Global Shuffle EXPLAINED !

Okay this is the start of a long tech thread where I will explain at pro level GS1- Global Shuffle 1990 - 2010.

I'm working on some long posts with lots of reference links so I'll get them started and expand

For instance I'll discuss things of interest to editors and directors like the Structure.

To me I considered the whole movie a video art work from the start. It was a blank canvass 90 mins long. The work is time based and 2D. As Art there was no requirement to have a linear narrative structure, it could be abstract or some other concoction - often the prefered choice for art lovers, something fresh.

Which is why Global Shuffle got turned down by every film festival in the world, but got top billing at an Arts festival FILE Documenta 2011 http://www.filefestival.org/hotsitesp/Documenta.aspx?language=en-us

So most members have already got a hand signed copy of the Underground Edition GS1 - UEGS1, if members haven't got one, just email me a shipping address and your real name (so the postal services will deliver it) to gs@globalshuffle.com and I'll send a free one to you. It's okay to make copies for trusted friends to see as well.

I'll discuss the design rules I used for the color system and why, and discuss the general guidelines we used for collaboration with other shufflers involved in GS1.

So this will be to help pro's currently working on material for GS2 too. I'll have the tech specs for quality ranges in filming and all that stuff too.

So feel free to ask questions now while I'm finishing the formal posts.

STRUCTURE

When thinking of structure first work out what you need to do.

So for instance with GS1 what I needed to do was present a good example of shuffling from it's beginings to the current time 1990 - 2010.

I had already shot around 1000 hours of oldskool footage with hundreds of shufflers, so if I gave ever shuffler just one minute, there'd be far too much information to fit into a 90 mins movie, and it would leave no time to present the shuffle community or new shufflers after Youtube began in 2006.

So I had to come up with another structure.

I basically divided the 90 mins into 3 parts, about 30 mins each. The first part would present the oldskool Shuffle community as authentically as possible, the second part focus on individual and group shuffling moves, the third present shuffling today 2006+.

What this rough division did was focus my attention to a 30 min block that needed to convey the message of the part. This focus helped me select the footage that was needed to tell that part of the story.

So my decisions as Director and Editor of what to include and what to leave out was based on what best tells the story for that part of the movie, rather than any individual shufflers moves.

This was just the begining of the Structure process, what I had done was reduce the information to the minimum required to tell the story so I could get a clearer veiw of my task.

Instead of a mind boggling 1000 hours of shuffling footage, I had strong relevant clips which gave me the necessary information to tell the story, and at least 3-4 different options to give me greater flexibility.

Once I had an idea of what best shots I had for each part, I then set about arranging them in an entertaining and informative manner to tell not just 3 seperate parts, but the combined story from 1990-2010.

I didn't need to be linear in the story telling, so I could divide up the 3 parts into story streams, which would run together, jumping from one stream to the next often without warning, and no idea what will come up next. Exactly as the shuffle function on media players, cd player, LP players Juke Boxes and original Radio and dance DJ's.

Also seeing as it was called Global Shuffle, that meant I couldn't open with the formal Global Shuffle segment and truely be a shuffle, so it's about 40 mins into the movie and a tech fault default opening title starts the movie.

This approach which I call Disrupted Narrative came from me trying to reduce a 4 stream gallery video installation into a 1 stream TV work in the early 1990's.

The idea is not to just jump around all over the place, rather, it's to find links to go to between the 3 streams. So a segment could be 2 seconds or 5 minutes, then there would be a visual, audio or dance move that would link to the next stream.

It adds another element layer to the movie to spot the links, sometimes it's a disolve that matches really well, or a repeated key word leading up to the change.

I expected this movie to be played over and over hundreds of times as shufflers found and tried to learn various moves. So I wanted a further deeper layer for shufflers to amuze them selves with while doing shuffle practice.