The Honk Parade and its Aftermath

Comment by lima on October 11, 2010 at 12:06pm

I was a hulahoop champion growing up. Enjoyed the parade, video came out clear and vibrant, was very fun to watch. Everybody looks so happy!

puppies on parade in costume! highschool and college bands?
Looks like you had a good time! Nothing like going to a parade. =)

Comment by Geoff on October 11, 2010 at 4:13pm

Lima, this year most of the paraders were local but there were bands from Georgia, Texas, and Detroit that I noticed. There are usually high school bands, maybe a CYO group (Christian Youth Organization), and even children. Two years ago there were bands from other countries but I didn't notice any yesterday. I wondered if some of the distant bands didn't have the cash to travel this year.

The mix is heavy on jugglers and puppeteers and people riding self-modified bikes, as well as brass bands that enjoy theatricality more than marching in step. There are always political banners and floats. You probably noticed that all the Tibetans were carrying Free Tibet flags, and if the video had been clearer you would have noticed that the crew of the Ship of Fools were all wearing name tags that said things like Goldman Sachs and Citibank.

The colors did come across nicely but I lost an unexpected amount of detail. Something I probably should look into...

I lost a lot of footage due to camera operator malfunction. He's getting another chance but he better shape up.

Comment by flophousepoodle on October 11, 2010 at 7:46pm

Now that is an amusing rag tag rabble of mirth. I enjoyed most the natural transition the crowd gave you across the shot of the paintings. I like the cop too - working by looking at what no one else is.
People can be so beautiful.

Comment by BlancheNoE on October 11, 2010 at 8:45pm

Oh to be young and mobile. Now, *taps chin with forefinger* you're looking for constructive criticism,....okay, it would have been kinda' cool if you'd stood in the path of that wooden gear thingy and let it ram you and you could've knocked one of the unicyclists over and yelled " TEN POINTS !!! " really loudly,...other than that I thought it was a very well rounded and enjoyable representation well captured.

Comment by Geoff on October 13, 2010 at 10:30am

Amy, the honk parade comes every year. I may take your advice and cast myself in front of one of the 2011 floats. In 2008 we had a stuffed pig mounted on a giant lipstick and this year we had a British Petroleum drilling rig...

flop, those were two of my favorite parts too. At the very end I filmed a guy through the forest of happy and oblivious parade viewers who was festooned with signs about hell and Jesus, but I think I faded it out too quickly to register. The painting business was my camera's autofocus adjusting to changes in light and distance. My camera also does cool stuff if you turn on the backlight adjustment (needed or not) but I haven't found the right occasion to use that yet.

I like layers of activity: the cop diverting traffic while stuff just sizzles behind him; sidewalk traffic flowing right to left, watchers standing still, paraders going left to right (and in the sun).

I had about 34 minutes of footage (five minutes of pavement during an interlude when I was turning the camera off when I thought I was turning it on...sigh) and this could easily have been a twelve minute video but decided to wrap it up. The idea was to shoot and edit everything all in the space of a day.

Comment by flophousepoodle on October 13, 2010 at 11:30am

I caught the end of the world person loud and clear and had a chuckle they were there during your shoot.

Comment by NatureJunkie on October 14, 2010 at 3:33pm

I never heard of the Honk Parade before and I had to look it up: "Festival of Activist Street Bands." Looks like most of them were brass bands. I didn't know there was a such a flourishing culture of activist brass bands. I just never considered expressing my political will through 76 trombones. (Whatever it takes, man. By any means necessary.)

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