02F-10, "Peaceful and Surreal" |
A Long Road to Moving Pictures
"You should make a video," they say. Even in 1984, when home video production has just come over the horizon. Ah, Larry, you need to be a bit more sensitive. If you didn't think about impossible things you'd never have made a sand arch. Why should video be any different? As with the arch, there is an answer: do it yourself. Figure it out, start at the beginning and acquire the skills. I can be impenetrably dense at times. From the first time I handled a camcorder to the point where the thought finally got through was a span of nearly ten years. There are differences. One man and a beach are all that's necessary to produce an arch. The minimum necessary requirement for video is a camera, and I just couldn't justify it. Who'd watch the tape? Who'd care? In 1998 that problem ceased to matter. Any itch, in this case the desire to shoot video, that stays around for ten years deserves to be scratched. At the end of December I walked out of Samy's Camera with my own video camcorder. Shortly after that I learned that the camcorder may be the arch's keystone, but you still need legs. All it takes is money. I solved the arch problem in three visits to the beach. The video problem is more obdurate. Spend all the money you want, you still need experience, if only to tell you which item you really need to buy after getting the wrong one. Why bother? Because there's a good story in this, as proven at the Sierra Club Camera Committee slide show in 1995. The audience really was listening, but I have to do it myself. No real video producer would even consider making a show like this. So, New Year Day, 1999. Video experiment #1. Not exactly a failure, but wind noise in the microphone and color inconsistency made the production less than what I wanted. Money took care of the wind noise (buying a furry windscreen), close perusal of the manual took care of the second (setting white balance to "daylight"). The next sand sculpture tape looked and sounded better. Hint: Think of video as a system. Good production requires all pieces and the knowledge to operate them. Somewhere between unwatchable amateur video (accidentally jumpy and noisy) and unwatchable modern professional video (deliberately shaky and noisy due to processing the clean camera signal with very expensive equipment) there's a middle path that tells the story unobtrusively. Television can be a marvelously clear moving window into other realities, multidimensional, independent of time, parallel processing in multiple channels, all woven so skillfully that the viewer doesn't even know what's going on. They just "get it." Finally, here we are on April 20, 2002. Many problems have been solved, many new ones have shown up. Today's experiment involves audio. I can get good ambient audio with the Crown stereo mic but it isn't designed for picking up narration. I have a lavalier mic for that, but with the stereo mic that means I need three channels of sound. The camcorder will handle four, but they can't be edited unless I'm willing to do a lot of extra work. So, I bought a mixer that will take the three channels and mix them to two, which I can record and edit easily. Let me tell you, as an aside, that buying the mixer was an adventure in itself. Ask me about it sometime. And now, to the task. The experiment is labelled "Audio #28," but in reality the test goes much deeper than that. Can I carve and talk at the same time? |
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| 02F-10 Report |
| Build number: | 02F-10 (lifetime start #238) |
| Title: | "Peaceful and Surreal" |
| Date: | April 20 |
| Location: | Venice Breakwater, south side littoral |
| Start: | 0800; construction time 9 hours (includes time for video) |
| Height: | 3.4 feet (Latchform) |
| Base: | 1.75 feet, ellipsoid prism due to form's shape |
| Photo 35mm: | approx 10 exp Astia w/LX and 28-135 (finished sculpture, details) |
| Photo 6X7: | none (camera deleted in favor of audio equipment) |
| Photo volunteer: | Rich, w/Canon Z115 |
| Video motion: | intro, narration test, walkaround, detail tracking w/XL1, SASS, Sonotrim lavalier mic (20 min on first tape, 10 min on new tape) |
| Video still: | vertical-format completed sculpture, various details |
| Video volunteer: | none |
| New Equipment: | Sound Devices audio mixer (second trip, first use) |
1. There Are Alligators in the Swamp (Further Confusion of Tail and Dog)Preparing for a sculpture day used to be simple. Some snacks in a pack, the form rolled up, and a bucket with my tools, and I'd walk to the beach from a parking place. The equipment list has grown and shrunk. Cameras have come and gone. Forms have been replaced with ones that work better and take less effort to set up. After all, the main objective is to make a sculpture. That central process has expanded from casually poking holes in a packed block of sand to designing and shaping inside and outside, relating the spaces to the hard parts, fitting the various pieces together in interesting ways. Video is fascinating in itself: that glowing screen, sound, time, stories. The moving picture is the best way to see a sculpture, short of being on the beach during its brief lifespan. It also provides a quick way to get images for the Web. Nothing else about it is quick. Packing the audio gear adds another bag to the two I already carry, and I also need the video tripod and mic stand. Setting it up for the day's experiments makes me glad we're into the long-day part of the year. The stereo mic goes on its stand. Two cables connect it to the mixer. Then I put the battery in the lavalier mic and connect it to the mixer's third input using a 25-foot cable. The dual-connector snake, 50 feet long, connects the mixer's stereo output to the camcorder. The stereo mic's left output is panned hard left, the right is panned hard right, and the lav goes in the middle. I check the sound on the mixer's LED meters because I forgot to bring headphones. They respond normally, and the camcorder is also live. The area looks like a snake pit. It works, according to the meters. The culmination of two years of audio experiments, live on the beach. How does it sound? That will have to wait for when I can review the dailies. Most production houses split the audio away from the video, then assemble them in post-production. I'm hoping to save time and money by getting everything right on the shoot, then doing simple editing to assemble the scenes into a coherent video. The whole thing could fail. Who cares. There's a sculpture to make. Finally. 