The original footage for the Totem of Heavenly Wisdom was recorded in Munich, Germany with the patient assistance of various friends and technical help from Track-5 Studios. It was shot in PAL on Hi-8 and then mastered up to BetacamSP.
For post production I required certain special effects and the capability to choreograph images on 5 screens simultaneously. An Artist's Equipment Access Grant for 1996, generously provided by the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) in San Francisco, covered the bulk of the costs and allowed me access to a wide range of digital equipment. After digitizing the original video footage on BAVC's Radius VideoVision I used the non-linear computer editing tools Adobe AfterEffects and Adobe Premiere to do the multi-screen planning and editing.
The final editing of the digital betacamSP tapes for the installation was done in BAVC's on-line suite. Additionally, I was able to output the computer graphics simulation of the complete "totem pole" (showing how the installation will look with 5 separate screens moving simultaneously) directly from AfterEffects and Premiere to digital betacamSP.
(BAVC is the nation's largest media arts center dedicated to promoting the use of video and new technologies in the nonprofit sector. BAVC encourages the development of nonprofit programming that involves creative risks and addresses unserved, underserved and minority points of view.)