AUBURN - From affordable handheld video cameras to computer-based editing systems, the medium of movie making took a major turn when video was first introduced some 40 years ago.
Glenn Gaston / Special to The Citizen
Videographer Skip Blumberg shares some of his video clips from the 1970s during the Making Movies series held at Cayuga Community College Thursday night.
Videographer Skip Blumberg shares some of his video clips from the 1970s during the Making Movies series held at Cayuga Community College Thursday night.
At the forefront of that revolution were people such as Emmy Award-winning producer and filmmaker, Skip Blumberg, of New York City. Blumberg kicked off the fifth year of “Making Movies: A Contemporary Film and Video Series” sponsored by the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center and hosted at Cayuga Community College on Thursday night.
Terry Cuddy, coordinator of the series, was impressed with both the longevity of the series that has attracted both young filmmakers and those simply interested in the medium to attend and the caliber of artists it has attracted, including Blumberg.
“It is a great honor to be a part of this,” Cuddy said. “And to have something like this to bring this to the community and to be able to bring someone like Skip that has done so much.”
The series, which is designed to showcase a multitude of mediums in film and documentary making, from experimental videos to documentaries, was a perfect platform for Blumberg.
Starting in 1969, Blumberg was at the forefront of the video revolution, participating in video documentaries focused on diverse topics from covering the media at the 1972 Republican Convention to presently producing documentary segments for Sesame Street and nonprofit organizations.
Blumberg has produced a great variety of work throughout his career, which has given him a unique perspective on the ever evolving medium.
“It was different then,” Blumberg said. “People would look at the camera and ask what was a S-O-N-Y; Sony wasn't a known name then. It was a very different and interesting time and it let me find and develop my own style as an artist.”
Blumberg shared what he called a potpourri, more than a retrospective of his work, beginning with his 1970s pirate TV work with a group called Videofreex, which was based in Lanesville, in the Catskill Mountains.
“I wanted to show something with an upstate flavor,” Blumberg said. “I know not all of upstate is the same, but I wanted to show something with that flavor and show where I started.”
Blumberg went on to show some of his work focused on events such as the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid to events around the world like the Eskimo Olympics and elephant rodeos in Thailand.
No matter what form his work has taken, Blumberg said that there has been a common theme.
“Culture,” Blumberg said. “That is really what it is all about. It is more than just the elephants playing soccer, it is about what is behind it and the people involved, and it is all wrapped in one package.”
As video has become more accessible and the Internet has become so prevalent, Blumberg has seen things change, but he hopes that people can still find inspiration.
“Now you have 60,000 videos loaded to YouTube every day,” Blumberg said. “But I hope that people will look at the work and still be inspired and want to go out and make their own videos.”
To learn more
The series continues at 7:30 p.m. March 6, at CCC with Syracuse University professor Owen Shapiro. All of the events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.myartcenter.org
Terry Cuddy, coordinator of the series, was impressed with both the longevity of the series that has attracted both young filmmakers and those simply interested in the medium to attend and the caliber of artists it has attracted, including Blumberg.
“It is a great honor to be a part of this,” Cuddy said. “And to have something like this to bring this to the community and to be able to bring someone like Skip that has done so much.”
The series, which is designed to showcase a multitude of mediums in film and documentary making, from experimental videos to documentaries, was a perfect platform for Blumberg.
Starting in 1969, Blumberg was at the forefront of the video revolution, participating in video documentaries focused on diverse topics from covering the media at the 1972 Republican Convention to presently producing documentary segments for Sesame Street and nonprofit organizations.
Blumberg has produced a great variety of work throughout his career, which has given him a unique perspective on the ever evolving medium.
“It was different then,” Blumberg said. “People would look at the camera and ask what was a S-O-N-Y; Sony wasn't a known name then. It was a very different and interesting time and it let me find and develop my own style as an artist.”
Blumberg shared what he called a potpourri, more than a retrospective of his work, beginning with his 1970s pirate TV work with a group called Videofreex, which was based in Lanesville, in the Catskill Mountains.
“I wanted to show something with an upstate flavor,” Blumberg said. “I know not all of upstate is the same, but I wanted to show something with that flavor and show where I started.”
Blumberg went on to show some of his work focused on events such as the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid to events around the world like the Eskimo Olympics and elephant rodeos in Thailand.
No matter what form his work has taken, Blumberg said that there has been a common theme.
“Culture,” Blumberg said. “That is really what it is all about. It is more than just the elephants playing soccer, it is about what is behind it and the people involved, and it is all wrapped in one package.”
As video has become more accessible and the Internet has become so prevalent, Blumberg has seen things change, but he hopes that people can still find inspiration.
“Now you have 60,000 videos loaded to YouTube every day,” Blumberg said. “But I hope that people will look at the work and still be inspired and want to go out and make their own videos.”
To learn more
The series continues at 7:30 p.m. March 6, at CCC with Syracuse University professor Owen Shapiro. All of the events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.myartcenter.org
