AmigaBill, you did a great job with your video. Have you thought about expanding the video into a a documentary? I also won the Sundance Film Festival with my first film and I think you could really turn this into a nice documentary and submit it to some film festivals.
There are a number of angles you could explore here. Samia is a very interesting subject that you could really build around:
Samia's background and move to America
Her life as an artist and her experimentation with art and technology (A2E)
The introduction of the Amiga
Technology evolution from A2E to Amiga
Language evolution from Logo to C for controlling graphics
The rise of the Demo Scene as you had mentioned as a new form of art
The rise of digital artists and their quest to be taken as serious artists (Rodney Chang)
Contrast her work with say Jim Sachs - One does her art in programming and the other uses tools to create art in his programs (Jim is amazing)
Reflect her life in the growth of CGI and Pixar
This is just a rough outline off the top of my head but you get the idea.
Great work!
-P
Wow @Pentad, I haven't thought of expanding it, but that is a very solid outline. Now you have my wheels turning! My plans for the future were to expand it by going to one of her live performances and making a "sequel." I also have some other very interesting Amiga folks here that I want to profile in a similar way. I have spent my career shooting other people's projects, and it has been truly incredible, but this has given me a boost to make some of my own. I really want to make tech documentaries, but done in a visual and artistic way. I am going to approach Motherboard and places like that who may be interested in hiring me for some of their projects as well. Congrats on Sundance. That's awesome! I have shot a few films that made it there but never won anything.
The exile from Jerusalem Palestine to Beyrouth then the US is interesting and need a bit more details. It is an addictive video!
Do you have a link to download the highest quality version?
You know, a few people mentioned that to me. To put it into context, I shot the whole thing (except the scenic shots and artsy shots) in 4 hours which is a very short time for something like this. I had never met or even talked to her before so I had to earn her trust quickly. I was originally introduced to her and went there that night to preserve her work by backing up the floppies onto a CF card, but when I learned a bit about her I figured I would bring my camera. Glad I did! I think her background is very important and influences her art, but I purposely didn't go there because YouTube can be a really brutal place and I wanted to direct people's attention to the Amiga and was hoping to keep it positive without getting politics into it, so that is why I shied away from that. But I agree, it is an important and interesting part of the story especially if I expand on it.
The 3840x2160 40Mbs file on YouTube is the best one that exists right now, but if you are interested in screening it somewhere or something I can make a high quality ProRes or similar for you if you would like.
Thanks so much for all the support and great ideas everyone. The Amiga community is the best!
:elvis: