Archive for 'Videos'
Andalusian people around the world: Helsinki
Friday October 28th, 2011. 09:41 AM. Published under Spain, Videos, helsinki. 2 Comments.
Os invito a sumergiros en Helsinki, en la vida del día a día en la capital de Finlandia de mano de 4 andaluces muy apañaos.
Es con diferencia uno de los mejores reportajes de Finlandia en español que he visto. Enseña todas esas cosas que los expatriados que vivimos aquí siempre contamos a nuestros amigos y familia. Y sin caer en los tópicos finlandeses: Santa Claus, la nieve, el frío, renos, etc
http://www.canalsuralacarta.es/television/video/helsinki–finlandia/8948/12
Snow Plow skidding
Saturday March 6th, 2010. 11:02 AM. Published under Videos, Winter, helsinki. No Comments.
Small snow plow in a street of Helsinki.
Quite related: List of last 30 years winners of World Rally Championship (WRC).
The coldest winter
Thursday February 25th, 2010. 12:07 AM. Published under Spain, Videos, helsinki. 2 Comments.
… in Europe. That’s what everybody says. Even in Spain is snowing and raining more than normally. A Spanish TV Program “Comando Actualidad” made a program about how is the winter in rest of Europe compared to Spain and they came to Helsinki too.
Here you can see the video. (1 hour)
70ideas
Tuesday January 12th, 2010. 02:32 PM. Published under Ads, Videos, helsinki. 3 Comments.
I have been working on a new project during Christmas, and the result is here: 70ideas.com, where you can watch the most creative 70 videos of 2009 (ads, short films, animation…) have a look and enjoy watching as I did collecting them.
Andalusia in 1 minute
Sunday December 27th, 2009. 03:50 PM. Published under Ads, Spain, Videos. 7 Comments.
I just received a big package from my parents with lots of stuff: olives, Spanish ham, etc… and talking with them by phone told me about a recent TV ad about Andalusia, the south-part of Spain where I am from. The advertisement is made by Cruzcampo, a beer brand.
I added subtitles. Most of things can be applied to Spanish people in general, but I have to say that: IT is true, Andalusia, the south of Spain has something special.
Most of the statements are in metaphoric way, so I will add some explanations in brackets:
Andalusia is not where Europa ends. It is where starts.
Here is, nonetheless where The New World started. (About Cristopher Columbus)
We have sea, countryside, snow, desert (snow in Sierra Nevada in Granada, desert mostly is about Almeria).
We have cowboys (In Almeria’s Tabernas desert was filmed many American spaguetti Western films) and even English soldiers (Gibraltar, English colony)
And we have art, a lot of art. (images of La Alhambra, in Granada)
Andalusian is not an accent, it is Spanish talked among friends
And blondes are never alone, they come with ‘tapa’ (we call Pale Ale “blonde beer” because of the color, and traditional bars serves beer with some free snack)
Here we don’t eat tomatoes, we drink them (Gazpacho, cold tomato soup)
Our suits are not shown off, they are of light, (words game about “suit of lights”, i.e. the suit of a bullfighter)
And our matches always have a third time.
In Andalusia we aren’t afraid of horns, we fight them (In the picture, Picasso born in Málaga)
We don’t undo our shirt, we ript it in two. (mostly flamenco dancers, I still didn’t achieve to do that )
We don’t walk the street, we live it.
In Andalusia we don’t exagerate. It is the others that fall short. (They say that Andalusian people tends to exagerate)
We love the olive oil, the cured ham and bulbs of colors.
We love the friendship, the passion and to dream at midafternoon (siesta)
We love to the ones who went and the ones who stayed (in the picture, Camarón de la Isla, considered the best flamenco singer)
We love that art, that laugh, that pride, that breed, (breed referring to the Andalusian horse)
That green, that white. (colors of Andalusian flag)
We the Andalusian people love our land and we
make a toast to it with this beer
Cruzcampo, made of Andalusia.
Although is a little stereotyped, I liked it. We are more than 8.000.000 people and is not easy to represent us in 1 minute without falling in stereotypes. I don’t support bullfighting but my grandparents do, for example.
The funny thing is that Cruzcampo was Andalusian for almost a century and, some years ago was bought by Heineken Group and they are spending a lot of money to keep in our minds that “Cruzcampo is Andalusian”. (This ad is only broadcasted in Andalusia, not rest of Spain).
Also they are sponsors of the Spanish soccer team.
In a way it’s Andalusian, because still Cruzcampo’s factories are in Andalusia and Heineken keeps promoting the brand and the Andalusian/Spanish culture, but at the same time I can’t stop feeling fooled by the marketing department of Helsinki.
Aside of this marketing stuff, I still like more San Miguel or Alhambra beers and I can be proud that they are still 100% Spanish. Here in Finland, Karhu III it’s the one I like more, but anyway I’m not an expert.
Helsinki transport & Finnish Punctuality
Monday November 23rd, 2009. 12:39 PM. Published under Finland culture, Music, Photos, Videos, helsinki. 4 Comments.
Finnish people are punctual. If they say 11 o’clock, is 11′oclock. Even between friends more than 10-15 minutes delay is considered rude. In Spain… how could I say… we take time in a more relaxed way generally 
This photo is the bus schedule from a City Bus in center of Helsinki. 3 main sections: Ma-Pe (Monday-Friday), La (Saturday), Su (Sunday). First row (in bold) you see the hour (18 for example), and the column under represents the minutes (18:10, 18:24, etc.)
