Digital Artist: Godfrey Silas
Page 3
DPP
: Do you have any tips on using the VX-1000 that you would like to share
with our readers? What about any editing tips and tricks?
GS - In the incipient conceptual stages of pictorial acquisition,
light is the most salient variable. Beyond the final stages of
acquisition, replication and resolution are the most salient.
The VX-1000, as a digital acquisition format, delivers these variables
perfectly. The missing link is the producer's "prophetic sense of vision"
through the process.
I carefully expose my subjects to the camera and vice versa. I use plenty
of light so I can drop down to -3db. I watch for dark arears in the
scene for video noise. I keep my sharpness down from the camera menu.
I kill the color in the menu just a little as reds and blues get wild
with the factory setting. I like flesh tones so I shift my WB [white
balance]; and my AE [auto exposure] Shift. I adapt XLR to mini for balanced
sound since the camera does not have an XLR input.
In Final Cut Pro, my sound plays out to my DHR 1000 digital deck as
16-bit, 48Khz. During sound recording I keep my input sound low to avoid
digital distortion. The headphones do not always tell.
DPP
-
Your dance and glamour videos have a very unique and refined style.
Can you explain what goes behind the scenes into creating them?
 |
|
Click
on the picture to watch the video
|
GS - Women
are difficult to photograph well, even when they are attractive to the
human eye. There are a myriad of hidden shadows on a model's face that
surface long after the shoot. I have sworn an intransigent allegiance
to aesthetic law: to capture the best picture I can.
When I was in Brazil some years ago, I marvelled at the beauty of Brazilian
television: the exquisite sense of presenting images of Brazilian women.
Globo TV of Brazil wears a badge of photographic excellence. I studied
this phenomenon and deciphered an unusual craft in the use of light
and color. My glamour images are at once tropical and classical. The
richness is explicable in terms of color, and the poise in terms of
classical balance. The awareness of natural sensuality coupled with
the cognizance of the model's form at its center (the center of the
human body whence derives all movement) converge at an imaginary axis
to magically transform her appearance on camera.
I am a trained body in motion, and so as a dancer I can pull it out
of my models. Even Playboy fails at this simple, natural law
in spite of its command of beautiful women. In my art, every woman can
experience beauty. In fact, most of my models are not as beautiful as
they appear. I never let my models do more than necessary. Only the
most elegant gesture is captured in its exacting precision. All else
is excised.
DPP
- Is there any advice that you'd like to give to other digital artists
out there?
 |
|
Click
on the picture to watch the video
|
GS - I would
only concede that the digital platform has softened the harsh realities
traditionally experienced in a world orchestrated by the powerful. I
might have come out of graduate film school and sought work as a clapper
boy. The powerful are envious of the digital artist whose self-containment
is a function of digital technology. It is clear that this is the dawn
of digital reality. The digital artist represents the most invaluable
conceptual and functional resource in the world's motion toward a global
communication resolve. The gaze is upon the digital artist who has emerged
as the most clever opportunist at the most perfect of times. The digital
artist must stay "slim" and agile to maintain the lead.
DPP
- How do you see the future of digital video and independent production?
The news from Sundance says it all: It's digital cinema! With digital
projection unveiling, I can take refuge behind a tiny DV camera and
a Final Cut Pro; and resist the foolish impulse to go to film. With
internet streaming screaming, the world can watch my digital
cinema without me having to leave the basement.
DPP
- What are your future plans?
I plan to wage an intellectual and aesthetic war on those who might
clamor to silence my efforts at digital cinema. I have already initiated
a pre-emptive strike at mediocrity by virtue of a VX-1000 a Premiere
and a Final Cut Pro, all at a fraction of the traditional cost of equipment.
I plan to bolster my golden contribution toward the advent of digital
reality; to bolster my golden contribution toward this surging motion
en route a global information resolve.
For more information, visit Godfrey Silas' site at www.godfreysilas.com
