1905 at 2 a.m. in the subway

0896
2 a.m. in the subway (1905, 8 MB, 56 sec.)

A subway platform, a policeman and a conductor, a well-dressed man
with a cigar and two women dressed in long skirts and jackets.
One of the women causes a sensation by raising her skirt and
revealing her stocking. Artificial legs are displayed out the subway car window.
Hilarious.
From – The Open Video Project.

Patrick Power – lights and darkness


Steamlight (2006, 16.2MB, 2:51)


Watauga (2007, 203.1MB, 26:23)

Two extraordinary pieces from Patrick Power.
Its as if the Qatsi trilogy found a way to use a videoblog as a testing ground.
This is much more than a test, though.
Some of the most important work I have seen in a while.
Beautifully touching randomized archives.
Pushing the limits of contemplative observation.
Taking time to visually visit other places.
There is so much beauty in reflections and the synchronicities of our minds.

Sample these two, then go visit the rest of his collection. Patrick makes the world watchable.

Edit: Sadly, Patrick Power passed away in 2007. This post was created to honor this man’s work, and now sadly, we must honor that work as his legacy.

Lumière – La sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière à Lyon

hangar
La sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière à Lyon (1895, 2MB, 46 sec.)

The year is 1895. The “Hangar” was the first set in the history of Cinematography and
can be seen here in “La Sortie de l’usine Lumière”, Lumière’s first film.
from the fantastic site – Institut Lumière.

2 from Jess Loseby

Arms Race
Arms Race (2007, 1.85MB, 1:02 min)

Handbag Surveillance
Handbag Surveillance (2007, 4.18MB, 2:05 min)

Anyone lucky enough to have already encountered Jess Loseby’s artwork
online or in a gallery will have realised immediately what a thoughtful,
courageous & dextrous artist she is. She hasn’t been so active of late &
her excellent site is offline now due to her continuing ill health
(although it is possible to explore it somewhat using the wayback machine).
This is a real loss: there is a warmth & humanity to her work
– an ability to find beauty in the ordinary, the overlooked
( & in our still sexist society, these categories often overlapping
with the domestic, the feminine) – which one often looks for in vain elsewhere.
Her work doesn’t strut, it enchants, (& then maybe sticks a
big fuck-off hatpin into you).
Video making isn’t central to what she does, but when she does it
she does it with all the qualities noted above.
Enjoy & learn.

Music for Handbag Surveillance by Clive Loseby.

We at DVblog join with many of her friends in wishing Jess well
and look forward to her return to active art making.

Cutting Edge Cinema

Lunch
A Tough Dance (1902, 7.1MB, 47 sec.)

Lunch
Bicycle Trick Riding (1899, 5.5MB, 37 sec.)

Lunch
Three Acrobats (1899, 5.4MB, 36 sec.)

Three exhilarating chunks of early movie making from the
Library of Congress online collection of variety stage motion pictures.
I particularly love the deeply strange A ‘Tough’ Dance.
There’s also a great early animation collection on the LOC site.

Jose Carlos Casado – 3D Animation work

Inside v.07
Inside.v04 (2001, 6.7MB, 1:51 min)

Newbody v.01e
Newbody.v01e (2004, 14.5MB, 3:32 min)

Two short animations from the series ‘Meat’ by Jose Carlos Casado.
Ideas of potential new forms, clones, and artificially
produced offspring are touched upon in ‘Inside.v04’
‘Newbody.v01e’ is kind of Hieronymus Bosch does the Olympics,
the stuff of nightmares & transcendent beauty too . The score, by
Sophocles Papavasilopoulos, is also a small masterpiece:
complex, yet self-effacingly serving the totality.

Ladislas Starewitch – Le Lion Devenu Vieux

Le Lion Devenu Vieux
Le Lion Devenu Vieux (1932, 3.5MB, 1:04 sec.)

Ladislas Starewitch is often credited with inventing stop motion animation
as we know it, though so are several other people. It depends on what fits
into your definition of stop motion.
Certainly he was probably the first to actually make little figures and move
them frame by frame in an attempt to duplicate lifelike movement of actual
living things. it was because he was filming beetles and found that the hot
lights made them lethargic, so he made his own little beetles asrealistically
as possible and animated them instead.
This gave birth to further projects with very lifelike but sometimes partially
anthropomorphic (human-like) animals.
from – Darkstrider.

By Mica. (thanks Adam)