New York City, having already banned dancing (don’t ask), now wants to ban videography in the streets without a permit and $1 million in liability insurance. Some I talked to suspected anti-terrorism paranoia. I suspect the lucrative deals the city feasts on for big-budget, commercial projects — and an utter disregard for everyone else.

That is, if any rational explanation can explain these criteria:

• Two people + one camera + 30 minutes.
• Five people + one tripod + 10 minutes.

According to the proposed legislation, those would add up to one required permit and liability insurance.

Obviously, this is absurd. Fortunately, if you are in New York, it hasn’t happened yet — meaning it’s time to hit the phones, locals. For everyone else, you can just marvel at how annoying our city government can be. (Is yours worse? Let us know in comments. Do you live in a paradise for independent videographers? Tell us about that, too, and we’ll start checking airfares.)

For more:
City Proposes Limits on Public Photography, Filming

Dedicated site, with a call to action + petition (sign the petition, then take the time to make personal contact with city legislators for maximum effectiveness)
Picture New York Without Pictures of New York

Videographers should be very scared. But if the Flickr community gets mobilized, NYC government should be scareder. (Heck, outsider tourists, maybe you should write in, too!)

Speaking of free footage … Bart, from the terrific indie Windows VJ software Resolume, has posted bunches of new, free footage to their site:

Resolume Footage Archive

Lots of good stuff, from abstract to found. Of course, all of this raises some questions: will you be spotted using recognizable footage? (I’ve certainly been at parties where VJs picked up on this.) The rules here should be pretty simple: first, use footage effectively, rather than just looping it indefinitely. Second, share enough footage that VJs worldwide have a big pile upon which to draw. Third, shoot some of your own footage.

All that said, I’ll admit that having some stock footage around is really useful when learning VJ software, trying motion graphics effects, and so on, so even if you don’t use this in a set, it’s handy to have.

Thanks, Pedro!

Got favorite sources for footage? Let us know.

Previously:
Free Vintage Fairlight VJ Clips
Free Resolume Handbook, Archive.org Video Loops
More Free VJ Loops: 8Bit, Vectors and Textures from Analog Recycling on Archive.org

Even as some visualists try to distance themselves from DJs (ahem), the notion of a “DVJ” — taking steps toward integrating VJing more closely with DJing — is gaining traction. It seems to be far, far bigger in Europe than here in the US (surprise). Pioneer, for one, is actively pushing VJing in Europe, even though we don’t hear much from them on this here in the States.

The Pioneer DJ site, in fact, has loads of free VJ clips and tutorials, some of which are decent:
Free DVJ Loops

Most amusingly, though, their most recent addition: loops of floating, rotating pictures of their gear. Um… no. Unless you want to hire us to VJ Pioneer-sponsored events, in which case, we’re in. Here’s a suggestion, though, why not vintage Pioneer equipment? That might be cool.

The Pioneer blog itself, especially devoted to being a videolog, is actually pretty good. So welcome to blogging, Pioneer, and hope you’ll stop by. Even if we’re likely not VJing with giant pictures of CDJs…

“Product Spins” loops
DJ Sounds Vlog [Pioneer DJ]

200 frames per second: that’s the “smooth slow motion capture” speed of Sony’s rather affordable HVR-V1P HDV camera. It really makes slow-motion capture accessible to the rest of us. Jaymis has been testing this mode on his new camera. Here are some early results (all the more impressive if you watch through to the full-motion versions at the end):

Sony Smooth Slow Motion test from Jaymis and Vimeo.

Of course, I’m ready to go even slower, and see what happens if you edit the footage in Final Cut Studio 2 using the new slow motion options. Starting with 200 frames should help.

More on the HVR-V1P soon; consider this a teaser.

Previously: First Impressions: Sony HVR-V1P HDV Camera

We look forward to the day when visualists on music tours are norms, rather than exceptions. And no, playing lots of pre-rendered footage and/or hiding someone in the back of the house does not count. Fortunately, our own Jaymis has been lucky enough to hook up with a very lovely musician on tour in Australia, and has been right up onstage during gigs and playing live visuals that are tightly integrated aesthetically and in terms of timing with the music. This has had the effect of: a) creating wonderful touring for Jaymis and b) creating a large void in posts on CDMotion. The tour is nearly done, but while we wait, here are some snaps of what the action looks like! It certainly inspires me to push my live music sets that much further/harder/better.

Jaymis has promised lots of info from this tour, including some production/performance tips picked up along the way. Stay tuned! Really, please, stay tuned!

Related: Bobby Flynn and the Omega Three Gig Report or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Rock