Mothlight, The Very Eye of Night, and GEM Tutorial

After watching Mothlight, I noticed that it may have been interesting if Stan Brakhage hadn't named the work "Mothlight"...what if he had named it something totally different? Would images of moths flying across a light source come to my mind as I watched it? I also saw a few interesting images of leaves creating and disappearing before my eyes.  I tried an experiment of turning off all the lights in my room, placing the video on full screen, and playing music along the video. It was an experience; my eyes saw a lot more than the first viewing when I watched it in silence.


In Maya Deren's The Very Eye of Night, the dancers almost seem like carboard cut outs that she overlayed over the night sky, but as the dancers began to dance, I began to really question exactly how she created such work in the 50s when advanced technology wasn't around to create such types of video effects. It looks like she used a negative effect on the dancers. I also noticed her choice of costume was very suitable for the video.. the dancers wore black leotards and tights which began white on the film, which created a nice juxtaposition on the black of the sky. I also noticed that she had dancers wearing two-toned tights (half black, half white), to make it seem as if some of the dancers were only moving on one foot. Overall, I was very intrigued by the video and would love to get more insight as to how exactly she created the film.

I did both of the GEM tutorials that Pat posted. I have to say that the first tutotial that explains how to make a video in PD with GEM was a little convoluted and frustrating because 1. I didn't have a live camera/webcam and 2. some of their instructions made it difficult for me to follow along.
However, the second tutorial that was in German was a lot easier. They broke down more concepts in a less confusing way (aka PD for Dummies) and I was actually able to mess with a few of their exercises and go through more sections of their tutorial without pulling my hair out. For now though, I've only been messing with the Gemwin exercises, like the cube, sphere, or 3D model. I did try to bring in a picture of my own or draw an image of my own, but that was where I got confused again because it wouldn't let me alter the image or draw anything. I'm sure I messed up somewhere.