MikeVideo
from 2008
"Close Encounters
of the Squirrel Kind" (Rated "G") 12/08
 |
| 3 min.
52 sec. |
"Close
Encounters of the Squirrel Kind" (November
2008) My 1980s era "MikeVideos" were either a half hour or
an hour in length. Vids "Moviola Dance",
from 1989, "Nantucket Holiday",
from 1999, and "Selling Sex at the CES",
from 2001, originally mastered on SVHS tape, were an hour, and the "internet
versions" of these videos are cut up into 10 minute clips. The
average "MikeVideo Internet Movie" is around 7-10 minutes
in length. That's an opus as far as internet movies go,.the average
length of which is around 3-4 minutes. Beginning with "Close Encounters
of the Squirrel Kind", I am going through my massive 56 tape library
of digital "footage" to find short clips which probably will
not be featured in my "full size" work. "Squirrel",
the first of these "internet mini movies" is only 3 minutes
and 52 seconds long, but it isn't a slapdash affair.
I found I had captured
footage of squirrels at least five different times during my "photo
and video expeditions" over the years. There are four "encounters"
in this short vid, with the first shot in Grand Canyon in 2000 and the
last shot a few months ago in my front yard. I'd like to make at least
one of these a month.
"L.A. Dreams"
(Rated "G") 11/08
 |
| 8 min.
36 sec. |
"L.A.
Dreams"
(November 2008) A photo/video slideshow showcasing downtown Los Angeles,
scored to a mashup of L.A. themed songs and groups.When uploading L.A.
Dreams to YouTube, I noticed that I could finally upload the full size
640x480 version instead of having to create another smaller version
with less resolution. YouTube offers "Hi Def" now, and although
my videos up until now have not been shot in my camera's Hi Definition
setting, the higher resolution videos and photo slideshows look a lot
clearer even using the YouTube servers. So this could be called my first
Hi Def MikeVideo.
In December
of 2006 I published
San Diego Dreams on YouTube, and the video is my most popular vid
on the service, with over 80 comments. I've been wanting to put together
an homage to the city in which I live, L.A., since I only visited San
Diego for a weekend. L.A. Dreams is my "video response" to
my own San Diego Dreams. Using video footage along with hundreds of
photos culled from over four years of photographing the city in earnest,
the editing took over two weeks. I want to show that L.A. is a beautiful
city, with a mix of different styles of architecture. They say "nobody
walks in L.A. Well, this video was taken during many walking tours of
downtown.
"Renaissance Day
2008" (Rated "R") 06/08
 |
| 13
min. 39 sec |
"Renaissance
Day 2008"(June
2008) Shot on a particularly hot Sunday morning 5-18-08, the video includes
complete songs by the Belles of Bedlam and the Poxy Boggards,(whose
act is bawdy singing a song with the refrain "Drink Mother Fu*ker")
and a comedy routine by Broon, comic magician, juggler and fire eater.Because
of the heat, I wasn't able to get around the Faire as much as I had
planned, and shot very little footage except at sit down performances.
Still, this makes for an entertaining vid, Broon is always funny, and
you almost get to see his whole act.
This is
the "sequel" to my two part
"Renaissance Day" video from 2005.
"Culver City
Kustoms " (Rated "G") 05/08
 |
| 10 min.
49 sec. |
"Culver
City Kustoms "
(May 2008)A trip to the George Barris "Cruisin Back to
the Fifties" 2008 car show. Includes Barris Kustoms the Munster
Koach and Kargoyle plus dozens of 1950s-1960s California custom cars
displayed at the show.
The MikeVideo
Internet Movie, "Culver City Kustoms" was added to Xanga
Video and YouTube on the 12th, making this project one of the fastest
to get to the internet in both photo and video versions so soon after
planning and shooting. I have deleted the link to the YouTube version,
which had it's soundtrack removed in 2009. The high quality wmv file
was been substituted in November 2009, streaming from this site.
"Cloudscaping"(Rated
"G") 03/08
 |
| 6 min.
21 sec. |
"Cloudscaping"
(March 2008) A slideshow composed of a series of images of
cloudscapes, edited to music supplied by
Randy Van Otterloo. I've always been fascinated with clouds, and
living in Southern California, where the sky is either bright blue
or a smoggy haze, finding days with large fluffy cumulus clouds in
the sky can be tricky. After each rainfall, beginning in 2004, when
I got my latest videocamera, I have "shot the clouds", sometimes
driving to a beachside location, and sometimes just shooting outside
my back door.
This
video showcases a lot of these cloudscape photos, and the accompanying
music track is not culled from copyrighted songs or performances.
I used original recordings of traditional American folk tunes by guitarist
Randy Van Otterloo. The result is a mesmerizing showcase of beautiful
cloudscaping.
