Video Haiku

the works and days of hands

2010-07-19T16:12:00.004-05:00

A short, hand-processed super-8 film commissioned by Skewed Visions.

Film Garden

2010-06-18T11:45:00.001-05:00

At the Handmade Film Institute workshop in Jamaica in March, we hung our recently-developed negative and film prints up to dry from clotheslines strung between tropical trees... and, for posterity, I decided to use my Bolex and a half a roll of my remaining footage to capture the ethereal effect of our harvest of images as they dripped dry, reflecting late-afternoon sun, and drifting in the breeze...

My co-workshopees dubbed it the "Film Garden" footage.

Old Musty Cheese

2010-06-18T11:23:00.000-05:00

"Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a-day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications."

- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The Gate to the Enclosure, Revisited

2010-06-11T12:23:00.002-05:00

I finally put together a page on my website dedicated to the gallery installation I created at the Weisman Art Museum last summer, which includes all eight of the vignettes featured in the installation, plus one self-reflexive bonus episode - a four-camera treatment of the gallery itself.

Obviously, these web videos don't convey the full experience of encountering the four, nine foot-wide screens in three dimensional space... but I think that the super-panoramic (1280x180 pixels) quicktime movies offer another sort of experience, which is pleasing in its own way.

Pretty Toys

2010-06-10T10:13:00.000-05:00

"As with our colleges, so with a hundred 'modern improvements:' there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at – as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate."

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Joe and Molly Getting Married

2010-06-07T13:33:00.000-05:00

As a wedding present, I offered to shoot footage of Joe and Molly's wedding in late 2008 with my super-8 camera. The space was pretty dimly lit so the whole night I was worried about whether anything would show up on the film at all...

Finally, after getting the film processed and transferred, I discovered to my relief that, though much of the film was too dark to be salvageable, there were some really beautiful (visible!) moments as well.

One thing I love about shooting this way is that unlike videography, where you can see what you're getting all the time on the LCD screen, there's an element of improvisation, guesswork and faith in shooting film. And, the end result, rather than being a dutiful record of basically every moment of the night, consists of impressionistic flashes of imagery - to me it feels more authentic in a way, in that it behaves as memory does.

When I think about an important event in my life, my brain doesn't have a perfect, chronological record of everything that happened - your memory may be different, but mine is full of dense shadows and occasional, haunting, glorious moments of lucidity.

Slow Film Minneapolis

2010-05-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

Just developed some new 16mm footage, the first time I've done it on my own, in buckets, in the basement.

The negative looks good, and it'll be transferred in a week or so - I'm excited to see it and share it.

The Slow Film Movement

2010-04-08T10:16:00.000-05:00

I recently returned from a week in Jamaica with Robert Schaller of The Handmade Film Institute in Colorado. A group of 6 of us shot B&W 16mm film with Bolexes and pinhole cameras, then we developed the footage in buckets of chemicals in a cave near the beach, made contact prints with a modified sync-block and an LED, and projected the finished product on a sheet suspended over a tide pool between two rock outcroppings.

Besides the obvious exotic appeal of developing film in a cave, the experience caused me to question my relationship with my chosen creative medium (or media, I guess) in a profound way.

Over the years, I've often heard old-timers talk about how digital video will never really replace film. And, I've heard the young turks (such as myself) retort that digital video was changing everything, finally democratizing the means of film production and distribution, and making the world a better place.

Digital media is accessible, efficient, convenient and abundant - so the argument goes. For the few thousand dollars that it would cost to shoot a short film on 16mm, you can buy a camera, a computer and software - everything that you might need to make an infinite number of films. The choice is clear, right?

For the most part I agree. I shoot tons of video, and the fact that these days anyone can pick up a camera and make a movie is pretty remarkable.

But what's been on my mind lately is the question of process. In our society it usually passes without question that more for less is better - that greater economy and greater efficiency equate to greater good. For the most part, these assumptions carry over into the arts, whether or not the comparison is valid. If my film crew costs $3200 per day, for example, it's better to make my movie in 18 days than in 36... at least as far as the producers are concerned.

BUT, I believe that there is at least some element of art that is by nature irreduceable - that there's no clear equation linking quality and quantity. An argument to the contrary quickly grows surreal, I think - the idea, for instance, that two paintings are worth twice as much as one painting, regardless of what's on the canvas.

