Is there a “golden” tempo that is universally appealing, like the Golden Ratio is universally appealing visually? Not to my knowledge… nor search engine Google’s knowledge, for that matter. However, as I was setting a tempo for a piano étude I had composed a few decades ago, it turned out to be about 100 bpm. That was roughly 1 and 2/3 beats per second, or 1.666 approximated, which wasn’t far from 1.618 approximated that I knew to be the rounded value of the Golden Ratio.
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Be an Occupy Protester for Hallowe’en!
It’s Hallowe’en! Not ready but need a costume? Here’s a simple one!
Just throw on your worst laundry, don’t wash or shower, and down a bottle of Buckley’s cough syrup if you’re not bitter enough about the world.
Actually, down a bottle anyway cause you’ll need to be that disillusioned about life and the world you live in.
Then complain about anything you can think of anytime you see anybody.
And voilà!
An original, cheap, last minute Hallowe’en costume that will get you into lots of Hallowe’en parties in major cities in North America where protests are being held.
My One Minute Film in the Toronto Urban Film Festival
I am honoured this year to have my one minute film in the Toronto Urban Film Festival this year (TUFF).
Vượt Biên: Voyage of a Diaspora is a metaphorical depiction of the Vietnamese Boat People’s journey for freedom, using photos from the United Nations’ Photo Library and a few from my past.
[December 2011 edit: I’m allowed to share it now that the festival is over]
Vượt Biên: Voyage of a Diaspora (my One Minute Film project)
Vượt Biên: Voyage of a Diaspora is my silent one minute film that metaphorically depicts the Vietnamese Boat People’s journey for freedom, using photos from the United Nations’ Photo Library, among other sources.
This past spring, I was fortunate enough to have been accepted into the One Minute Film (OMF) program with the Atlantic Filmmakers’ Cooperative (AFCOOP) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is a video rendition of my OMF project, not a digitization for reasons described in the Production Notes of the film press kit, so the poor quality. However, this will suffice to share with others who would otherwise literally need a film projector to be able to see it.
The film press kit also has much more detail on the topics covered, images, production notes and additional resources about the Vietnamese Boat People.
The One Minute Film experience was an incredible one for me, and I think I could say the same on behalf of my colleagues in the program. We were trained on everything from story development, which is challenging in a one minute film for all kinds of genres, to lighting, camera operations and techniques like animation, film properties and handling, editing, casting, among many other topics. We had a great diversity of styles and genres, and all the hard work paid off as all the films turned out fabulously! I am the first to post mine online, but as more of my colleagues do, I will add links.
You can search one minute film on YouTube to see a whole host of others as this is a genre and program which exists in many countries and has been done for many years.
The OMF project was my first experience with film, but the mentors, instructors and AFCOOP staff did a fabulous job with me and my colleagues to help us produce what we did. In the age of digital YouTube where people just snap and film everything digitally, impromptu, people pick up a lot of bad artistic habits from never having to think about preparing for shots and just take an infinite number of redos until they get something sort of OK. What I learned through the OMF program will be of value to me in many capacities, not just filming, for a long time to come. The skills are valuable for lots of forms of communication, from writing to film to photography, but the preparation habits will be priceless. The discipline from having to work hard for one take so you would prepare as much as possible to prevent things from going wrong is hard to teach, and harder to undo for the young casual digital shooters who never knew what it’s like to have 24 film shots in a camera with a price to develop each shot.
I would highly recommend the film experience if you have never tried it. Check with local film organizations in your local area to see if they have intro film programs, especially something like the One Minute Film program. In Nova Scotia, the entry forms to the program can be found on the AFCOOP site in January, with the deadlines for February 1 or there abouts. Don’t pass it up if you have ever had any inkling to try out making film, even if ultimately digital. The program is free! Your ideas and work are the only things required, with incredible gratification for what you put in.
Aside from big thanks to my OMF colleagues, AFCOOP staff, mentors and instructors, I would also like to thank my Parents and a certain lady at the United Nations photo library in New York, which is not a public archive. When I showed up at their doorstep and told her my story, she signed me in past security and gave me access to their entire digitized collection of Vietnamese refugee photos. That definitely made it easier for me to make this film with all the photos and not having to decide right on the spot which ones I would request. Serendipity has been with me again and again, in ways I could not believe, in the making of this film, and I am grateful to whomever I should be.
Happy Pi Day! How Are You Celebrating?
