DLTQ.org

This is basically just a post for showing my friend Mike the whole process from shooting a video to embedding the code on the blog. Spring has come to Copenhagen and even though the wind is a bit chilly, this is definitely an improvement over a mere weeks ago.

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Conversation:

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Often, in our focus on the twitter, the video, the electronic comments, we forget about the beauty of the physical encounter.

This is another video with footage from Paris earlier this week.

This is my first video for Semanal, which is a site where the participants aim at making a video per week throughout the year:

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I guess you already know Jay, Ryanne and Jeffrey who appear in the video. The woman speaking is Triny Prada, who is a columbian-french visual artist, working both with video and painting. I have not seen much of her work, but I am really intrigued by it, and I hope I can get to see more of it later on.

This video marks the beginning of my Semanal project, and I will explore Triny’s entry-point to the video further. Seeing the video as a painting, as material you can manipulate just like you manipulate colours, textures, brush techniques on the painting.

Today, December 24th 2007, is three years since I posted my first video:

Since then, I have posted hundreds of videos here on dltq.org and elsewhere, and I have uploaded countless more that are just gathering dust in the archives.

Today is Christmas, and I havent spent time on editing a video for today, even though I maybe should.

We are the media, whether we like it or not.

Merry Christmas, all!

So, I am going to Bergen for Christmas. I am arriving there on Sunday, and will stay in Bergen untill 27th when I will go to Oslo, meet up with a few friends there, and then get back to Copenhagen.

I have never been a Christmas person, and not quite because I am the Scrooge.

Scanning today’s twitter from my contacts, I read this tweet where Rupert Howe refers to a ’screenvlog’ I made in 2005.

So I made a new one, today, with music referring to my updated taste:

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The text from the notepad:

This is text.
This is text on a page.

I made screenvlogs like this (my term, not wikipedia term) back in early 2005. Here is an example: http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/29422/

When Michael Wesch published his “Web 2.0″ video, I was amazed by his editing of the screen activity. I really liked it. I had never put that much production into my own.

So, this is a tribute to a form that I have not seen enough of. I have not played around with it enough myself either.

Thanks to Bre (via Rupert) who reminded me of the piece from June 2005.

On Monday December 24th is my 3 years anniversary of vlogging.

I will be back in Bergen then.

I will make a video like the one I did on Dec 24th 2004.

Let’s see if we have snow.

/DLTQ

I will continue on partly my video celebrating 3 years of videoblogging, and partly another project which I will put forward on monday

Today, during a Gtalk conversation with a friend, I wrote this:

I have so many drafted posts over the last few months. If I compare this with how I blogged a few years ago, for instance in February 2005, I become shamefully aware of a level of not only self-censorship, but also a lack of visible curiosity.

When did I stop being curious?

Did it ever stop, or am I just imagining it?

Am I finally turning old and ’set in my ways’?

So, tonight, I have been trying to summarise some of the moods I have gone through the last days, weeks, month. Since the day the election was announced.

This weekend I have also begun preparing for the video I will publish on December 24th - my 3 year anniversary “as a videoblogger”. I ask myself: “Has it only been three years?”

A mixture of feelings, a rush, has crippled me at times during these last weeks. At the same time, I have a strong determination growing. That wants to stop being in some ivory tower anymore. I know that I have a quite theoretical approach to videoblogging, and it is a shame. A shame that I haven’t “put my money where my mouth is”. A shame because I for instance could have done so much more for my friends in Nepal and Serbia when it comes to videoblogging. (If you dont remember: In Spring 2005 we were some vloggers who gathered funds to send a camera to a friend of mine, Prakash, from Kathmandu. He has unfortunately not videoblogged much. I also gave away my own camera to a friend of mine from north-eastern Serbia, and he posted some videos here. He was actually mentioned in New York Times once.)

If I had a more practical approach to videoblogging, I would do More to push for political videoblogging in Venstre in Norway during (and especially after) the Election campaign in 2005.