2. Disappointment (The Sea Gives, The Sea Takes Away)Shovel in hand, I walk down the beach. Two dozen surfers are lined up waiting for ocean-spanning waves to build and collapse here in Venice. Today they are doing better than usual, which explains the sand. Sample pits everywhere reveal the same news: if there's good sand in here, it's unreachably deep. I load two buckets with what's available and carry them up to the building site. "Hi, Larry." Some sculptures are more work than others. This one is a bear. Coarse sand doesn't seal very well so the water runs out, and with the tide very low I have a long walk. If I can get a layer of fine sand in there, the water will last longer. For the next load I dig deep and then go deeper. Finally, about a foot down, I find some decent sand. Quickly, before incoming water fills the pit, I grab two buckets full. This took more time and I'm out of water. It's a lovely day for a walk. Puffy low clouds race overhead and play over the mountains. The offshore breeze is cool, scented with carne asada. Spray curls backward from breaking waves. Ever the idealist, I make sure subsequent loads of sand come from the finer layer. The beach is littered with hundreds of pounds of overburden, and the borrow pits are big. As the tide retreats the job becomes somewhat easier because the overburden layer thins lower on the beach. My shoulders still hurt by the time the form is full. It only felt like forever. 3. Tongue-tied (Silenced at the Debut)What's this? A block of sand? Oh, yes. That's why I'm here. Sculpture. Think three dimensions.The stereo mic stands by the table that holds the mixer. A long cable runs from me to the mixer, and another comes back to the camcorder on its tripod ten feet away. I hit the go button and face the sand. There's nothing like a video camera to bring people out. Or an audio recording to attract noise. I no sooner get started than a speedboat comes out of Marina del Rey and swamps anything I could say. Fortunately, as is common among operators of such equipment, they have no patience. I can outwait just about anyone. Quiet returns and I start to tell the story of how I got started. Just as well there was a delay; I couldn't think of where to start. 4. Push the Alligators Aside (Can We Carve Some Sand Now?)Enough of that. I untangle myself from wires after about 20 minutes. That should be enough for testing for wind noise, audio level, distortion and such.The original idea for a hanging arch had to be deferred due to marginal sand. That design will require the best Venice can offer. Mind full of video, the one idea that comes to mind is to work on the transitions between elements. Rather than just seeming to end, they need to look designed. Constant attention to details helps. The result is a carving with good details that falls short of being a sculpture. It does have strong points: a good curve at the bottom that continues through a space into the sculpture, a nicely shaped window into the central space. Still, it's a return to the days of parts looking for a whole to be part of. Last year I'd have been proud of any of these individual pieces, and pleased with the sculpture. Late last year my standards started to change. I want to make sculptures that look good as one whole piece. Developing skill in this will probably take the rest of my life. 5. Self Care (Dutch Doctor's Directions)"Larry, you have to eat." Mirjam wrote this is an Email message. I know she's right, but there's not time.Well, now we're well into days that are over 12 hours long. And I can eat while I spray. The next problem is remembering. What with all the other distractions--design, audio, video, passersby--I have to make an effort. Whenever I think about it I eat. The result is pretty much the same. At around 1500 I start to come apart. 6. Forget the Standards (Remember the Original Plan)Amid all the changes of equipment and technique, talk of skill, attempts to carve in accordance with a numinous idea, one thing gets lost. Fun.This started out as a lark. Let's try to do something impossible. It may not work, but trying feels good. Today is a lovely day for it. A brisk west wind drives sailboats along the coast and kicks up waves that sparkle under sunlight attenuated just enough by a layer of thin vapor. Catalina is invisible, Palos Verdes just a darker blot on the southern horizon, the mountains north of Santa Monica soft. Toward sunset it gets chilly. Rich adds his sweater to the jacket he's already wearing. Neither of us lasts. "Rich, I've had it." I'm bumbling around, trying to pick up equipment, and having to handle most of it twice. This sculpture might be a design failure but it was great fun to carve. Remember that, Larry. "And see how it plays with the light, Rich." "You must be relaxed after you do one of these." The sand is very dry. Rain this year has been more of a dream than a reality. Dragging the trailer to my bicycle makes both of us sweat. If Dave had been available I'd have asked for a tow. "Thanks, Rich." 7. Sunday (Half a Brain is Better Than None)Light seeps into the sky beyond my bedroom window. I feel like I've been run over by a truck, but that's typical. What's atypical is that I have some energy. No brain, but there's some body left.Thank you, Mirjam. The body starts doing things and the soggy brain just sort of goes along for the ride: farmer's market, and I even remember to hit the health food place for some lotion. It's interesting to be halfway across a street on a bicycle, wondering how I got there so fast. Words seep upward slow as dawn light. Eventually they get there and join the others in the report. Another thought surfaces. Let's find out how the tape sounds. I turn on equipment and cue it up. The result is excellent! The lavalier mic adds greatly to the sense of being there; I can hear the tools rattling as I select the one I want. Even the cut of tool into sand is audible, but not overbearing. The one problem is wind noise. I believe this is coming from the lav because when my back is to the wind the noise isn't there. Could be coincidence. The mixer has the ability to test for this sort of thing with its "Pre-fader Listen" switch on each input channel. Turn this on and that input is the only one the operator hears. Of course, to make this work I'll have to remember the headphones. It is, by far, the best audio I've ever recorded on the beach. We're making progress.
Report written April 21 July 7 (HTML conversion All contents designed and made by Larry Nelson |