Sundance Video Blog Number 1

Well, let's see how these go...

Sundance Starts

The Sundance Film Festival is starting and all indications are that it will be a huge year for documentary film.

This year there's a Sundance YouTube Channel, and profiles of directors with films in the U.S. Documentary Competition are already posted:

Irene Taylor Brodsky on her film "Hear and Now"

David Stenn on his film "Girl 27"

Marco Williams on his film "Banished"

Friday night the "Festival Dailies" start on Sundance Channel itself. All I need now is snow....

Saturday in the Chelsea Galleries

Yesterday I went to the Chelsea galleries.

Highlights: Henry Wessel at both Robert Mann and Charles Cowles. Also, of course, Elliott Erwitt at Edwynn Houk Gallery.

Lowlight: Tracey Moffat at Stux Gallery. Nice space, a photographer I have liked in the past, fun window display -- but in the end a laughably bad show that comes off as an undergraduate project propped up by a big budget.

And, yes, the branch of photography where a person stands before the camera with a surprisingly empty look on their face continues unabated. Any suggestions for ending this tradition are welcomed.

YouTube Update

For better or worse, the three videos I cut for New York Institute of Photography roll onward:

Project Redeye: Halloween Challenge has 1,279,259 views and is currently the 17th most-watched "arts and animation" video of all time on youtube.

Project Redeye: Holiday Challenge has 6,222 views.

About NYIP has 1,070 views.

I am not sure what lesson is to be learned from this. I'm considering whether it may make sense to create a youtube channel and post my own work there at some point.

It is, however, a "game" you win by getting frontpaged and getting a lot of views -- and if I'm thinking about that rather than other concerns, am I really making the best work possible? Also, having watched carefully the type of comments made on youtube.com, is it really a venue for the type of work I like?

Captain Obvious and The New York Times

I'm quoted in yesterday's New York Times. There's a column about online photography sites titled How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Now a Major Motionless Book by Alina Tugend, and in it I say something fairly straightforward:

This social aspect will be the next big leap in photography, Mr. Fisher predicted.

“A lot of people are right now pulling cameras out of their boxes that they got for the holidays,” he said. “They’re the wave of people right in the middle of the crowd. They’ve now accepted digital as a valuable thing. I think for many it will develop as their hobby or social interest as music once was — as their creative outlet.”

Of course, I've been saying that for 10 years, so I'm not actually late to the party....

One Last Thing

Have you ever been in the middle of telling a story and realized you don't remember the punchline? I was telling someone about how lucky I'd been this last term about seeing great documentary filmmakers talk about their work, and I was detailing some of the highlights:

Frederick Wiseman analyzing his editing choices in a talk at the Walter Reade Theater; D.A. Pennebaker, at The New School, discussing shooting the performances in Monterey Pop; Peter Davis discussing the controversy over "The Selling of the Pentagon"; Richard Leacock at IFC Center showing some rarely-seen films and telling all the stories that went with them.... (At this last event, my impression was that half the documentary filmmakers in New York were in attendance: Michael Moore stood by the back door; Albert Maysles rushed in late and Pennebaker, as he walked to the stage, made a crack about his wind-blown hair.)

While I was telling these stories, I began to wonder what the point was. I don't really believe standing in the same room with some of the greats lets any magic rub off of them and onto you, so it wasn't about that. Was it about the fact that they were all still working, and at as high a level as ever? (I believe they all have films in progress or about to come out.)

After some consideration, I think the point was this: seeing the real people who made the films talk about them made me demystify the way these films were created. Films are made out of choices at the camera and at the editing station; and these choices come out of the experiences and ideas of the people who make them. No more, no less.

Notebook on Santas and Elves

Happy holidays. Working on a few new things....

Above: an image from Santacon 2006.

1,178,284 or so

Well, the original Project Redeye video is now the "18th Most Viewed (All Time) in Arts & Animation" on YouTube.

So, here's Project Redeye 2: "Holiday Photo Challenge" edition.

New School Faculty Overrun Sundance

I am impressed:

Five faculty members from the Department of Media Studies and Film will have their work shown at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, to be held in January 2007. Another faculty member Lewis Erskine will serve on the Documentary Jury. The five films and their directors/media faculty include:

Everything's Cool, directed by Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold, examines a group of self-appointed global warming messengers who are on a high-stakes quest to find the iconic image, proper language, and points of leverage to help the public go from embracing the urgency of the problem to creating the political will necessary to move to an alternative energy economy. World Premiere.

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, directed by Rory Kennedy and edited by Media Studies/Documentary Studies faculty member Sari Gilman, looks at the abuses that occurred at the infamous Iraqi prison in the fall of 2003 by using direct personal narratives of perpetrators, witnesses, and victims to probe the effects of the abuses on all involved. World Premiere.

Hot House/Israel, directed by Shimon Dotan, provides an unprecedented look at how Israeli prisons have become the breeding ground for the next generation of Palestinian leaders as well as the birthplace of future terrorist threats. North American Premiere.

Freeheld, directed by Cynthia Wade, tells the story of Lieutenant Laurel Hester, who while dying of cancer, fights to leave her pension to her domestic partner, provoking an enormous battle in New Jersey. World Premiere.

Mixed Messages, Mixed Drinks

Last night was the "Mixed Messages 2006" event.

12th and 3rd in Brooklyn showed on the big screen, and looked good. The audience laughed in the right places and applauded strongly. (If I were re-editing, I might reconsider the "false endings" or at least re-time them, but the point is that it played well with a large audience.) I thought the rest of the program was strong, too, and I was surprised that there were several documentaries screening. We did not have to resort to weeping. John Cameron Mitchell and the show's organizers gave out the awards.

