Common Weal VJ Classes

St. Mary's High School, Spring 2007

Taught by VJs Carrie Gates and Leeane Berger,

facilitated by Judy McNaughton of Common Weal Community Arts, Inc.

Class Outline:

We will be using Arkaos VJing software to explore how VJs create interactive live video for performances at concerts, galleries, and other cultural events.

Participating students at St. Mary's High School will be expected to produce either a 1-2 minute VJ demo reel or a music video as their final project for the class. All of the content of this demo reel must be shot and edited by the student doing the individual assignment. Final projects will be due at the end of the course.

Participating students at St. Mary's High School will also be part of the Prince Albert Youth Arts Festival on May 2nd and 3rd, 2007. Students will collaborate with the on-stage performers to create a live video composition using pre-recorded clips and live camera feeds to complement the content of the on-stage performance. More information about the festival will be given out as it becomes available.

Examples of subjects covered in the class include things like: ambient video design, codecs and video compression, chromakeying and luminance maps, special effects, live camera feed manipulation, copyright and creativity, and of course, Arkaos programming. Class handouts will be available through this webpage.

Class Files:

These files will help you research VJs, learn about software, and get copies of the class assignments and lessons.

Class Software:

We will be using Arkaos 3.6 MIDI VJing software throughout the class. A 3-week demo can be downloaded for either Mac or PC computers at www.arkaos.net.

We will also be using the free software MPEG Streamclip to edit our video codecs and compress the files. It can be downloaded for Mac or PC computers at www.squared5.com.

Arkaos User Manuals:

All of the basics explained here: Arkaos User Manual (from Arkaos website, .pdf)

Advanced info available in the Arkaos VJ 3.6 Release Notes.

Arkaos Support Site:

The best place to find answers to your questions about Arkaos online.

The Arkaos Discussion Forum

Contacting the Instructors:

 


VJs Leeane Berger and Carrie Gates, 2007

Contact VJ Instructor Carrie Gates at otherartists@gmail.com or Assistant VJ Instructor Leeane Berger at lets_destroy_the_walls@yahoo.ca if you have any questions! Questions are good, so don't be shy!

Selected Online Resources:

There are some excellent resources online for learning more about VJing. Please see the "Helpful Software" handout above for a more detailed list.

VJ Forums:
international discussion forum, tons of information
http://www.vjforums.com/

Archive.org:
a great place to look for open source video and free VJ clips, you can also start an account and upload your own files here
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=vj%20AND%20mediatype%3Amovies

YouTube:
lots of VJs post their mixes online here, do a search to find them
http://www.youtube.com

Carrie and Leeane have created a YouTube page just for showing off the work of VJs. This is a great starting point in familiarizing yourself with what VJs do.
http://www.youtube/vjnode

Deep Visual VJ School:
there are lots of videos demonstrating different types of VJing software and hardware on this site
http://www.deepvisual.com/vjschool.html

Engage Media:
a cool online video label
http://www.engagemedia.org/

Opticlash:
annual VJ Battle in Seattle
http://www.opticlash.com/d_main.html

Eyetrap:
free VJ clips
http://www.eyetrap.net/clips/hamageddon/index.html

Wetcircuit:
free VJ clips
http://www.wetcircuit.com/category/free-loops/

The Ultimate Video Feedback Page:
cool things you can do by pointing your videocamera at the screen
http://www.videofeedback.dk/World/

Common Weal Community Arts, Inc.
amazing Saskatchewan organization dedicated to promoting art for social change, with offices in Regina and Prince Albert
http://www.commonweal-arts.com/

One Word Movie:
very cool site that collages images on the internet based on a one word search term
http://www.onewordmovie.com/

Paved Arts:
Saskatoon's artist-run media centre and gallery that hosts workshops in technical arts and rents equipment at excellent rates (you can rent video mixers and projectors, see their 2007 rental price list here)
http://www.pavedarts.ca/

Soil Digital Media Suite:
Regina's artist-run media centre, affiliated with Neutral Ground Gallery.
http://www.soilmedia.org/

VideoPool:
Winnipeg's artist-run media centre that also acts as an international distributor for Prairie-based media artist's works.
http://www.videopool.org/frameset/index.htm

Studio XX:
Montréal's artist-run media centre catering especially to the needs of women
http://www.studioxx.org/

Aboriginal Curatorial Collective:
excellent new organization dedicated to promoting the art and curatorial work of Aboriginal people
http://www.aboriginalcuratorialcollective.org/

CARFAC Canada:
national organization that represents artist's concerns to the government and negotiates fees for artists working with galleries
http://www.carfac.ca/

Creative Commons:
an excellent place to research what's happening in the world of innovative copyright practices
http://creativecommons.org/

Canada Council:
Canada's national government arts funding agency
http://www.canadacouncil.ca/

Sask Arts Board:
Saskatchewan's provincial government arts funding agency
http://www.artsboard.sk.ca/