Instant Video #21 — SHOCKER by Tammy Lin Foreman (5 min. 2009) Directed, shot, and edited by Lester Alfonso for the collaborative weekly video project that ran from 2008 to 2010.

Check out also: The Instant Video Showcase and Before Instant Videos featuring videos prior to the Instant Video project and broadcast on CBC’s ZeD TV. Audio tracks are available for purchase on Tammy Lin Foreman’s Bandcamp page.

The Ticker and the Talker

Monday, February 23, 2009

Reporting from the epicenter of this Instant Video SHOCKER. The above photo finally reveals the invisible fretwork that holds up those words on the screen.

I enjoy the painstaking process of transforming each word from the hand scribbled lyric torn from Tammy’s notebook into one video brick at a time on a word WALL. It’s like a puzzle.

OMG. It strikes me now that this is virtually what I did ON CAMERA in last week’s video!

In my virtual world, I had to create 96 video tracks in order to have separate control of the timing of each word’s appearance. Each word is on screen for about a full minute. That’s just the DEFAULT

I had other ideas of ways to use the words on the screen but the reality is even the laissez-faire approach takes hours of overnight computer rendering.

BLAH. This video is nothing without TAMMY, Tammy’s voice and music. Tammy’s words. And some of that pixie dust.

I build the invisible structure of WORDS before she sits down on the chair to play. This is the moment where the idea merges with the unexpected…

We manage to do just ONE full take before the Looper simply stops working! GASP. For the moment, this tool of Tammy’s trade is dead.

(For those writing screenplays, this is the “All is Lost” moment where we find the “whiff of death.”) Will there be a fresh idea, new inspiration, or last-minute action or advice from the love interest in the B story?

Will the TICKER ever mind the TALKER? Tune IN next week…

SHOCKER
by Tammy Lin Foreman

ONCE UPON A TIME
MY HEART AND MIND
COULD NOT AGREE

SO I LOCKED UP MY HEART
MY MIND IT HELD THE KEY
BUT THE THUMPING GOT SO LOUD
I COULDN'T THINK NO MORE
MY HEART WAS BEATING SO STRONG
MY MIND IT OPENED UP THE DOOR

THAT OLD STICKLER'S
ALWAYS GETTING A SHOCKER

YOU'RE NOT IN LOVE
SAID THE BIG BRAIN ABOVE
LET MY LOVE GO
SAID THE HEART BELOW

HOW DO YOU MAKE
THE TICKER MIND THE TALKER?
THAT OLD STICKLER'S
ALWAYS GETTING A SHOCKER

HOW DO YOU MAKE
THE TALKER MIND THE TICKER?
THAT OLD STICKLER'S
ALWAYS READY TO BICKER.

posted by Lester Alfonso at 5:29 PM 4 Comments

What’s this with the Looper? Yikes!
I have confidence you’ll pull some diamonds from the ashes…
What a Shocker =:-O

WEBmadman February 23, 2009 at 9:06 PM

Nice job again…
(not so instant with all the rendering huh?)

GeoD February 24, 2009 at 2:46 AMBlogger

Lovely entry! Shame about the looper, though 🙁
At first I thought you were joking about the text, but no. . . it makes sense. That’s a lot of video tracks!

The WORD VERIFICATION I have to type in order to post this is:

sWedshan

Michael February 25, 2009 at 6:39 PMBlogger

Your blog is quite lovely.

Little Bow Prep February 25, 2009 at 6:40 PM

Source: http://instantvideos.blogspot.com/2009/02/