One Minute Videos

I have been intrigued with the grid and how artists have used it historically. It has made repeated appearances in my work and I am exploring it again. It has been sometimes used by artists as a tool to render perspective. Often a painter will draw a grid on a photograph and map it out, so to speak, to aid in painting the scene faithfully on the canvas. Here I am filming a scene in grid like pieces and then reassemble them together to recreate the vista. These are my first exploration into this. They are a little rough and are meant as sketches. I wanted to see what would happen, what would go wrong. I was hand holding the camera and visually selected an area in the scene to begin with and then systematically panned to the next or stepped to the side. I taped for about one minute in each position. I had both hands on the camera and my eyes on the camera back so I had to count out the time with my breath (20 breaths makes a minute) becoming a sort of metronome. The sound is a bit disappointing and I want to figure out how to get better quality. There is always hissing and the wind is horrible (you can hear my breath on one of them). I think I have to do more than just get a new microphone; I may have to get sound equipment and record separately. I am thinking I will want to make them longer so I think I will have to get a tripod involved. I hesitate with this because there are a lot of public places where once you have a tripod you need to get a permit. What I like about a longer take is that the last tape will be taken significantly later than the first. I want this element of experienced time and actual time to be in conflict. I want it to be evident that you are looking at something that has already changed.

Dock - Mac and PC from Rita Maas on Vimeo.



Sky - Mac and PC from Rita Maas on Vimeo.

Shore - Mac and PC from Rita Maas on Vimeo.

There are three more on the vimeo site if you care to look.