Bumblebees

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This footage is playing at normal speed - it hasn't been sped up. They're just that quick. Shot in Minnesota in the summer of 2003.

Super8 Chase

Excerpts from a short film I shot for my friend Chase Korte in the summer of 2005. I'm no film purist anymore, obviously, but I love shooting super8 or 16mm whenever I get a chance.

There's something really wonderful, after shooting video for years, about the simplicity of a film camera; lens, shutter, sprocket, motor. It's even more fun when you get to develop the film in a darkroom with your own two hands.

"We Are Ugly

...But We Have The Music" - is the title of this low-rent cabaret theatre piece, featuring some new friends of mine, at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis, March 26, 2006.

It's true that the live theatre experience doesn't always translate to video. But rather than simply accept this bit of conventional wisdom, I'm really interested in figuring out why that is, and continuing to experiment with the possibilities.

Wedding Portraits

A clip from my dad's wedding day, in Minnesota in the summer of 2005. We moved inside just minutes before a massive hailstorm swept through.

Rooftop

I'm a total sucker for dusky skies. Shot from the rooftop of an apartment building in Linden Hills, Minneapolis in the summer of 2004. Featuring friends Catrin and Dain.

Treetop

This is the only video on this site, so far, that I didn't shoot - Kris Barberg is behind the camera, on a music video for Catrin Magnusson. But I scared the birds.

Band Practice

My friends Action vs. Action (((AvA))) in their practice space, in the summer of 2005.

Cafe Rostand

Brilliant existentialist art film? Or just a collection of interesting images from a cafe in Paris in the winter of 2002? You decide.

Sledding

We've had a substantial amount of snow in Minnesota this week - two of the best storms of the winter. I took my camera on a saucer-sled with me down the hill, for the sheer danger of it. I apologize if this makes anyone seasick, but in the 320x240 window, it should be okay.

Comic Book Release Party

Special thanks to Joe Alterio, who gave me express permission to post this video of him drunk, with poofy hair.

I think there's a special poetry to drunkenness... not that this is a huge revelation. Hemingway, Bukowski, and Steinbeck each make the case, to name a few easy examples. But there's nothing like video, to provide embarrassing documentary evidence of a really fun night.

Filmed at the release party for Joe's book "365" in August of 2005. Comics from this book are available, totally free, for download (Video iPod friendly!) at:

http://www.clickwheel.net/features/show/32

It's awesome, by the way. Or you can visit his personal website, which is full of all kinds of beautiful stuff, in the column to the right.

Carpenters' Hands

Two carpenters installing windows in Minneapolis, March 6th, 2006.

Driving through a thunderstorm

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A huge storm overtook us on the highway in western Nebraska, late summer 2003.

Brushes on Drums

Marco Meneghin on drums (his brother is in another video, below), in his bedroom in Los Angeles, winter of 2001.

I have a lot of video, yet to come, of musicians... because they're captivating to watch, doing what they love. And, they don't mind being videotaped.

La Crescenta Mist

Walking in the hills north of Los Angeles, in the fall of 2000.

Subscribe!

I just discovered this (I'm slow) - you can subscribe to a podcast (which includes video)! ...and I just set it up for Video Haiku. There's no money involved, and no work, beyond pressing about two buttons:

Look at the bar on the righthand side of this page: underneath "previous posts" and "archives" there's an orange button with a speaker icon in it.

Click there, and you'll go to another site called "Feedburner" which hosts podcasts for free.

On the Feedburner site, just click on "add to iTunes" in the box to the right, or "My Yahoo" or something else, if it suits you better.

My future video posts will download to your computer's iTunes (or whatever) automatically.

Which is awesome.

Wedding Blessing

Some of the videos I post here are going to be formally interesting, but others will be more about a moment or an emotion - and the camerawork may be less than brilliant.

Wedding videos get a bad rap - they can be a crass product like fancy cake or expensive flower arrangements, and totally peripheral to the idea of love or committment or whatever. But I've shot a handful, and I'm always fascinated by the intense emotions that infuse the day. There's always a fair amount of nervousness and anxiety, but also lots of love, and not just between the couple - friends and family members show up, some of whom haven't seen each other in years, and everyone hugs and kisses and dances and gets drunk together. If you love shooting for its own sake, capturing rich images full of drama - it's candy. Not that I'd want to do it full-time.

My dad got remarried in the summer of 2005, at the tender age of 63. Listen closely to the voice of this woman, reading a poem to bless the marriage.

First Snow

The first snowfall in Minneapolis in the fall of 2001. I shot this streetlamp for about 20 minutes, as it went from a light dusting to a more serious storm (the light flares at the two cuts). If the brightness on your monitor isn't cranked, you might not see much here.

View of the Valley

An excerpt from a short film I made in Los Angeles in 2001, about two boys waiting for a tsunami to sweep across the LA Basin.

The point

In an art history class in school, onceuponatime, we talked about the concept of "Optimum Viewing Distance." For every painting, there's a spot where the viewer is supposed to stand. You can stand wherever you want, of course, but at this spot, you're seeing exactly what the artist intended for you to see. If you stand too close to a Monet, for instance, you kind of miss the point... same if you stand too far from a Degas.

"Optimum (Listening) Distance" applies to music, too - you have to get close to a jazz quartet or a folk singer, but U2 and Coldplay are designed and engineered for stadium shows.

Movies are no different. A movie in a big theatre is a fundamentally different experience from a DVD at home, from a tiny quicktime window on your laptop or iPod.

I think the internet, as it currently stands, is the first viable medium for truly small movies, intentionally small video pieces that you have to look at closely, from a foot or two away. Glimpses of beautiful things. And that's what I'm exploring with "Video Haiku."

Discussing Hendrix

My friend Dino Meneghin, on the subject of Jimi Hendrix, in Los Angeles in the spring of 2001.

Ballet Rehearsal

A rehearsal for Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" in Minneapolis, 2004. No audio.

Cemetery - Nebraska

Late summer evening in a tiny, overgrown cemetery in the middle of nowhere, northwestern Nebraska, 2003.

There will be video

I just discovered the video blog - vlog - though apparently they've been around for years. I'm excited - I have a lot of good footage, some of it associated with projects, some of it unattached to anything - just rare and beautiful moments that found me with a camcorder in hand.

I'm currently planning on two genres of post. Speaking pieces (people you don't know) telling stories, or talking about something important to someone, and Atmospheric pieces (places you haven't been), visual experiences of a time in a place, when the light was just so.

Nothing will be long- a few images, a few minutes. Some were shot years ago, as far back as 2000, and some will be brand new - potentially same-day. I'm open to the idea of accepting submissions as well, once I get things going. We shall see.