Backing Away from Adobe Creative Cloud

no-adobe_0For a number of reasons, I am leaving Adobe behind in all my production and teaching work.  I’m also going to stop telling people that Premiere is better than Final Cut X

Why the change of heart?  Mainly, I can’t recommend the monopolistic pricing practice of Adobe’s creative cloud.  And whatever the politics, it’s just too expensive for rentware. (Also check out the frightening TERMS OF SERVICE you are agreeing to..)

There’s a terrible feeling in my gut when I think how dangerous it is for a business, artist or student to rely on subscription-based software.

Because if you stop paying for an Adobe subscription, you lose all your work.  Not the final products, of course; the outputs stay put and stay exactly how they were when you finished them.  But the project files, the meat and potatoes, are locked into Adobe and are no longer usable when your subscription expires.  You could spend something like $75 for a 1-month subscription to Adobe every time you want to look at an old project; or you could just find other software with a perpetual license, i.e software that you buy outright.  I’ll recommend a better set of alternatives in another post, and link it here later.

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City in Song at the Museum of Vancouver

So a couple of great music videos I shot for the Loose Affiliation of Millionaires are now online!

I shot David Newberry and Jenny Ritter at the museum, singing songs that were inspired by the museum’s collection.

I had a great time.  I love music vids because even after editing them over and over, I still feel like watching them again.

There’s a live show with all the millionaires at the MOV this Saturday, February 1 at 7pm.  But meanwhile, you can listen to these…

A Moving at the Dance in Vancouver festival

AMoving-SunsetThe film I made with choreographer Rob Kitsos is showing at Dance in Vancouver next month!  Please come down and see it on the big screen, along with other local dance films.  Details to come…

Thursday November 21, 6.30-8pm VIFC

Radar: Exchanges in Dance Film Frequencies is a program dedicated to the exploration and evolution of dance film through connecting artists scene by scene. Curated by filmmaker/curator Adam Sekuler and choreographer Shannon Stewart, RADAR features movement based films of many budgets, styles and perspectives, creating a platform of local/national and international exchange that allows artists to publicly screen their work, discuss, get feedback, and meet other artists working in the same form. In 2013, RADAR screenings took place place in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Portland, and Minneapolis. Presented by Vancity Theatre and the Northwest Film Forum in association with The Dance Centre.

“A Moving” is a contemporary dance trio that was performed at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in March of 2012. The trio was performed within an initialization of visual art by Michael Morris in his exhibit on Concrete Poetry. The dance was performed to music by Martin Gotfrit, choreography by Rob Kitsos and performed by Kim Stevenson, Katie DeVries and Rob Kitsos. The trio was then transplanted into different locations in and around Vancouver BC, filmed and edited by Flick Harrison. The title was taken from an interchange between Sally Banes, Noel Caroll and Monroe Beardsley on what makes the motions of our bodies ‘dance’.

“A Moving” is an interpretation of the presence of body, gesture and contemporary movement within non-traditional environments. The movement sequence continues throughout the film as the environments interchange between the original performance at the Belkin Art Gallery, to urban architectural locations –to natural environments in and outside the city on Vancouver BC. Through seeing the dance in places we inhabit in the everyday we make our moving bodies accessible, visceral and readable in ways that can become detached in the traditional settings of the theater. Through these sequences, we also perceive the design of our environments in relation to our bodies in a new context.

Call for entries: RADAR – Exchanges in Dance Film Frequencies

(FROM THE NW FILM FORUM)

British Columbia artists are invited to submit innovative examples of film and video that reflect the body in motion or dance-based performance for entry in RADAR, a night of short dance films screening at the Vancity Theatre as part of the Dance In Vancouver Festival.

Single-channel video will be accepted in the following categories: narratives, documentaries, abstract and experimental shorts that are staged work remade for the camera (not documentation), choreography created specifically for the camera, as well as the moving body articulated through animation and new media. All work must be no longer than 15 minutes in length.  Performances videos are also considered. Please consider our curatorial question – would we rather see this dance live? Does the video represent a strong marriage of two arts, dance and film?

RADAR is a program that dedicated to the exploration and evolution of dance film through connecting artists scene by scene.  Curated by filmmaker/curator Adam Sekuler and choreographer Shannon Stewart, RADAR features movement based films of many budgets, styles and perspectives, creating a platform of local/national and international exchange that allows artists to publicly screen their work, discuss, get feedback, and meet other artists working in the same form.  In 2013, RADAR screenings took place place in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Portland, and Minneapolis.

