DVC 5 Feedback - Phoenix West

[Volker Krieger]

This was my fear - my piece has been released, too ;)

First of all here are my excuses:

My editing software is Ulead Media Studio Pro 7.0 – it doesn’t manage good qualitiy due to the picture-in-picture effect. I think, Avid for example does better...

My piece should be seen as a sketch, an attempt resp. experiment in order to do a more extensive work for a festival in Bochum (nearby Dortmund) at the end of this year, which deals with characteristics of my region (Ruhr Area). During the last 10 or 15 years, more and more coal mines and steel companies have been closed, they are relieved by new technologies, industry constructions are turned into cultural centers. They become detected monuments of a vanishing era.

Phoenix West is a part of an about 150 year old steel construction in Dortmund, shut down in 1998. Phoenix East was sold, taken to pieces and reerected in China. On it’s former area there will arise a big lake – in an unknown future cause financial problems are not solved, yet.

For my sketch I had about two days to shoot and edit the material cause I had to wait a long time for a blue sky. The day came, I had to neglect my day work at once and after 20 minutes shooting the clouds began to annoy me...

Well, nevertheless I hope you enjoy my piece a bit and give me your benevolence ;)

[William Gardner]

Hi,

This is an interesting art piece. I stared at it and tried to make sense of it, as I would for an interesting impressionistic painting or if I were looking through a kaleidoscope.

I think that the quicktime compression hurts your piece: I had trouble making out the detail due to the compression blockiness, and seeing the details is important for a work like this where your brain is being challenged to find structure in the images. Is it possible to post a higher quality quicktime file? (I'm downloading the DVX file now, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to play it...)

Thanks,
Bill

[Volker Krieger]

You get the divx-codec here for free: www.divx.com You then are able to play the movie with the Windows Media Player.

I'll render another version but at this time I have unfortunately no possibility cause I have guests for a longer time. We'll see...

[Robert Martens]

I didn't understand this one the first time through, but the more I watched it, the more sense it made; the disappearance of an entire era of industry, something I'm deeply bothered by (whenever, wherever it happens, in any industry, it bothers me), all told through some simple shots of a factory.

I think your soundtrack was most impressive, and almost told a story by itself. It's sad to see places like that vanish, and you did a wonderful job of depicting that. Good work!

[Bradley L Marlow]

Hi Volker!

Very interesting and quite different from what has been shown thus far. Am always curious when seeing computer creations and special effects combined with real footage. It is quite fascinating to me, as I have absolutely no experience in such things.

"My piece should be seen as a sketch..." and I would be very interested in seeing your final extensive work on this project for the Festival. Would have loved to see a larger/clearer version but understand the challenges you must have faced.

I'm with Robert and for the most part, share his feelings (as well as yours) about our changing world- the end of an era and the destruction of such. The impact can certainly be profound.

Best wishes~
Bradley

[Volker Krieger]

Thank you for your friendly comments so far!

This link will offer a better QT version (720x576 - mpeg 4 - 12 MB):
www.vk-videokunst.com/phoenixwestmp4.mov

[Kris Holodak]

Very arty. It reminded me a lot of things that I've seen at the Hirschorn (our local Modern Art museum). I agree with Robert, the sound track really completes the piece. Nice work.

[Meryem Ersoz]

i really enjoyed this. it reminded me of the experimental films of the 1920s, like ballet mecanique or entracte. or what's that one with the benjamin britten score? night mail!

i have always loved film exploring the mechanics of things. so many of those early edison and lumiere films are little love letters to all things mechanical. it's an exploration that's near and dear to me.

this was a very unique and interesting way to work this theme, both in terms of place--a very unique location idea--that manages to be both off-screen and very visible at the same time...there's a nice sort of visible/invisible simultaneity. and also in terms of reflections.

i think it suffers from compression, as others have mentioned. i bet this looks cool on tv.

[Chris Barcellos]

I would love to see this one in its original compression. I think it lost some from that. Images seem to be highly detailed, but that seems to be lost in the compression.

[Volker Krieger]

The avi version (divx codec) comes near to the original compression and even there you have some "unclear" pictures. The problem is the reduction of the pictures I had to made in order to manage the reflections. This reduction produces, according to the size of the pictures, some interferences. If I had better software resp. HD material (I presume), I could improve the quality...

[Sean McHenry]

I too liked it and love industrial sounds in film soundtracks. I think that's one reason I like David Lynch so much. His sound designer was a great pioneer in the field. Always lends an ominous tone to a story for me. Like you are in a place you shouldn't be.

I liked it. See what you think of mine when it comes up.

Sean McHenry

[Hugh DiMauro]

Volker:

My immediate first thought was European Experimental. Then Rorschach Test. Eerie. I am glad you submitted it even though it was experimental for something else upcoming. Whatever that upcoming project, please keep us posted.

[Michael Fossenkemper]

I liked it. kind of haunting but not scary. the sounds lent well to the picture. was the effect all done in post?

[Volker Krieger]

Originally Posted by Michael Fossenkemper

was the effect all done in post?

The sources of the sounds are trucks and air hammer ;) I love slowing down sounds that they get a, as you call it, "kind of haunting" expression.

[Dylan Couper]

Volker, I don't usually post comments about films anymore just because I don't want to influence anyone as head judge.
However... now that the constest is over...

Although you didn't win, this was far and away my personal favorite of the competition. It was so unique that I couldn't help but fall in love with the imagry and the audio matched perfectly. It really felt like a combination of something dreamed up by Pink Floyd and Monty Python.
Good work!