We received "Special Recognition for Narrative Documentary" and an envelope containing various prizes.

Of course, I'm not a reliable reporter of the whole process: once they called our names, my brain sort of stopped working in its normal fashion (not because awards are a big deal, but because I have a tough time in front of any audience of any size) and I only have partial memories of going on stage, getting photographed, and the rest of the process. I have much clearer memories of going out after. The point, of course, is that Documentary is not about awards. It's clearly about Cucumber Martinis all around....

One Meeeeeeeeeeeelion and Two

The sequel to the "Project Redeye" video for youtube has been shot.

(Because the first one left so many unanswered questions. Like "Why did you post this, exactly?" and "Doesn't youtube.com watch these things before putting them on the front page?" and many, many others.)

Higher production values. Slightly improved lighting. Coming to a youtube screen near you....

One Meeeeeeeeeeeelion Views

So I make a lot of videos. Once in a while one gets broadcast. Sometimes they are shown in galleries. Usually, at best, they go to film festivals and get seen by a few hundred people.

Well, at one of my jobs I was volunteered to help with a video. So I helped. I shot it and edited it, on a very fast deadline. Not my usual sort of video. It went up on youtube.com before Halloween, and when I looked the next day it was on the main page and had about 29,000 views. "Wow," I thought. "That's a lot of views." It stayed on the main page about a week.

Now, it has just made it past 1,000,000 views. Six zeroes. Seriously. It's about 7 minutes long, so it is fair to say this video has consumed 7,000,000 minutes of potentially productive time. That's 116,666 hours. 4,861 days. More than 13 years -- gone.

I would just like to take this moment to apologize for that.

It is currently the number 19 most-viewed video of all time in the "Arts and Animation" category. If you feel you must see it, it's at: Project Redeye. A production meeting for the sequel is being held on Friday.

Return to Bigton

This blog had a brief and very pleasant vacation in New Hampshire, but has now returned. (Above, an image from the first parade of the season, held Friday morning on Main Street.)

12th and 3rd at Mixed Messages

For "12th and 3rd in Brooklyn," Iris Lee, Maya Mumma and I are "finalists" in:

Mixed Messages 2006
Friday, Dec. 8, 7:00 p.m., Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street. Free admission.

The selection email said: "An independent panel of distinguished jurors reviewed the many outstanding submissions ... and competition in all categories was strong. The final round judges chose 1 audio work, 1 multimedia project, 2 films and 5 videos."

So, as they say, just being nominated is an honor.

I'm trying, however, to convince Maya and Iris that if we don't win something, anything, we should just weep uncontrollably until they give us something or forcibly escort us from the building.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Ah, a lot has been going on, and I've been so overwhelmed I haven't been posting it.

I hope to get back to regular posting this weekend....

It's Not About Pit Bulls, Exactly

I started a new documentary project today -- on Street Photographers. Research and planning have gone on for a while, but today was the first day of rolling tape.

So I went to Central Park with students from my Extension Class at Hunter College. It was a beautiful day, and there was an event for dogs and their owners. Picture hundreds and hundreds of dogs, most of exceptional breeding. It's Manhattan, after all.

The idea was to get some footage of the process of making photographs in public. My students were great, experimenting with many ideas and shooting some very interesting pictures. It was fun to see them work.

The strange part was that the park was filled with Documentary crews. I ran into some who were there to shoot pieces on dogs, on dog owners, on dog fashion, and on the wackiness of how dogs are treated in affluent and decadent Western culture.

And I ran into a woman who is shooting a documentary. She asked what we were shooting -- well, actually "Who are you shooting for?" -- and then didn't seem to listen to the answer. She was noticeably relieved when it turned out not to be a documentary on Pit Bulls, though. I know this because when I asked her what she was shooting she seemed a bit hesitant to tell me, and then told me it was on Pit Bulls -- almost in a whisper.

Was she afraid to admit this in the middle of the sea of dog owners? (You have to figure it might be some sort of expose....) Or was she afraid we might steal her idea?

A Decades-Long Research Period

When I got to hear D.A. Pennebaker speak a while back, he mentioned that you might want to do some living before making documentaries. He said it in a more elegant way than that, mentioning Hemingway along the route, but he said it nonetheless.

I like that idea, of course. And it's a great excuse for almost anything, as well.

"Why did I do that? It's research. Research I say!"

New School Video Show

"12th and 3rd in Brooklyn" (Directed by Iris Lee, Maya Mumma and Yours Truly) screened again -- this time at "The New School Video Show" on Friday night.

I actually did not know in advance that it was definitely going to show, so I gave no notice to anyone. And then I was sick and didn't attend the screening. (So the tree fell, but I never heard it....)

I went to the 2005 version of that show (not very long after I moved to New York) and thought: "I could make something for this...."

A lot has happened since.

If You Buy Only One Book This Year

Well, it might be because that's all you can carry....

It's finally out: 480 pages of street photography happiness. Elliott Erwitt's Personal Best.

A Decent Week All Around

I had a good week. On Thursday, I saw D.A. Pennebaker present his films in person. He showed his early "Daybreak Express" and "Baby" -- both excellent short documentary films. It's nice to get to be in the same room as one's heroes...

Then on Friday night Maya Mumma, Iris Lee and I screened our new documentary short 12th and 3rd in Brooklyn (New York Portrait #1) at Monkeytown. Great place. You sit on slinky couches, drink wine, and look up at the four huge screens.

Also: finally bought an HDV camcorder: the JVC GR-HD1. I've unpacked it and charged the batteries....

Above: Monkeytown is great, as long as you like to watch things, eat, drink, and sink into a couch.