Fruit flies like a banana …

Two triumphs in one – my very first home-made greenscreen stop motion video featuring that banana, and an editing discovery that subverts YouTube’s recent no-choice Shorts conversion for videos that might a) be less than a minute long or b) portrait aspect ratio. These links don’t embed in WordPress or are recognised for the making of QR codes so, in case you’re reading this and it’s happening to you, the trick is to edit the link thus: Your YouTube generated link might look something like this: https://youtube.com/shorts/_thV9qFt_u0?feature=share [Note; this link is for illustration only, I removed the video it originally … Continue reading Fruit flies like a banana …

Painting Practice #1

My focus for this is Rift – geological, political, metaphorical. The work is a development of the digital/physical hybrids I made in earlier exercises and projects, and also as part of my personal painting that had no connection to that until this idea began to form. The first is almost entirely dependent on digital ‘post production’ in that an original painting in acrylics passed through Paintshop Pro, Rebelle 5 Pro, Flamepainter, and PhotoMirage to become the first Rift. The second is, in very many ways, more rooted in the physical and also represents an extension of my video making skills. … Continue reading Painting Practice #1

Green screen

Film makers do it regularly but this week everyone’s been doing it, thanks to Matthew Highton sharing his pre-greened clip of Boris (Johnson, who else?) looking lost at a meeting. I’ve never used green screen and I had no idea where to start but a quick search of YouTube, relating in particular to Filmora Pro which is the video editing app I use, I found an idiot’s guide which talked me through the process. This not only made it possible to put together the video I had in mind but also made clear that I’m no nearer knowing how to … Continue reading Green screen

On a mission!

Not sure if I’ll succeed but I’m aiming to have everything I show at the forthcoming Steyning Arts art trail fully Artivive-enabled. That means making videos for each of the pieces of work – pertinent ones that add something to the original – setting the videos up alongside their target image on the Artivive bridge, then making sure they scan via the app. After that, I can make cards or posters – table mats if I fancy it – and the app will bring up the video. Well, as long as there aren’t blobs of tomato ketchup in the way! … Continue reading On a mission!

Inventory of Dreams: project 4

This is a reading task centred on Marina Warner’s 2001 book, Fantastic Metamorphosis, other worlds: ways of telling the self. I don’t really understand the title – what does ‘telling the self’ mean? – but the book uses Bosch’s Garden of Delights as its focus for discussion of fantasy, self, and the kinds of metamorphoses found in fairy tales. Perhaps the telling is related to psychological self-talk. I struggled with this, having never read Ovid or Plato, or in fact, any of the other texts to which Warner refers. There are tracts of Latin which I doubt my 1960s school … Continue reading Inventory of Dreams: project 4