Video 2
Video 2 Syllabus / Fall 2006 School of The Museum of Fine Art Monday, 6:30 - 9:30 PM Kurt Ralske, Instructor kurt.ralske @ gmail.com Course website: http://retnull.com/smfa/Video2.html Course Description Video 2 focuses on the critical and technical skills that support the production of single-channel video and installation. The format of this course is designed to bridge practice and theory. The class involves advanced technical workshops, seminars in critical theory and cultural studies, group critiques, and frequent screenings. Students are instructed in the use of three-chip digital cameras (Sony VX2000 and DSR-PD150; nonlinear digital editing on Final Cut Pro; and techniques for producing video for delivery via Internet, DVD, and other media. We examine a diverse range of contemporary artists whose work explores a wide range of cultural and formal concerns. The semester includes visiting artists, technicians, and curators to expose students to a range of viewpoints and to support their production process. Our main objective is the pursuit of students' artistic goals and the realization of substantial video projects (single-channel, installation, interdisciplinary, interactive, online). Group critique is central to the process; full participation is expected. Prerequisite: Video 1 (VID 1004) and comprehensive knowledge of Mac system. There are three main “threads” running through this course: 1) Advanced skills for video production: how to do what you need to do 2) Analyzing artistic practice: understanding various approaches to video 3) Technical principles of digital media: a behind-the-scenes view of hardware and software The course outline below describes the schedule for topics from the first thread. Materials for the remaining two threads will be introduced as is appropriate for our progress through the video production material. Textbook: Final Cut Pro 5 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guide by Linda Branneis, Peachpit Press, 2006 Recommended Texts: The Language of New Media by Lev Manovich, MIT Press, 2001 Video Shooter: Storytelling with DV, HD, and HDV Cameras by Barry Braverman, CMP Books, 2006 Illuminating Video: An Essential Guide to Video Art by Doug Hall and Sally Jo Fifer, Aperture Books, 1991 Course resources: Final Cut Pro documentation (to open documentation from inside FCP, go to FCP's "Help" menu) Basic FCP tutorial Digital Video Glossary MIT Video Production site Common Misconceptions About Video Compression Wikipedia video art links Many useful FCP articles Top 20 FCP key shortcuts Apple’s FCP resource page Apple’s FCP discussion forum Screenings We will view works by some of the artists listed below (as well as others), as is appropriate to topics covered in class: Chris Marker, Bruce Nauman, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, Vito Acconci, Dziga Vertov, Maya Deren, Ed Emshwiller, Peter Roehr, Vallie Export, Rebecca Horn, Yoko Ono, Granular Synthesis, Martin Arnold, Scott Bartlett When we screen work in class and analyze how it functions, it is useful to categorize qualities of the work. There is a set of terms that are especially helpful for discussing the aesthetics of video work. In various combinations, they seem to cover most of the range of possible artistic strategies. Definitions of these terms and specific examples will be provided in class, but for your reference, here is the set of adjectives we are likely to use repeatedly: performance / documentary / process / conceptual / narrative / poetic / formalist NOTE: If specific course material (video, film, readings) is found to be offensive or causes discomfort for any reason to an individual student, please take personal responsibility and promptly excuse yourself from the demonstration or discussion and/or notify Kurt Ralske. As we proceed through the semester, the course outline is subject to change. ______________________________________________________________________ Class 1 : September 11 Course intro / QuickTime Pro: Topics: Review course requirements and course outline Defining terms for discussing work, with examples Brief overview of history and genres of video art Defining the unique qualities of the medium (...or not) QuickTime Pro tricks QuickTime Pro in-class mini-project Review FCP clip types: master / affiliate / independent Project #1 - Formal exercise : Excessively fast cutting (due September 25) Create a one-minute video using images rhythmically cut to a piece of music that you select. You can use video that you shot, or you can use copyright-free material (for example, look at prelinger.org). You will probably want to use the techniques of multiclip editing, blink editing, and audio peak detection (covered in Class 2 and 3). If you wish, you can think of this exercise as a parody or critique of television, or of the excesses of commercial visual culture. The point of this exercise is purely formal; if it leads you to somewhere outside of your normal aesthetic comfort zone, that can only be healthy. Reading Assignment: Brenneis: Chapter 9 ______________________________________________________________________ Class 2 : September 18 Multiclip Editing: Topics: Creating multiclips Editing multiclips Blink edit Audio peak detection Manual and automatic markers Reading Assignment: FCP documentation Volume 2, Part 2, Chapter 16 ______________________________________________________________________ Class 3 : September 25 Multiclip Editing: Topics: Multiclip synchronization with timecode Reading Assignment: Manovich: Database vs Narrative ______________________________________________________________________ Class 4 : October 2 Spatial montage: Presentation of Project #1 projects and group critique Topics: Temporal montage / spatial montage Examples Spatial montage techniques in FCP Assignment #2 -- Reduction (due October 23): Make a video using the technique of reduction. What you reduce is left up to you. You can reduce formal elements: reducing the density of the composition of shots, or reducing speed of progression. Or, you can reduce the conceptual content: reducing narrative or formal progression, Part of this assignment is that you should be able to 1) explain specifically what you did not do. Explain in what way you exercised restraint in your process. 