Reading Response #3

The article that I have chosen to write my last reading response on is Stephen Trachtenberg’s The Art of Instant Gratification. I read the last of the class articles I found the Tranchtenberg article to be very interesting both on the level of content but also it made me wonder what is next in the age of picture taking.

The article examined the photo and how it has changed over the years. When photography was first introduced it was considered to have a magical or even a religious power. He talks about the photo has being tangible “ the memory was something that could be held in your hand, felt, touched, as well as seen.” But today with the advancement in modern technology the photograph has lost its physical form. This to me was the most interesting section of the article I agreed entirely with Trachtenberg. I myself miss the physicality film simple because it is rare to hold the photo nowadays, and yes it might be on the internet some where but how safe and reliable is that. Do I really want everyone to see this photo? These are all questions that the article got me thinking about and also what is next my guess is you will not need to hook up the camera to the computer any more, you will just click a button on the camera and boom they are sent directly to the internet.

We can use this same idea and argument for many aspects of the Drift II project; the big on to me is the blogs themselves. Like photos there is a loss of physical form, we can’t feel our projects and so the level of comfort is not always there. For example every time I make a change on my blog I pray that it works and I don’t get the “error page.” Again there is the idea that at any moment everything could me lost, blogger could get a virus and everyone’s ideas and thoughts lost to history, and it will be interesting to see what Film 116 is like in five and ten years from now.

Video Hardware/Software Repsonses

1. How was your experience with the Olympus digital camera? How did it compare with other still or video cameras you have previously used? Were you able to successfully implement your Image Capturing Strategies using the features of this camera? In an ideal world, how would your still/video camera of choice function?

The Olympus camera was a good experience for me. Yes it was not the nicest of the digital cameras in the world but for this project that isn’t necessary. The goal was to have a drift strategy, fallow it throw and then make the best of what you had. For my strategy the cameras functions and features were adequate and I didn’t run into any major problems with it. In an ideal world the only thing that I would change is the quality, if the video capturing were better the projects would be cleaner and easier to edit.

2. Discuss your choice of video-editing software and describe your history with this software. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?

As for editing together my clips I choose to use Final Cut Express manly because I already had it and I did not see the need to buy or download any new software. I am fairly new with Final Cut Express but have worked with it and Final Cut Pro in the past, I kept my edits straightforward and simple and just worked on accomplishing my goals through the video clips themselves. I plan to continue to use Final Cut Express and like almost everyone hope to one-day master Final Cut Pro.