Screening at REEL Crafted Film Festival

My short documentary Natalie J. Wood: Ceramicist will screen at the REEL Crafted Film Festival on Friday, May 24 in Vancouver, Canada

From popular trends to the weird and conceptual. From culturally significant to “just for the hell of it” – this lively group of international short films featuring craft from around the world will not only educate as to the how and why these artists create, but also inspire us to look abroad to discover the limitlessness of the human imagination. 

The screening will be held at: Emily Carr University of Art & Design – Reliance Theatre 520 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Screening at Inspired Faith Film Festival

My 3-minute documentary Sublime and the Castle will screen at the Inspired Faith Film Festival on Friday, May 17. The festival is held in Marietta, Georgia. The film features Sublime Mabiala and was made in Edinburgh, Scotland. Festival and schedule details are here.

Best Micro-Short

Our 60-second short documentary Trifle won Best Micro-Short at Papaya Rocks Film Festival in London. There's a little interview about the piece as well: "Another person's life tells a richer story than I could imagine."

Screening at Papaya Rocks Film Festival

My 60-second film Trifle will screen at the Papaya Rocks Film Festival in London on Thursday, the 28th of February, 2019 at the independent, family-owned Genesis Cinema in Whitechapel. This will be the film's world premiere.

A trifle is a matter of trivial importance, or a small quantity of anything. The film is a 60-second documentary about adjusting to tiny cultural differences.

Published in Frames Cinema Journal

The new issue of Frames Cinema Journal -- "Making Meaning of the Visual: Space and Identity" -- has just been published. I have a paper in it. It's titled: Popeye Doyle in the Rearview Mirror: Has the POV Shot Lost its Human Identity? You can read it for free.

It's about editing techniques for "cueing" POV shots, and our experience of identification with a character if these cues work. The paper starts with the famous chase scene in The French Connection, looks a little into the convoluted theory behind "identification," and then considers how the use of stabilized cameras and "documentary-style" camera work changed the use of cued POV shots.

So go and read the article. 

Screening at Dunedin Film Festival

My short documentary Halina North: Sustainable Fashion Design will be screening January 12-13, 2019 at the Dunedin International Film Festival in Florida.

The 60 Second Film Festival

My one-minute documentary Paprikash is screening at The 60 Second Film Festival today, in Bangkok, Thailand. The film is "A very short documentary about recreating a family meal."

Dunedin International Film Festival

My short documentary Abi Bruce: Textiles will be screening January 12-13, 2019 at the Dunedin International Film Festival in Florida.

Miniature Film Festival

My short documentary Paprikash will screen at the Miniature Film Festival in Vancouver on Thursday, November 8, 2018. The festival features one-minute micro short films. This year's theme is "Love."

Paprikash is "a very short documentary about recreating a family meal."

Screening at Inverness Film Festival

Our short documentary The Wanderers will screen at the Inverness Film Festival on Friday, November 9th, at 11:00 a.m. To book tickets visit the Eden Court website, or call the Box Office on 01463 234 234.

"The Wanderers" is a short film collaboration between poet Aoife Lyall and filmmaker Ted Fisher. Centered on an emotional and heartfelt reading of Lyall's poem, we consider past, present, memory and hope as we see the poet explore paths near the River Ness and on the shore of Loch Ness.

Eco Fashion Film Festival of Larissa

My short documentary Halina North: Sustainable Fashion Design will screen at the Eco Fashion Film Festival in Larissa, Greece, November 1-3, 2018. The film is a short documentary profile of fashion designer Halina North.

100-Second Film Festival

Robin Crawford: Glass Artist, our short documentary profile of Edinburgh-based glass artist Robin Crawford, will screen at the 100-Second Film Festival on Saturday, October 27, at 7 p.m. The festival is held in Easton, Massachusetts.

The film was co-directed by Anna Stoltzmann and Ted Fisher.

Loch Ness Film Festival

Our short film poem The Wanderers will screen at the Loch Ness Film Festival on Saturday, July 28th, at 7 p.m. The screening is in the Craigmonie Theatre in Drumnadrochit.You can find out more about the festival here: Loch Ness Film Festival.

Frames Cinema Journal

The new issue of Frames Cinema Journal has just been published, and I have a short article in it. It's titled: A “Farm System” in an Emerging Texas Film Festival Circuit and you can read it for free. It begins ...

It’s April, I’m in Fredericksburg, Texas, and it’s hot and windy.

In another part of the state, 300 miles northeast, tornado conditions are building. It’s fine here, however, if you’re used to Texas weather. It’s high noon, and I’m standing just outside the Fritztown Cinema. I’m nervous and windblown and the sun is at that Texas temperature where you’ll be okay if you walk slowly, but don’t push your luck.

Our screening is tomorrow. Our short documentary The Texas Sun has now appeared at two film festivals. It will go on, after this one, to five more Texas fests. From its premiere (Thin Line Film Festival, in Denton) to its finale (Deep in the Heart Film Festival, in Waco) it will be on a circuit of small Texas film festivals for exactly one year.

