Shawn Van Every forced his students at ITP to read the lumiere manifesto and watch a few of the videos we have collected on the site. A small handful of them have taken their comments to the blogs. Kacie likes that the barrier to participation is low, but an investment is required of the audience. Matt points out that the lumiere videos often gives a glimpse of everyday life that is overlooked. Stephanie prefers photographs over lumieres, but may give them a shot. Finally, Cameron feels smug and points out some contradictions. I’m thrilled that the manifesto and the videos are being used in classrooms (Adrian and Michael have done the same), but I must admit a bit disappointed that the ITP students have not made any lumiere videos. It is important to participate to understand the practice. I’ll encourage all Shawn’s students to create at least one lumiere video and submit it. Brittany, I and all the viewers will be happy to watch what you create. The lumiere project is a reaction. It is meant to challenge people to think differently about how they produce online video. We use the the lumiere rules as a metaphor, by following the same rules as the Lumiere brothers we hope to instill the same humility towards the medium as they must have had. The lumiere rules work well as a framework as they force you to work with the bare minimums needed to create moving images. Perspective, a camera, a start and an end point are all necessary. Yes, all of those are editorial decisions, but trimming, cutting, special effects are not “merely an extension of that process” as Cameron says. The lumiere rules allows for the filmmaker to choose a paradigm when he or she places the camera and starts recording, but the filmmaker is denied the usual privilege of creating a syntagmatic axis with post-production. That is a massive difference, not a negligible one. As Cameron suspects audio is removed for almost all submissions because most modern cameras all record sound. We have chosen the lumiere rules as a framework so we must go all the way and remove audio. The pleasant side effect is that the videos become more easily accessible across the globe. A similar case is video compression. Most modern cameras record files that are simply too large to be distributed easily and each video must be compressed for consumption. You can create many special effects by changing your compression settings, but doing so would be going against the spirit of the rules. Matt uses a Hitchcock reference to describe what role lumiere videos play and he is spot on: Didn’t Hitchcock say that “movies are like life with the dull parts cut out”? Well, if that’s so, then these are the dull parts — where it takes effort and patience to get something out of it. As one of the poster children for auteur theorists Hitchcock stands for everything the lumiere manifesto does not. Don’t get me wrong: My favourite movie is Rear Window and I think the guy was a genius, but today’s filmmakers still see themselves as auteurs with a vision they must cram into the innocent heads of their audience. The lumiere manifesto is a reaction to that line of thinking. You hear talk about “Internet TV” and cinematic theories and concepts are uncritically applied to video online. For once the world wide web gives the viewers a larger role and filmmakers should pay attention to them. We should not be forced to sit in a cinema or in front of our tv, bound by technical restraints and social norms, forced to accept the action as it unfolds in the order and pace the director has deemed perfect (for him - he does not know what is perfect for me). The filmmaker should acknowledge that his audience are composed of intelligent people who create their own interpretations differently from what the filmmaker intended. Communication theory has long ago realized that treating communication as a transmission in which the recipient is little more than an automaton waiting for input is a flawed and inefficient approach. It is sad that filmmakers and would-be filmmakers still think this way. The lumiere project is among other things a risk-free way for filmmakers to try to think their films differently. A chance to play in ways the regular thinking does not allow for. Enough talk. Here’s a lumiere video. Now you go make one and submit it.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

One for the adults and one for the kids. These are lumiere videos. They contain no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

Being back in Northern Denmark it's time to post more videos of water. These is are lumiere videos. They contain no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

Two short lumiere videos from last weekend's tour to the harbour. The lumiere video project has been going on for a little over a year and tonight we reached 800 wonderfully silent moments on the site. It may be time to look at other ways to organize the videos now. We have gotten to meet some interesting personalities through the lumiere project. The project started with active work to get people to try out the concept. Lately activity has decreased with a smaller group of people making regular contributions and new people dropping in every now and again. Just the way we like it.

