Human violence

Man kills for any excuse, for any excuse whatsoever. Hindus can kill Mohammedans, Mohammedans can kill Hindus, Christians can kill Mohammedans, and Buddhists…and so on and so forth. And for what? For abstract doctrines, principles–and nobody is ready to live for those doctrines and everybody is ready to kill others for those same doctrines. If somebody insults the Bible, the Christian is ready to kill you, and if you ask him, “Are you living your Bible?” he will say, “It is very difficult.” He is not interested in living it, nobody is interested in living it; but if it comes to killing, then everybody becomes very much interested.
—Osho

Solution for JVC Everio

The kind folks at Apple pointed me to a program that re-encodes video into other formats. It’s called VisualHub and it seems to have mostly solved my issue with the funky JVC file format. I thought it was going to take days to re-encode the video into something that Final Cut would recognise; however, after just a few hours of work this morning, all the video is sitting on my external hard drive. I ended up, for simplicity’s sake, saving it all as PAL DV; at this setting, the files were processed faster than real time (on my MacBook Pro).

JVC GZ-HD7 Field Report

For the past several weeks, I’ve used the JVC HD Everio (GZ-HD7) to record the experiences of the Xtreme Team in the Czech Republic. On previous teams, I had used either the Canon GL-1 or a Panasonic DVX-100A to cover the team. Here are some brief thoughts on my experience with this camera.

On paper, this looks like a keen little unit. It packs a lot of technology into a small package (this is important for something that one has to carry continuously for weeks at a time and was a primary consideration when I chose a camera). However, in practice (for what I was using it for) there were many shortcomings. First, this was a decisive moment sort of trip; unfortunately the camera is basically a little computer with a lens and, like a computer, it takes some time to boot up prior to operation. There were many instances where the shot was gone by the time the camera was operational. (I could not just leave the camera on all the time either, it seemed to eat batteries as well.) Secondly, it’s basically an auto-everything unit; however, the auto-exposure wasn’t very intelligent. There were a lot of associated ills to this. The auto white balance was confused by mixed lighting and the WB presets never seemed to quite be on target. Also, the dynamic range was atrocious; highlights were consistently blown out and shadow detail was almost non-existent. It also has very poor low-light performance. So, it’s no good in daylight because of the dynamic range issues and it’s no good in low indoor light (worse than most “consumer” DV cameras made in recent years). Again, in the particular situation I was using it for (which was fast changing documentary style shooting), it was poorly suited.

Basically, it needs controlled lighting or overcast days for good imagery. In some situations it would have been helpful to use manual exposure; I can tell where the exposure should be set for a scene. However, telling the camera where that exposure should be is another matter. To change either the shutter speed or aperture requires a couple presses of awkwardly placed buttons and a dial on the back of the camera (one has to take the camera away from one’s eye or make a separate motion that moves the camera away from a position of filming to make changes). Again, there were many times when I was trying to adjust exposure and the shot was lost.

Another feature that looks good on paper is the ability to shoot stills. This would be a great boon if it were not for the fact that the exposure is almost always wrong and the pictures look worse than images from a mobile phone (I honestly don’t think there was one image from the camera that I would consider usable). After a few days of trying this, I went home and picked up my five year old Sony camera (far far superior images and control over the process of making them).

There is no headphone output which…is somewhat inexplicable.

The optical image stabilisation seems to have no effect whatsoever; this is very important on a camera with almost no mass (it’s physically impossible to hold the camera steady). I did have a camera bracket that helped somewhat. But, still, there are many shots that are unusable because of shake. I’m not sure how critical I can really be here. We keep asking for smaller and lighter. However, the trade-of there is shaky images. I have used other small cameras though that have rather good stabilisation.