2) explain what you gained and/or lost from what was excluded. One interesting approach is to identify a process or quality that is often found in other your work, and focus on excluding specifically this. (Note: there is no expectation that your final product be "minimal". For example, if your aim was to reduce shot-to-shot coherence or image entropy, or to reduce legibility of images, then your final product might be anything but minimal.) Reading Assignment: Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Murch interview ______________________________________________________________________ October 9 - NO CLASS (Columbus Day)_______________________________________________________________________ Class 5 : October 16 Spatial montage: Topics: Spatial montage techniques in AfterEffects Reading Assignment: Bill Viola: Video Black -- The Mortality of the Image Interlacing _ _____________________________________________________________________ Class 6 : October 23 Presentation on Video and New Media: Presentation of Project #2 projects and group critique Assignment #3 -- Time (due November 27) Create a video exploring some quality of Time. The duration of your piece should be between 4 and 6 minutes. Suggested topics or "angles" for your explorations: memory, motion vs. rest, subjective vs. objective time, multiple time scales, linear progression vs. asynchronous motion, circular time, timelessness, omniscience, mortality, immortality. Try this approach: think first of the issue you wish to explore. Then see if you can find some technical process or quality of the medium of video (frame rate, multiple images, extreme motion blur, etc) that can function as an analogy for your inquiry into that issue. Topics: Database vs narrative Telepresence Data visualization Reading Assignment: Video Compression FCP documentation Volume 4, Part 3, Chapters 17 and 19 ______________________________________________________________________ Class 7 : October 30 Video Compression: Topics: You need to deal with multiple distribution mediums (like it or not) Types of compression: spatial / temporal / lossy / lossless Throughput and target data rate Calculating a target data rate: the “bit budget” Overview of codecs Choosing the right codec Apple Compressor: presets / batch manager / droplets Reading assignment: Handout: selections from Max / Jitter documentation ______________________________________________________________________ Class 8 : November 6 Multi-channel installation techniques: Presentations of Project #3 and group critique Topics: AfterEffects for very high resolution output Max / Jitter for high resolution playback Reading assignment: Handout: selections from Max / Jitter documentation ______________________________________________________________________ Class 9 : November 13 Multi-channel installation techniques: Topics: Max / Jitter for synchronizing playback of multiple channels on multiple networked machines Reading assignment: Handout: Excerpts from “The Language of New Media” (Manovich) ______________________________________________________________________ Class 10 : November 20 Individual tutorial and critique ______________________________________________________________________ Class 11 : November 27 Group Critique Project #3 ______________________________________________________________________ Recommended Art and New Media blogs: Edward Winkleman Eyebeam We Make Money Not Art Information Aesthetics Avail Video Video Thing Neural Neatorama Reblog http://retnull.commailto:kurt.ralske@gmail.comhttp://retnull.com/smfa/Video2.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321350251/sr=1-2/qid=1154768420/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-6255782-5211150?ie=UTF8&s=bookshttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262632551/sr=1-1/qid=1156216590/ref=sr_1_1/103-3976629-7989437?ie=UTF8&s=bookshttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578202892/ref=pd_bxgy_text_b/104-6255782-5211150?ie=UTF8http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0893813907/sr=8-1/qid=1156036968/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-3976629-7989437?ie=UTF8http://www.sjmclib.umn.edu/viscomm/finalcutpro/http://www.isd.uga.edu/digitalvideo/glossary.htmhttp://people.csail.mit.edu/tbuehler/video/index.htmlhttp://retnull.com/Video%20Compression.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_arthttp://kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.htmlhttp://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_keys_to_speed.htmlhttp://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/resources.htmlhttp://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=123%20http://www.archive.org/details/prelingerhttp://bid.berkeley.edu/bidclass/readings/benjamin.htmlhttp://www.apple.com/pro/film/murch/http://www.100fps.com/http://retnull.com/Video%20Compression.htmlhttp://www.deplacement.qc.ca/en/user.htmlhttp://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/http://www.eyebeam.org/reblog/http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/http://infosthetics.com/http://www.availvideo.com/blog/http://videothing.blogspot.com/http://www.neural.it/english/http://www.neatorama.com/http://mike.teczno.com/snippets.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17shapeimage_2_link_18shapeimage_2_link_19shapeimage_2_link_20shapeimage_2_link_21shapeimage_2_link_22shapeimage_2_link_23shapeimage_2_link_24shapeimage_2_link_25shapeimage_2_link_26shapeimage_2_link_27shapeimage_2_link_28shapeimage_2_link_29shapeimage_2_link_30