The Next Timelapse/Composite

It took five tries on five different days but I think I finally got the right background for the next timelapse/composite, which will be departures from San Diego Int. 8000 photos in and I got here, the stormy/churning sky I wanted:

Kickstarter: Thanks

Many thanks to everyone who supported my photo book project financially or otherwise. Though the fundraising goal wasn't realized - your contributions and moral support are deeply valued.

At its peak my viral video was receiving 600,000 views per day and it drove thousands visitors to the Kickstarter page. The numbers were huge but the actual support for this project was improbably small. There is a silver lining though – you. I don't need a million people to make this book but I do need the help of a few people like you to see it through. Your support is truly appreciated.

Look for my second attempt at this sometime in the spring of 2013. I am totally committed to completing this project and plan to see it through.

Happy holidays,

Cy

Kickstarter Day 2: Malawi Family Portrait Photo Book

If you're here for the first time – I'm glad you found my Landings video and I'm glad you followed it back. I'm an independent filmmaker and photographer and I just launched a Kickstarter campaign a couple of days ago that needs your support. Please click on either the image above or below to jump over to Kickstarter page and check it out.  This thing really does need you if I'm going to make it happen.

Cy

Just click the picture below to jump over to the Kickstarter page:

Kickstarter Launch: Malawi Family Portrait Photo Book

This has been amazing. My airplane video had something like 200,000 hits today - wow. I want to try and parley your interest in my Landings at SD video into a new project I've been yearning to do for a while  - a Photo Book to be shot in Malawi, Africa. I know it probably seems odd considering the interest is in something that appears so different but it'll be made by the same (wizard) hands. I'd love to have your support, please take a look, consider a donation and share the project.

Just click the picture below to jump over to the Kickstarter page:

PetaPixel just Viralized!

Wow, this is amazing. The PetaPixel blog just picked my airplane composite video up. 3000 views in under one hour - how exciting! So I'd like to use my 15 minutes seconds of fame to make an appeal to any new visitors who may land here. First - I hope you liked the airplane video and thanks very much for watching it. Second, if I could point you to just one other thing I've made it would be my doc film Bush League. My airplane video took a week to make and I'm proud of it but Bush League took four years to make and it was a true labor of love. Here's the trailer:

Bush League is a CC licensed feature documentary (72 min) that you can download and watch for free that I shot in Malawi, Africa. It's streaming on the Bush League film page and it's also streaming on Amazon. Save it for a rainy night - I promise you'll like it. I've been trying to get it out there into the world for quite some time now so any shares are deeply appreciated. My mission with this film has been to try and tell a deep story about Malawi that puts Malawians right up front. It's a very tough row to hoe when you're as small and as new as I am. Here's Variety's review.

My last little plug - if you're looking for a great film school to learn this stuff - I studied at SDSU and CalArts and I teach film at San Diego City College (RTVC 112 and 167) - I strongly recommend them all. I also teach still photography at Irvine Valley College in OC (dma/photo 51). I'll gladly teach you everything I know.

Thanks again for taking a look and I do hope you visit again,

All the best,

Cy

Video: All Landings at San Diego Int Airport Friday Nov 23 from 1030am to 300pm

Darn, I can't find the link at the moment - but months ago I saw an amazing photo on the Petapixel blog in which a photographer shot every plane that landed at ?Airport? in a day then composited all the planes into one image. Which made me wonder if it could be done with video? It turns out that it definitely can be done but is easiest with a pure blue sky and with the camera facing up not toward the horizon. With an even blue background it's fairly easy to key out each airplane and put them together. The bridge in this shot is an added time lapse under the 1st Street bridge in San Diego.

I was really surprised by two things: the number of planes that landed in 4 hours (close to 70) and the dominance of Southwest Air.

 

New Media Rights Fund Raiser

A heads up to the creative community. New Media Rights is raising funds to continue their remarkable mission:

"New Media Rights provides free and drastically reduced-fee legal services to independent creators like game developers, independent filmmakers, startups and consumers. For creators with financial need and innovative projects, we provide the same assistance that hiring a $300-$500 an hour lawyer would provide, but we do it for free, and we’ve been doing it for free since 2007. Recently, we’ve become an independent project of California Western School of Law: home of the California Innocence Project and other groups. Since we’re an independent project, we continue to rely on grants and individual donations to fund our work."

http://www.indiegogo.com/newmediarightsgames

Bush League CC Licensed: Watch Online, Remix and Share

Big news - my feature documentary Bush League is now streaming in several places. It’s available on Amazon Instant video and you can also watch it free (in its entirety) on the Bush League page. Or you can go directly to the film on Vimeo or Youtube. If you like it please share it, like it, tweet it and pin it. It’s a project I’ve put years of work into so I hope it resonates with you.

One of the most important details on the new Bush League page is a Creative Commons tab under the video. I decided to license the film with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license.  What it means is that anyone can download the film and remix it, reuse it and share it without my permission as long as it’s not-for-profit. Many films like Bush League get trapped in distribution channels because the makers have to get a financial return to recoup their costs but I’m not concerned about that. I made the film to be seen and shared. Licensing it in this way broadens the possibilities and expands the life and reach of the film. Or so I hope. If you use the material in something new or you’re a remix artist I’d love to see what you do with it. I hope there's value in the film that I haven't seen or can't draw out that perhaps you can.

The new Bush League page also uses HTML5 to make the viewing experience more dynamic. You can view the film straight through or click one of the Character or Theme buttons and the video will jump to those preselected sections. I use a lot of video when I teach film and photography and I wanted to make it possible for other teachers to use the material in a more convenient way. The running times of each section are:

Jacklyn - 9 minutes

Mlawa - 16 minutes

Chatwa - 12 minutes

Jake - 30 minutes

HIV/AIDS - 19 minutes

Agriculture - 9 minutes

Gender Inequality - 14 minutes

Peace Corps - 16 minutes

Soccer - 11 minutes

Clouds - 3 minutes

Finally, you’ll also notice the Audience Videos on the bottom left of the Bush League page. These are videos of different audiences greeting the people back in Malawi. No one in Malawi has seen Bush League yet and the people in the film have no idea who is seeing them so I started shooting these short clips of audiences at the film screenings. I will go back to Malawi (hopefully summer of 2013) to show them the finished film and I’ll also take the audience videos to show them where and to whom their stories are being told. If you watch the film I’d love to have a clip of you saying hello or yewo (thanks in Chitumbuka) back to the people you saw in the film. Upload your video - Vimeo is the easiest for me to download from but Youtube will work as well – then send a link to cysfilm@gmail.com and I’ll add your video.

 

INDENTURED screening in Mumbai, April 24th

INDENTURED, my doc short about labor abuse on U.S. military bases in Iraq will screen tomorrow at the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai. The location and RSVP info:

NKM International House, 5thFloor, Behind LIC Headquarters Yogakshema, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400020

RSVP: Dhaval Desai –dhaval.desai@orfonline.org Tel: 022-61313800

The INDENTURED webpage includes the film (10 min) and links to most of the major articles done by American publication on the subject.