January just posted her video poem to Facebook, and I thought everyone might like to see it here. It’s from Underlife, her first book of poetry.
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Christine Swint
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Christine Swint
Fréderic Bruly Bouabré The Universalist
Although this video isn’t a video poem, I thought there were elements in it that might inspire the rest of us to create. The cultural messages are also very interesting. I admire him for following his vision.
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Dave
Thanks for sharing this. There are so many things to love: the similarity of his work to poetry postcards and haiga; the similarity of his vision experience to a traditional West African shamanic crisis (but instead of a shaman he became an artist); his gathering of “knowledge of the world” through trash found on the street; “art by chance” and his seemingly interchangeable use of “chance” and “divinity”; the statement that anyone can be an artist if he divests himself of shame; and his informal school.
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christine
I thought about the poetry postcards too. I just read _Black Elk Speaks_ – it’s interesting that when Black Elk shared his visions with the elder shamans they helped him create dances, paintings, and songs from what he saw. They said the medicine wouldn’t help the people unless he made the visions concrete (my words). I thought about that when I watched this video.
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Dave
The problem with Black Elk Speaks is we really have no way of telling how much is Black Elk and how much is John G. Neihardt. Bruly is much more in control of his own message — and obviously the film medium gives the audience more direct access to him. But yeah, art and healing are intertwined in many traditional cultures. Among the O’odham (Pima and Papago) people, for example, the same songs that were used in all-night healing ceremonies could also be used in secular, all-night circle dances.
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Christine Swint
Here’s a link to Annie Clarkson’s reading:
I’ve read her chapbook, Winter Hands, and it’s beautiful. Her video reading interests me because she first talks about her writing in general, as well as the authors who have influenced her. As she reads, she stands next to an antique lamp with tassel fringe, in front of a wall painted deep red. The sound of dishes clinking in the background gives the reading an immediacy. The filming is good, because normally when a reading is recorded the poet stands on a stage in front of a mike.
I doubt I would ever have a chance to hear Annie read live, so this recording is almost as good as hearing her in person.
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Dave
Thanks for sharing that, Christine. There are so many poorly filmed poetry readings online, I’ll admit I have almost stopped checking them out. But I need to start featuring more of them on Moving Poems, so I’m glad to see this. (And if I’d realized that a forum would be a great way to find out about new videos to consider for the main site, I would’ve set this up a long time ago!)
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Dave
I know you’re interested in the topic of poetry reading in general. Just discovered this at Beau’s site:
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ChristineSwint
Gulp, Heinlein is hard on poets! Beau’s good at that animation, wow. So what would Heinlein say about reading poetry aloud in general?
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Dave
I don’t know. Heinlein was more or less a fascist, though, wasn’t he? I guess I’d be worried if he LIKED poetry.
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ChristineSwint
His only book I’ve read is Stranger in a Strange Land, which is not at all fascist. Maybe he just didn’t get poetry.
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Dave
Well, be that as it may, here’s a recipe for a kind of poetry reading even Heinlein would probably approve of (via Ren on the WOMPO list):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1768073198/the-poetry-bomb -
ChristineSwint
Oh, he just read in Atlanta, and I missed it! I live in the suburbs, and it’s hard to get to all the cool events in Atlanta, especially late at night. He even brought his bomb–I saw someone’s picture of it. He painted it a bright red. He’s one of the editors of the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. His project is a good one, especially because of the wars. Ironic, his first poem is from an MP… .
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Christine Swint
Dave, this is a very user-friendly platform for discussion. Good find.
I have a question. I really like Ren’s animated collages, and I like to make collages. Does anyone have any ideas about what software I need to learn to make parts of my collage move? I’m thinking of collaborating with my teenage son, who studies drawing and painting.
beau blue, and 1 other are discussing. -
renkat
I work with my teenage son often, too. But he doesn’t know flash … I have caught up and surpassed him with Adobe. I am using Adobe Suite because I bought it while I am a student. Costs a fraction of what it normally would so I went ahead and invested in CS3 (CS4 is already due out). But I began with macromedia flash – the early version of flash that is available online for as little as $50. Most of the animations you’ve seen were made with that.
I use Photoshop (you can get just photoshop elements pretty cheaply), and my own photos or photos from places like stock xchng so that it is all legal.
The flash files are interactive. But it is also possible to save macromedia flash files as QuickTime files so you can upload them to vimeo or youtube.
My other son – the younger at 13, is teaching himself Maya (I bought that while a student, too). He got it on the condition that he teach me some things this summer. It does 3D animation. The free version that he began teaching himself is Blender. I took one look and gave up on that.
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ChristineSwint
Thanks for all the tips, Ren. My son has CS3. Maybe he could teach me some basics. I’ve never even used Photoshop! I want to make the cloogaes and write the poems, and let someone else do the animation, unless I can figure it out in my spare time.
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beau blue
As far as 3D is concerned, Blender & Daz 3D Studio are both free but have a brutal learning curve. Adobe Premiere is a must as far as I’m concerned. Anime Studio five and later is also a good thing rto learn and it’s cheap, too. -blue
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renkat
What do you use Premiere for in regard to collage work?
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beau blue
Premiere’s library of video transitions is first-class as far as I’m concerned.
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Natalie
Christine, iStopMotion is an easy-to-use software for making animations and time-lapse videos from objects, collages etc. And fortunately, it’s not expensive! I bought mine at the Apple Mac Store but it can be ordered from the makers, BOINX Software.
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ChristineSwint
Natalie, thanks for this tip. I have a MacBook, so this software sounds like a perfect fit! I’ll be sure to share what I come up with. Yay!
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renkat
I was looking at iStopMotion today – neat, but does it do anything that Premiere Pro doesn’t? (I mean if you want to use higher quality camera than the one on your mac). If your son already has the Suite…
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ChristineSwint
I think I’m going to test drive iStopMotion for a month for free to see if I like it. I’ve tried to use Adobe, and it’s hard for me. We’ll see. If I don’t like the results from iStop, I’ll see if my son will give me lessons.
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renkat
For all I know it is better. I would be curious to hear from you, Natalie, if there is an advantage beyond the learning curve?
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Dave 8:14 am on June 22, 2010 Permalink |
Very nice work. A few of the transitions from the inside to outside location seem a little forced (though I’m not enough of a filmmaker to suggest how they might be improved), but I loved the cooking-show set-up. Literal interpretations of text into film don’t always work for me, but this does.
renkat 4:55 am on November 29, 2011 Permalink |
I think the literal interpretation works because the poem as a whole is open as a metaphor without an obvious referent. I think if the video had attempted to show a referent in a literal way it would close the possible interpretations down. If there is not metaphor, then the video doesn’t linger on the visuals in a meditative way that makes the words superfluous. I think this is a terrific approach.