camera.shai.ws

i haven’t been owning a video camera since about 5 years, after selling my Panasonic DVX100, a camera that was originally bought with low expectation, and with which i ended up shooting 2 features, many documentaries and endless little TV pieces. so yes, it marked a breakthrough in my career, but then HD came, DVX had to go and no other camera on the market was as inspiring as that little pana baby and for the following half a decade, i just rented or used whatever i was given to work with and dreamt on that Super 35 Red sensor, with the rest of us.
until Canon put out their first HD capable full-frame DSLR, and little by little unleashed, or rather de-crippled it, to the hybrid still / HD video camera, aka HDSLR, that it is today.
i did take my time on this one though. watched it as it grew, and waited for the rumor, about the oh-so-obvious next greatest thing just got to hit the market, or not, till i picked it up once for that Bodycode video (from one post ago) and that was pretty much it. the camera was not Canon EOS 5D Mark II anymore, it just had my name burned on it forever, and excuse the geek in me, it’s also this kinda love that inspires me to work.
the 5D Mark II is not a video camera, and that what makes it so great. it’s a punk gear; a piece of equipment that is capable of more than what it was originally designed to achieve. it took even its own makers, one year to realize the real nature of their newborn monster, while the masses have already been rigging it up to shoot on set. a beautiful example to how consumers give technology its real meaning. an evolution pace, where available technology meets the simple demand to it. sounds logic, but too painfully rare these days.

put the euphoric talk aside, why can’t it output an un- or little compressed HD over HDMI? well, that’s probably a lot to ask for, from product designers of such big company like Canon, but until somebody will hack the hell out of it to do so, i will take that monster sensor in its little rugged body for a ride!

another cooperation with record label Ghostly International, a video which i also directed and edited, about recording artist Alan Abrahams aka Bodycode, aka Portable. It was launched as part of the ongoing Ghostly Presents series, where the label produces short documentary pieces, featuring their artist.


watch in HD on youtube.

i shot and edited this video for my very favorite, Michigan based record label Ghostly International, featuring Audion on his new audio/visual show tour.

more info at http://audion.me

Audion: Hecatomb from Audion on Vimeo.

on the road again with Mr. Hottenbacher. this time we make it to Detroit, Michigan for 48 hours, to get some impressions of the Auto Show, mostly as a background to the main story, which is Shai Agassi’s Better Place  

but what do ya know, Agassi was not there. so the ‘background’ was all that left to work. 

we drove a white cadillac in the most stormy, snowy day Detroit knew for years. that’s obviously not the best occasion to try and convey decent video footage. nevertheless, on the second day, the sun did show us some love…

we were fascinated by those steam clouds coming out of the asphalt everywhere. a very photogenic phenomenon that also made us consistently feel like in a movie.   

not enough time to track down UR studios though. maybe next time.

apropo…

it was probably the slowest demolition of a building in Berlin. a long decay with a high amount of public discussion throughout and still. i comfort myself with being informed, that before realising the rather strange idea of building a replica of the barock Berliner Schloss, this ground will be planted with some soft green grass, for us the “people”, to lay down on during the next summer and bitch the hell out of some decisions makers in this town.

about Palast der Republik

being nostalgic, in Berlin, is a tricky game. to those who don’t know, in this town, you just blink, and an old building is replaced  with a new one. a “desert” gap between 2 houses is filled with block made out of glass. so you walk by, look at it, and try to remember what was there before. was it this pizza place? a club? a squad?

very typical here, to get caught between wanting things to progress, be more established, to see more trade in the street, more working places – and the will to keep things as they are now… or used to be: the open spaces, the cheap lofts, the squads, the so-called “alternative subculture”, and mostly the freedom from being slave to 3 jobs that will pay your rent. this town sometimes makes things so ’laid-back’ that you wouldn’t move your ass to anything but a minimal techno beat in an after-hour party. comfortable indeed. and i’m not cynical.

i mean, i dont believe that the man was born to work. i think i at least was born to have fun. but regarding looking back…. i don’t feel at ease taking part in the nostalgia party. it’s just too obvious to do. as if we all bound to be 63 and think that things are just ‘not as good as they used to be’. lame.  

so here’s a conflict: you feel sad not finding that house that was standing there until what seemed to be yesterday. you taught yourself to look forward… but can’t help not feeling a victim of the ’system’. you are defeated. you think you should go, start that company, be a shark yourself… or rather just grab a decent techno party while the scene lasts. 

or just do both.. ;)

so now I can blog right out of my iPod touch . lovely

around May this year i got the Tokyo fever again. the first 2 visits both took place in the month of May. so it made sense (and proofed something about the power of a one-year cycle).

So this one came unexpected, like all things. 2 first weeks of October. 3 short pieces for 3SAT, Neues. Shooting, editing and uploading with Mr. Hottenbacher, with just enough time to get lost in this mad city again, buy me a suit and come back to Berlin and marry the beautiful A.S (now A.L) ;)

Berlin

this place is in (?)

Video clip made for the wonderful Barabara Morgenstern, by Yaneev Topyol, Amichai Green + Camera by me

Come to Berlin by Barbara Morgenstern from yaneevt on Vimeo.

Shooting a documentary about Arthur Szyk’s exhibition at the Deutsches Historisches Museum, directed by James Ruxin, for the California based Arthur Szyk Society, a non-profit organization led by former Rabbi Irvin Ungar, a charismatic (in his way) character, who enthusiastically undertook the mission of exposing the world to Szyk and his art.

Szyk’s (pronounced ‘Schick’) work that made him famous, was made during and after the 2nd world war. In his drawings he attacked the ‘axis’ leaders, in a perfect, very fine, classically skilful way.

During that shoot i have found it often strange to see, that for the common american viewer, as probably for most of the western world, “new Germany” is still news. And even for Germany itself, presenting Szyk (for the first time) takes an amount of carefulness. 

It’s interesting to look on 2nd world war through Szyk’s images with the perspective of our times. Obviously and sadly, Szyk was right, and yet showing his art in Berlin is a major event. 70 years after the world has clearly differed perpetrators from victims, for some, this ground is still shaky and a bit dangerous to walk on.  

The House on August St. is one of the five films nominated to the “Ofir Prize”, the israeli academy awards (known until recently as “the Israeli Oscar”) in the documentary section.

if you are a member of the academy you should definitely vote for this movie.

23rd of September — good luck!!!