Today, March 14 (when this was posted), is Pi Day. March 14th’s date is often written as 3-14, which contains the first three digits of π, so it is chosen as Pi Day. Coincidentally, but rather symbolically appropriate, it is also Albert Einstein’s birthday, and few other dates could be more appropriate in my opinion. That is unless you count Feb 7 as 2-7 and really approximate the natural logarithm e to a useless 2 digits. Geekier people can celebrate Pi Minute at 1:59 AM (24 hour clock only) or 1:59 PM (12 hour clock) on March 14, since 3.14159 is a longer extension of the Pi decimal. I would argue for something like 3:54:32 PM because on the 24 hour clock, 15.935 hours is that time, but that’s probably too geeky even for the mainstream Pi Day celebrators. Mind you, some of them celebrate Pi Second at precisely at 1:59:26 AM or PM on the 12 hour clock, with decimals of a second being really optional to any number of 5-3-5 tenths, hundredths or thousandths of a second. Too short to even let out a scream, though!
So far, I’ve written this article with only a link to π, as if you knew enough about it to get the rest of that first paragraph. You probably do, but in case you don’t, here’s a shortened plain language version.
If you divide the length of a ring by the straight line distance across that ring through the centre, you will always get π. The more precisely you could measure those distances, meaning like to some ridiculously small unit of measure and that you’ve got the correct measure of a perfect ring, the more precise a value of π you will get with more and more decimals. One beauty of π is that while it is always the same, its exact value will never be known because it is what is known as an irrational number, which’s decimals never repeat. You can see π to one million decimals here for yourself if you want to satisfy yourself (might be 100,000 when you find it pending traffic on the server)! Talk about a good way to impress your teacher! The University of Tokyo supposedly has π calculated out to 200 million digits, but that takes 4.2 GB to download so I’ll leave it at that. In being an irrational number, though, no fraction can represent π. It is sometimes approximated as a fraction of 22/7, but that is not correct. So thank goodness for symbolic representations, eh?
Pi has a lot of beauties to it, both within the number and without in relation to where it appears in the physical relationships of scientific phenomena. If you don’t believe there is a higher being of some sort, seeing the order of the universe involving π almost certainly will make you believe. If you’re still not convinced, I suggest researching the same thing for the natural logarithm e which is the base of all things as it occurs mathematically and naturally, unconstrained by cultures that count by 10, 2 (computers) or some other base. The previous link to π on Wikipedia will tell of many of the beauties of π, with additional links. The Pi Search Page also contains a load, including trivia, frequency of repeating patterns of digit strings, etc. Really geeky stuff on both links, but you know you’d love it so click on through to learn and appreciate!
So with all the amazingness of π to celebrate, how could one sufficiently acknowledge it all? Well, simple, because π is all about simplicity despite its complexity. That is actually a life philosophy of mine, that the simplest things aren’t actually simple. They are only made that way by all the complex details behind it so you had better be prepared to be overwhelmed if you’re going to study or tackle the simplicity of anything, rather than thinking it’s going to be easy!
So to celebrate Pi Day, you just eat pie in keeping it simple!
Geekier folks will add discussing the importance, relevance, properties or other matters involving Pi. I’m coming close with blogging since that isn’t truly a “discussion”. But by discussing Pi, I mean Pi without an e, over Pie with an e, but I’ll take discussing Pi with an e over Pi with an e as well.
In this unhealthy age, walking around something would be good, if only to burn off the pie. Striving for a close to perfect circle as your walking path would be outgeeking yourself.
With Daylight Standard Time having gotten switched at 2 AM this morning, in places that switch, it was a momentous way to celebrate Pi Minute by altering time the minute after. Too bad it doesn’t occur every year!
I am posting this at 1:59 PM my local time as a second Pi Minute celebration. Am I geeky or what, eh???
I’m one hour short with the “spring ahead” clock change, so I’m going to metaphorically be running around all day. If you’re not familiar with English expressions, “running around all day” means keeping busy or doing all kinds of things, whether that is work, chores or someone else. Um, if you’re not familiar with English expressions, you can research that last one. I couldn’t help it with my sense of humour after all the geeky humour leading up to it.
My metaphorical running around all day will literally include a circular 12K running route that isn’t that circular in shape, but goes around part of the peninsula on which I live to end up where I started and close it off. The route will also go around several landmarks.
How will you celebrate Pi Day?
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 9.7
Digital Citizen 