“Man skal ikke gråte over spilt melk” is a Norwegian saying that I should heed in this case. (= Don’t cry over spilled milk)

It is 03:17 Saturday night / Sunday morning, and this post has several times been close to be put as a draft. I am watching CNN and there is a programme about corruption in Africa. Kenya? The sound is off. I read some of the subtitles, and I shiver inside. Corruption IS more scary, to me, than any jack the ripper. Yes, I meant what I expressed in the movie I made for Fear Revere.

I think about my family. My grandmother in her home for the elderly in Bergen. I have not visited her in a very long time. I am scared of seeing her again. I am scared of seeing such a smart, intelligent woman who I have the utmost respect for be so touched by Alzheimer’s. I read most of her books, her poems, her plays, when I was younger.

I think about my relatives, doing what they do, be it politics, or studying, or teaching, or just plain living, working their trade.

Earlier tonight I talked with Bre Pettis on IM, and we agreed to do a speedvlog.

Here is his video:

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And here is mine:

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I liked his memories, his feelings, hopes.

Ad hoc. You can SEE how Bre remembers moments from his past. Golden, in my book.

A few days ago, I made this video but the blog post that was supposed to go with it ended up as another draft:

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The african journalist is still uncovering corruption on CNN.

It is 03.30.

I will go in and hug the gf while she sleeps, and fall asleep myself. See you all tomorrow.

So, I am at it again.

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Two of my videoblogger friends, Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen (DK) and Brittany Shoot, (USA) have now published their Lumiere Manifesto.

Here are a few quotes:

Online video has now for years allowed the advancement of personal narratives and showcased the world through the eyes of other video producers. At best, we display an edited view of our worlds. At worst, we destroy important viewpoints through unnecessary editing.

Voice-overs and credit rolls have long been used to over-explain how to interpret video, whereas the creator’s interpretation is not the most valuable perspective.

The value of moving pictures are in their potential for a multitude of interpretations, not as insipid entertainment or propaganda.

Read the rest at videoblogging.info

Here is my very first video on a website, from December 24th, 2004.

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(Original blog-post is here)

As I have written several times here on DLTQ.org over the last years, it was a videoblog entry by Ryanne Hodson that finally convinced me that this was something I Really wanted to get involved in - this was a few hours after I had first discovered this thing called “videoblogging” - the first video by Dylan Verdi. It was the random footage, presented by Ryanne in her own fashion, that got me hooked. What if I can also do that? What if I can also present the reality around me to friends from around the world?

At about the same time as I discovered the work of Ryanne, Mica, Michael, Chris, Charlene, Shannon and others, I also very much got into the ethos of Jay Dedman’s videoblogging. He actually calls his vlog “Momentshowing” - and that really struck me. Momentshowing. Showing conversations. Beauty. The little things that make my country what it is, and not a country on the other end of the globe. Sharing particulars and - more importantly - all the things that are common. Our hopes, dreams, our insecurities, fears, anxiety.

When you simply want to show something, the production standard becomes less important. When you show your friend your city, you don’t necessarily treat your friend like a clueless tourist.

I remember a movie I shot while in New York for VloggerCon 2005. Outside, there was a blizzard, and I was inside, talking with Sean (I lost his URL) about his video project.

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[source]

So: Lumiere Manifesto, showing moments, uncensored, without too much editing. (I have never followed any one set of rules consequently in my vlogging, but I guess I have a core sense of aesthetics)

What guided me through my early experiments with videoblogging was the concept of momentshowing from Jay, editing from Charlene, and a twist of subliminal messaging from Fight Club (in my case: Use of fast-flashing text)

Political and moral commitment

Tomorrow is election day in Norway. Every four years there are parliamentary elections, and every four years local elections. I was active in the local elections in 2003 and the parliamentary elections in 2005 for Venstre, but since the 05 election I have mostly shunned politics. Tomorrow is local elections day, and I haven’t voted, and neither I will not be in Norway tomorrow for voting on election day itself. In fact, I have not really been involved in any organization since the autumn of 05, besides The PAN (a group vlog) and helping organize VlogEurope this year. It’s as if my enthusiasm had been dried out. Why? Was it because my living space was so unsecure? Was it because of lack of a love life? Had I turned too cynical in my view of the future of videoblogging?