This intangible variable of quality, which doesn't fit neatly into any equation by which value is determined, has something to do with experience, with inspiration, and with process. Neither the life experience of the artist nor his or her source of inspiration are likely to be adversely affected by the choice of medium - a brilliant filmmaker can make brilliant films with a cell phone camera, no doubt.

But process... process is a factor in the value of a piece of art. Process can be intangible - one doesn't automatically know, walking around a gallery, which paintings took 8 years to make, and which took 8 minutes. But, the artist arrives at a finished piece of work by means of a specific process, that encapsulates, in a certain sense, their experience, their training, and their inspiration for making the piece in the first place.

We did learn about process in film school, but mostly in the administrative sense of making a movie as efficiently and economically as possible, from start to finish. Our process was ultimately product-oriented; it was about getting the film done competently, and as painlessly as possible.

With digital cameras and nonlinear editing systems, it's possible to be incredibly efficient - a movie can be shot and edited in the same day; it's not at all uncommon for films, short and long, to be made in a matter of hours; the 48-hour film festival is just one highly visible example of this ethic of efficiency.

What gets lost in this utopian vision of accessibility, economy and efficiency is the whole idea of process - the idea that any step could, and perhaps should, require an irreduceable amount of time.
Sculpting in marble takes time. No matter how quickly the artist arrives at their vision of exactly what the piece should finally look like, there are still many, many hours yet to spend with chisels, hammers and sandpaper. And, the nature of this process - the steady chipping away, day after day, lends a certain unique quality to the finished work.

I'm not making the case that sculpting in marble is better than sculpting in clay, or that oil painting is better than watercolor. But each form, over time, evolves a process that reflects the values of that form.

Filmmaking used to be a relatively slow process - every step took a fairly consistent amount of time, from loading the camera with film to checking the exposure, to developing, printing, syncing, editing, color timing...

Video, as a separate medium, will no doubt develop its own processes and rhythms over time - but currently, it seems to me that this new, powerful technology is being used basically to mimic film processes, only more cheaply and more quickly.

And, that's a problem - because when you cut the process out of the filmmaking process, without replacing it with another process suited to the new media, practitioners of the new media are robbed of something essential. Economy and efficiency are no substitute for process. You can't shortcut around process to get to product faster and expect the quality to be unaffected.

So what's my point?

There is intangible, irreduceable value to sitting in the dark with a bucket of chemicals. When the practice of one artistic process requires more time and energy than another artistic process, that additional time and energy isn't necessarily wasted - maybe, in fact, it's that time spent in process where the invisible part of the creative work is actually taking place. More, faster, cheaper, doesn't necessarily mean better, where art is concerned.

I'm not advocating that video be abandoned by any means. But the creative process around video is still evolving, and we do it and ourselves a disservice by ignoring it, or pretending that it's something it's not. Maybe it's watercolor, maybe it's jazz - but if we treat it as a null, as a means to an end, as a cheap way to move pixels around - it will only ever be beautiful by accident.

Sustainable Cinema

2010-02-23T10:39:00.000-06:00

I was approached to write an article about independent filmmaking for the February edition of Minnesota Playlist, a local web publication that's primarily for the performing arts, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to take a topic that I've been stewing on for years, and try to put my thoughts about it into coherent form.

It doesn't really come out in the article, but much of my thinking on the subject has been informed by the work of Naomi Klein, who, in her book "No Logo," discusses outsourcing, sweatshops, and how the business of ideas and marketing replaced the business of actually making things in America.

True.

2010-02-08T11:41:00.000-06:00

"If you want to know what's really going on in a society or ideology, follow the money. If money is flowing to advertising instead of to musicians, journalists, and artists, then a society is more concerned with manipulation than with truth or beauty. If content is worthless, then people will start to become empty-headed and content-less. The combination of hive mind and advertising has resulted in a new kind of social contract. The basic idea of this contract is that authors, journalists, musicians and artists are encouraged to treat the fruits of their intellects and imaginations as fragments to be given without pay to the hive mind. Reciprocity takes the form of self-promotion. Culture is to become precisely nothing but advertising."

- Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto

... and yes, I'm aware of the potential irony/hypocrisy of posting this on a blog. I encourage you to go out and buy the whole book, at a real bookstore, like I did.

