Art Art Aesthetics Vengeance Photography Video

Vengeance of the Lion

Vengeance of the Lion - FrameVengeance of the Lion is a definitely non-violent video showing liquid crystals changing as the temperature slowly increases. The forms are at times familiar and flowing and organic and at other times foreign and almost crystalline. The pacing changes, rapid changes transforming the whole subject in seconds, while the slower parts draw one into try catch all of the smaller things that are happening. As these forms evolve the mind strives to interpret, to make sense of them. One of the points I try to make with this video is that these images do depict natural processes, but at the same time, as one viewer commented, she didn't care, to her they were motion paintings.

The Video
You can view this video here. Be sure the click the "full screen" button to view a larger version of it. Also, comments and feedback are always welcome.


The Music
This video is set to the music of ACME Rocket Quartet, a band whose interesting music could never be assigned to a single genre.

Making this Video
The microscope used was a Nikon Labophot 2A, a nice little microscope that is used in the teaching laboratories at U.C. Davis, which is where the video was shot. This microscope offers both reflected light and transmitted light imaging, along with DIC and polarized light. We used transmitted light and a polarizer. The samples were different classes of liquid crystals that were heated on a stage borrowed from Sonoma State University. The camera used was a CCD color video camera mounted where the digital still camera normally goes, and video was recorded using John Madrosen's digital video camera. Editing was done using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.

Credits and Thanks
I'd like to thank the following for their support in this project.