What is a Audio Visual?

[jfa]

Just what is a AV? Audio Visual

Audio -- Sound.

Visual -- Image.

See Wikipedia at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_visual

"works with both a sound and a visual component"

Others I have seen --

* Both audible and visible.

* relating to materials, such as films and tape recordings, that present information in audible and pictorial form.

* An aid, other than printed matter, that uses sight or sound to present information.

* Audio Visual combines visual input such as video or 35mm slides with sound to convey information.

So movies, cartoons, someone giving a Power-Point presentation, TV shows, computer based training, presentation of research work. many forms of entertainment, and so on can all be considered Audio Visuals.

We work in a very narrow part of the Audio Visual spectrum with our photographs and sound recordings combining to make a PTE presentation as, (mostly but not only), entertainment.

For sometime now I have wondered if we need a better name for our hobby/art/work/indulgence/pastime.

I have seen some Camera Clubs and exhibitions outside the camera club world that still have Tape-Slide exhibitions and/or competitions and there is not a single slide or tape used in them. There are so-called AV exhibitions and/or competitions but don't allow any video entries.

Tape-Slide show was far more descriptive for that type of presentation, however now with the digital shows we make, AV would appear to be a comparatively poor, (although broadly correct), description of what we do.

Comments anyone?

[Guest Yachtsman1]

In my humble opinion, being a relative newcomer to the discipline, I would describe our version of A-V as a means of presenting a collection of still digital photographs in a manner to create a pleasing or compelling effect. The shows I have produced were constructed to please my ego and to the best of my ability. Hopefully if I decide to publisise them, please my audience. However, as we all know, you can please some of the people some of the time etc etc.

I have just completed 12 months as a member of a camera club, the statement by another poster about the RPS philosophy and their way of doing things can be alien to the newcomer, however I believe as technology advances the new genre will develop and be more acceptable. The trap of telling people they must do things a certain way is a killer and to be avoided if possible.

It's raining and miserable at the moment, hence the protracted diatribe, (to our non English speakers gobby reply).

[JEB]

Hi,

How about Digital Audio Photographic Presentation (DAPP)?

John

[neil]

DAPP sounds and looks good to me.

Neil

[davegee]

Have you never heard the phrase:

"He had a face like a ripped Dap"?

[Ken Cox]

SEE

#33

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread....0127&page=3

GOOD ONE DAVE

KEN

[Alan Lyons]

Hi All,

Instead of trying to invent another name for what we do should we not just get on with the job in hand, making the best, Audio Visual, Slide Show, Sequence, Diaporama, Presentation that you are capable of.

As to what makes a good one, someone once came up with this formula

Sound =1 Images =1 therefore a good Audio Visual (or any of the above) is when 1+1=3.

Relax and enjoy the creative outlet. Its cheeper than Valium.

[Conflow]

Alan,

As you know there is a saying in Ireland:- "Good man yourself" ...some common sense at last !

and to 'heck' with bruised ego's, lets get on with the job of using and enjoying the PTE Program.

Notice:-

'Dapp' is the Registered Trade mark of Dapp Hydraulics U.K and is their Corporate Registration Name.

Brian.Conflow.

[Ken Cox]

in the colonies we use DAP to plug cracks:)

http://www.dap.com/

Ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

DVAP seems to sum this up? (Digital Visual Audio Presentation).

[Conflow]

Yachtsman,

Thats an excellent suggestion and I note you gave it a hierarchy consideration whereas

the Video content far exceeds the Audio content...DVAP. Don't forget however there will

be those who will want DAVP as it rolls off the tongue easier...we just can't please all.

Brian.Conflow.

[davegee]

I think I prefer "Pictures and Music"!

DaveG

[abSuRD]

....or for the more adventurous efforts - Thunder and Lightning

[xahu34]

Kurt Tucholsky once wrote: "Wer keine Sorgen hat, der macht sich welche."

Sorry for writing German!

Best regards,

Xaver

Munich

[Alan Lyons]

John Putnam on Making Films, Cinema Relases, Movies, Motion Pictures, The Flicks. Yes they have loads of names too.

"If you make money, it's an industry. If you don't, it's an art form, I am working in an art form"

[Peter Coles]

Now, has anyone put Flanders and Swann's "Slow Train" into an AV? That would have me diving into the Kleenex.

[ContaxMan]

Peter, you've done it again! Injecting some common sense with a real understanding of what's involved in this (still developing) art form.

Keep making your av-poems as so many of us enjoy them immensely.

As for my twopence worth, if you like what you do then who cares what others think? If others like it too, so much the better. But if you wish to be competetive then it's a good idea to take all feedback seriously, even if you think it's nonsense. I've made a few sequences myself but am very much a beginner. General audiences enjoy them but they don't "score" in competitions. So what? If I don't want to risk failure then I don't enter.

[Barry Beckham]

Peter

No, you have missed my intentent and views by a mile, not surprising when trying to communicate in this way. I like all AV's but don't like it when people, usually in camera clubs try to shove it all down one path only.

One path is real AV, one is not, they say. Well, they all are, arn't they!

Usually the ones with the most to say couldn't produce one picture worth looking at let alone a sequence.

I am not into competitions and the only reason The Black Country was enetered into one was due to Maureen's work really. While I was grateful to her for entering it, left to my own devices I probably wouldn't have bothered.

AV may well degenerate into collections of images with music, but I do hope and pray that a few artists will persist in making what they themselves prefer to label art. By "art" I mean anything that allows communication with others through the emotions. Sometimes what I witness under the name of AV communicates very little to me.

Your statement above appears to be taking the same views I objected too, writing off anything with music and images as degenerating into.......................... what? That would include 99% of what we see on this forum.