Last weekend was VlogEurope 2007, and even though we were fewer participants than the previous years, I utterly enjoyed the days. I shot a lot of footage, and this whole week I have been thinking a lot about …

Conversations

How do we take these conversations further?

Momentshowing.

So that the myriad of moments shown establish bigger patterns. Like pixels that, on a larger view, create images. Architectural beauty, or the smile of a girl, or the glow of a tulip.

One of the many discussions I enjoyed a lot was this conversation with Jan McLaughlin:

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I love Jan and her work, her commitment to exploring, recontextualizing, breaking down boundaries. Being the faux press, pressing forward, asking questions.

There were so many threads during those conversations, and the countless others, it made my head go spinning, and it feels like this to me. My conceptions keep getting in the way, and I don’t really LISTEN.

To me, the Lumiere Manifesto is about listening. And sharing so others can better listen. Because the videos don’t have audio, it is less controlling. During VlogEurope we talked about “no comment” segments from Euronews. Very interesting look at what the lack of a voice-over can do to reporting.

Personally? Future? This? I was inspired by something Tajee said in Heidelberg about videoblogging and its wider use. She is involved with charity work, for instance, and it is obvious how videoblogging can be a good channel in that sector. The conversation became another thread in my own quest for “the next step”. I work in an academic bookstore in Copenhagen. I read books. I hang out with my new girlfriend. My story has not had a 2-year long break - - but it has been very internalized. I went through a lot in Oslo in 05/06, and I went through a lot after moving to Denmark in 06. I have for quite some time felt that it is time to go external again, and basically I am now looking for “the cause”. Yesterday, I was excited about NABUUR, untill I saw the infighting and bickering over details at their blog. It’s all so frigging predictable. Worrying about status, money, funding, prestige. The whole “not invented here” syndrome. Idiots.

(Of course, I may be the idiot here, and the NABUURs are doing vvery constructive work in their endless discussions about technicalities. Just like it may actually be Very Very important exactly HOW a sentence is shaped in a legal document to be voted over in Congress.)

So, I now wonder where I can be useful. Where my skillset can fill a need. If it is noncommercial work, I will volunteer. I need to get involved with new people, or do something with people I know already. Do something new. A project. During VlogEurope I contemplated a lot about putting work into the VlogEurope site, creating a real, living blog there where we could point to interesting videoblogging projects in Europe. Maybe some of those projects that are not typically mentioned on Rocketboom or Xolo.tv. I miss being in a team. Actually, watching a session Drew Olanoff from Scriggity did at podcamp philly reminded me of that. I think Alive in Baghdad is a superb team effort.

What can I do? So many of us wonder about that. How can we help individuals? Make a difference? Yadiyada.

Localism while being global in spirit. A lesson to learn there, perhaps.

My future in terms of how I spend my spare time? No ideas, except that I am open for ideas, and I want to get involved with some team or organization that has goals and methods I can agree with.

Suggestions?

Trying to get into the habit of just publishing again. With no fear.

I have this paranoia. Who is watching? What do they think? Why are there so few conversations? Is it - simply - because we are all busy with our own creative processes? I suppose so. Whack myself on the finger: Reach out more. React more to what others do. No blog or vlog should be an island of their own, isolated by zillions of miles of cyber emptyness. But I don’t want to make this a vlog/blog news site either. “Look! XYZ made a new video! Go check it out!”. Hmm.

Daytime / Nighttime. Green Light / Red Light:

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Yesterday night i started from scratch with my four-frames video. I encoded this early draft of the first seconds for Michael Meiser though:

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