Retro Five

So here is the last of the Sister Mars 2009 video retrospective (unless I manage to stop fighting with Flash long enough to make another.)

Of all the video work I've done in the last year, these three connected videos are my favorites. They were all made using Blender 3d for the character modeling and then Final Cut for the editing.

The first is entitled Ink. I modeled this sort of abstract spaceship vessel and let it loose in a brightly colored flashing world. Although the silver surface of the vessel reflects the happy colors of the outside, the object's inner alienation is revealed in the clouds of ink it releases:


The next video moves from the loneliness of Ink to the beginnings of a courtship dance. The Path of Flowers Lights My Way finds two abstract paper cubes floating in a world filled with flowers while we look in, as if through a lens:



The final segment of the trilogy, Behold! continues as our two abstract objects, this time spheres, welcome a third into their expanding universe:

Retro Part Four

In today's video retrospective installment, I first offer Panorama. This video was made one warmish early spring day when I went out to our front garden to take some macro pictures of the dead flowers. It had been perfectly still, and of course as soon as I got out there the wind started. After a couple minutes I gave up trying to focus, but I was intrigued by the twitchiness of the flowers in the breeze, so I decided to capture it on video. I used the splitscreen because the song features several interwoven melodic lines:

Retro Part Three

In today's installment of the SMA video retrospective, I'm posting three pieces that use stop-motion animation. The first is Translucent, which has been featured on this blog already:
Beads Beats & Bytes: World Premiere, Sister Mars Atrocity's "Translucent"

The second is a short one called Popcorn. Ginger says there is insufficient lighting in our kitchen; this video proves it:


The third is one of my favorites from the last year, Habanero. It features dancing habanero peppers, all of whom were sacrificed for a celebratory meal after the video was completed:

Retro continued. . .

Next up in the video series is To Face the Dying Sun. I had originally planned to make a video layering piles of wood and shots of flames in the woodstove. But when the time came, it was too warm to light a fire, and there was all this fog lurking about our front porch. So we get a sort of abstract moth circling. . .

Retrospective

Well, it's been a while. A whole semester in fact, where so much happened neither of us had a spare second to post. But now that the semester is over, and the year is coming to an end, we've decided to revive our humble little blog.

So I thought we'd start anew by looking back a bit. Over the next couple of days, I'm going to post all the music videos I've made in the last year, in sort of reverse order.

First up, Neptuna. This was an experiment with using the 3D functions in Photoshop to make an abstract environment:

THIS is the life...and those were the outtakes

Another day at the beach - why do we always ask each other where everyone else is? Hard to believe that we have so much freedom...so much time. I can only assume it was my (teenage) passionate wish to be retired (those dreams of becoming an anthropologist and architect aside). That's right. I worked in the mall, and so envied the old Italian men, sipping coffee and chatting in the middle of the workday, that I decided being retired was the key. Well, some people retire to go to work like our friends at White Pillars B&B...(thee place to stay if you're visiting the Canton/Trout Lake area http://www.whitepillars.com/).
About lakes and lounging at the beach, we'll find ourselves in Lake Placid tomorrow, Saranac Lake in the evening... Hmmm. While I dream of my house by the ocean, I certainly do love Visiting the Adirondacks (yes, that's a big V). My Mom and I spent many-a-vacation at the Golden Arrow on Mirror Lake, and I'll never forget the July 4th fireworks and how they "Set The Night To Music" (choreographed fireworks/radio). Good times...Anywhoo, it's late, little ones are asleep, and "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" has Finally screeched to a halt on the flat screen. Time to sleep now - night night angels ;)

Life is like a bowl of...

It's really true. Picking wild blackberries with Lochlan this morning, i thought about how similar berry picking is to the process of life. Telling Lochlan to pick only the dark, ripe berries - like accepting and appreciating the juiciness life has to offer right now, and having faith that there is much more to come. Fortunately, admitting that i have an addiction to berry picking is't so bad. Who doesn't appreciate that feeling of suddenly spotting the perfect object - waiting just for you...your mind races with all the things you could do with it (berry pie? berry cobbler? berry scones?).
Yesterday we went to Watertown, and before we left, i happened to spot a bunch of black and white t-shirts on a display table. Now i should mention that cheap, black and white, v-neck t-shirts have been "my thing" lately - so it was just meant to be that these shirts were there waiting, with their $2.99 price tags. Yes, i'm thanking the universe for these gifts, along with all of the really big gifts in my life ;) ...which reminds me, Isobel and Troy will be home in about an hour!