the Master's program. It's essential that all students set-up their own online digital video site on a portal such as YouTube both educationally and professionally to establish themselves as digital video makers/producers/editors and to share their work with others. In Week 5, I planned to get students to consider where they'd like to post their work beside the course YouTube site. The other students would benefit from seeing your YouTube site - may I send a link to it inspire them to set up their own? It would be interesting and exciting for us all to be able to see each's work as it progresses. Keep up the good work, your blog entries are very interesting and useful for me too. I'm very happy that you enjoyed the lecture! I hope you find the Week 3 lecture on digital storytelling exciting as well, I certainly enjoyed putting it together. This is a fantastic field to be working in now, Cathie
ReplyDeleteHi Cathie, thanks for the comment and feedback. A huge sigh of relief to know I am heading in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteIn a previous blog, no 1 I think, I invited all students to visit my YouTube site and am most happy for you to invite them all to view and comment on it. I used it as a virtual diary of my progression through 3D modelling and animation last year with Rogers permission of course!
I am so excited to be doing this course, it is just such a fascinating arena, I wish I had enough money to buy a new video camera! But I will proceed with my crappy Hi 8 cam and silly little SC card 'helmet cam' that produces some interesting results nonetheless!
Thanks again.
Dan.
Dan, for the other students to see your blog, you'll need to add their student mail or gmail address to your 'registered' user's list. Go into Settings "Permissions' and then add 'readers' and their email address and save settings'. I'll post a screen grab on BB with all the student's email addresses soon so do this at your leisure. You're got plenty to do already and you're powering along just fine as it is. Cheers, Cathie
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