VJ 
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VJ |
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Because of a flow of questions,we think it may be useful to create some sort of FAQ.
1.How to become
a VJ ?
There are actually 2 web sites
dedicated to Vjing, twice are of course in english even if one of them is made
by a francophon.
By searching on their pages, you should find the answers to your questions .
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 Audiovizualiser : http://www.audiovisualizers.com |
2.VJ,Vjing,
visual arts, who does what ?
The acronym VJ comes from the contraction of the words Video and Jockey, being
strongly inspired by the Disc-Jockey word, suited to music. This is a word with
a generic sense indicating the people(s) doing the visual animation without
anymore indication about the techniques or the graphic choices. The acronym
is becoming a word himself declinable with differents forms as the verb : vjing
or doing some vj : to create the visual animation.
The visual animation may use several forms following the techniques that are
chosen :
- diapo projection ( single or mulit-projection )
- super 8 projection ,16 mm projection ( single or multi-projection )
- video projection, helped by computer
- mixing with a mixing deck and/or vcr / Dvd player / computer or even several
techniques simultaneously as you can plug a computer or a vcr on a mixingdeck.
Any kind of these techniques has it own schools.
The precursors were of course the peoples who worked
with diapo and super 8 /16 projectors ,whose installation looks more like a
performance/ happening, with the number of projectors unfolded, the diapo racks
and the obturation system more or less automatic and/or craftmade.This kind
of vjing has still his place, as proved it with his performance at the A.V.I.T,
VJ Bubble Vision, who had not less than 8 diapos projectors and 1 16 mm projector
unfolded.
The coming of the vcr allowed to move and recreate
a mini-studio of editing in live, a mixing deck- more or less craftmade-,some
vcrs, several miles of video bandand it was done ! but this choice meeted quickly
his own limits about the displacement and the space needed by the installation
of several vcr racks.
Then came the computer, access for all to the technology,
and here too, there are several schools . Not so about the hardware than about
the software, there are so many software to create visuals with a computer,as
there are so many formats for these visuals too.
3.Visual animation
helped with computer :
Let’s begin with the format, as the biggest part of the softwares depend of
it. We can divide it in 2 great parts :
- traditional numerised imaging : all the kind of
encoding for images but for videos too.
- Image created by computer : the very controversed
Flash, the 3-D, but the creating of fractals too.
There’s still to say that some Vjs may choose to work with only one sort of
imagery or only by mixing then.
About the softawres - and that’s here where you get hurted-, everything exists,
from the more simple to the more complex.
Let’s try and gather together this spacious lumber room with some
great types :
- the softs with sound analysis : it’s ,for the
almost part of then,some plugs added to sound editing softs, that allow to loop
randomly some sequences, pre-recorded or not with an automatic detection of
the bpm
- the virtual mixing decks : this is some softs
recreating an editing studio -more or less technic depending of the soft-, so
these softs allow you to mix between several video channels.
- the virtual videosynthesizers : this is software
with advanced and technical features, allowing to assign some features to the
key of the keyboard computer to create a sort of “ visual keyboard” who could
be shortly resumed by “ i press a key, i send a video sequence”.
4. The great
schools.
Beyond the recurrent debate about the presence or not of sens in the visual
mixes, we can anyway distinguish some “great schools”; each one having logically
some favorite softwares,to not say openly dedicated.
- VJ-DJ : it deals here to draw nearer to the dj walk : the Dj mixes
with 2 channels, so the Vj too ( any kind of source possibility, from several
Vjs mixed together for the most technic to several vcrs mixed together for the
more simple ).
- Vj - video-artist : here,it deals about drawing nearer to an artistical
creation more than to a visual dressing, the sequences used are original and
the performance lays more on the effective creation of the visuels than on the
visual mix.
- VJ : it deals about drawing nearer to the live - act walk, creation
helped by computer in real time, the prestation lays here really more on the
live concept and so of adaptability of the mix.
Anyway, it’s easy to understand that the school doesn’t matter, vj’s work is
a work that get’s done upstream ,so many in the research than in the creation
of the visuals.
5. Vj , day
by day
It’s significant to underline some essentials aspects of the vj’s work.
The vj must be get considered not only as an artist but like a technician
too.
The way of projection doesn’t matter, he will be responsible of the good working
of his gear and necessarily able to repair it in times more than shorts.It’s
quite important to well underline this aspect, that will do in a near future
the professinalism of this dicipline. This is to answer to this omnipresent
need of informations that the online communities growed up so quickly.
We have to underline too the importance of the upstream work about the creation,
research, modification of the visuals or even the personalisation of the mixes.
Let’s finish with a wink by saying that the Vj sleeps sometimes and that his
rest time belongs to his working time.
6.VJ and future
:
Nobody today could say how the vjs will get eated, if their profession will
finish to assert oneself in the stage middle with the same obviousless than
the djs or if they will stay an epiphenomenon of this image generation generated
by the new millenium.
Neverless, it’s still true that this disciplin is to be considered like a real
art form, and the recent recognition by the festivals of video-art proves it
.
Translation from Komar
from AbviZs from VR-5 faq. (2003)
Text under Creative
Commons license: Attribution - Share alike.
