Observational Videos
newest 100 observational videos / observational widgets / media rss:

Bob talks about his trip to the grocery store!

Sun (2008, 5.4MB, 30 secs) Utterly ravishing Lumi re from the never predictable, always interesting, Rupert Howe. On that summery note, we re going to take a rest in the sunshine. We love doing DVblog, but the daily deadline definitely takes its toll after a bit. We ll be getting ready to hit the ground running again around 16th Sept. we ll still keeping our eyes peeled for the new, for the weird (best of all!) for the wonderful. Have a great summer! Brittany, Doron, Michael.

Paola e Bettino (2006, 4MB, 2:24 min) By brothers Marco and Saverio Lanza.

Dust/Spring Evening (2005-7, 26.2MB, 1:57 min) Dignity (2004, 40.4MB, 7:02 min) Rain : Focus winter in the north (2004-9, 9.5MB, 1:12 min) We showed a couple of rather restrained, pastoral pieces by Paul Kelly in February of this year. So, here re three rather restrained, somewhat more urban pieces. I admire the determinedly austere approach, to make much - or rather to make us make much- of what is given to the camera (quite a lot, it has to be said, in Dignity which is a touching portrait of man dog), although one does have visions of a kind of Yoda figure meditating in depth before every possible editing decision to take the four years Focus apparently took to make. I look forward to more.

Untitled ( excerpt (2008, 87MB, 6:27 min) There s something pleasantly reminiscent of Linklater s Slacker in this piece from Daniel Osbourne. I don t mean to suggest it s derivative; I don t think it is, or only in the completely unescapable way of coming-after. This piece has it s own identity, which at first I wasn t sure whether it was completely random, but then little bits of structuring begin to assert themselves. In particular I like the fades which occur immediately prior to anything substantive happening. A lot of it looks very good too - there s no doubt the man has an eye - the 3-D glasses sequence, the fire women, the musical instruments procession (although am I alone in finding something slighty snotty about the shot of the bemused onlookers?). That little cavil aside this is interesting stuff I look forward to seeing how Osbourne s work develops.

Clip. Observational study of physical aggression for Pysc 360. Tally every act of physical aggression you see in the clip.

patafilm #609 (2008, 18.2MB, 4:27 min) No excuse offered or needed to show work by the Danish magician, Sam Renseiw. (when I called him the genius Dane here a little while ago, he wrote me, modestly demurring, but he is, Dear Reader, he is. Both) He says still imbricated in the subtle magic of simple things and situations , which is unusually accurate for an artist self assessment. Beautiful work.

Thibaut Is Singing On Oberstein Road (2008, 15.5MB, 2:36 min) Rules of Engagement (2008, 18.1MB, 2:15 min) Tremendous work from Robert Croma. The Iraq piece is harrowing but you should watch it nonetheless. The Thibaut piece is simply exhilarating. I was trying to figure out what exactly makes this work so outstanding. I don t think it s just the fact that it is technically so good (although it is). It s to do with Croma s taste, judgement instinct, or at least how he deploys these to tell us something, or rather to intuit-to-us something about being a human being. You couldn t make a rule of it, for that would render it inert mechanical, but, loosely, in these two pieces, it seems to me to lie in a going-beyond -the-expected - a process with its heart in the little codas which open out the pieces in a quite extraordinary way. So the Iraq piece, though supremely well done, is initially not a million miles away from much other remix type work, but it is the final calling-to-attention, the framing, of the gait of one of the people whom we have just seen obliterated that re-doubles its horror but also creates the tiniest ground for hope in the inescapable (thanks to Croma) clear recognition of our common humanity. A similar process occurs in the Thibaut piece - its potency initially seems to reside in the simplicity of the camera exploring the still, the conjunction of the new and old imaging technology and the simple moving fact of evocation of time passed. It s beautiful; and many would have been tempted to leave it there. The final section is a risk - it could have have the opposite effect to what it actually does; it could have closed off, made pat. Here perhaps the technical fluency does play a defining role but the effect is the exact opposite of closure -we re left, once again, in a very different way, filled with a sense of the mystery complexity possibility ( the fragility) of being human.

