Posts By Dave Bonta
Space by Nathan Lunt
A film by Geoff Gilson and Keith Allott (BadshoesFilm), who writes in the YouTube description:
Originally filmed and edited by me and Geoff Gilson in 48 hours for the Leicester DocFest 48 hour doco challenge in November 2012. We took one of Dave Dhonau’s beautiful tracks and applied it to the visual. After further thought we felt we needed some spoken word material too so we asked the massively talented poet Nathan Lunt to write and perform an original piece. This is the result.
A fascinating process, which I think illustrates 1) how close documentary and videopoem can be; and 2) what good results can come from presenting a poet with film footage and asking him or her to write an original text in response. I wish more videopoems and filmpoems were made in this manner.
I found a description of the 48 Hour Documentary Film Competition at the website for the 2013 Leicester DocFilm Festival:
The mission is simple, to encourage new and established documentary filmmakers to get out there and make something, as well giving you a platform from which to showcase your talents. What makes the competition such a challenge is the 48 hour timeframe. It’s deliberately tough because we want to show just what’s possible when you put your mind to it.
[…]
We’ll announce the subject for the films at Phoenix Square 5pm, Friday 1st November and you’ll then have 48 hours to use however you’d like to produce, film & edit a short documentary up to 10 mins in length.
For more on Nathan Lunt, see this webpage from the University of Leicester.
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be by John Keats
A film by Maia Porcaro.
Vimeo overhauls its video player, introducing closed captioning and better HTML5 support
I’m a little slow in noticing this announcement from January 7 on the Vimeo staff blog. But it’s exciting stuff, with big consequences both for filmmakers and publishers who rely on Vimeo for video hosting.
A lot has changed since we launched the last all-new version of our player, two and a half years ago:
- Browser innovation has brought new HTML5 capabilities (full-screen viewing is now available on every major desktop browser).
- Smartphones have gotten more powerful (and in many cases, bigger), and the variety of smartphones has increased tremendously (three years ago, when we debuted the HTML player, there were only a handful in existence.)
- Firefox added support for H.264 on mobile, Windows, and Linux (with OS X support on the horizon).
- The introduction of devices that support multiple kinds of inputs (e.g., touch, mouse, and pen) at the same time.
With all these advancements, it was clear that we needed a more flexible and accommodating base for our player. So we did the only thing that made sense: we rebuilt the whole thing from scratch.
The player may look (mostly) the same on the surface, but behind the scenes we rethought everything from the ground up. Our re-engineered back end means that videos load twice as fast, and we simplified the front end to make it compatible with way more devices.
New features outlined in the post include faster playback, in-player purchasing, a redesigned share screen, new accessibility features, HTML5 by default (about time!), more responsiveness, and perhaps most significantly, closed captions/subtitles support.
This last is especially important for poetry films, I think, because many of us have tended to feel that putting words on the screen by default when the poem is already included in the soundtrack is redundant and distracting… for people who don’t have hearing problems. But those who do haven’t been very well served by this approach. It should also be a lot easier to reach readers in foreign languages now (given good translations, of course).
Read the whole post, and check out the new FAQ page on Captions and Subtitles.
haar by Sheree Mack
A film by Judith Dekker, who notes in the description at Vimeo that it was
Made as a part of my residency in Dunbar, Scotland for North Light.
This footage was shot during my time there, most of it even on my first evening. Dunbar has a working harbour which brings movement and sounds. But there are moments when there’s a stillness. I asked fellow resident and poet Sheree Mack if she had words for those times and she did. Her words compliment the images and Luca Nasciuti created another great soundtrack.
Haar is a Scots word which translates in English to “coastal fog.” In Dekker’s native Dutch, it can mean “her” or “hair.”
Sheree Mack writes about her own time in Dunbar in a post at her great new blog, adrift in the wilderness. She also kept a blog during her residency: Walking Our Way Home.
Need by Bill Yarrow
https://vimeo.com/83938341
A videopoem remix of a text at The Poetry Storehouse. Nic S. used footage from NASA and the Prelinger Archives, music by Matt Samolis, and her own reading of the poem by Bill Yarrow.