Then we come to the big issue that I should have anticipated from the start. I used the external DVD burner to backup files from the camera. This, on the surface, looks like a tidy little system for archiving footage in the field for later editing. No more tedious capturing of footage in post. Everything is already stored as distinct data files for the computer to access. However, my computer can’t access them; or, rather, I can open the files in QuickTime, but Final Cut doesn’t know what to do with them. For some reason, JVC decided to use some proprietary file format rather than a standardised one. So, in order to edit them, I have to re-encode them into another video format. This takes about five minutes for every one minute of video, which, of course, rather negates the time I would have saved capturing footage. There is also some related issue with the interlaced video; it seems especially interlaced. It’s as if someone thought that interlacing might be a really artistic way of interpreting motion and cranked the thing up a couple notches.

A word of advice: Do things simply and well. I should have chosen a not really the coolest latest thing on the scene camera that would have fit the task without fuss. (In that respect, I think the Panasonic DVX cameras are just about the best DV cameras ever made; yes, they are bigger and heavier. However, the image quality is actually better and they get the shot. The most important thing is actually getting the image onto tape. I’d rather have the shot on tape with a few less pixels to count that miss it with the coolest camera around.)

This points to a larger concern with how devoted we are to the latest and greatest gadget (photographers are especially prone to this malady). My film camera that was designed 50 years ago may not have all the neat features of something just off the shelf, but I know how to use it intuitively and can make pictures with it. Features and pixels are irrelevant if the photo is missed or poorly made because the “interface” gets in the way.

At least I got my hat back

(This won’t be especially coherent or in-depth for reasons explained below.)

On Monday (at least, at this point, I think it was Monday) the Xtreme Team went canoeing on the Vltava River at Český Krumlov. This is a beautiful castle town with a welcoming river for all manner of leisurely boating. Or, rather, it would have been if it were not raining and cold. We set out in two person-canoes on relatively placid water. The whole stretch of river we were to go down (about 15k) was calm except for three or four small dams with ramps for boats. I’ve canoed before and really enjoy being out on the water; after I had surgery a few years ago, my doctor recommended rowing for therapeutic exercise. So, until I moved to the Czech Republic, I was rowing 5 to 10k a day on a Concept2 rower. However, though Pieter and I remained upright in the boat, it was not possible to remain dry. When we went down the ramps at the dams, there was all manner of splashing and sloshing that made for soaked boaters. I was wearing the right clothing; unfortunately, it was the right clothing for warm weather. It’s supposed to be warm here right now; so I was wearing clothing to keep me cool in hot weather. I have zero insulation on my body; I weigh 140 pounds soaking wet—which is exactly what I weighed when I told Pieter that we had to pull over at a riverside refreshment place to warm up. I thought that the searing pain in my muscles and inability to move wasn’t readily contributing to the effort of our moving down the river.

What Český Krumlov looked like the day before…when it was warm(er) and sunny.

What Český Krumlov looked like the day before…when it was warm(er) and sunny.

Every place we had already passed had some manner of fire going; for some reason, this place did not. After I crutchingly walked to the shelter, Pieter bought me some hot chocolate, a klobasa, and a Becherovka (the stuff in the barrels round St. Bernard’s necks). Though I was still wet, at least my insides were warmer. We had only two kilometres to go till camp and the others were waiting ahead for us so we got back into the boat—and were suddenly underwater. Why we were underwater is something of a mystery. We were on the surface of the water. Then, in the next moment, under it. I remember thinking, “that’s odd, I should be up where there is air; what is this place?” Since I was already wet, it didn’t make much of a difference to be under the water; additionally, the water was warmer than the ambient air temperature, so, except for the lack of respiratory facilities, I could have just stayed there. But Pieter turned the boat back upright. I was very very cold. I’d lost my hat. I’d lost my (not inexpensive) glasses. Why I did not think to wear contacts for the boat ride is yet another mystery; for some reason it just didn’t occur. I usually only wear contacts when I have to use sunglasses and, as you will remember, it was raining and cloudy. I was shivering violently, hatless, and nearly blind. (I was quite saddened by the loss of hat.)