Besides of the strange way of representing the timetable, it amazes me its accuracy . If it says there that the bus number 20 is going to be at 18:52 in that stop… it will be there (90% of times). Spanish urban buses timetables normally only say tells frequency (for example “every 15 minutes”).
In Helsinki every year is sent to home a small book containing all routes and timetables of urban transport (bus, metro, tram).
All this is nice, but in the end is paper, very 20th century thing. Is it not supposed to be Finland a high-technology country? (more…)
Life’s moments
Monday August 24th, 2009. 03:30 AM. Published under Videos. 3 Comments.
If a life is a bunch of moments, have a look to these moments compiled in a visual experiment of Will Hoffman.
Vía, always inspirational Nozapping.
Video: Kid Cudi - Make her say
Saturday July 25th, 2009. 01:48 AM. Published under Music, Videos. No Comments.
I didn’t know this artist before but I loved this video for his new single Make Her Say, appearing alongside his collaborators Kanye West and Common. Excellent photography in split-screen with catchy chorus sampling the hit Lady Gaga - Poker Face.
Director Nez Khammal from Colonel Blimp house (same as great Dougal Wilson and french Pleix)
Watch the video here (or clicking over the image)
Canon A590 + CHDK: supercamera
Friday June 26th, 2009. 01:25 PM. Published under Photos, Videos. 9 Comments.
Since my camera broke at the beginning of this year, after 2 years of “intensive” use and lots of falls!, (Rest in peace)… I was thinking to buy a new one.
What camera to buy, and what money with? Still now I’m looking for job, and life in Finland is not cheap indeed. So with some money I got from my relatives in my birthday I had the chance to buy a new one, and my hope was to jump from a compact camera to a more professional DSLR Digital single-lens reflex camera.
There are 2 problems: DSLR prices start around 500 €, and these cameras are meant only to take quality photographs, so forget about recording video, something that I appreciate in a camera. This was a problem during many years until 2008, when Canon released the Cannon EOS 5D Mark II,(>1500€) and Canon 500D (> 800€) both with HD Video… great, but so expensive still. Like always happens in hardware technology, these features will be seen in 2 years at afordable prices, and probably in 4 years even in normal mobile phones. So I will wait.
But in the meanwhile I found a reasonable solution: the compact camera Canon Powershot A590 (129 € in Verkkokaupa Tampere) + CHDK.
Before choosing a camera, always I recommend people who ask me advice to read analysis of cameras at Camera Labs and DC Resource, where they test them and give real opinions with pro’s & con’s.
The main reason to choose this model A590, even is a old model (2008) and has been replaced by the thiner Canon 1000 IS, it’s that is supported by CHDK
What is CHDK? Let’s get to the point of this post!.
CHDK stands for Canon-Hack Development Kit and of course is not made by Canon. It was created originally by a ¿russian? programmer VitalityB, and later developed by many others (under open GPL free software license). CHDK was created by reverse engineering and allows you to expand many features that only are available in expensive cameras. CHDK will even allow you to program the camera through scripts using BASIC programming language. (GOTO’s are not dead still)
It’s ONLY for Canon Cameras and ONLY for some models. Because it’s voluntary work, it goes slow, and new Canon Cameras are not supported until many months later of their release.
Digital cameras are like tiny computers, with their processor, memory and program loaded (menu). So CHDK is a small program that you put in the SD memory card and when you turn on the camera it loads into the camera internal memory. You can control the program through a menu in the camera, also turn it off and use the “normal” menu of the camera. What kind of features can unlock? and what offers? I will comment the more interesting ones for me, but in CHDK Web you can see all the information, FAQ and Scripts.
* Save the photographs in RAW format. This feature is only available from medium-high level cameras but with CHDK it’s unlocked. Comparision between RAW-JPEG
* Full manual or priority control over exposure, aperture, ISO and focus. Again, parameters normally only available in professional cameras.
* Bracketing is supported for exposure, aperture, ISO, and even focus.. Take several pictures in a row changing one of the paremeters. It allows you for example to create HDR photos joining several images or Stack Photography.
* Motion detection. This is really cool, detects movement and shoots automatically. Nice to shoot animals in nature for example, lightnings and any other creative use that you want. In Flickr you can get some inspiration and possibilities of this script
(Photo by Jose Viana)
* Intervalometer scripts: These scripts are easy algorithms that takes photographs at regular times, for example 1 photo every 20 seconds. Join them in a video with Adobe After Effects or and you will have a stop-motion video.
Intervalometer script can be used also for Kate Aerial Photography, with really nice results
I bought the A590 camera and also a tripod 1.70 meters 24€ because most of this features work better when the camera is stable. I will be publishing in the blog interesting stuff that can be done with the help of CHDK. But it takes time to learn it and get used to it. Lots of options to test and learn. After 1 month I still haven’t discovered half of the possibilities but I can already recommend it! I don’t regret of the purchase.
Examples of my own:
* Time-lapse video of Summer Solstice 2009 in Tampere, Finland.
Sentimental Finnish men
Tuesday June 16th, 2009. 04:03 AM. Published under Finland culture, People, Videos. No Comments.
Quite funny TV advertisement from Finnish National Betting released this month.
“We invited 127 ordinary Finnish men for screen tests
We asked them about love, feelings, sentimentality and life.”
Wanna see a Finnish man getting emotional? …. Watch it (subtitled in English)