New York Shakes 24-7

This production was developed with 1950’s and 60’s exceptional photographs of NYC and their people by Samuel Gottscho and Vivian Maier.  I also used footage from Archive.org ; “NY Staten Island Ferry” from the Prelinger archives.
Music is Afro Blue by Triplexity (Nikila, SaReGaMa and Hamelin Bérengnier) @ HTTP://www.Jamendo.com  Remix by Leo Bar
(You may notice artifacts and pixellation in some photos or video sequences, these were caused by enlarging small formats into HD format)
All other effects are my fault and I take credit for them 🙂
Enjoy the show,
Leo

Jazzy Jigsaw

Trams from the past come back restored as seen here, from several locations in California. I chose to show them under pieces of jigsaw puzzle because of how they were first banished due to the gas-powered automobile and now they're proven to be the most economic form of transportation in the state with the most drivers. Besides these old relics, trams and light rails are making a huge comeback in many cities around the world. The latest being in Jerusalem, Israel.

See :: http://www.lightrailnow.org/ also :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram_and_light-rail_transit_systems
Special thanks – Orange empire railway museum

This video production although simple in looks was very challenging to make. There are lots of filters and effects to make the imagery look softer and older than what it is. In addition, the custom-made jigsaw screens and blue screening animations took forever to synchronize with the music and keep it moving at a decent pace, but not too fast (to avoid skipping of frames) and zero in on the details of these elegant old trams.

Hope you enjoy some great jazz, and have a great weekend,
Leo

New York Faces 1940 – ’50s

Fascinated by the candid photographs taken by Vivian Maier during the ’50s that were discovered in Chicago lately, I decided to make a go on a new (oldie) NYC video. As with other of my New York City oldies, I used public domain footage from Archive.org featuring the Third Avenue Elevated, torn down in the mid 50’s.

The initial concept was to make it be a ride through the city from Lower East Side to the end of the elevated railway in the Bronx, while showing people and their ethnic backgrounds as we moved on. A concept is great, but in reality it was hard to pull it off, since I lacked certain type of photographs to “paint” the story. Regardless, I thought that in the end, it represented accurately the time and space of those neighborhoods and their people. (Your comments are welcome)

Because jazz in my opinion is the music that best suits NYC in the 50’s I used “Hey Now” performed by Red Garland released on “Red Garland Revisited!” (Prestige Records, 1957).
Red Garland – Piano; Paul Chambers – Bass; Art Taylor – Drums; Kenny Burrell – Guitar.

Mixing small format film with all format stills and some digital paintings of mine was a real challenge in the making of this production. After many missteps and redoes, I finally found the combination to make it work best. (Note to myself – Do not try this type of mix and match formats too often, it takes gobs of time to assemble, render properly and sync) 😦

Enjoy the railway ride as we travel through the neighborhoods of NYC,

Leo

Ska Jazz

Getting in the mood of Halloween and listening to some great jazz music, I came up with this treat (or trick?). Tried to include most of the famous names in Jazz, from past and present. Ran out of time to include all of them so, my fault (time was not on “my side”).

The sync and timing to the music on this video consumed tons of time to get it just right. Hopefully it plays on Vimeo as intended. The idea to include something “nasty” in honor of the title of the music and upcoming Halloween, ended up being a long and tedious search for material, that would be striking 🙂 funny and weird. Eventually, I came upon this film from the 30’s “Esprit de Famille”, that actually bombed, but became a cult flick for early fetishism.

Also trough the courtesy of Christopher Taylor, http://www.kiwifoto.com/ I was able to add clips of bats in a cave. (I personally think that bats are very beneficial and have a critical place in nature’s cycle, but lore has them as scary, nasty and associated with horror)

The piece contains many technical features i.e. slow-motion, multiple screens, coloring, 3D camera motion Fx’s and other more trivial visual “tricks”.

Enjoy the treat,
Leo

New Jazz City

Old New York

Old New York

New York City — visited at the end of the 19th century, from 1890’s to 1930’s.
This production is the third in a series about New York City; a fascinating and unique world metropolis. It’s my adopted city since I arrived to the States. These memories (some imaginary, some real) are forever etched in my brain and inspired me to expose this human amalgamation from different angles, timelines, spaces and interests.

Enjoy,
Leo

~ Not For Commercial Use ~
Creative Commons – Attribution – Non commercial – No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
HTTP://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
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Elements used in this production:

Music: Blue in Green by Miles Davis Photography: Public Domain
Paintings: Oil Paintings by Janet Ternoff
Additional Art: Leo Bar
Film Clips: American Mutoscope & Biography Company
1903 footage by C.E. Price

Pix In Motion
Leo Bar
Creative Imagining

New York City – A Different Apple

• This project was a lot of fun, discovery and amazement to produce. I started working on the concept in mid-October. Had to set up some collaborations with photographers, do the research, gather my thoughts, lay out a story line, then go fetch images and scour my archives for older images which may be still relevant. The idea was to show NYC in a different light, from different angles and using striking images with accentuated colors.

As it progressed, the piece looked better and better and I was really encouraged by the support of some of the photographers,  especially Trey Ratcliff who opened up its treasure chest of beautiful HDRs to me.

This video contains photos from other boroughs of NY

vimeo 8263380  

Included in this work are the following elements:

• Music – Prelude in E minor by Gerry Mulligan, a great jazz saxophonist.
• Photographs(exclusive HDRs) – Trey Ratcliff  :: HTTP://www.StuckInCustoms.com
• Additional HDR and other Photographs – John Brody, NYCArthur, NYLuke, Phillip Ritz  all of them can be found at www.Flickr.com .
• Aerial Photographs – with special animation I created to simulate shots taken from a moving plane.

I hope you enjoy watching this video :: http://www.vimeo.com/8263380

Pix In Motion by Leo Bar