Digital Artist: Godfrey Silas
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DPP
: You went from editing on "borrowed" linear systems to non-linear on
the PC. How has the non-linear process altered your work?
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GS : I have
an organic relationship with resilience. But I could not resile over
cheap linear systems: my artwork were impacted. Enter Adobe Premiere.
This introduction to non-linear editing softened my exasperation with
contemporary linear editing. But not without cost. Premiere allowed
my work to stay pure: devoid of generational loss; and with the facility
for layering with "resolution fidelity." Premiere gave my artwork a
new lease on life.
However, I had to contend with capture cards. Those that would never
play the AVI files out to DV tape without crashing after a few minutes.
But here is the most painful problem of all: My capture card would not
play out audio. My video was always prestine in Premiere but any play
out to tape had to include no audio. I would export my clips without
audio, play out as much as my capture card would allow...and I would
then linearly insert my audio after the fact. One can only ponder
how I created an hour-long dance video using this "technique" with my
dancers and music in sync. The world is not a bed of roses!
DPP
: You moved from the PC to the Mac. Why? How has the Mac changed your
work in general?
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GS : Necessity
engenders invention. I needed to work in Premiere on the PC on Windows
NT. For these reasons, I endured my pain and used my tools to the max
as I had in graduate school. I had no clue about the Mac; but to work
in Final Cut Pro you need the Mac. Final Cut for me begins where everything
else in video editing (that I know) ends.
I adore the remarkable dedication of Adobe After Effects which lies
outside this consideration; and clearly because it is a compositing
program. Final Cut is "The Editing Program of all Time". This
program boasts the most resilient architecture of any non-linear editing
program in its class. I can preview the most complex phrases in ballet
to a complex Beethoven or Mozart piano variation...down to the last
note in dead real time; and perform After Effects-type compositing right
on the timeline, layering to my heart's content.
On the PC, my Intergraph runs on NT 4.0, 333 MHz, Pentium II with 20
gigs of hard drive storage and 128MB of RAM. My Mac is a 300 MHz G3
with 256MB of RAM and 30 gigs of hard drive storage. The Mac, for me,
is a much more stable environment for fine art work as well as corporate
and industrial projects. The clutter of unwanted applications as in
Windows is minimized on the Mac. Other than the absence of the right-click
of the mouse as enjoyed on PC, the Mac is a very intelligent platform.
DPP
:
What are your favorite software programs?
GS
: I have come to love Final Cut Pro. I still flirt with Premiere for
its simplicity. I love the sound studio layout. You can apply audio
filters without rendering before it plays, which you must do in Final
Cut for most audio filters. Premiere 5.1 has an invaluable sound studio.
My other unbeatable program is Photoshop for all kinds of layers and
all kinds of image manipulations.
As far as compositing goes, After Effects is untouchable. My work derives
its high-end feel from this incredible program. After Effects is, categorically,
the most finished, most dedicated program I have used extensively. The
look of my glamour work, for example, is explicable in terms of After
Effect's polish.
DPP
: Can you describe your layering techniques? How do you normally approach
a scene?
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GS : For
my music video pieces, I find that multiplicity (complex layering of
activity) gives the requisite dimensions so badly sought by dance. I
discovered in Sydney, in undergraduate school, that video is a flat
medium pictorially; and that dance belongs on stage. To bring dance
to the screen, dimension is a requisite condition. But most choreographers
tremble at the thought of their work losing fidelity-of-staging. This
results in the flatness found on PBS documentation of ballets. The best
television cameras cannot resolve the flatness of a dance on television
without multiplicity of sorts.
I choreograph and shoot my own work, which gives me perfect control.
I always create extra scenes within my scenes either with light or with
backdrops or mirrors. I create my dances for the camera, not as stage
performances (even when they are live theatre performances). I use blue,
green or black drops in the interest of post. In post, I employ After
Effects for strange distortions of the original footage.
DPP
: When the first prosumer DV camera (Sony's VX-1000) came out, you jumped
at it. How do you like working in DV compared to the formats that you
have used before?
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GS : The
VX-1000 is the best video camera I have ever used, and that includes
Betacam SP. In the hands of a fastidious cinematographer, the VX-1000
is the next best thing to a 35mm film camera. Don't shoot me yet! On
a sheer pictorial level, my finished work with the VX-1000 beats most
broadcast programs originating on film. In pure cinematographic terms,
your scene, not your subject, is your image.
I have married my obssession with pictorial rendition to the VX-1000
and DV. Most filmmakers do not share this compulsion with pictorialization.
Nor should they. For me, art is necessarily a re-creation of existential
realty. Through the process of selection, of omission and emphasis,
I create works of art. DV and the VX-1000 are perfect tools for such
a vision.