Who can apply? Current residents of British Colombia

Entry Guidelines

Submissions will be accepted until Oct. 15

Preview screeners must be submitted via vimeo, youtube or other links. If chosen, work must be available in quicktime formats.

Submissions should be no longer than 15 minutes in length.

Please enclose contact information with your submission. You will be notified by e-mail if your work is accepted by Oct 20.

Contact Adam Sekuler asekuler0228@gmail.com if you have any questions or need more information.

VIFF saved from the evaporation of big-screen entertainment…

From
The Georgia Straight.

“It was announced yesterday that the Vancouver International Film Festival has secured a number of new screens for this year, most of them downtown.

Director Alan Franey was sounding less than optimistic when VIFF lost its core venue last November with the closure of the Empire Theatres Granville 7.

The problem has been solved with the introduction of SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for Performing Arts and the Vancouver Playhouse.”

Read More.


VANDOCUMENT covers Video Revolution! Making Your Message @ VIVO

(So it’s good to know my crazy professor hair gets attention, but they also say I have “an impressive portfolio of films…”)

One week tech camp teaches youth filmmaking with a purpose

Words by Alicia McLean
Photos by Sheng Ho

Sitting with the instructors of Video Revolution! in the trendy yellow chairs of VIVO Media Arts Centre, I admire the bright, sunlit classroom-to-be. Panoramic desktop iMacs: check. Compact DSLRs: check. Pair of enthusiastic and quirky teachers: check. So, what makes this week-long (Aug 5-9) workshop different than the others in Vancouver?

read the rest on Vandocument

Calling all Artists in the Columbia Basin: Arts Integration Learning Lab in Nelson

ArtStarts in Schools -From ArtStarts in Schools –.

Calling all Artists in the Columbia Basin: Arts Integration Learning Lab in Nelson

We are excited to announce a new event for artists in the Columbia Basin this Fall. We are now accepting applications for the Arts Integration Learning Lab, taking place in Nelson. BC, from September 23 to 27, 2013.

Are you a professional artist interested in working with young people and educators in schools? Or do you have experience and want to enhance your skills?

ArtStarts in Schools presents the Arts Integration Learning Lab, a subsidized five-day learning experience for professional artists designed to position them to work with schools in their region. Up to 10 professional artists from across the Columbia Basin will be selected through an application process to participate in the Arts Integration Learning Lab in Nelson from September 23 – 27, 2013. Led by a series of facilitators and special guests, participants will unpack the definition of arts integration and explore practical ways to effectively work with young people and educators to lead arts infused classroom experiences.

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Seeking short SF films for VCON screening in Vancouver!

SEEKING SHORT SCIENCE-FICTION & FANTASY FILMS for a 1-hour program at VCON SF & F convention October 4-6 2013 in Vancouver, BC.  Deadline for submissions is August 5.

Do you have a short SF&F film, a good standalone excerpt, or a fantastic trailer that we could show?

The definition of Science Fiction and Fantasy is quite broad – so give it a shot! Vancouver-made films will be given priority.

VCON HAS A PIRATE THEME THIS YEAR!  But that isn’t necessary for your film to be included.  It would be cool, though.  Arrrr.

At the convention, screening organizer Flick Harrison will also do a reading from his unpublished SF novel, HOME IS IN THE HARD DRIVE – but that is a separate event.

The program may tour if there is support for it from other cons.

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Teen Summer Video Activist Camp @ VIVO

Video Revolution! Making your message

August 5-9, 2013
9 AM-4 PM
Final Exhibition: Friday, August 9, 4:30-6 PM

¡VIVO la revolución!

Youth ages 13-18 are invited to spend a week at VIVO immersed in the hands-on creation of documentaries, news, commercials, music videos, public service announcements, viral videos and/or other mediums for creating persuasive messaging. Use the powerful world of video to get your message out there.

This one-week intensive is ideal youth interested in media arts, video and filmmaking, and activism. Students will find and share examples of how digital media is used to influence what we buy, what we do, what we think and who we are through the internet, social media, TV and advertising. With increased media literacy and an understanding of techniques used to powerfully tell a story, students will script, shoot, edit and disseminate their own stories about the issues they care about.

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