23 december 2012

Patricianhouse


Museum Willet-Holthuysen is a museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on the Herengracht canal. It is the only fully furnished canalside patrician house in Amsterdam that is open to the public. The museum has a large collection of silverware, plates, and books from the Dutch Golden Age. It also has a substantial collection of art.






The house was built for Jacob Hop, mayor of Amsterdam, around 1685. He was not the last mayor to own the house. In 1739 the outside was redesigned to look as it does today, in the highly fashionable Louis XIV style. The last private owner, Mrs. Willet-Holthuysen, bequeathed the entire house to the city of Amsterdam on condition that it became a museum in 1895. The curator named in that year was Frans Coenen Jr., a writer, composer, and art critic. It has been a museum ever since



 

21 december 2012

Birthplace of cinema



The collection of Jean Desmet (1875-1956) is held by EYE Film Institute Netherlands (formerly the Filmmuseum) since 1957. The vast collection contains, among many other items, masterpieces by D.W. Griffith and Louis Feuillade, films with Asta Nielsen and Lyda Borelli, and productions from the film companies Pathé, Gaumont and Edison. The film-historical significance of the Jean Desmet Collection is acknowledged worldwide. A large number of the films in the collection from the Netherlands’ first professional distributor are unique copies (the only preserved copy in the world). Among the more than 900 films from 1907-1916 are masterpieces that had not been seen for decades. These discoveries have cleared up a number of misconceptions, and the film-historical appreciation for historical genres such as Italian diva films, German melodramas and French comedies has been changed once and for all.


20 december 2012

Early Cinema



The history of film (known variously as film, motion pictures or movies) began in the late 1880s with the invention of the first movie camera.



Motion pictures were initially exhibited as a carnival novelty and developed to one of the most important tools of communication and entertainment, and mass media in the 20th century and into the 21st century. Most films before 1930 were silent. Motion picture films have substantially affected the arts, technology, and politics.[citation needed]
The movie theatre was considered a cheaper, simpler way to provide entertainment to the masses. Movies became the most popular visual art form of the late Victorian age. It was simpler because of the fact that before the cinema people would have to travel long distances to see major dioramas or amusement parks. With the advent of the cinema this changed. During the first decade of the cinema's existence, inventors worked to improve the machines for making and showing films.

3 D film




A 3D is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception. Derived from stereoscopic photography, a regular motion picture camera system is used to record the images as seen from two perspectives (or computer-generated imagery generates the two perspectives in post-production), and special projection hardware and/or eyewear are used to provide the illusion of depth when viewing the film. 3D films are not limited to feature film theatrical releases; television broadcasts and direct-to-video films have also incorporated similar methods, especially since 3D television and Blu-ray 3D.


3D films have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion picture industry because of the costly hardware and processes required to produce and display a 3D film, and the lack of a standardized format for all segments of the entertainment business. Nonetheless, 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema, and later experienced a worldwide resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s driven by IMAX high-end theaters and Disney themed-venues. 3D films became more and more successful throughout the 2000s, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009 and January 2010.


 

17 december 2012

Green House



House is uptempo music for dancing, although by modern dance-music standards it is mid-tempo, generally ranging between 118 and 135 bpm. Tempos tended to be slower in the early years of house.

The common element of house is a prominent kick drum on every beat usually generated by a drum machine or sampler. The kick drum sound is augmented by various kick fills and extended dropouts. The drum track is filled out with hi-hat cymbal-patterns that nearly always include a hi-hat on quaver off-beats between each kick, and a snare drum or clap sound on beats two and four of every bar. This pattern derives from the so-called "four-on-the-floor" dance drumbeats of the 1960s which impacted on 1980s house music via the 1970s disco drummers.

Electronically generated sounds and samples of recordings from genres such as jazz, blues, disco, funk, soul and synth pop are often added to the foundation of the drum beat and synth bass line. House songs may also include disco, soul, or gospel vocals and additional percussion such as tambourine. Many house mixes also include repeating, short, syncopated, staccato chord-loops that are usually composed of 5-7 chords in a 4-beat measure.



 

16 december 2012

The sound of cinema




A cinema organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra.
Theatre organs took the place of the orchestra when installed in a cinema (movie theatre) during the heyday of silent films. Most theatre organs were modelled after the style originally devised by Robert Hope-Jones, which he called a "unit orchestra".




Such instruments were typically built to provide the greatest possible variety of timbres with the fewest possible pipes, and often had pianos and other percussion instruments built in, as well as a variety of sound effects such as a siren.

Theatre organs are usually identified by their distinctive horseshoe-shaped consoles, which are frequently painted white with gold trim. An original example is the 3/13 Barton from Ann Arbor's historic Michigan Theatre. The organ was installed in 1927 and is currently played daily before most film screenings. There were over 7,000 such organs installed in American theatres from 1915 to 1933, but fewer than 40 original instruments remain in their original theatres.


 

13 december 2012

EYE Amsterdam



EYE Film Institute Netherlands is located in the Overhoeks neighborhood of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It includes a cinematography museum formerly called Filmmuseum, founded in 1952. Its predecessor was the Dutch Historic Film Archive, founded in 1946. The museum was situated in the Vondelparkpaviljoen since 1975, and in 2009, plans were announced for a new home for the museum on the northern bank of Amsterdam's waterfront. It was officially opened on April 4, 2012 by Queen Beatrix.





