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

If you’ve been staring at After Effects too long, you’ll really love this one: common motion effects, painstakingly recreated by real people — jumping on trampolines. There’s even a status bar and, my personal favorite touch, an I/O error and — okay, I won’t give it away.

Directed by Roel Wouters a.k.a. Xelor. Here’s the full blurb (see also cast & crew on the YouTube page):

zZz is playing: Grip is a video for the band zZz. Its a one take, top shot videoclip with trampoline gymnasts simulating typical video effects. The video has been recorded live as part of the opening ‘Nederclips’ at the Stedelijk museum ‘S-Hertogenbosch SM’S (curated by Bart Rutten).

The project was commissioned by the TAX-videoclipfonds and an important criteria was that the audience of the opening was be able to witness the whole shoot, another criteria was that it should be added to the exhibition imediately after the shoot was done. So we had no option to reshoot or edit if something went wrong. This made us so focussed [sic] that we did better that any of us have could imagined.

Thanks to star blogger Christine Huang at PSFK, from whom I stole this, before she lost the draft of her blog post. Also seen on the excellent Motionographer.

Your challenge: recreate overused VJ effects using real people. Hmmm… kaleidoscope effects? (Oh, and by the way, those of you using sample clips from apps like Resolume and Onyx-VJ? We’re watching. We’re at the club. We know your secret. Stop it. Or go recreate it on trampolines.)

There you are: the party is amazing. Beautiful people everywhere, dancing as though it’s their last night on Earth. Bodies in sweaty, packed mo– [screeching record sound] — erm, okay, actually, you’re stuck behind a computer / VJ gear. Again. We’ve seen attempts to solve this problem before; only Tuesday night, in fact, I saw a DJ/PA set where the musician was wandering the floor with a wireless Xbox 360 controller and headset, manipulating Pd remotely. But here’s one novel solution: pack all your computer VJ tools into a wireless, battery-powered wrist brace:

Belmer Negrillo - On the Body [Project page, videos, technical details]

The basic controls: “pin buttons”, which actually use RFID tags for different commands, plus an accelerometer for controlling visuals with actual motion. Interestingly, the Wrist-Brace controller is designed to be adapted both to the discriminating VJ and the live clubber, so you can simplify the interactions for friends you make out on the dance floor. The project was produced for a class focusing on wearable interfaces called “On the Body” at Italy’s famed Ivrea Interaction Design Institute.

The interface looks great, though it makes me want to build controls into an oven mitt. (Sorry, couldn’t help but make the comparison.)

The title for the product is great: GoDance!

One technical problem not solved by this product: VJs with no rhythm / no coordination. You’ll have to sort out what to do on the dance floor on your own.

Got a preferred solution of your own / seen something similar? Or do you prefer to hide behind banks of hardware, safe from the dangers of the dance floor (maybe that’s why you went into this in the first place)? Let us know.

Yes. You can now VJ from your iPhone, controlling your Max/MSP/Jitter patch via Safari and the new aka.iphone object from Masayuki Akamatsu of aka.wiiremote fame.

The aka.iphone object is a work in progress, but stay tuned, there’s much fun to be had. Can anyone say “pocket Lemur”?

Thomas Dolby, on Music Making Past and Future: The CDM Interview
Thomas Dolby Extras: Live Performance Technical Details, Logic + Max/MSP

Thomas Dolby’s recent tour was important for more than just the music, though — onboard was legendary visualist/VJ Johnny DeKam, also known as a founder of Mac software maker Vidvox. Here’s what Thomas had to say about Johnny:

To have a VJ up there of Johnny [DeKam]’s stature, mixing live feeds with footage of his own, is definitely exciting. Of course, I’ve never seen the full experience myself, you know. But he does a really good job, and he’s very spontaneous. He’s got a lot of different tricks and toys that he tries out on a nightly basis. Other video guys and VJs who’ve come have sort of been in awe of him because he writes his own software that everybody else would like to get there hands on.

For more on Johnny (and yes, hope to revisit his work and Vidvox soon here on CDM!):

Johnny DeKam’s Website
Johnny DeKam’s Live Visuals Rig on Thomas Dolby Tour [Create Digital Motion]
Johnny DeKam Profile [M-Audio]

Yesterday Apple released iTunes 7.3.1 and Quicktime 7.2. With updated h.264 transcoding, numerous bug fixes and free fullscreen support for those without Quicktime Pro. It also provides iPhone exporting options and seems to enable 640×480 captures from certain iSights which were limited to 320×240.

Oh, and it breaks Rosetta.

Ok, not to be overly sensational, it does not break Rosetta for everyone, but a large number of users are reporting issues opening PowerPC applications on Intel Macs post Quicktime 7.2 update. It seems as though installing the OS X 10.4.10 Combo updater after installing Quicktime 7.2 has fixed the issue for some.

You might want to sit this one out for a while folks until the dust settles. You can read about this issue over at Mac Fixit: The QuickTime 7.2 disaster: Breaks all CFM apps on Intel-based Macs (Office, Photoshop CS2) for some; Problems playing Flash.