3 of 7(2002, 74.7MB, 4:00 min) 4 of 7(2002, 105MB, 4:00 min) Two (from a series of seven) heartbreakingly beautiful, lump-in-the-throat-evocative lyric poems about being young, disguised as music video/documentaries. Dan Canyon is a natural filmmaker. He so is. What more to say, except nice to see Blackheef pronounced correctly? See all seven.

Robert Todd - Creation Myth (2007, 39.3MB, 5:46) Robert Todd is a master of 16mm. With an enormous catalog behind him and no sign of his work ceasing in the near future, Todd is slowly migrating his work onto his personal website. What a treat for us. This piece, Creation Myth, is one of several I will repost here over time, to show respect for these subtle, moving visions. Todd says: Love of sky, love of earth and air, with water helping us along form the backdrop to this reflection of life-essence and its evolution. And, full disclosure: Rob has previously been my professor, and I personally consider him one of the kindest, most knowledgeable and professional working artists under whom I have had the privilege of studying. I wish I had been better able to absorb his teachings at the time. He is truly a Bolex genius.

Author: jasongray Added: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:52:57 -0800 Duration: 105George Carlin was the king of observational humor. this was a rather spontaneous thing i did at work (yes i have a job, stfu).

Author: jasongray Added: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:52:57 -0800 Duration: 105George Carlin was the king of observational humor. this was a rather spontaneous thing i did at work (yes i have a job, stfu).

George Carlin was the king of observational humor. this was a rather spontaneous thing i did at work (yes i have a job, stfu).

George Carlin was the king of observational humor. this was a rather spontaneous thing i did at work (yes i have a job, stfu).Author: jasongray11 Tags: george carlin jasongray jason gray pizzaboy180 pizza boy observational humor standup comedy tribute legend Posted: 25 June 2008 Rating: 0.0 Votes: 0

Croque Quartet (2007, 29.5MB, 2:05 min) I Didn t Say That (2007, 45.8MB, 3:14 min) Writer, musician, artist general polymath Talan Memmott turns his attention to film in this series of shorts made mostly in Paris in collaboration with Sandy Florian. They re assured, quirky, evocative and entertaining. You can see the whole series to date here .

Art Model [AHP] (2008, 4MB, 56 secs, silent) Burger King [BS] (2008, 22.4MB, 1:02 min, silent) Meeting from Above [BS] (2008, 28.7MB, 59 secs, silent) Pole [AHP] (2008, 4.39MB, 55 secs, silent) Sour Candy [AHP] (2008, 3.58MB, 46 secs, silent) Five Lumières, two by DVblog s own Brittany Shoot and three by Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen with Brittany in the starring role. They re all great, but in particular I love the Meeting from Above piece which is extraordinarily rich in color incident in the kind of micro observational way that the Lumières encapsulate. In fact if Brakhage hadn t got to it first, in a somewhat grimmer context, The Act of Seeing with One s Own Eyes would make a tremendous motto for the Lumière project

Violin Power (clip, 1978, 2.1MB, 1:17 min) The Vasulkas, husband wife team Woody Steina, have devoted over thirty years to an intensive exploration of the possibilities of electronic image making. It’s a strange paradox, perhaps, that this exploration, which has been highly formal technical in nature should also be so deeply poetic. Of the six clips here the first three are by Steina the second three by Woody (these being extracts from a single work ‘Art of Memory’) Also, a link to their excellent website, which as well as many other video clips, contains comprehensive documentation of their work, including pdfs of complete exhibition catalogues. Sky High (clip, 1982, 1.3MB, 48 sec) Warp (clip, 2000, 1.7MB, 1:04 min) Art of Memory (clip, 1987, 1.1MB, 43 sec) Art of Memory #2 (clip, 1987, 1.6MB, 1:02 min) Art of Memory #3 (clip,1987, 1MB, 25 sec)

‘City Golf’ (2002, 8.4MB, 2:09 min) ‘Sitting’ (2005, 22MB, 3:47 min) ‘Get Over It’ (2004, 65.7MB, 11:24 min) Though the antecedents of Lee Walton’s work are clear - Cage, Long, Nauman, Aders - he nevertheless brings something new to what could be called the algorithmic performance genre: there’s the pleasure of the sportscast to be derived from his lazy athleticism, a contemporary comedy-of-embarrasment edge also his videos are rather lovely, slow evocations of place time…