I started shooting panoramas of Sziget Festival in 2001. Born in Hungary, currently spending most of my time in the U.S., I travel to Hungary frequently to visit friends and family. Visiting during the winter holidays quicly turned out to be more complicated and hectic than enjoyable, so orchestrating one of my annual visits to the motherland around the festival was a no-brainer ;^)
Sziget 07 - Day 0 - Even the roads are getting laid ;^) by Krisztina ImreNeedless to say, that the 30+ panoramas I shot in 2001 with my Coolpix990 and the FC-8 fisheye adapter were a far cry from what technology, my evolved experience and the support of an international team can produce today. Nevertheless, I am still proud of the map driven java-based tour I put together to set off what was to become a formidable, and greatly anticipated yearly event.
Sziget 07 - Day 2 - Chemical Brothers by Gilles Vidal
By the end of 2004, upon several iterations of photography equipment and delivery technologies, I realized that I was not likely to be able to do justice to the event, if wanting to capture it in its full glory. The festival's attendance has been constanly growing and the number of performers and events during its week have multiplied quickly. I had also hoped to be able to come closer to a real-time coverage concept, something that has not been done a lot with panoramic photography on the account of the time required to produce such imagery.
Sziget 07 - Day 3 - Madness by Gilles VidalIt was in early 2005 that I was arranging a meeting with Danny Maurer of ConceptFactory.de. The goal was merely to hang out, talk panoramas and drink beer, but we quickly came to talk about large panoramic projects and Sziget seemed like the perfect playground to test some of the concepts we brewed up during our conversations. So, in 2005, we set up a Content Management System in advance, so that during the festival we could quickly add material on a daily basis. We set up shop on the second floor of a Budapest house and invited Addo Hoeben and Bernhard Vogl to join us. Not long prior, Aldo had introduced the first feature-rich hardware accelerated panoramic image viewer built around ShockWave technology and Bernhard had alreay begun his pioneering panoramic experiments that have produced several visionary results to date.
Sziget 07 - Day 3 - Pink by Aldo HoebenDanny has been too busy with his company to attend, and hence sorely missed in the past two years, but I think he's as proud as I am to have garnered a tremendous following in the persons of Gilles Vidal, Mickael Therer and Krisztina Imre, who have joined in capturing the event in 2006 and 2007. Gilles and Mickael's documentary panoramic work has been trend-setting and Krisztina has overshadowed her Hungarian predecessors of panoramic photographers by producing a most impressive body of work of the highest quality in the homeland of Sziget Festival.
Sziget 07 - Day 4 - Emilie Simon by Gilles VidalWhile 2007 has not afforded us the resources, we hope to reprise our panoramic community building efforts of 2006, when our team invited local panoramic photo enthusiast for an exchange of experiences, equipment and ideas during the Festival. Perhaps this would be proper time to once again thank those International and Hungarian companies and associations who supported us through those efforts by donating money, software and hardware.
Sziget 07 - Day 6 - Luminarium (Levity III) : Main Dome by Gilles Vidal
The Sziget Festival Media Farm is a grassroots effort and has only been possible through the help of my family and friends, who have assisted in arranging for accomodations, transportation and alike. I cannot yet imagine what we will be driving next year, and our Trabant and VW Transporter experiences will be difficult to top. Part-time tenting on the island has been eminent, and although expanding our Budapest apartment is not a valid option, breaking free of the dependence on the neighbours' wifi has been on the to-do list.
Sziget 07 - Day 6 - Luminarium (Levity III) : Green Room by Andras Frenyo
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Media Farm experience has been to chance to work with some of the true originals and pioneers of panoramic photography. Danny has been among the fist to bring about panoramic video in a professional package. Aldo has shot his first kite panorama at Sziget and has written several mods to his viewer and a flash panoramic video viewer inspired by the media shot there. Although Bernhard could not join us to shoot one of his gigapixel panos this year, he has done quite a bit with the then emerging exposure blending techniques the year before. Gilles's lowlight panoramas are legendary and Michael's keen eye for 360 moments has been exhiliriating additions to our image collection. Krisztina has been our inspiration for pressing through with the production no matter how sleep-deprived; she is unstopable.
click here to view Sziget 07 Kite panorama
Our only enemy has been time, that is the lack thereof. Although in addition to our VR work, we have shot a large amount of video, both in traditional and panoramic format, produced timelapse imagery and tons of stills, much of the material has not been mulled over and worked up for internet consumption. My primary goal for the year 2008, is to consolidate all the material from the past 6 years of Sziget and re-package and publish it under Sziget360.com.
click here to enter the bubble party
Gilles Vidal Reports:
"These last years I have made a habit of processing the news, whatever it is with pano-reportages. But the Sziget festival is so peculiar that it has become a milestone in my calendar. This festival is special with so many concerts on the same site and with an ever returning audience, one would easily be weary and repetitive but that's exactly where the challenge lies: do not repeat last year's panos.
This hurdle also has the advantage of forcing me to always try something new with every panorama, be it subject or angle and try to catch attention keeping in mind I'm here to illustrate what Sziget is.
It's not always easy and I'm not always succesful but that's what I enjoy at Sziget.
There's also the general mood and the little things like the friendliness of encounters that make me tick and make me want to return as soon as I board the plane.
Finally there's also the ever-present Andrŕs, always ready to listen and lend a helping hand, Andrŕs who throughout the turmoils of the daily organization keeps a smiling face and rare sense of humour. Thanks a szillion mister Frenyo."
Links:
Sziget 2007 Media Farm
Andras Frenyo's Panoramablog
GillesVidal's web site
Related articles in this issue:
KITE PANORAMA AT SZIGET 2007 BY ALDO HOEBEN
TO BE IN A BUBBLE PARTY AT SZIGET 2007
Previous articles on Sziget and Andras Frenyo:
ARCHITECTS OF AIR'S IXILUM
EUROPE'S LARGEST POP FESTIVAL CAPTURED IN IMMERSIVE MEDIA
GET PUMPED FOR SZIGET 2006
AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDRAS FRENYO
Previous articles on Gilles Vidal:
OBSERVATORY OF THE PIC DU MIDI, FRANCE
PIC DU MIDI SOLAR ECLIPSE AND DIGITAL IMAGING CONFERENCE
GERMAN CHANCELLOR TRIES TO SAVE EU CONSTITUTION IN FRANCE
2006 TOUR DE FRANCE, COL DU TOURMALET SUMMIT
2006 RIO LOCO FESTIVAL GARONNE FEATURING SENEGAL
NEW PANORAMA BOOK FEATURING LAURENT THION AND GILLES VIDAL