EYE is dedicated to the preservation of heritage for future generations, both Dutch films and foreign films screened in the Netherlands. The museum collection includes 46,000 film titles, 35,000 posters and 450,000 photographs. The earliest materials date from the start of the film industry in Holland in 1895.

Street-smart artist



A person who has a lot of common sense and knows what's going on in the world. This person knows what every type of person has to deal with daily and understands all groups of people and how to act around them. This person also knows all the current shit going on in the streets and the ghetto and everywhere else and knows how to make his own right decisions, knows how to deal with different situations and has his own independant state of mind. A street smart person isn't stubborn and actually listens to shit and understands shit.



10 december 2012

How do you say goodnight ?



HOW DO YOU SAY GOODNIGHT?

...when the world is whirring at such a fast pace? Scientific breakthroughs, feats of modern invention, and domestic wonders -- the relentless stimuli that animate waking life and permeate dreams are ever gaining momentum. A restless outer world pokes and prods and ultimately overtakes those who would try to rest. Enchanting, enthralling, frightening -- how do you possibly say goodnight? This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license as part of the remix contest "Past Re-imagined as the Future" hosted by the Free Music Archive (http://freemusicarchive.org/) and the Prelinger Archives (http://archive.org/details/prelingerhomemovies).\




09 december 2012

Salon Steamcarrousel



The Steam Carousel dating from 1895, was bought by Efteling from Hendrik Janvier, who had toured with it to local funfairs, and has been operating in the park since 1956. Hendrik Janvier considered to be the founding father of the salon carousel, sold the Carousel because of the high costs and declining income. Building the ride up took 4 days and it had to be transported with 25 train carriages and trucks.
Rumour has it that Anton Pieck, the most important creative designer of Efteling, pushed for the purchase, because he rode the carousel as a child in Haarlem.




There also is a bar area within the salon carousel. The area surrounding these carousels was normally used for entertainment, eating and dancing in past times..
The seats of the carousel are in the form of animals, such as 22 Hübner horses and 2 Karl Müller carved pigs, and 4 carved Moulina gondolas and coaches, all turning to the music of an original Gavioli organ (only 5 remaining worldwide).


 

The India Rubber Head.



Méliès achieves this by a simple trompe l’oeil effect: the background remains static throughout, but the superimposed element (Méliès’ own head) is filmed with a camera that is moving towards and away from it. Because the background fools us into thinking that the film has been shot entirely from a fixed camera position (as are the vast majority of Méliès’ films), the illusion is instantly convincing. Like all experienced stage performers, Méliès knew that a single head-inflation wouldn’t be enough – so he contrives to include two…

…Deservedly regarded as one of Georges Méliès’ supreme masterpieces, The Man with the Rubber Head represented one of his most significant technical advances since the not dissimilar The Four Troublesome Heads (Un Homme de têtes, 1898).

08 december 2012

Gothenburg 1913



Sweden 1913

Found footage of 100 year ago with newly added music.
A film from the early days of filmmaking. Just one (long) shot with no editing and of an amazing good black/white quality.
Silent film at that time was so particular that almost every man is looking straight into the camera wondering what kind a remarks were made.


07 december 2012

Wings









Close-up shots do not show the subject in the broad context of its surroundings. If overused, close-ups may leave viewers uncertain as to what they are seeing. Close-ups are rarely done with wide-angle lenses, because perspective causes objects in the center of the picture to be unnaturally enlarged. Certain times, different directors will use wide-angle lenses, because they can convey the message of confusion, and bring life to certain characters.

04 december 2012

Amsterdam: highlights & shadows



Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic

The concept now often appears in the arts where one author shows respect to a topic by calling it an homage, such as Homage to Catalonia. Alternatively, creative artists may show respect to a veteran of the field or to an admired practitioner by alluding to their work In rock music this can take the form of a tribute album or of a sample. As of 2010, the digital techniques used to generate many forms of media make it easy to borrow from other works and this remediation may be used in homage to them.

02 december 2012

The portrait artist: Rembrandt



A biographical film, is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.

Because the figures portrayed are actual people, whose actions and characteriics are known, biopics are considered some of the most demanding films of actors and actresses.




A certain amount of fabrication is expected, at least to reduce the risk of libel, but the films often alter events to suit the storyline. Events are sometimes portrayed more dramatically than they occurred, time is "condensed" to fit all important events into the film or several people are blended into a composite.


 

01 december 2012

Hi Amsterdam



A viral video is a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email.




With the proliferation of camera phones, many videos are being shot by amateurs on these devices. The availability of inexpensive video editing and publishing tools has dramatically increased.

Autumn in Hortus Botanicus



Hortus Botanicus is now one of the attractions of the Dutch capital for both Dutch and International visitors. The collection is famous for some of its trees and plants, some of which are on the "danger" list, also well-known plants and trees can be found there, like the Persian Ironwood Tree which is known in Dutch as Perzische Parrotia.

Hortus Botanicus's initial collection was amassed during the 17th century through plants and seeds brought back by traders of the East India Company (VOC) for use as medicines and for their possibilities for commerce. A single coffee plant, Coffea arabica, in Hortus's collection served as the parent for the entire coffee culture in Central and South America. Likewise, two small potted oil palms brought back by the VOC from Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, produced seeds after six years, and these were propagated throughout all of Southeast Asia, becoming a major source of revenue in the Dutch East Indies and now in Indonesia. In 1885-1918 Hugo de Vries was the director of the garden. Recent additions to Hortus include a huge hothouse, which incorporates three different tropical climates