So go and read the entire article. 

Screening at Festival of Creative Learning

My short filmpoem "The Wanderers" is screening today at the Festival of Creative Learning & Magma Film Poetry Preview Screening, from 15:00 to 17:00 at Adam House Theatre, 3 Chambers Street in Edinburgh.

Here's what is showing ...

The Festival of Creative Learning has partnered with Magma Poetry on a collaborative project in which 4 students from the prestigious Edinburgh College of Art Film Directing MFA/MA and students from the Edinburgh Movie Production Society (EMPS) have teamed up with poets who were specially selected by Magma editors. The filmmakers chose poems from a shortlist and have been using them to create original film poems.

ECA students and one winner from EMPS will also travel to London for the launch of Magma ‘The Film Issue’ and a screening of the final versions of these films on 13 July 2018.

Please join us for a glimpse into a world of creativity and collaboration as these films are viewed for the first time, and meet the filmmakers, poets, the Festival of Creative Learning team and Magma editors Stav Poleg, Helen Nicholson and Rob A. Mackenzie. 

Filmmakers 

ECA: Maggie Clark, Theodore Fisher, Marios Lizides, Simon Ray 

Edinburgh Media Production Society: Miriam Khenissi, Laura Pennycook, Jeremy Pestle, Louis Caro, Nancy Nighting, Sarema Shorr 

Poets: Aoife Lyall, Kristi Carter, Ginny Saunders, Laura Seymour, Carrie Etter

Screening at South Texas Underground Film Festival

Texans! My short documentary Icarus in Fort Worth screens on Saturday, January 27, 2018 at South Texas Underground Film Festival in the festival's "Hecho En Tejas Shorts" program. The screening will be held in the Wolfe Recital Hall at Del Mar College at 6:30pm.

The film:

A Texas daredevil faces danger to become a wingwalker and stunt pilot, risking everything to expand his fame and build a Hollywood movie career. The true story of Ormer Locklear, the greatest pilot you've never heard of.

So, go and see it.

Three Dioramas at Talbot Rice

On Thursday night I showed my virtual reality film "Three Dioramas" as an installation at Talbot Rice Gallery. The piece was part of "Terror and Beauty: Artistic Responses to John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea," curated by The Tides Group. The show featured works by Zoe Guthrie, Doug Mackie, Stephanie Wilson, and my VR film.

Above: "Three Dioramas" virtual reality installation in "Terror and Beauty," Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Jan 11, 2018.

360 Video Test Using Ambisonics

This test was aimed at developing some ideas for using Ambisonics along with 360 video. That is,if you were really standing beneath Edinburgh Castle, you would hear sound based on the direction you were looking.

So, try this:

1. Put headphones on.
2. Watch the video, orienting yourself to look toward the castle.
3. The first bus that passes should sound as if it moves from your right to your left.
4. Now, replay the video facing AWAY from the castle.
5. This time, the passing bus should sound as if it is behind you.
6. This means you will hear it first in your left ear, moving to your right ear.
7. So, instead of stereo, this is decoding the sound based on where you are looking -- in theory, that's more immersive and similar to our real-world experience.

You might also try this in a headset https://youtu.be/NwcYpf6kQWA - but be sure to use headphones.

360 video test (using LOG format)

VID_20171215_114127_011 from Ted Fisher on Vimeo.


Here is a quick test shooting 360 video in LOG format. This takes more postproduction work, but might give more control over the tonal range of the image.

If you are watching this on a VR headset, you should be able to turn your head to follow the motion of the bike. If you are holding a phone at arm's length, this should also work. If you are just watching in a browser (Firefox works, some browsers might not) then you can probably use the left arrow to follow the bike.

The point of testing this in LOG was to see if high-contrast situations could be controlled. Here, shooting into the sun, the shadow side of the tree presented a challenge. By using LOG and then working with color correction, I was able to hold detail in the bright areas as well as the shadows.

360 Camera Virtual Reality Test Shots

VID_20171212_120910_010_1 from Ted Fisher on Vimeo.

Here are three views of a location, shot in 360-degree virtual reality. You should be able to see this in a VR headset or just by holding your phone at arm's length. If you are seeing this in a browser you should be able to click and drag around, although that's not as much fun.

UPDATES: 1. This works in Firefox. On mobil phones, it doesn't seem to work in Safari. It works in the Vimeo app. It may be best to go straight to Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/246982292

The reason for shooting in this particular spot is that it is a real resolution challenge -- tons of detailed plants, detailed ground, etc. So far, I've seen the detail vary greatly in different platforms. I've tried it in a Google Cardboard with an iPhone in it, and that worked well. A bit immersive. And I've tried it with an iPhone 6 Plus held at arms length. It looked good, but that's a less immersive method. On a laptop, it works (as on this page viewed in Firefox) but if the goal is immersion, then the headset is the real target.

More experiments ahead.