Revving Up the Bubble Doin's

Natasha is in her 12th month!!!


Finalllllly back in action here. Shooting starts for our next chapter SATURDAY! In the meantime, for those who've assumed I was musically challenged because of the videos' quietness, I made a teaser reel for which I whipped out a quick tune on the computer ('whipped out' meaning 'pulled my hair out learning garage band for 5 hours starting around 10pm').
http://vimeo.com/14139333
And the youtube homepage has been gussied up a bit...
http://www.youtube.com/user/milfus
Had a wonderful time bubbling with fambly a few Sundays ago. Look at 'em go!
As far as me in this picture, well, white pants=laundry day, 'nuff said. ;)
More soon!

Video of GBP III and NMM I

Giant Bubble Party III from Mike L Miller on Vimeo.

Home movies from Lakeside Park on Fathers Day. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Fathers Day GBP III

Natasha is in her tenth month! She is now affectionately referred to as Hurricane Natasha...


Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our third Giant Bubble Party--we filled the sky with all sizes of bubbles on a scale that I could only have dreamed of a year ago...
Video and pictures coming soon...

7 Down, 2 to Go!

Natasha is in her 9th month still....

And the Tank Hill Video is DONE!
(Gotta click the arrows to enlarge, hit play and then pause to let it pre-load...then after it's fully loaded, hit play and enjoy!)

Bubbling Tank Hill from Mike L Miller on Vimeo.

The whole Project was virtually complete--one last installment: "Bubbling San Francisco," involving multiple scenic vignettes, to go--when I trotted up Tank Hill last March and found a site quietly insistent upon its own segment. A singular City view and startling breeze patterns made it a must. Enjoy! Please comment!

^that text^ comes with the video...There are in fact two more videos to go.

I'm counting on my friend Django, who shot the telephoto bits in the Tank Hill episode, to help me focus on the bubbling by running all three cameras in Sutro Heights Park, where I plan to go full circle by making it all about GIANT bubbles, as much as I can, which may mean many trips back for good weather, good solution, good shots...

It's weird, I'm becoming disenchanted with the glycerine and retreating to the simple Dawn, Water, J-Lube and Baking Powder mix I used a year ago. My big bubbles just seem weighed down and quick-drying with the glycerine...which is totally counter-intuitive...but that's where I am now. I was watching the Spreckels Lake/ GBP II Warm-Up video--which was with that old, simple mix--- and thinking, heck, I haven't gotten consistency like that since I started adding ingredients....Harumph!... Also going to start experimenting from square one with some radically different mixes that have caught my eye over the past year. Stay tuned...

June Morley, purple-bucketed bubbler extraordinaire from the U.K. asked for some close-ups of the bubble equipment so, here's a picture and a video:


Also, I'm collecting location-scouting video with which I am going to make a very special video proposal to the SBF crew, see if I can get bubblers passing through my area in the coming months (years?) to contribute a moment at a site of their choosing for the final Bubble Project episode... Stay tuned!

Giant Bubble Party III June 20th. Don't miss it!

slow as a Tank Hill

Natasha is in her 9th month!


The Tank Hill Project has involved multiple trips up the mountain, a whole ton of reject footage, some WONDERFUL help from friends (thanks Dad, Django and Ted!!!!) and now I must edit it viciously while living a very full life. So, maybe you'll see it in...June?

The Oakland Museum of California Re-opening event was LOVELY. Brian and Sterling brought lots of toys and solution which made the sheer variety of size, shape and quantity of bubbles unlike any event I've yet attended. They also helped me carry my stuff around, took some video, fielded questions...it was a really great time. Thanks Brian and Sterling!!!


I think the videos can all be seen bigger by clicking on the Vimeo link...

Ode to the Turntable Crew from Michael L Miller on Vimeo.

More bubble backstory. There's some nifty reject bubble footage at the end...

And its short...

And I really want to thank Ted and Dad for getting so lovingly caught up in my near-miss vision. I learned a TON and got to spend some lovely quality time...

In fact, I can further thank Ted--and hopefully you'll thank me for it too--by sending folks to peruse with joy and wonder his alternately lovely and hilarious (often both) photography and captions (seriously, the captions are a big part of the joy for me...) over here:



Oh and Doy, there's video from the Oakland Museum...

