~ Author-made videopoems ~
Trees by Michelle Bitting
The most recent of four “poem films” uploaded to Vimeo so far by Los Angeles poet Michelle Bitting. She succeeds where most filmmakers would fail in a fairly literal match of film image to poem, remaining just allusive enough to hold the viewer’s interest. (Also, as a tree lover, I admit the subject matter holds a special attraction for me.)
I found out about Bitting’s project thanks to a blog post by Robert Peake, “The Film-Poem.”
Under a Man Made Sun by R.W. Perkins
http://www.vimeo.com/28833244
In the video description at Vimeo, poet-filmmaker R.W. Perkins writes,
“Under A Man Made Sun” is the second video-poem installment of what I’m calling the “Vista Poems”, four poems examining how the the past and future collide and how in my opinion we are dealing with it. “Under A Man Made Sun” is a brief history of our digital past, honoring and criticizing our predecessors, while pointing out our own unwritten future is still very much up in the air.
I thought the use of text and old home-movie footage here were especially effective. (Tip to videopoets wanting to get work on Moving Poems: include banjo in the soundtrack! I do love me some banjo.)
Consumed by Cynthia Cox
Cynthia Cox used some public-domain footage from the Prelinger Archives, as she notes in a blog post:
The primary video appears to have been test shots for a dollar store commercial — I did not copy and repeat those zoom-out shots of the fishing lures, they were actually all filmed and strung together one after another in the original film, as were the numerous shots of the woman looking at — and this part made me fantastically happy — the exact same dress over & over. The party shots were worked in mostly to utilize the transitions provided by the movie clapboards, quite honestly; the incredibly phallic balloon-blowing contest was a bonus. But maybe that’s sharing too much.
Click through to read the rest of her notes, as well as the text of the poem.
Our Father by Veronica Keszthelyi
http://vimeo.com/4539639
Veronica Keszthelyi says in the description at Vimeo:
A seemingly normal young woman goes to a church in search of peace.
First film ever, shot an a Canon handycam on location in Gaithersburg, MD, USA.
Starring Rachel Simko
Music by James Clarke
Produced, directed, shot and edited by moi.Actually was accepted and screened at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in 2008.
Yea, I’m still in shock.
read these roads by Kai Lossgott
A very interesting approach to stop-frame animation by South African videopoet Kai Lossgott, who also organized, directed and curated the City Breath Festival of Video Poetry and Performance last year, and is currently searching for experimental films about climate change for a new exhibition called Letters from the Sky. (See the Moving Poems forum for more details on the latter.)
Kai’s notes about this film at Vimeo are worth quoting in full:
The evaporating water puddle images in this stop frame animation hint at the living systemic relationship between Table Mountain’s hydrology systems, the City of Cape Town’s water system and the biological systems of the human body. This is a video poem of unfulfilled desire for the lost personal bond with the natural world. The soundtrack of the video is taken from Adderley Street in the Cape Town CBD, above the underground storm water drain where the now forgotten Varsterivier, among others, (3 million cubic tons of untapped fresh spring water) runs into the sea daily. Fresh water is one of South Africa’s scarcest resources.
Challenge Me Vista by R.W. Perkins
http://vimeo.com/13102380
This is the first in a projected series of poetry videos by R.W. Perkins, a Fort Collins, Colorado-based video producer. The YouTube version of the video has garnered an impressive 10,595 views since it was uploaded a little over a year ago. I especially enjoyed the light-hearted tone and the great soundtrack.
The Wall by Brenda Clews
Video, words, voice and music are all by Brenda Clews, who notes in the YouTube description:
I meditate regularly and often do yoga sets. Especially I do this when I am working through issues. During one of my sessions last week the metaphor of the wall arose, and while resting after the yoga set I picked up my iPhone and began speaking, intending to write a prose poem from my voice notes. I left the recording as is, and added the background of sounds and instruments. My speaking of the words is not a performance but an embodiment of the meaning. Then I began to work with recent footage of a lightning storm I had shot. Initially, when looking at the rushes, I was perturbed that I hadn’t removed the mesh screen. Yet the footage is perfect for this video. The subconscious is all of a processing, mobile, energy of constantly equilibrating unity, and what we are voicing here is what we are filming there. Our lives are always moving beyond their boundaries as we push into deeper processes of who we are, alone and together.
Brenda also blogged a few process notes at Rubies in Crystal, where she went into more detail about the soundtrack:
The sound track is a midi file of the text that I generated at http://www.p22.com/musicfont/ and yes, I used copters, and gunshot, and a pad4choir from the music text generator (I did have to copy the sound files from the site one by one and mix them later) and ethereal sunrise, smooth clav, whirly, and nature sounds from GarageBand, plus the original track of thunder and lightning, so it is meant to be a bit, well a bit of a war zone. It works, but it’s not for relaxation, obviously!
Highway Coda by Matt Mullins
This piece began life as “a multi-faceted, collaborative project consisting of a prose poem, an experimental film, a musical composition, and an interactive interface” — see the lit-digital site for more. Matt Mullins specializes in what he calls script poems, and this semester will be teaching a creative writing course on “Book Trailers and Visual Adaptations of Literature” at Ball State University.
Secret City Names by Joanne Hsieh
http://www.vimeo.com/27707871
A quirky dance video from 2009 directed, edited, and acted in by the poet, Joanne Hsieh, assisted by Micah Seff on camera and Marissa Mickleberg as the other player. Hsieh also created the soundtrack.
Year Turning by Allan Davies
British storyteller, artist and musician Allan Davies calls this
a reflection on landscape and the changes wrought by the cycle of the seasons.
Using the poem as a starting point, the film is an experiment in illustration/exploration of written/animated/spoken text.
The simple graphic shapes come were the original illustrations to the poem. All the rest of the images were shot using a small compact digital camera… I’ve been mildy obsessed with collecting sequences of shots for a while now, and this is my first attempt at doing something useful with some of them.
goodbye. by Kate Greenstreet
This originally appeared in the online journal Trickhouse, which also printed a transcript.
For more of Kate’s work, visit her website, kickingwind.com.
the giant by Kate Greenstreet
Poet and filmmaker Kate Greenstreet’s most recent book of poems, The Last 4 Things (Ahsahta Press, 2009) included a DVD with two films based on the book’s contents. This is an excerpt from one of them. For more about the book and DVD, including links to reviews and interviews, see her website. Here’s her bio.
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