Liquid Light - Current Research, Planning, and Possible Problems

 As I'm nearing my first attempt at doing a liquid light show this week, I have some of the materials already ordered and am still looking for a few, while also doing more research on the history of the medium, currently reading Gregory Zinman's book Making Images Move, which focuses on moving image artists and their use of slow cinema techniques, some of which I may also experiment with and incorporate into my final film. I'm also currently reading Kinetic Art: Theory and Practice by Frank J. Malina. 

For now I've made a list of possible problems I might run into during my first attempt, and future experimentation I'll be doing once I've gotten it to work the way I want it to.

Possible Problems: 

- Glass Shape and Curve - I've ordered glass made for clock faces online, as suggested by liquid light labs and Gregory Zinman as what was originally used in the medium, they haven't arrived yet (hopefully they do at the start of this week), but until they do I won't know if they are actually the right size or curve for this to work properly. I've ordered 3 different sizes to try and combine, but they may not fit together in the right way, however I do think they'll at least work for the first few tries, and I may end up ordering more specific ones once I know what works well and what doesn't. 

- Saturation of Dyes - I've currently ordered only the oil based dyes, online recommends using either candle or candy dye, and I've just gotten a variety of colors of candle dye. What I've seen online being one of the biggest challenges when starting to use this technique is finding dyes that are the right amount of saturation to be pigmented but still let light in. I'll be trying these out but may have to try a variety before I get it right, I'll also be looking for the water based dyes soon. There are recommendations for specialist ones but for the first attempt I've gone for a cheaper version that can arrive quickly. 

- Projector and LED brightness - I have a projector and LED light that I'll be borrowing for this, but until I start I won't know if they're suitable. There is lots of online debate about what brightness and what projectors to buy, but this applies mostly to people that are projecting this at a large scale for big events, for purposes of filming the LED will probably end of being more useful.

- Oil type - I think I've gotten the right type of mineral oil, but once again there is a variety to experiment with, from what I've seen as long as it's a clear oil that doesn't have any additives it should be fine. 

- Black Ink - I've seen black printer cartridge ink being used to bring more contrast to the overall projection, however this seems to be something that can very easily be overdone, and I'll save using it for later experiments when I know what kind of style and techniques work. 

Future Experiments

Once I've mastered some of the techniques and have footage filmed to play around with, I'll be able to start making test videos for what my 5 minute excerpt and parts of my final film will look like, and I'll start using more advanced techniques in the medium as well. 

- Moirés - These are transparent overlays used to add more dimension, placed over the light source to create more shadow and light in these different shapes (right), I will try making my own and experimenting with adding them during the actual show and also trying this digitally with animated versions of these shapes. 

- Color Wheels - Used to overlay colors on top of the projection by shining a light through them, liquid light labs has a tutorial on how to make a motorised colorwheel that I'd like to try. This is also something that could be recreated digitally in post production, which I will also try. 

- Digital manipulation - seeing how much I can manipulate the footage to create something completely different and what effect this has 

- Lens filters - the filters I've already been experimenting with are also used in this medium, specifically the kaleidoscope lens being put over the camera recording the shows. 

- Projection with actors - I'll be doing a series of tests looking at projecting this both live and prerecorded onto actors to see which is more feasible for my final film.