Lets see some of these real AV's posted on this forum because we see precious little of them. (unless we are a part of the competition circuit)

[Tomuk]

Hi! Barry,

I must agree with you 100%, I to have had to tolerate misguided comments in camera clubs, and this from those I once considered my peers, they seem to be the opinion that if a sequence doesn’t contain a story line with a beginning, middle and end, accompanied by narration explaining what’s going on, then you don’t have an A.V.

I have for a long time admired your work and have produced a little show inspired and photographed from one of you favourite haunts… Haworth in Yorkshire.

I have placed it with mediafire as I don’t have my own site, the link is below, please have a look, your comments would be appreciated.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nzgvcytcczb

Tom.

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi Tom,

I have watched your show about the 40's and that one street in Haworth. My first impression was one of admiration because I could see the amount of work and expertise that you had put into making the show. Each image carried its own message - a simple message of remembrance - I was just a small child during that part of our history but I remember very well the hardship that war produced. I think that you have managed to capture the feeling of the time and I will be watching the slide show again and again just so that I can live again the comradeship that the war years produced.

Now I don't know what the 'purists' will make of your efforts, but I for one don't give a toss if there is not a real beginning, a middle and an end. To me, this is audio visual as I want to see it.

On a technical note, and for those who have been to Haworth, I did notice the painstaking removal of the 'double yellow lines' along the street itself - now that must have been some real tedious cloning work!

More of the same please, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ron West

[Tomuk]

Hi Tom,

I have watched your show about the 40's and that one street in Haworth. My first impression was one of admiration because I could see the amount of work and expertise that you had put into making the show. Each image carried its own message - a simple message of remembrance - I was just a small child during that part of our history but I remember very well the hardship that war produced. I think that you have managed to capture the feeling of the time and I will be watching the slide show again and again just so that I can live again the comradeship that the war years produced.

Now I don't know what the 'purists' will make of your efforts, but I for one don't give a toss if there is not a real beginning, a middle and an end. To me, this is audio visual as I want to see it.

On a technical note, and for those who have been to Haworth, I did notice the painstaking removal of the 'double yellow lines' along the street itself - now that must have been some real tedious cloning work!

More of the same please, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ron West

Thanks Ron for your kind words, I get a lot of pleasure in my twilight years making sequences like this one.

Tom.

[Barry Beckham]

Tom

I thought it was a great sequence, very enjoyable and the music and images went perfectly together. The sound track was well blended too, with all the changes in music appearing natural.

Not sure the German soldiers fitted in as well as the British serviceman, but poetic license allows them to be used, I probably would have used them too, to be honest. They certainly added some variety.

When we visited Howarth I couldn't believe the local authority would put double yellow bands down those lovely cobbled streets. They must be balmy doing that in such a delightful place. I wouldn't mind if they upheld the restrictions, but there was no sign of anyone doing anything about parking while we were there and cars and vans all over the place. Signs at the end of the street should be enough.

I don't suppose I will get the chance to see Howarth again as we should be in Brisbane by August, but then I can look forward to your 2009 version next year.

Its not real AV though , no death and destruction included

Great sequemce Tom keep em coming

[Maureen]

Anyone interested in finding out about Audio Visual Photography may care to come along to Aldbourne on June 22nd.

We'll have five top AV workers there

including Igor who is going to talk about PTE 5.5 and the future of PTE.

Other speakers include

Robert Albright FRPS

Richard Brown FRPS,

Peter Coles FRPS,

and Gerard Desroches.

If there's time we hope to show some attenders work too.

All information about ordering tickets (book early) is at:

http://www.digwessex.rps.org/pages/wessexhome.htm

One thing you can be sure of if you want to define AV ...............

AV workers are a friendly, happy bunch who can take criticism and praise equally well and are never afraid to freely help other AV workers whenever they can.

[jfa]

I do not wish to offend anyone here on the forum, on the contrary I respect all your opinions and points of view but I am growing a little tired of the continuing degrading of one type, or all types of AVs, other than the particular style of AV Digital Image and Audio Presentation, (DIAP) that the protagonist makes.

Lowering the standing of one will not increase the standing of the other. It just lowers the standing of the speaker.

ALL styles of DIAPs are equally valid and if the author is happy with the result then it is successful, no matter the style and/or the content.

Is it good or a work of art? Well the viewers will decide that not the creator.

Unfortunately like all form of art there is a vast majority of DIAPs that fall into the category of “all-so-ran” this is just the way it is.

While some DIAPs have appealing aesthetic qualities, most are simply documentary, (something the camera, music and DIAPs do well). They are not art, any more than the snaps we take on holidays or at family occasions are art. They hold little interest beyond the subject matter.

A work of art is something of beauty, shock or intrigue for its own sake. It is open to us to enter the work and make our own story, it moves us emotionally equally with its beauty or its horror, this is called interpretation.

In the wider world of AVs, (which include DIAPs); there are many competent technicians but only a handful of artists. Many imitators but only a tiny number of originators. A wise person once said “imitation is merely the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius”.

So let us stop trying to promote one type of DIAP at another’s expense and except that the world is a very diverse place and all styles have their place and can sit equally side by side and be grateful for the few works that rise above the pack to become true art.

[jfa]

Tom,

I just watched your "Haworth 1940-2008" show and was very impressed, you have certainly spent a lot of time on it, well done.

The yellow lines don't mean much to us here on the other side of the world, I would not have noticed them if it had not been mentioned in another post.

As for the German solders, not sure, I think I agree with Barry.

Great titles, music and quality images put together in a creative way to convey a message and tell a story, thanks for sharing and I hope to see more of your work.