Notes from 2007

RACC denies Empty Quarter funding

After four years of failed attempts to partially fund Open Road, RACC denied completion funds to Empty Quarter. I have yet to see the panel's comments... but if they're anything close to comments made in previous years, I'd have to say the panel is overwhelmingly, and consistently, conservative in its make-up, and shared view of art/film making. "Media Arts", includes the disciplines of web, video, and film, similar to fine or visual arts including various approaches to sculpture, painting, photography, etc. My concern is whether those judging the category of "media art", who in the past have been largely from the field of web and design fields or commercial film production, are the best candidates to sit on a panel judging "media art" when it includes the use of various film formats, particularly when the use is non-commercial and unconventional. New media, which often utilizes a great deal of compositing and visual effects, sits at a distance from a film practice that uses straight photography. Commercial film production is unable to present images on the screen for longer than a few seconds. Where does one exist if not falling within these two realms? Is 16mm filmmaking a unique practice under the category or "media art"? A bronze sculptor, or quilt-maker, or book artists are unquire in their disciplines (perhaps their uniqueness even makes them worthy of funding). Does the choice of artistic materials matter, particularly in relation "media arts"? Does it matter that people in Portland hand-build bicycles, blow glass, create wood cuts or work with traditional letter press type? Are public monies available to those making a living doing commercial work in the field of media, as much as to those struggling to work in non-commercial and unconventional ways?

December 17, 2007  –  permalink

Continued work on Open Road

Mark was kind enough to provide some guidance and lend a hand with recent dusk-for-night and moving car shots. We did approximately 4 hours of shooting at three locations. This rainy weather will help to provide me with the other shots I've been needing to collect. It's funny to live in a region where rainy weather is commonplace, yet know that not any rain will look quite the way I want it to. So I wait patiently, hoping the rain I am in search of will happen on a day I am not working.

December 02, 2007  –  permalink

Return from Chicago

Just returned from a week in Chicago, where I spent a good portion of my visit working on a new projector and checking out a number of screening venues and projection booths around the city. Chicago has more Eastman projectors than any other city in North America thanks to the hard work and dedication of James Bond and the institutional support that permitted these machines to be installed. Chicago is a wonderful place for architecture, though it does sprawl far and wide. It really is deceptive, judging from a map, how big the city actually is. Alternative screening venues are concentrated in the near north and south side (Hyde Park), and the Film Center screens work on an Eastman 40 at their facility downtown on State. The city has set a standard for serious presentation, and other cities would do well to use Chicago as a model for how to show 16mm films.

October 17, 2007  –  permalink

Aaton XTR and resuming Open Road

Still getting comfortable with handling my XTR. I do have to say the camera is a dream compared to the others I've owned and operated (CP-16/A, various RX Bolex cameras, Bell & Howell Filmo, and several NPR cameras with and without the Alcan and orientable Angenieux eyepiece), and I'd say even better than the SR1 and II. I have resumed work on Open Road, a project which thankfully has locations solely in and around Portland. Several night shots await, and another car shot on the upper deck of the Fremont. I imagine this portrait of automotive movement and road infa-structure will have some degree of tedium for the viewers, so I will play with the assembly a fair amount to alleviate viewer fatigue (though some amount of fatigue may be necessary).

September 07, 2007  –  permalink

New film subject

I've been shooting a number of film tests around the Central Eastside (CEID), an area which happens to be an urban renewal district of Portland. I've started thinking about somehow integrating another project, Open Road, with some of the film I've been shooting around the CEID. Transportation and urban renewal are linked by issues of accessibility, and one of the reasons change (or renewal) has been slow in the CEID, compared to other districts, relates to the railroad crossings in the older section, and the lack of parking for big developments. This renewal phenomenon is something I view as a new urban crisis in a period of post-suburban disillusionment. As city development commissions work to rebuild core areas, and increasing numbers of people move to the central city from outside areas, the effect will be various forms of displacement. A municipality's desire for increased property value (and the resulting tax) will forever frustrate the aspirations of low-rent tenants to locate affordable space to live and work.

