Videos, Real and Computer-Generated
Bouncy Electropop music with aliens dancing around large lava lamps (suggesting that music is literally "universal".) Reaching into my 1980's musical subconscious, I wrote a catchy "Depeche Mode"-like techno-flamenco tune, and then created a mosh pit of Technoids dancing to the music in a hyper-realistic dance hall called "The Candy Bar". Music written note by note in Harmony Assistant (www.myriad-online.com) and finished/EQed in GarageBand. Live acoustic Spanish guitar performed by Ian Beardsley. Video rendered with POV-Ray Mac (mac.povray.org), and assembled in iMovie. For the technically curious, there are over 1,200 lines of POV-Ray code (all written by hand in the text language, no modelers were harmed...) to create this. The 2.5 minute movie (in final anti-aliased form) took about 14 continuous hours to render all the frames on an old dual 1 Ghz G4 Mac. A free MP3 of this piece (and others of mine) are available at www.macjams.com/artist/drakonis. A completely re-rendered high-quality DVD of this video (that also contains a 12 minute "Behind-the-Scenes" interview with me about the making of the music and graphics) is currently out of print, but may re-appear soon if there is interest.
Dance of the Technoids - Music Video
I often video-tape nature adventures around me, and sometimes invent fantasy adventures via computer-generated graphics. I edit the videos myself, and often add my own musical compositions to the mix. My wife and I also enjoy traveling, and I will sometimes take videos of our trips to Bryce Canyon, Big Sur, Renaissance Faires, etc. Just the interesting bits, of course :-)
Many more of my videos can be found on my YouTube page.
Video Production Services: We are also available to contract for short commercials about your business, craft, or products. Please click here for more information on this service.
A great video of a gathering of over 15 California Condors, 10 feet from a growing crowd of awe-struck passers-by... in Big Sur along the picturesque California Highway 1.
Soon after my wife and I pulled over and set up the video camera, other people began stopping to see these grand birds too. The more people showed up, the more condors flew up to the other side of the guard rail, just as curious as we were. Soon a Ventana Wildlife worker stopped by, gave us some information on the condors (recorded in this video) and then had to shoo the birds off to a safer distance.
Here is a 10 minute segment of footage of these birds close up, people-watching, cuddling with each other, sun-bathing with wings out, and soaring majestically.
I hope you are as entranced as we were!
Condors in Flight - Big Sur, California
Computer-Generated music video. Music written by Reinholt56 ( http://www.macjams.com/song/46155 ). The video was envisioned from the music, designed, rendered, and produced by me. Graphics designed in a text editor, rendered with the MegaPOV version of the "POV-Ray" ray-tracer software for Macintosh ( http://www.povray.org ).
Cosmic Symphony - Music Video collaboration
I recorded "Vox Nobili" performing a couple of songs at the Escondido Renaissance Faire, on a hot and windy Santa Ana day, April 12, 2008. And yes, I added a very light touch of reverb to the live audio to help filter out a bit of the background noise and wind. Vox Nobili are:
Sopranos: Tara Pool, Liz Lindenfeld, Angelica Marcu, Barbara Young
Altos: Susan Abernethy, Sally Dexter-Smith
Tenor: Jerry Marcu
Basses: Vincent Martin, Richard Smith
They perform Madrigals for Renaissance settings and Christmas music during the holidays. You can find their web sites at www.VoxNobili.com and www.TheSpiritOfChristmasPast.com
"Vox Nobili" Madrigals - Renaissance Faire
Peggy Lundquist, publisher/editor of the "Black Sheep Newsletter" gives a basic overview of many of the events that take place at this annual 3-day "fiber show" in June in Eugene, Oregon.
Black Sheep Gathering - Overview/Interview
Here is a quick glimpse at ideas from my huge "Fractal Serenity" music video project, still in progress. This particular music-video is a "character study" of one of the strange plants that grows in this dream... the "Glass Orchid".
The accompanying "Fractal Serenity" music was initially completely computer-generated, then I massaged and re-wrote areas by hand to soften some of the rough edges, and this harsh-and-soft dreamy music will be lengthened and reworked into the soundscape for the full-length music video of the same name.
The computer graphics were hand-coded in the C-like computer text language of the freeware POV-Ray ray-tracer software... I still don't use modelers, but instead type this all up by hand.
And as always, there's a bit of (Russian) wordplay in the title. I hope you enjoy the surreal dreamy ride!
The Cherry Orchid
