SA Current Cover!

Recently my older sister Raina was interviewed by the San Antonio Current. The interview is in regards to her first feature film entitled Just Murdered. In the interview she speaks about post-production plans and some basics about the film. In addition to this wonderful news I provided the photos for the article and was ecstatic to see that one of my pictures was used to the cover of this weeks publication.

You can see the online interview here: http://www.sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=69647


In other news, I received a new BMX frame in the mail via Matt Carswell over at S&M bikes, and boy is it sweet! Unfortunately the weather in the area has been total crap for riding and I have only had the chance to do a few 180's in my living room.

Check out S&M bikes here (www.sandmbikes.com) for a photo on their randomized homepage that I took in October of Josh Stricker.

Thats all folks.
DAVIS

parting shot

Its been too long...

Houston Intercontinental Airport taken via Airplane window.

Tony Cardona is a Boss

New Media Performance Numero Uno

"The Performance" contrived by Davis James and Peter Wisniowski is a live musical performance with video projection. The piece, using a Large sculpture simulating Glasses as the projection surface, is around 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The collected imagery is High Definition Video footage assembled in a collage format with alterations made in Final Cut Pro. The specific imagery ranges from waterfalls to street scenes at both day and night. In addition, most shots are from a low angle and with very low depth of field.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival

At the Ann Arbor Film festival tour many different films were shown, all in different taste. The first film screened, "Doxology' by Michael Langan left the biggest impression on the viewer. A scene where the actual director, and copies of him, hit a tennis ball up and down which really gave the film a cool feeling from then on. In additional scenes similar visual humor was used, contributing towards its impact on the audience.
"I Met the Walrus" by Josh Raskin is a premier example of a well-executed idea with stunning animation. With audio originating from an interview with John Lennon, and hand-rendered images created by Mr. Raskin himself, a political story is told. In this story John Lennon gives us reasons and means for peace and stability in the world circa 1968-1970ish.

Norman McLaren's "Stars and Stripes"

Art that is ahead of its time deserves respect. In Norman McLaren's "Starts and Stripes," it became evident McLaren strived to challenge himself with precision. At the dispense of moving image and advanced processes "Stars and Stripes" impressed the hell out of me. By drawing on strips of film, McLaren created an intense, high-movement piece. With the constant pulsating geometric figuresone could feel as if they were traveling through space, passing formations of stars.
In more recent times artists use digital processes such as Flash animation, Non-Linear video editing software, as well as other various after-effects programs to create a similar effect. In knowing the challenges that present itself when using digital process, much respect goes towards artists like McLaren whom go ahead of their time to produce original works of art.

"Untitled Beats".....October is here!

Ken Hale back on the bmx










BMX conquers the Guadalupe!















Michael doin it for sunset walks on the beach!














Me with a Mesa air.















This is a pic from a video I made entitled "Untitled Beats." The central idea of the video, was to edit images to a drum beat in an effort to make a pattern in both sound, but also video. The Images were all shot in HDV format in an effort to promote clarity. "Untitled Beats" is a style of video I plan to re-produce, hopefully honing in on my initial vision of the project.

Simply September 23rd

Recently in class, my Professor screened a handful of video pieces over the span of two class periods. During this time I watched and developed some opinions on the videos being shown. Here they are...

In Chel White's " A painful glimpse into my writing process" I fell into the precision and pattern-making style of the imagery. The stylings of this video, including the addition of audio reminded me a bit of the Intro to "Thank You for Smoking." The most noticeable feature of the video was the collage style animation. Most likely this process was done using a scanner which was insanely detailed, well lit/color corrected and intense. I especially liked the sandwich imagery which was colorful and pleasurably saturated. In addition to using scanned imagery and collage aspects, the video made me feel like these things I was watching were forming a landscape of nouns; Physical things In a mental world. This self portrait made me believe that Chel White gets many ideas and conflicting points of view when in "the writing process." In support to this feeling of conflicting ideas the tone made me feel intimated by numbers. It was all these visuals things that were going on at once which drew me in. It is this collage style content of the video that receives much respect from me.

Another video that I thought did a great job exemplifying a self-portrait was Sadie Bennning's piece "If every girl had a diary." (1990) This video, portraying female struggling to come out in the world as a lesbian, was very evident of the artist 'self.' The black and white video in the confessional style was a very intimate and drew you in to the imagery. The ambient noise of street and cars, honking, etc gave the feeling that you were inside, with the artist coping with the same issues. The audio, I feel, represents the rest of society moving along, leaving this one person behind. Camera movement and interesting framing also played a role in depicting the true feelings of the artist. The piece was narrated, however I don't believe the narration was necessary in making observations about the video being watched.

peace out people.
DFJ

Urbanwarfare Mixtape 2 Trailer...check it!

urban warfare mixtape 2 trailer from jared hawley on Vimeo.

new urbanwarfare mixtape trailer...I think it look like a classic Hawley Film.

I believe if Im correct Jared films Bmx because thats what it is...Bicycle Motocross
I don't expect it to look anything like the shining.
I don't expect it to be distributed by empirebmx.
I do expect a 180, a 360, a tailwhip, and a barspin...There might even be a tyregrab 180.
I do expect trapazoidal dirt sculptures.

I don't expect it to be around for another few months...
Go Osama x.
do it.

Angry Buddy

I made this Video today from audio and video I found off of www.archive.org
-class is fun.

Your Friend,

Davis James.

Three In ONE day?!

mmmm



Pete9000



"Matt, why so moody?"



Red-Handed



the creators.

...a messy post, but thats all for now.

More Pictures...

Marimba Music


I know eventually the musicians will get back to me...mabye they want more photos?


Old friends.

First Thursday and while Im at it...Friday too!