Thankfully, all our gear was in sealed barrels; we unpacked my change of dry clothes and headed back to the riverside hut (which, by the way, was incongruously named “The Hacienda”). I went in and used their shower to warm up a bit and put in my one pair of contacts. The people were quite kind (the woman suggested some rum in my tea and said her husband would drive me to our camp). So Pieter soldiered on in the boat and I got to go by car. Amazingly, on the way, Pieter found my hat! It had floated almost all the way to the camp (it’s a Tilly hat, so it floats) and he had to brave some rapids by a dam to retrieve it. (Also note here that I am not insensitive to the fact that Pieter was soaking wet as well; however, if I am built like an elf, Pieter is more like a Viking. He’s a big Dutch man who seems fairly impervious to the elements. Or, perhaps, I’m just a whiner.)

I slept for twelve hours (partially because I was exhausted—partially from the rum and Becherovka).

The next morning, I felt rested and warm. However, I had still lost my glasses. I decided to return home to Most and order a pair in hopes they could be done before the team leaves next week (the train ride home is a whole separate story involving a mysterious disembarkation at an abandoned station, lots of police, and a grouchy conductor). My thought was to go back and rejoin the team the following day. However (there are so many “howevers” in this account), the optician said he could not fill my prescription. Actually, he said he didn’t think anyone in the Czech Republic could fill this prescription without making lenses as thick as beer bottles. So I called my optician in Philadelphia and ordered the same frames and lenses (don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this from the outset; it must have been hypothermia).

This was on the 10th, my birthday (whatever day of the week that was). My girlfriend Andrea and I decided to celebrate and go to my favourite (somewhat dodgy) Chinese restaurant. I had soup with exotic mushrooms and tofu with exotic mushrooms—and woke up the following morning with food poisoning. Bad food poisoning. I started vomiting and diarrhoea at about 5:30 in the morning and by noon decided it was time to go to the emergency room. Except…the local hospital doesn’t really have an emergency room. We went in where the emergency room is supposed to be and began what seemed like an eternity of shuffling from door to door (I was really only semiconscious during this). I do remember a long ride in a wheelchair through an underground corridor (about halfway through the ride, I remembered the hospital has underground corridors leading to the local crematorium). The hospital is a Big Old Soviet Hospital (BOSH). They didn’t seem to know what to do with a foreigner (I think, in the end, I was officially marked as a “vagabond” or something of that nature). By the time I finally got in a bed and someone decided that I was severely dehydrated and needed an IV, I was nearly delirious and unresponsive. After three bags of saline solution, some anti-nausea medicine, a handful of some other pills of unknown compounds, and a night in the BOSH. I was feeling well enough to go home. That was yesterday (Thursday, I think). Today I just feel really weak and disoriented; I’m on a diet of plain pasta and bananas and would really like some saltine crackers (except, of course, they don’t have saltine crackers here). I’d feel a lot better if I could take a hot shower; however, I can’t. We have city-wide hot water from the power plant and this is the time of year it’s shut down for cleaning the system. I did heat up some water today and shave off my four day beard.

Hopefully I will rejoin Xtreme Team on Sunday evening in time for the last day and the return to the States. Right now, I’m just staying in bed with my iPod and drinking lots of fluids.

At least I got my hat back.

Phantom messages

When I receive a new e-mail, my mail program makes a pleasant little bl-oong sound. I’ve begin hearing that sound when the computer is off–even when I am far away from all manner of technology. A moment ago, I was out of the shower shaving; bl-oong. The day before yesterday, I was in the Netherlands walking on a dijk in Kruiningen; It was so quiet I could hear a seagull’s wings touch the water. bl-oong. I have to hope that this sound is just similarly pitched to a number of other natural sounds. Otherwise, It may be a mental condition.
At least it’s not the voice saying You’ve got mail! When I had AOL, that would scare the bejeebers out of me. If I heard that whilst walking around in the woods, I would be seriously disturbed.

So lax a poster

My sincerest apologies to all my faithful readers (all 20 of you); I have not posted for such a long time.
I’m in Philadelphia right now at the annual BuildaBridge Institute; we’ve a collection of visual artists, dancers, actors, sculptors, textile artists, musicians, and bits and pieces of several other disciplines here this week to learn about using their arts in education (again, not necessarily teaching art itself, but using the arts to educate and inspire children).

You can read more about this year’s institute here