For over a decade my fine art photographic prints of American Western States landscapes have adorned the walls of individuals homes, offices, hospitals and clinics of all types. I enjoyed producing extremely high quality Gicleé prints but kept feeling that they were often out of the reach price wise for most people. My prints are still available online at WayneWilliamsStudio.com if you are interested, but I was wanting to reach a much wider audience for a much more egalitarian price point.
At the same time, my lovely wife Marsha came to me with a very interesting request. The nail salon she was going to had a wide screen TV for people to watch while they were having their manicures and pedicures. Well, being a guy I’d never even been inside such a place. But she said the owner was not very happy with the DVD’s he’d spent a great deal of money on to display visuals that would be enjoyable for his clients to watch. They were either static landscapes of scenery, or helicopter high speed visuals of landscapes. They had no depth and often were either boring or agitating.
She said to me, “I know you could do so much better than this stuff.”
Well, let me just say that I realized I’d completely overlooked this wonderful new medium for essentially what it was, a new technology picture frame. Frankly, my mind started thinking about how I could make new art in my own style for HDTV screens in lobbies, offices, homes, clinics, spas and hospitals, all the support people in appreciating both nature and hopefully helping to diminish stress in their lives.
My print images always appear to have so much depth that people thought they were looking out a window at the real world. I wanted to take that experience even further with the High Definition TV Monitors that were showing up everywhere.
After doing a few tests with some rented equipment and my friend Mark’s HD Video Camera, I realized I could create a completely new experience for such displays. I hadn’t been this excited about creating something new in quite a long time.
After investing in my own equipment, I picked a location close by that I felt was both peaceful, beautiful and had the look and feel that would become a film experience of “moving artwork for video displays, intended to support a calming and peaceful state of mind in our ever present pursuit of happiness.” Santa Ynez Valley was just the place.
I had shot cars for a number of clients over the years in Santa Ynez Valley because of its wide open spaces. This coastal California area is filled with rolling hills, oak trees, green valleys and meadows that I felt would lend it self to making a serene film. And it had one more criteria, I needed the location to be within a half day’s drive from Los Angeles, and not to expensive for my first venture into this new project I had chosen to call HDSereneScapes.
After speaking with friends who lived in the area, and doing research online, I plotted out the general roads and areas of Santa Ynez Valley I wanted to explore, packed up the 4×4 with my gear and hit the road for a couple of days. The plan was, head out, shoot as many scenes using my “Natural 3D Motion” technique as I could, then head back to LA and look at the footage on a big HD Monitor to see if the concept worked.
Needless to say, it was such a good start, that I realized I had to get back up to shoot more before the greenery of the area turned to brown and the Oaks became to full. It was mid March, and my timing was perfect, so the very next week I was back up there for another 3 days. It seems it takes me about 4-6 days to shoot a short 30 minute film even though I’d love to spend more time shooting less during the day. But unlike still images, High Definition video is much more forgiving and compelling than I expected, so I was more willing to shoot at all hours of the day, not just at magic hour.
The result of this initial effort is now available for a 7 day free Subscription at HDSereneScapes® website where you can then subscribe for just $4.99 a month.
I hope you will appreciate the beauty of this lovely area of California and enjoy my other HDSereneScapes films as well.
Wayne