Scavenged Tongues, Buried Whispers By Eden Jeffries
A film by Anthony Brown and Ashley Blakeney. Eden Jeffries is a creative writer, visual artist and activist.
Le Chat / The Cat by Charles Baudelaire
A trilingual filmpoem (subtitles in English and German; voiceover in French) by German filmmaker Patrick Müller.
2014 Visible Verse Festival open for submissions
The leading videopoetry festival in North America, Visible Verse, takes place in Vancouver every fall. Heather Haley, the organizer, messaged me on Facebook to let me know that they are already open for submissions again. Here’s the call from their new website:
Call for Entries and Official Guidelines:
- VVF seeks videopoems and poetry films with a 12 minute maximum duration.
- Works will be judged by their innovation, cohesion and literary merit. The ideal videopoem is a wedding of word and image, the voice seen as well as heard.
- Please do not send documentaries as they are outside the featured genre.
- Either official language of Canada is acceptable, though if the video is in French, an English-dubbed or-subtitled version is required. Videopoems may originate in any part of the world.
- Please submit by sending the url/link to your videopoem for previewing to VVF Artistic Director Heather Haley at: hshaley@ emspace.com along with a brief bio and contact information. If selected, you will receive notification and further instructions.
- There is no official application form nor entry fee.
2014 Visible Verse Festival will take place in October
Submission deadline: July 1, 2014
Two other international poetry film festivals are also currently open for submissions: the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin (deadline: 25 April) and The Body Electric Poetry Film Festival in Fort Collins, Colorado (deadline: 16 February).
If you organize, or simply know about, other poetry film festivals and contests, please contact me when they open for submissions so I can help spread the word.
Todd Boss’ “Arrivals and Departures,” The Poetry Storehouse, and “12 Moons” featured at Connotation Press
Erica Goss‘ monthly column on videopoetry at Connotation Press, The Third Form, focuses this month on “three video poetry projects … that demonstrate how talent, collaboration and the DIY spirit continue to expand this art form.”
Viewers will see poetry films projected on the gigantic backdrop of St. Paul’s Union Depot train station. Todd Boss, poet, co-founder of Motionpoems and public artist, has embarked on an ambitious project called Arrivals and Departures. The historic Union Depot, saved from demolition and now the focus of a $243 million project, will get the video poetry treatment from Todd and his crew beginning in early October.
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The Poetry Storehouse is Nic S.’s latest venture. Well-known for her vocal interpretations of poetry and for her innovations in the world of video poetry and poetry publishing via the nanopress, Nic said that “the idea came about through a couple of conversations I had about poetry, collaboration and influences.” One of those conversations, with poet and rabbi Rachel Barenblat, got Nic thinking about a place where people could contribute their poetry with the specific agreement that it be used in another artwork. The result was The Poetry Storehouse. Launched in October 2013, it’s already well-stocked and ready for remixing possibilities.
[…]
Finally, I have had the honor to be part of a team that includes Kathy McTavish, Nic S., and Swoon (Marc Neys). 12 Moons is based on twelve poems I wrote, one for every month of the year, with vocals from Nic, music from Kathy, and video plus concept and editing from Swoon. One by one, the team members added their parts: Nic made haunting, poignant recordings of each poem, to which Kathy added the soul-stirring music of her cello. Marc took those building blocks and added his special magic: combing through the archives of public access, vintage film to choose just the right scenes, plus adding his own film, he created twelve videos that explore one person’s life, month-by-month. I blogged about this in several posts at Savvy Verse and Wit.
“Trying Something New”: a seasoned poet chronicles her first foray into videopoetry
The Chicago-based poet Donna Vorreyer, author of A House of Many Windows, chronicled her first foray into poetry film-making in four posts at her blog, which are well worth a perusal by anyone interested in the craft or theory of videopoetry. I was honored that she chose one of my own texts to work with, although that does mean I won’t be sharing it on the main site. At any rate, here are the links:
- Trying Something New, Part One
- Trying Something New, Part Two: Editing & Recording
- Trying Something New, Part Three: The Sounds and the Fury
- And…it’s finished.
Thanks, Donna! And welcome to the cult. :)