Four Frame Gallery Duet

2009-11-06T14:53:00.002-06:00

From the exhibition at the Weisman Art Museum. Click on the image to see the video.

The Object in Space

2009-08-16T15:57:00.004-05:00

Here's a short video of my piece The Gate to the Enclosure in the gallery where it's installed at the Weisman Art Museum.

(video documentation by Isaac Gale and Dave Underhill)

I'm planning on adding a page to my official portfolio website (videohaiku.com) to archive the piece soon, but I haven't figured out how to accomplish that, yet.

It's a new challenge for me, because most of my work is well suited to the two-dimensional space of a computer screen - this is the first time I've really stepped out of that frame.

Blogversification

2009-07-27T10:32:00.003-05:00

Hello.

I've just begun to work on a new documentary project, inspired by my experience in a men's group (kind of like group therapy, without the therapist), and the organization that the group is a part of, called "The ManKind Project."

It's hard to say exactly, but I'm guessing that it'll take at least a year to gather all the footage, and we have to find money for the project too - but I'm very excited about it, and it looks like I get to work with some long-time collaborators, Dain Ingebretson and Charlie Borden.

I've decided to start another blog, to track the progress of that project, and explore and discuss all of the surrounding issues that come up... it's called Masculine Myth.

Feel free to go check it out, and I do hope it'll become a collaborative effort, so if you have content to suggest, links to articles, etc.. - don't hesitate to let me know. I plan to post there at least a couple times a week.

The Gate to the Enclosure

2009-06-26T16:56:00.002-05:00

x4= Morgan Thorson

2009-06-26T16:54:00.002-05:00

Installation is Underway!

2009-06-24T17:19:00.002-05:00

...for the video installation at the Weisman Art Museum, where this new four-camera series will be displayed.

x4= HIJACK + Sherman

2009-06-24T11:51:00.002-05:00

x4= Mad King Thomas

2009-06-19T12:00:00.003-05:00

Charles Campbell - Country Road

2009-05-13T10:02:00.004-05:00

New Frames

2009-03-09T16:36:00.004-05:00

Test footage for a new four-camera video project, that will become an installation piece at the Weisman Art Museum this summer...

Four Frame Dance Project: Mad King Thomas

2008-12-09T15:43:00.006-06:00

All performance elements, movement and choreography created by Theresa Madeus, Tara King and Monica Thomas.

Concept and execution by Kevin Obsatz and Justin Jones.

Old School

2008-11-12T18:34:00.005-06:00

mov / wmv

Shot with a primitive, hand-made "pinhole" 16mm camera - no lens, no motor, pretty much nothing but raw film on a spool, in a box.

Made as part of the Wilderness Filmmaking Expedition, at the Handmade Film Institute, in Colorado in the summer of 2008.

Music by Spaghetti Western.

Four Frame Dance Project: Charles Campbell

2008-10-20T09:39:00.006-05:00

All performance elements, movement and choreography created by Charles Campbell.

Concept and execution by Kevin Obsatz and Justin Jones.

Four Frame Dance Project: Kristin Van Loon

2008-09-13T22:50:00.003-05:00

All performance elements, movement and choreography created by Kristin Van Loon.

Concept and execution by Kevin Obsatz and Justin Jones.

Four Frame Dance Project: Anna Marie Shogren

2008-09-10T11:38:00.003-05:00

All performance elements, movement and choreography created by Anna Marie Shogren.

Concept and execution by Kevin Obsatz and Justin Jones.

Four Frame Dance Project: Megan Mayer

2008-09-08T10:40:00.003-05:00

All performance elements, movement and choreography created by Megan Mayer.

Concept and execution by Kevin Obsatz and Justin Jones.

Four Frame Dance Project: Justin Jones

2008-08-29T16:01:00.003-05:00

All performance elements, movement and choreography created by Justin Jones.

Concept and execution by Kevin Obsatz and Justin Jones.

mp4 / wmv

Work In Progress

2008-06-27T11:05:00.001-05:00

A short documentary piece I'm working on for the Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir. Not quite done, but almost...

Day Job

2008-03-20T09:22:00.002-05:00

Since I'm not following the rules at the moment, while I wait for inspiration as to what the new rules should be, I thought I might as well try an experiment, and post a link to a short piece I did for money. It's not art, by any means, but I think it's well done and watchable, and there's no reason, really, to disqualify "work" from blog-worthiness.