When we went looking for a second smoke bomb today the old lady who runs the nearby toy shop replied You shouldn't do bad things to other people. If you know where to buy smoke bombs in the Greater Boston area, let me know. This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

We have reached 700 lumiere videos and B celebrated with a very confused Ben Kingsley.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

Someone who is not me invested in a polaroid camera despite the recent news that the polaroid company will cease to produce film (of course this also meant that the camera was extremely cheap). The process and the results are very exciting. The above video shows you the 4 minute development process in just under one minute. There's no audio.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

Dinner last night at The OtherSide Café where tattooed girls and boys in girl's jeans meet to exchange revolutionary ideas. The food is good, hearty and reasonably priced. This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

We have surpassed 600 lumiere videos and to celebrate I have collected a list of all lumiere videos that are focused on water, how it moves, how it reflects light and how it contains fish. Especially in the beginning of the project there were many water lumieres. I know because I created most of them myself. Almost 20% of my lumieres are about water. Assembling this list made me wish I had added tagging to the lumiere project page to allow each individual video to be tagged. It would have made it much easier to sort through the massive collection. Here they all are in a more or less random order. Some of these links point directly to quicktime movies proceed with caution. http://www.beachwalks.tv/2008/01/11/beach-walk-567-first-lumiere-for-rupert/ http://bshoot.blogspot.com/2007/07/lumiere-rain-warp.html http://bshoot.blogspot.com/2007/12/swamp-lumiere.html http://www.brittanyshoot.com/archives/38 http://efectofoehn.blogspot.com/2007/07/fuerza-3-lumiere.html http://joannappok.blogspot.com/2007/07/lumiere-its-always-raining.html http://lumiere.videozine.ca/2007/11/25/water-on-the-rocks/ http://mmmmmoon.blogspot.com/2007/07/lumiere-video-drip.html http://mmmmmoon.blogspot.com/2007/07/lumiere-weekend-reflection.html http://mmmmmoon.blogspot.com/2007/09/lumiere-pool-drain-1.html http://mmmmmoon.blogspot.com/2007/10/lumiere-rain-view-from-cabana.html http://mmmmmoon.blogspot.com/2007/10/lumiere-puddle.html http://mikemoon.net/vlog/2008/02/18/lumiere-snow-puddle/ http://missbhavens.com/2007/11/05/navlopomo-a-gogo-five-lumiere/ http://missbhavens.com/2007/07/15/lumiere-one-sprinkler-wave/ http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com/2007/07/fireplug-in-los-angeles-lumiere-video.html http://pouringdownpictures.com/frog.mov http://putativemoment.blogspot.com/2007/08/lumiere-8-river-wake.html http://putativemoment.blogspot.com/2007/08/lumiere-11-river-boat.html http://putativemoment.blogspot.com/2007/08/lumiere-14-sunset.html http://www.somedancersandmusicians.com/vlog/ScenesOfProvincialLife.cgi/2008/02/19#post210 http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070522-2220/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070523-0837/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070621-2318/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070707-2012/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070707-2048/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070708-1320/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070713-1740/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070730-1135/ http://www.solitude.dk/archives/20070908-1850/ http://sporkworld.tumblr.com/post/24268307 http://nokiatestcenter.blogspot.com/2007/07/lumiere-nantucket.html http://vogmae.net.au/vlog/?p=1078

...At the coffee shop. This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

And a bonus video whle I was waiting for the others to finish up at the clothing store. These are lumiere videos. They contain no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

I have just updated the Embed QuickTime plugin that allows you to post QuickTime easily to webpages. The biggest change is that the plugin now comes with 'share' code giving your visitors Copy & Paste code for posting your videos to their own sites. Yes, like YouTube without the ugly Flash. Additionally the Metadata plugin is now included in the download and you no longer have to download it separately to start using the advanced settings. The Drupal 6 module and the Wordpress plugin have been updated in the same go. To celebrate I give you a birdie you can share:

Vacation turned into virus infection. This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

Saw Cat Power (photo1, photo2) last night. Highly recommended, but not easily video-able. Opening before her was Appaloosa (photo1, photo2), a London/Paris based duo playing electro/pop/house. This video is a clip of Appaloosa's London half turning som knobs.

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get good use of my 16mb memory card (here and here). My goal was to keep taking pictures until the memory card was full, but with only 8 frames to go some guy with a bluetooth headset needed to move his car and I had to move. We are left with 228 photos at half a second exposure. Next time I must try to do this in the daylight (19 secs; 11mb)

This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

We went to shoot the Pike tonight. This video was assembled from 103 photographs (8 secs; 5 mb).

Filmed for something else, but never used. Around 8 seconds and 11 megabytes.

Yesterday felt like spring, but then the snowstorm hit during the night. This is what I woke up to. This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.

Different creature, same struggle. This is a lumiere video. The video contains no audio. Feel free to leave your own music running.