the blog of makemassair

Artificial Paradise, Inc is an experimental film anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed an unique software, based on organic virtual reality, which holds all the lost memories of humankind. A user connects to this database of the forgotten…what is he searching for?

Produced by Jp Frenay, this 3 minute promo video has gathered a lot of attention (selected for ONEDOTZERO festival in the WOW+FLUTTER 09 category, the Autodesk 2009 Siggraph Show Reel, Stash Issue 61, and a Realflow Case Study). Stunning stuff.

Ctrl Alt Shift is a documentary exploring VJ Culture.

With Interviews and Footage from

The Light Surgeons
D-Fuse
Hexstatic
VJ Anyone
Addictive TV
Vector Meldrew
and Fatamorgana

Big fan of the United Visual Artists work. They are constantly pushing themselves and their work is always inspiring and cohesive.

Massive Attack ‘United Snakes’ directed by United Visual Artists.

United Visual Artists are a British-based collective whose current practice spans permanent architectural installation, live performance and responsive installation. Research and development is a core part of our process – enabling us to constantly explore new fields, as well as re-examining more established ones.

We aim to work on a diverse and expanding range of projects, drawn from the commercial and non-commercial arenas, and to collaborate with a wide range of artists and companies.

offshoot

As any of you who follow me on Twitter, or are friends with me on Facebook know, I like sharing a lot of the awesome stuff I come across. Previously I’ve either shared 140 characters worth of Twitter or otherwise have got together a post on this blog. However, I want to keep this blog devoted and dedicated to makemassair specific bits. Be they updates on projects, working methods for myself or related to my freelance work and so on. For the other “offshoot” stuff I am now using the great service Posterous provide.

I’ve also, as of last week, started a sort of mini, yet ongoing project “daily inspiration”

I’m going to post a new blog entry every week day comprising of something inspiration to me. This could be, well I dunno if I’m honest. Obvious examples would be particular music releases, films, events, artists, film makers, animals… who knows. I very much welcome your comments be they in agreement or otherwise and I encourage you to hit me back in the comments with your similar or other wise inspirations.

So far we have the following.

• daily inspiration 005 “Creativity vs Education”
• daily inspiration 004 “Flightpattern”
• daily inspiration 003 “A Novel Reason”
• daily inspiration 002 / Bridget Riley
• daily inspiration 001 / Richie Hawtin – Decks, EFX & 909

UPDATE. I have since decided to do the daily inspiration posts, on this blog as “inspiring”. Nearly all of the inspiration posts are likely to be visual in nature, so it makes sense to have them on this, my visual design blog.

As for makemassair the freelancing creative, what am I currently up to?

Well in a few weeks I’ll have my first label specific DJ mix available. It’s going to be bundled as part of the new Militant Science Records release (on  December 24th I am reliably informed). It’s going to be a Juno exclusive but we are also looking to release it as a limited edition CD.

I kick off 2010 with the première of an AV ambient inspired video “sevenzero” at Tate Britain as part of the Late at Tate events. (some more info here). Really excited by that.

I’m also continuing work with Sample Remix, midnightminustwo and most recently Subslayers and developing the sevenzero concept into a performable project.

2010 is going to be a good year. Can’t wait.

For the past day I’ve been in and out of Apple’s Compressor program (which ships as part of the Final Cut suite). I’ve finished my Late at Tate AV commission (more details on that soon) and have been experimenting with the best export / output solution to supply the curator of the upcoming screening. Along the way I’ve been learning more about Prores 422 and a little bit about AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec). For the past year nearly all the video/motion projects I have been involved with and hired for and ended up with web distribution and for that the codec h.264 is currently the best solution.

For any users of the Final Cut suite I really recommended checking out Ken Stone’s rather awesome site. He has recently added a specific section on Compressor 3.5 (which comes with FCP7) but the info serves as a good introduction into settings and options for video compression and export. Seriously, any users of the FCP suite need to hit up his site. It is bursting full of easy to understand and well written tips and explanations (along with loads of illustrative pictures).

Finally, you might like to follow a thread I started on VJforums (Prores 422 vs AIC vs h.264), it also gives a bit of background to the technical aspect and creation of my Late at Tate AV film. I’m constantly on the lookout for good resources covering the technical aspect of digital video, its post production and delivery, so feel free to hit me up in the comments with your links and tips. Rickrobin hit me up with these 11 FCP tips earlier, covering audio at 48kHz, stills, gamma, audio files at the right speed and 7 more.