So... this is one in a series of short pieces to document the renovation of this house - a simple exploration, set to really pretty music.

Art Shanties

2008-02-07T16:04:00.000-06:00

mp4 / wmv

On Medicine Lake, in the western suburbs of Minneapolis, in February of 2008.

Bike Wash

2008-01-31T12:49:00.000-06:00

mp4 / wmv

With Elliot, on a particularly warm day in Minneapolis, in January of 2008.

Lately I'm thinking that, rather than push myself to post something every day, I'll take it slow at first and aim for once a week. Quality control, in theory, will be easier that way.

Feels Good

2008-01-22T09:10:00.000-06:00

mp4 / wmv

...to be back.

Reasons I'm excited about my new camera:

1. It seems to do better in low-light situations than the last one.
2. It has a native letterbox (widescreen) video setting - I've always been a sucker for that.
3. It has an image stabilizer - which will make a big difference, with all of the handheld running around I like to do.
4. It has a wide, 28 mm lens - unusual for a digital camera.

I'm not sure what the rules are going to be, this time around - I think I'll just play at first, and see what feels right. I'm just happy to have a camera in my pocket again.

The New One

2008-01-16T12:46:00.001-06:00

...is on its way. I'm very excited.

As far as new rules, I'm thinking about one 15 second shot per day, rather than two minutes every few days. Just time enough for one impression of a place or person or thing.

I don't think of it as a concession to the short attention span - rather, a slightly more singular glimpse, a series of simple moments, that may eventually string together into something bigger.

This concept may evolve, over time - ah, the joys of blogging! - I'm also interested in trying to make it more personal somehow, without being exactly autobiographical.

Who knows. We'll see.

New Direction

2007-09-28T13:39:00.000-05:00

I have a new idea for this blog that I feel good about - I'm not ready to share the details yet, but I will say that it's interview-based.

I've shot enough footage of the world around me for now - I've hit all the seasons, all types of weather, all times of day, all modes of transportation.

And so what's left of interest to me, in my everyday life, is faces and voices. And it's certainly a challenge, talking to people and getting something real and compelling in a short window of time. So I guess that's what I'd better try.

I think I'll keep the name Video Haiku, because I like it, but the rules, of course, will have to change.

And I need to buy a new camera... but I'm a bit broke at the moment... so it'll be credit or Christmas, or both.

Fallow

2007-08-18T12:20:00.000-05:00

So this is post number 201 to this blog - I've been making video haikus for about a year and a half, at a pretty steady rate of 1-3 per week, since last March. I would guess, conservatively, that there are about six hours of video posted here, almost all of it in two-minute increments.

And I've realized, lately, that I'm just not inspired to do it right now - I don't know if it's because I'm bored with the format, preoccupied with other creative work, or incurious about my surroundings - it could even be my camera itself, which I've wanted to replace for months, but I can't afford a new one at the moment.

But I think that, rather than continue halfheartedly, it makes more sense to take a break, and think hard about a change - in the rules, in the form, in the raison d'être of Video Haiku.

I'm totally open to ideas and opinions and suggestions - feel free to send me your thoughts. And I know that I'm not done, by any means, with web video - the potential of the medium is still fascinating to me, and this blog has been an extremely satisfying and meaningful pursuit.

So, I'll definitely be back - I'm just taking a break, to figure out what's next.

Train Yard

2007-08-13T11:52:00.000-05:00

With Megan, in Minneapolis, in August of 2007.

Memorial Service

2007-08-07T11:33:00.000-05:00

For the victims of the 35W bridge collapse, in Minneapolis in August of 2007.

Bus Stop

2007-08-02T09:56:00.000-05:00

In Minneapolis, in April of 2007.

Footbridge

2007-07-30T11:27:00.000-05:00

In Minneapolis, in May of 2007.

Movies in the Park

2007-07-26T09:50:00.000-05:00

In Minneapolis, in July of 2007.

2007-06-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

A strangely beautiful color combination...

At the MSP Airport, in Minneapolis in June of 2007.

Pixelodeon

2007-06-09T12:31:00.001-05:00

I won't be able to make it in person, but a few video haikus have been selected to screen at the Pixelodeon Video Festival in Los Angeles, as a part of the program "Outside and Unkown: from the Fringes of the Vlogosphere."