These past couple of days have been a blast. On Thursday night at the Blue Star I checked out a few exibits and bands, including my Professor *Leslie Raymond's exibit, Landscapes. As I know she will be reading/is reading now, I will take a second to give a piece of my mind.
I was initially impressed with how well Ms. Leslie Raymond (UTSA New Media Professor) displayed her video installation. The exibit, located in the front left room of the main space at the Bluestar, was well contrived and very clean showing few cables.
I especially liked the image which was used in the promo flyer for her show (pictured below). FIrst off I must say I am partial to anything the color green but the way the image moved it put me right there with it, under the shade, enjoying the architecture and scenery. As I spent more time in the space and got my camera setup, I began to think how the image reminded me of a *HDR mapped photograph through the highly saturated colors and use of contrast. I continued the evening by checking out Patrick Zeller's wonderful array of photos from his 2006 motorcycle trip through Iran. The photo of the Iranian Badmittion players was so great I had to take a picture of a picture so I could show everyone who looks at this Blog. Finally I'll conclude by saying that adding 2 tough BMW motorcycle/traveling machines as a centerpiece to an exibit really breaks up the feeling of the gallery and makes you feel in the artists element... You could just say its Cool, if that makes sense?.

First Friday started out with a bang in the form of a flat tire on my bicycle. From there it was somewhat similar to Thursday, aside the flat tire of course. There was a cool Band Named Joel Laviolette & Rattletree Marimba that took percussion to the next level. The photos below unfortunately don't come with sound but their myspace does (myspace.com/rattletreeband). Theres alot more to say about the night but i'll simply let the photos do the talking.

Good day to All.. I'm gonna run some errands, Ride bikes, I strongly encourage it---more soon

*Learn here: futureworkergirl.blogspot.com/

*Also Learn Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging

Small Update

I posted some pictures here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30026641@N06/

This was an art opening for Franco Mondini, a local San Antonio artist.
The party was alot of fun it had free wine and Belinni's (some kind of orange juice and wine contraption)

life's a garden...dig it.

Circus

-So alot of riding has been going on lately.





The Pics about are Viktor Bako of Budapest, Hungary.
Viktor is a BMX rider in the World Famous Wringling Brothers Barnam and Bailey Circus. Hes been in San Antonio and I have been doing some Shooting/riding with him.

Tahoe went down in June- It looks exactly like that most of the time. Good stuff.

Its Monday. Do work. or something.

Flameworks... Austin, TX Jay and Kevin


Color.


Shaping Lips is....relaxing.


Kenny Pena- Asking to stub a toe.....but didn't.

The first thing i did in 2008...

was go to Florida. Heres FLA.

Recent Things

-My bro Jay's girl Kelli n Olive at Eyoars.

-The People.

Final Project Proposal

InMotion---

In theory, motion captivates the eye and stimulates the brain in various ways. Therefore, I want to use motion to cultivate interest and feeling between the video and the viewer. In this piece I will show how camera movement can draw the viewer into the piece.

The variety of human actions, and their role on earth will be the main focus of my piece. For example, with a DV camera mounted to a bicycle I will demonstrate rarely seen angles that make a connection between cycling, the earth, and human powered movement. In addition using head-mounted images and handheld camerawork I will make a similar connection.

All composed images will be shot either on DV or DSC format. To display the video, the size of the screen is important- the larger the screen, the more likely the viewer will be drawn into the piece.

Kenneth Anger : New Media Presentation

Kenneth Anger, a filmmaker whom grew up in Hollywood first appearing as a child in a Midsummer Nights Dream, was influenced heavily by Martin Scorsese. First creating silent films, then moving on to use audio; Anger pioneered using popular Music for his films. 

In the 1979 Anger film, "Rabbits Moon" Mimes play Jesters acting under the Comedia del Arte theatrical style to create a very different feel to the images. I believe it is this art of perfecting a performance that doesn't exist in the modern filmmakers approach to making films.

In addition it would not be too far fetched to say that film, in general, destroyed the art of performance. 

Belated Thoughts about Luminaria

Yesterday, after spending much time in my Purple Luminaria T-shirt i began to think about that wonderful night.....

I think the best part was seeing all the smiles on peoples faces, and documenting the interaction between the people and art with photos. 

The night of Luminaria someone compared it with Fiesta, and after experiencing them both, Fiesta falls short of entertainment and atmosphere. Where huge crowds of wasted people and undercover police crowded the streets in Fiesta, Luminaria had ample space to accomodate everyone and beautiful works of art. 

LUMINARIA WAS FREE!!!

The only downfall with Luminaria is that there wasn't enough Live Music.

Blah Blah Blah....

Audio is a Play-toy for the ears.

This is called CreekScape. Its Sound.

LYNCHIAN----

In class tonight I learned a new word:  "Lynchian."  Referring to the style of Director David Lynch, Lynchian film style has a flexible sense of time and sound density.  The sound in both LOST ( TV series) and Inland Empire (movie) consisted of loud dramatic noises mixed with quiet intimate dialogue.  This causes the viewer to be drawn in close in order to hear the mix of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds.  In addition, the connection between both pieces is evident in their stark dramatic imagery; created by hard lighting and extreme composition.

It was a great day

The Night of Lumens. (abv)

Lumens and Things

The lumen (symbol: lm) is the SI unit of luminous flux, a measure of the perceived power of light. Luminous flux differs from radiant flux, the measure of the total power of light emitted, in that luminous flux is adjusted to reflect the varying sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths of light.
courtesy of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light. Film with lower sensitivity (lower ISO speed) requires a longer exposure and is thus called a slow film, while stock with higher sensitivity (higher ISO speed) can shoot the same scene with a shorter exposure and is called a fast film.
again made possible due to Wikipedia.

after such considerations upon light and its intensity...i made these images.