OMCA Clips from Michael L Miller on Vimeo.

Home movies of the OMCA bubble shenanigans.

Teaser: Bubbling Tank Hill from Michael L Miller on Vimeo.

Someday I will edit again...someday....

Soooo Much coming soon!

Sutro Heights Park!
Tank Hill!
New Bubble Makers!
Technological Innovations via Joyous Collaborations!!
Bubbling by invitation at the Oakland Museum!!
A Baby that says "Buh! Buh!"
Blogs with Complete Sentences!!

All in progress or coming soon!!!

Look, the Baby!


And just so you know that I've actually been working on this stuff, here's the first test video for the process I intend to use on Tank Hill...hopefully to much better effect and without some of the first-try glitches you'll see here...but you'll get the idea...

Carousel Cam Test 1 from Michael L Miller on Vimeo.

The view at Tank Hill really puts the PAN in Panorama, so I became obsessed with making a turntable for the cameras...After countless planning e-mails, trips to Fry's, Home Depot and OSH and several delightful hours in the workshop with Dad and Ted...I stumbled upon a model display turntable that seems to work and have begun the video test phase. I have much to learn but there appears to be hope that the thing just may be do-able! Woohooo! Stay Tuned!

Cheers!

Lazy Blog with just pics and video

Oy vey so much to say
So much to do
and no time today

I'll post the pictures and the video then
tell you more later when I'm back again :)

Natasha is in the first week of her 7th Month:

The Bubble Project has descended upon Buena Vista Park for the last time.


For Video: FULL SCREEN and HD Highly recommended! (You may need to click 'HD on,' then the full screen arrows and then click pause to load, for smooth playback)

Bubbling Buena Vista Park from Michael L Miller on Vimeo.

Mike and a very special guest join the bubbles converging on Buena Vista Park and see what they can add to the mix. Episode 6 of Mike Miller's Bubble Project.

The was fog and there were dogs and there was a special guest and I have to sleep now... Please comment or let me know you were here in some special way...

Natasha is in her 24th week:
The Bubble Project is in it's 14th week, Buena Vista Park II!
Yes, I've actually bubbled in the park twice already, and the views, near and far, inspired me to try to get some top-shelf help for one more trip back...the video may be epic...we'll see... I'm now super portable, with detachable loops so that I can carry a single set of wands and bubble up a storm. It was incredibly foggy last Monday--it felt like the park was taking revenge on me for joking for years that the park's trees make the 'Buena' Vista not-so-Buena. The views are incredible, when the fog isn't thick enough for a goldfish to swim through. But I had a lot of surprised, happy passers-by picking up my cards and a lot of worried dogs cocking an ear and whining at some giant spheres. Oddly, the solution that worked quite well for the big bubbles this time just wouldn't support the little ones. So baffling!
Please come help me make a SEA of BUBBLES, of all sorts, this Saturday at Dimond Park in Oakland, near Fruitvale and MacArthur (google map link at the top of the blog page until it's moot) at Noon!!
More next week!

I Snooze I Win!

