Zombies, Dude! — An Experiment in Flashmob Filmmaking

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 9:42 PM on September 11, 2011 in Filmmakery. 0 Comments Tags: , , , . Short URL: http://plankhead.com/MI

This is the result of the first prototype of a workshop I’m planning to call “Flashmob Filmmaking”. The idea is to get a large group of people together to make a film — from pre-production to post — in two hours. Writing the script, shooting the footage, and cutting it together, all in that short span of time.

When this idea hit me, I envisioned it as something to do at some kind of fandom convention — a place full of regular people who’d be interested in doing something creative. But I needed to make sure it worked first, so I tried it at a party.

As you can see, it definitely worked. For the most part. We did go slightly over two hours total, so I’ll need to refine the formula to keep things moving along.

And I need to figure out a better solution for shooting footage that can be edited right away, without wasting any time to capture, transfer, or transcode. We shot this on a camera hooked up to Adobe OnLocation on my MacBook, and carried the laptop around along with the camera. Then, I put it into Target Disk Mode and connected it to my larger and more capable iMac, and used ClipWrap to make the footage editable into Final Cut. Unfortunately, the process of Target Disking and ClipWrapping took up a good five minutes — which is fast compared to capture or transcoding, but still too long for this purpose. I’ll probably need to get a camera which shoots to SD cards in a QuickTime-native format (or maybe ClipWrappable, since that process only took about a minute; I can live with that).

    How to Record a Google+ Hangout on Mac OS X For Free With Free Software

    Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 7:28 PM on September 1, 2011 in Commentary. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , , . Short URL: http://plankhead.com/JS

    I’ve seen a lot of tutorials and suggestions for recording a Google+ Hangout. All the ones I’ve seen run into one or more of these problems:

    • They require you to buy software or monkey around with a shitty trial version
    • They require Windows
    • They produce low quality video and/or audio
    • They don’t let you capture the sound of you talking and everybody else

    So, here’s a method that solves all of those issues, as long as you’re running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later.
    Continue reading ‘How to Record a Google+ Hangout on Mac OS X For Free With Free Software’

      Let’s Talk About Steve Jobs, Because Everyone Else Is

      Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 12:01 PM on August 26, 2011 in Crosspostery. 0 Comments Tags: , . Short URL: http://plankhead.com/Vt

      I told myself that I wasn’t going to comment on the latest Steve-job that humanity as a whole is giving itself. Sadly, I was unable to resist. Hence, my latest post on Falkvinge on Infopolicy.

      I, like every single freaking person on the planet, have an about Steve Jobs, and the things he has done in his life. I’m not going to share it with you right now, because it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.

      When most people blabber about Steve Jobs, they’re rarely flapping their lips about him, personally. After all, most people in the world don’t actually know Steve Jobs, nor have they ever even met him in passing. The things about which most people yammer are the effects and consequences of Apple, Inc.’s product releases and business practices.
      [...]
      It’s those trends and issues that matter. But the fact that Apple, specifically, was the company to catalyze all of them doesn’t. And it especially doesn’t matter that His Holiness Dalai Lama Steve Motherfucking Jobs happened to be the CEO and founder of the company that did all of these things.

      Continue reading at Falkvinge on Infopolicy

        YFIAS Episode 2 On Track for Late October/Early November

        Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 12:13 PM on August 20, 2011 in Filmmakery. 2 Comments Tags: . Short URL: http://plankhead.com/9f

        Principal animation of Your Face is a Saxophone Episode 2 is almost halfway finished. My lovely assistant, Erica Frohnhoefer, had to go back to college this week, so I’ll be on my own from here on. But I’ve got a good bit of momentum going, and the episode should be online by the end of October, or the beginning of November at the latest.

        Just wanted to post this since things have been quiet for a while. I haven’t had as much time to produce video diaries as I’d have liked, but a few weeks ago David Lanz was down on Long Island shooting some footage of us working, so there’s some material ready to be edited into one as soon as I get the opportunity.

        I’ll be taking a bit of a break from animation from August 28th to September 3rd, as I’ll be in Washington, DC helping to document the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline protest. It’s okay, though, because it’s for the environment and stuff.

        UPDATE: Actually, I won’t be in Washington. Hurricane Irene screwed up my travel plans.

          Chad Love-Liberman’s Art4Love is a Fraudulent Plagiarism Peddler

          Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 1:43 PM on August 18, 2011 in Commentary. 17 Comments Tags: , , . Short URL: http://plankhead.com/sO

          In case I haven’t made it clear over the years, I’m not a big fan of the copyright-lawsuit model of enforcing artists’ rights. When somebody decides to be a dick and exploit the free availability of culture in bad faith, I feel like it’s much better to try them in the court of public opinion than in a court of law. So let’s do that to Chad Love-Lieberman.

          Art4Love.com seems to have been around since March 2010, according to the first tweet on its Twitter account. It’s a store claiming to sell hand-painted canvas art, founded by Love-Lieberman as some kind of social capitalism thing. I have no idea; it’s a press release.

          Art4Love and the related MarkYourSpot.com appear to have been taken down as of this writing. So let’s Streisand Effect this shit.

          Yesterday, Digger artist Ursula Vernon posted on her LiveJournal a link to an article about Love-Lieberman and his “artwork”. She found it odd that this piece was attributed to him:

          'Naked Mole Rat Dreams' by Ursula Vernon

          It is, of course, by Ursula Vernon. And all of the other pieces in the article are by other artists from around the Internet as well.

          Unsurprisingly, as uncovered by Tumblr user Kittenball, Art4Love was similarly fraudulent.

          Screenshot of Art4Love.com, captured by Daunt


          This screenshot shows Art4Love allegedly selling “Honeycomb” by Julie Dillon. They claim that it’s “Liquid Oil on canvas”, and was painted in 2009.

          'Honeycomb' by Julie Dillon


          This seems odd, considering the fact that Dillon uploaded the piece to deviantART in 2010, under the category of “Digital Art”.

          Hilariously, Art4Love was offering the “painting” with a Certificate of Authenticity.

          Tumblr user Daunt has many more screenshots and videos related to Art4Love on her website. Many show more examples of misappropriated artwork, being sold as “original” for high prices.

          It’s likely that Chad Love-Lieberman took down his network of websites because he doesn’t want this information getting out. This is precisely why it must. The threat of a copyright lawsuit does not protect the rights of artists to attribution and reputation; otherwise this never would have happened. The exposure of such exploitation on a massive scale is the best hope that artists have to be protected from it. Please, Internets: spread the fraud of Chad Love-Lieberman as far and wide as you can. Make his name synonymous with his crimes, so that anyone looking to commit such things in the future will think twice.

          To the artists affected: don’t call this man an “art thief”. Art thieves are skilled, savvy professionals who bypass state-of-the-art museum security. Chad Love-Lieberman is just a plagiarist. And a dick.