002.01 - 002.09: Video Delays and Freezing

My main approach to try and represent this openess of time and trails of enrgy is to try and use video delays. There are two main problems though: 1) the more delays you have, the slower it runs. 2) The picture becomes increasingly muddy. This in itself may not be a problem if we accept that things are inherently muddy anyway. On the other hand it looks a mess and will reduce that feeling that we can interact with the 'mud'.

I'm trying to find a balance between showing the Square and hiding it. I thought that the 'freeze' function in Isadora might be able to isolate it but i've gone about it the wrong way. But again i get some nice snail trails of energy. The contrast helps to define people. Cleaning up the picture might be the most important factor. Progressive fading (002.09) gives impression of past movement.



002.02 - Video delay with contrast

Click To Play

002.04 - incorporating the 'freeze' function to isolate frames.

Click To Play

002.09 - Adding multiple 'freeze' trails - progressive fading

Click To Play

Tests 001.01 - 001.08

I have simply applied a basic video blend (difference) to a series of video delays of people wandering through Clayton Square. I dislike video 'effects', and i am trying to push the way they are used in this piece so they do not simply look like an effect.

Immediate observations are the trails of people working well, but also the 'ether' that appears with the layering of video. This can be tuned out with the threshold of the filter but it is important at this stage to see that it is there. In some 'trails' we get flashes of colour that might be developed.


001.01 - Basic Source Footage - no filters

Click To Play

001.02 - Basic Difference filter

Click To Play

001.04 - 3 layers of Video - delay and difference filter

Click To Play

001.07 - 12 layers of video delays and Difference filters plus mouse watcher on threshold

Click To Play

001.08 - 24 layers of video delays and difference

Click To Play

Making the First Mark

The first mark was actually made four years ago. It began as a series of sketches and then developed into a flash animation of people wandering round the city centre. Since then the idea has bubbled away quietly in the subconscious and it has been a great effort to face it again.

I have begun working in Isadora (an interactive video software developed by TroikaTronix) having used this software in a workshop. And within 20 minutes, i have come to a finish - a false finish. I have made a thing vaguely resembling the image in my head. I knew this would happen. It is an anti climax. Like setting off on a great journey only to stop in the pub at the end of the road. I feel a bit naive and scared to fail if i go further. I've already failed if i stay here though.