It's this weekend - today actually. So, sorry about the short notice. But it's an honor to be selected - thank you, Jennifer.

On-Ramp

2007-06-08T22:02:00.000-05:00

Travelling in the opposite direction of rush hour, on a misty morning in Minneapolis in June of 2007.

2007-04-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

large file / small file

In Minneapolis, in April of 2007.

Train Bridge 2

2007-04-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

large file / small file

Same bridge, different view. In Minneapolis, in March of 2007.

The Dream Factory

2007-04-16T16:21:00.000-05:00

A collection of interviews I conducted with fellow 2001/2 USC film school graduates, on the occasion of the 4- or 5-year anniversary of their entry into the film industry.

I haven't been posting these lately because they don't conform to video haiku regulations, but what the heck... I'm proud of the work, and I think the stories should be shared.

Mamet on Decay

2007-04-15T10:23:00.000-05:00

I stole a book of essays by David Mamet from my friend Alex's apartment, and I've been rereading it for the last month or so. I have mixed feelings about his plays, but the essays are incredible, about everything from show business to the death of the American pool hall.

Here are some excerpts from one that seemed especially relevant to me, from a lecture he gave at Harvard in 1986:

When a society is growing (just as when a play is growing) all aspects of that society promote growth: the arts, the economy, religion (as in nineteenth-century America). When a society is growing those things appear and thrive which will make the organism strong, virile, happy, outward-directed-- seminal, in short. And we have all had this experience when working on a new project: we do without sleep, people who will help us miraculously appear, we master new skills easily, people are glad to meet us...

When the society has achieved itself, all aspects of that society tend toward disassembly, toward reducing that society into its smallest component parts, so that rest can be achieved and those components can be employed in a new task.

When a society has achieved itself, has achieved its inscrutable purposes, it is not "bad luck" but common sense that all aspects of the society promote war, waste, pollution, doubt, anxiety--those things will hasten decay.

...

We, as a culture, as a civilization, are at the point where the appropriate, the life-giving, task of the organism is to decay. Nothing will stop it, nothing can stop it, for it is the force of life, and the evidence is all around us. Listen to the music in train stations and on the telephone when someone puts you on hold. The problem is not someone or some group of people unilaterally deciding to plague you with bad music; the problem is a growing universal and concerted attempt to limit the time each of us is alone with his or her thoughts; it is the collective unconscious suggesting an act of mercy.

...

You younger people in the theater might say: Where is the kind and generous producer? The insightful talent agent? The wise critic? Better stop looking for them and assume they don't exist. Today the job of the agent, the critic, the producer, is to hasten decay, and they are doing their job--the job the society has elected them to do is to spread terror and the eventual apathy which ensues when an individual is too afraid to look at the world around him. They are the music in the railroad station, and they represent our desire for rest.

...

Most of you who decide to stay in the theater will become part of the maelstrom of commercials, television, the quest for fame and recognition. in this time of decay those things which society will reward with fame and recognition are bad acting, bad writing, choices which inhibit thought, reflection and release; and these things will be called art.

Some of you are born, perhaps, to represent the opposing view--the minority opinion of someone who, for whatever reason, is not afraid to examine his state. Some of you, in spite of it all, are thrown up by destiny to attempt to bring order to the stage, to attempt to bring to the stage, as Stanislavsky put it, the life of the human soul.

Like Laocoon, you will garner quite a bit of suffering in your attempts to perform a task which you will be told does not even exist. Please try to keep in mind that the people who tell you that, who tell you you are dull and talentless and noncommercial, are doing their job; and also bear in mind that, in your obstinacy and dedication, you are doing your job.

...

If you are going to work in the true theater, that job is a great job in this time of final decay; that job is to bring to your fellows, through the medium of your understanding and skill, the possibility of communion with what is essential in us all: that we are born to die, that we strive and fail, that we live in ignorance of why we were placed here, and, that, in the midst of this we need to love and be loved, but we are afraid.

Train Bridge

2007-03-02T18:33:00.000-06:00

large file / small file

I have a thing for bridges. And this is probably my favorite one, across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, in February of 2007.

One Year

2007-03-02T11:53:00.000-06:00

As of tomorrow, Video Haiku will have been in existence for an entire year.

With approximately 140 videos posted, and roughly four hours of total footage.

It's been a lot of fun, and there's plenty more to come.

Thanks so much for visiting.