Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Old Postcard Wednesday—Making a summer video




There is no description on the back of this old postcard, only printer information that tells us the publisher was Grafiche Biondetti in Verona, and that it was printed in Italy.

I found a video camera for sale at Etsy that resembles the one the girl is holding. Because the description is wonderful and rather brings this postcard to life I am going to print it below because the item may sell, in which case the Etsy shop link would be useless:




1960s 8mm Video Camera - Mansfield Holiday I-EE

Excellent condition camera for video or stop-motion projects, or perfect for neat home decor.

Made in Japan by Argus Inc. between 1962-65.

Sturdy grey metal casing, chrome details and a mixture of charming fonts. Clean and in great shape, and appears fully functional after thorough cleaning/examination.

Completely mechanical operation (no need for batteries). A small lever can advance the film per frame for stop-motion work, or automatically. The attachable handle has a trigger that also engages the automatic film feed. Camera can be mounted to your tri-pod to make sick looking claymation monster movies!!

This wonderful device is nearly 50 years old and has been well cared for. Given the age and the delicate nature of a camera's workings, this should not be your next beater camera, but could definitely yield some fantastic art given proper love and care.

Or perhaps it will just add that perfect touch to your sharp 60s decor and make your space look like a million bucks.

Freshly cleaned and given a good once-over. Exterior is in lovely condition with minimal scratches. Lens has no damage. Film housing is clean and includes the take-up reel.

Camera dimensions are about 5 1/4 in (top to bottom) x 7 1/4 in (eye piece to lens)
Handle is 4 1/8 in long

***I examined this camera very carefully and have checked that the lens appears clean and undamaged, the advancing mechanics operate as expected and overall device is clean. I have not tested with actual film and so cannot guarantee that all aspects of the camera's original functionality are intact. This camera is offered as is, but I am confident that anything this cute is unlikely to disappoint!

These days, when kids get together to record good times they pull out their smart phones to capture video moments. Much less cumbersome, to be sure.....but also lacking in movie-making magic! And there are expectations for technological perfection, that wow-factor that the couple in the park above probably never would have considered. Technology Review has an article about a new product that indicates how much things have changed in the world of personal videography. You can read the entire article HERE, as I am sharing only a portion:
Using Your Smart Phone to Mix Video Clips with Others
Vyclone turns a phone into an automated editing suite, mashing up videos recorded simultaneously from different angles.

Taking a video of a concert or ball game with your smart phone and uploading it to YouTube is easy. Finding other videos taken by fellow spectators at the same time and stitching them into one seamless recording is a lot harder.

A new app called Vyclone promises to do that hard stuff for you. Created by Joe Sumner and David King Lassman, the app can be used for all kinds of things, from concert and wedding recordings to short films and citizen journalism projects. Sumner and King Lassman say they aren't trying to compete with professional video-editing tools—rather, they see Vyclone as something anyone can use on the fly. "We can all have our Scorsese moment, irrespective of experience and ability," King Lassman says.

As more people tote smart phones everywhere they go, Vyclone and a growing number of other mobile apps are trying to bring functionality to smart phones that until recently was restricted to computers.

Sumner, a singer-songwriter, thought of the idea in 2010 while touring as a member of the band Fiction Plane. He noticed that audience members spent much of  the show recording it with their cell phones and then posted their videos on YouTube. Sumner figured there must be a simple way to link all the phones at an event and create an automatically generated compilation of the different videos taken simultaneously. That way "people would be able to look at every single viewpoint and see everything," he says.

Sumner began working with King Lassman, a technology entrepreneur, on software that could rapidly analyze, process, mash up, and spit out video recorded by people at the same event. In May they rolled out the free iPhone app in their native England, which they're treating as a test market before bringing the app stateside this summer. . .

Happy Labor Day weekend wishes to those celebrating in the U.S. and Happy Labour Day to those celebrating in Canada this weekend. Go make some sweet
end-of-summer memories, and perhaps capture them via smart phone, or a poem or painting because time goes by so fast!

.



6 comments:

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

the person in the blue top (long hair - could be a girl with those features, but i'm assuming that blue is meant to indicate its a boy) looks rather shocked at the production of the camera

Film cameras were great fun - my dad used to have one and we have some slightly jumpy home movies as a result - not many as film was so expensive. But of course the great thing you could do back then was load up the film with half the picture masked off, take it out in a black bag and then re-load it with the other half masked - to super-impose toy dinosaurs stalking across the local houses and so forth

No doubt that can still be done on your computer, assuming you know how

The other thing that has surprised me about the dawning of the digital age is that i was convinced that die hard photo enthusiasts would keep film alive with their retro cameras and smelly dark-rooms still intact - but the evidence of the current market seems to be that digital is just so easy that it hasn't made the cut in our brave new digital world

Anonymous said...

oh, what a cute thing! I love older accessories like that; they require you be involved in the process of making. A very valuable thing, I think.

Rob-bear said...

My parents took lots of pictures, but never tried film. I have video capability on my cell phone and Canon camera, but I've never used it. Too much technology for a Bear to handle!

We're celebrating Labour Day in Canada, too (thought we spell it differently up here). Hope you have a great weekend, and that, by then, you will have recovered from the RNC.

Blessings and Bear hugs!

Lydia said...

Pixies~ My stepfather was big into filming home movies when we were kids, but he sure never knew about the trick you described! I remember him splicing strips together, but that was only editing. And I have thought the exact same thing as you about how easily the world gave into digital.

Amber Lee~ I would love to try doing a film noir-type project with an older camera like that. Guess a film class beforehand would be a good idea, though!

Rob-bear~ I wish you Happy Labour Day! I didn't realize it was a holiday for you as well.
Bear, it really is not at all difficult to shoot video from your digital units. You will be surprised at the ease once you give it a try (and you will do that, won't you, one day?).

Fireblossom said...

From the boy's expression and posture, it looks to me like he's some sort of perv-in-training hanging out in the shrubbery and he got caught by the girl. Perhaps he is a student at Cranbrook Academy and will one day run as the Republican candidate for president!

Lydia said...

Fireblossom~ Hah! It sort of does look that way! I thought he looked shocked and your explanation is as good as it gets. (Cranbrook Academy....what a name, huh?)

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