Natasha is in her 22nd Week:
And the Bubble Project has been destroyed by the President!
No, not really.
Actually, Sunday morning I woke up exhausted and thought to myself in an internal voice between Droopy and Beaver Cleaver "Oh nooo, I have to get up early tomorrow and do bubbles with cameras and..." And I startled completely awake and thought, "What?! Hey! Mike! That's not what it's about! Do you want to go Monday? There's no rule; you don't have to go..." Droopy Cleaver shook his head slowly. "Okay. D-do you want to do bubbles without cameras...?" Droopy shook his head. "That's okay, buddy, do you want to do bubbles somewhere simple like Lakeside Park...?" His lower lip trembled as he shook his head again a little faster. "Awww, that's okay, buddy. It's for fun! Did you forget it's for fun? No one will mind if you take a week off. Because...check this out...it's just for fun! That's right! You sleep or watch TV or whatever you want, okay, big guy? Okay. And, wait now; never forget that you're great, even if you don't bubble every Monday (chuckle). Yeah, of course you are!" Droopy half-purses his lips, half-smiles, blushing a little as he nods...
Welcome to my internal landscape. I'm good with kids because I am a kid, to whom I try to be nice.
Had a client cancel this week and did a reconnaissance mission into Buena Vista Park. I was running around like Francois Truffaut, holding my hands up in a frame shape, planning where to put cameras NEXT Monday... It was really fun! So incredibly beautiful, 360 degrees of views with wonderful trees in the foreground and the whole city spread below...This project has really broadened my ability to see. And I came up with something like 20 great set-ups I'd like to do, so I'm really hoping I can get some help from someone who can be seduced by the possibility of playing with my bubble toys...or who just would like to be part of the project. This Monday is a holiday for many, so, maybe...? Please share the videos with people who like sparkly things! And invite me to a park near you, so I don't forget how to have fun. That would be lame! I mean bubbling a park near you would be GREAT; forgetting how to have fun would be lame. LAME! :)
Since I have no video of my own this week, I'll share some of my all-time favorites with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4BECXSrT_I
Half a minute in...gives me goosebumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62EV9Ouk1_8
Every time someone is amazed by my bubbles in a bubble, I think they oughta see THIS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKxmqFI8Nk0
The bubbler who invited me back into the fold after I foolishly spent a few bubble-free years. He also designed, built and then LENT ME the giant 20ft bubble wands you see in the Bernal and Mt Davidson videos. The Bubblesmith, indeed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_4v4e3
This guy is ENDLESSLY inventive, and he suggested the design for the garland multi-loop I use to make those flurries of medium-big bubbles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy2mypazzs
Inspiration for my project, for sure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1rKQCGRy9s
A fantastic old school bubble act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcmIlw-5SyA
This gent has given me TONS of free advice...perhaps he deserves a credit on the project, too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXXIU1_mxI0
The one and only.


There are SO many that I could post!!!

Cheers all.
Let me know you're out there!

:)
Mike

Holly Park Shenanigans

Natasha is in her 21st week.
And the Bubble Project is in its 11th week: Holly Park!
OK so, those of you who grew up with Sesame Street maybe singing, "One of these things is not like the others..." and you'd be right: Holly Park involves far fewer steps, far less elevation and lovely but much more humble views than the previous spots. Frankly, I was tired of walking so far up, I have a new client at 8:50 Monday mornings so I didn't want to be pressed for time...and I really wanted wide open spaces to allow for some revealing shots of the amazing bubble conglomerations that are produced by the bubble arrays I've made (following first a design of Keith Michael Johnson's and then elaborating on that by increasing the scale from 1 yard loops to 3 yard loops, and, finally, adding more rows below the top one as suggested by Bubblesmith Sterling Johnson--whose giant tri-string can be seen in the Bernal and Mt Davidson videos btw. Thanks guys!)


I arrived late--had only about 30 minutes to bubble--and was startled by a wind shortage. That's what I get for not going up very high. Yet when I arrived home and looked at the footage, I was stunned to see sights I've never seen before. It's important to me to assert that none of the bubble colors are altered in the videos--I don't even mess with exposure except in establishing shots of locations, which sometimes are less than stellar because my only camera with a zoom lens is not HD but old school digital tape, so it can look a little washed out. But if I use bubble footage from it, washed out it stays. I use that one to capture the more glassy, ephemeral stuff where the shapes of the bubbles themselves are more striking than the colors. The HD cameras are great for the amazing intricate hues we see in the sort of honeycomb conglomerations of bubbles that come out of the arrays. I practically choked when I saw the low-angle vivid bright green and yellow kaleidoscope revealed in a few of the shots with Eucalyptus trees behind the bubbles. That was a new one for me and I hope other people enjoy it, too. It was also fun to stumble on an ending piece when I noticed the oddly satisfying bubble bombs descending into the grass in the last shot. Next I have to find a better way to mount a camera on the wands or mount one high so bubbles can avoid the ground but I can still get a shot from right next to the array, with kaleidoscopic effects in the foreground and huge lazy bubble clumps slowly descending in the background. The pole-mounted camera in this video is just too darn shaky and the footage doesn't really fit the aesthetic--I discarded about ten times the amount you see in the movie, which was sad because it was breathtaking...and nauseating, so...hadda go.

The goal was to capture lotsa big bubble structures and I think mission accomplished! So it's on to Buena Vista Park (back to trekking up hills, sigh) where I'm not sure what I'll do...but it'll probably involve soap and water.

Onward! Upward!
:)
Mike