All types of cinema now use a moving camera as major element of a
palette all used and designed to make a powerful experience for the
viewer . This is along with other cinematic devices such as editing
and framing and sound.
But camera movement and camera positions have become a major
part of filmmaking.
From the early development of the language of cinema stemming
from early 20th century film makers such as DW Griffith, who
practically invented moving the camera, to the use of handheld
camera by the French New Wave, we expect the camera to move
when we watch cinema. Some structuralist filmmakers even
became interested in the movement of the camera for its own sake,
e.g. weather vanes attached to cameras on tripods, with the camera
blowing in different directions only forced by natural elements rather
than the filmmakers own hand.
With the advent of the mobile device, which now often have movie
cameras as a basic component within their structure, the idea of
"hand held" camera and a "moving" camera are completely
embedded in the concept of all portable camera communication
devices.
With the advent of location aware devices, one logical step is to
begin to understand what you are seeing, filming and recording, and
exactly where you were when the image was recorded. The *exact*
place where you filmed something, with the ability to return to the
same place with pinpoint accuracy. The possibility to get more
information embedded in your moving image other than what you
are seeing.
If we can send a picture of a place, why wouldn't we want someone
else to find exactly the same spot? The same angle? The same
longitude and latitude? The same Place.
This project has made a fusion of a global positioning system and a
recorded moving camera video image.
Any image or sequence recorded creates a simultaneous and
parallel record of the exact GPS location where it was shot, which is
fixed on the screen.
Like the Time Code, which fixes us to Hours, Minutes, Seconds and
Frames we are approaching the era of Place Code - a Longitude,
Latitude reference to fuse into the mix of information about our
recorded image.
This is an intriguing and fascinating prospect. Although this might
appear as a marginal innovation, it does in fact begin to change how
we view the material we see and record. With an option to Place
Code our recorded images, the notion of "being on location" is about
to be transformed with the advent of a Geo Cinema.
Pete Gomes - 2004