about The Lunar Machine

The title and inspiration for this video comes from a phrase in the poem 'Dance of Onions' by Jean Arp first published in 1946.

In terms of process I started with some loose ideas, then found the soundtrack I wanted to evoke a certain mood, then built a rhythmic (I hope) set of scenes over the top. All of the imagery and sound was sourced from the public domain repository The Internet Archives, and is used under those licenses.

I used Windows MovieMaker 2.6 to compile, and found that the variety, editing and effects and transitions over the five and a half minutes really tested the software with frequent crashes. Apart from this it is easy to use...

My computer is just your average workhorse...Intel i3, 2Gb video card, 8Gb Ram etc...

The clips are downloaded as MPEG files, then converted into WMV format using freeware AVC (Any Video Converter). When I have finished the video I convert back to MPEG1 format, and burn onto a USB drive to play on my 32" HD flat screen TV. This I find quite acceptable for display in a gallery. The WMV file is uploaded to the blog. I find it works well at the small size, but falls apart when pushed to full screen (would like to fix this if anyone knows how?).

Clips are from a variety of odds and ends, including Film Australia and NASA, but mention should be made of Carnival of Souls (1962) starring Candace Hilligoss and Daughter Of Horror (aka Dementia) (1955) starring Adrienne Barrett. Both these films are worth watching in their own right if you like something different from the usual cliched drivel.

And finally, the soundtrack is by dark ambient outfit emptywhale. The track is called 'suburbs' and comes from a Net label release called 'Fearscapes', also available from The Internet Archives...

PS I also used a couple of clips from Ekstase (1933) starring Hedy Lamarr. Hedy, as well as being an actress, was also an inventor and was the co-developer of spread spectrum principles, on which wireless technology is based. Her partner in this was musician George Antheil, who did the soundtrack for Daughter of Horror...