August 16, 2007  –  permalink

Cooke CVK testing

I'm testing a late-model Cooke 9-50. It's an internal focusing lens with a speed of T2.5, comparable to a Canon zoom. The Cooke is twice the size of my Angenieux 12-120 T2.1, but still weighs in at a mere 3.25 pounds (the Angenieux is extremely light at 2 pounds). I read on-line that if framing for 1.85, the lens will cover from 11.5 to 50. I'm curious to know if this is true as last I checked the lens only covered 1.66 from 20-50 in the eyepiece, and I now have the mount/screen re-centered for 1.33 and cannot check coverage for 1.85. I shot a test with black and white Kodak and ORWO, 7231 and UN54 respectively. The lens is very warm in fact warmer than my Angenieux, and I was very pleased with its contrast range. Nice blacks, good grayscale. Regarding the stocks, I have to say the ORWO is impressive. Alpha processed it in D76. It's little lower in contrast than 7231 but not by much. I went for spot on exposure to see how the grain would look, and there was grain but much less than expected. I have another roll of N74 (ASA 400) that I plan to shoot in the coming weeks. I will also be shooting some 7218 to see how the Cooke does with high speed color.

July 14, 2007  –  permalink

Empty Quarter rough cut

With a local grant deadline fast approaching, I continue working on a new rough cut for Empty Quarter. The grant application is due prior to our next (and last) production shoot (Aug 20-26), so unfortunately, whatever we record during that trip will not be included in the submitted rough. I'm doing mostly picture cutting as I await a new cable from Atomic Film Company which will permit me to use the KEM's bi-phase to slave a USD, for digital audio playback and sync, to the KEM's 24 frames picture. It's a means of avoiding mag transfers and keeping the audio digital until the final creation of the optical track. I have no real aversion to cutting mag, esp once I get the MTM recorders set up for transfers, it's more of means of cost cutting in the short term.

June 25, 2007  –  permalink

Flatbed technicians

Spoke to my pal Stan who resides up in BC. Stan was generous enough to gift me a few back-up PCBs for my Rapid. I purchased my Rapid from Stan several years ago. As the original owner, he purchased the machine in the early 1980s for something in the neighborhood of $28,000. Several years ago Stan came to Portland to assist me in overhauling a Steenbeck 928 (now in use at Sampo Films). He is an honest and good-natured technician and I was sad to hear the news that work has slowed to the point of no longer being viable. I hate to think that KEM service people are no longer of much use to anyone but a few archives, or the remaining productions that continue to use Rapids or K-800s for syncing dailies.

June 01, 2007  –  permalink

Portland projector guys

I posted an Elmo CL-16 I acquired through a junk haul on a local forum as a give away item, and was contacted by exactly one person. That person is Rob who does some projection at the Hollywood Theater. It just so happens that Rob works on CL-16 amongst other projectors. I also discovered he has an Eiki 5020, an early model intermittent pedestal projector. Rob appears to be part of what I would consider a loose-knit group of projector guys and film collectors who reside here in Portland. Not certain if there is a high concentration here, or if the scene is typical of scenes elsewhere. In the last few years I have met probably a dozen people who have film collections and home theaters, and one fellow, Jack, who repairs Auricon sound amplifiers. Jack even visited the old Bach-Auricon factory just before it was demolished to recover parts sitting dormant in the building where the factory once resided. All of this seems to give new meaning to the expression "Film Underground".

May 28, 2007  –  permalink

Film Action loan of MTM recorders

The local non-profit Film Action Oregon has been kind enough to loan me (and the projects of 40 Frames) several MTM recorders. These machines were once in use at the old Teknifilm Labs (Portland’s full service film lab that died in July of 1998), after-which they were used by a local sound editor on several big budget features before they landed at Film Action last year. I’d been looking all over the country for recorders like these, so I was fortunate to find several sitting in my own backyard. These model R106-UV recorders have AC drive motors instead of the late-model DC servo. Apparently, Frank Hood, the original founder of Teknifilm, added the selsyn drives for running multiple machines in interlock. Wayne, one of the last people to operate these machines at Teknifilm and a sound engineer at Sonic Arts, has agreed to lend some assistance in getting the system up and running.

May 04, 2007  –  permalink

Aaton overhaul

My Aaton was sent via GPX to Seattle for an overhaul. The eyepiece will be thoroughly cleaned and aligned and camera quieted. It was a little disconcerting when I compared the brightness of the Aaton eyepiece to my Eclair, which seemed damn close by comparison. Years of poor cleaning methods, glues holding the prism together breaking down and discoloring, and lubricants off-gassing and coating the optical surfaces can all add to the general lack of contrast and dim nature of an eyepiece.

April 16, 2007  –  permalink

Northwest Film Forum donation of Steenbeck

Borrowed Ray Larson's van and drove up to Seattle last night to pick-up a Steenbeck 1201 being donated by Northwest Film Forum. The idea is to use John's method of borrowing timecode pulses that drive the counter in order to trigger sync my USD and slave a Pro Tools session to the Steenbeck's 24 frame picture. I was happy to discover the machine is in excellent condition despite coming from an educational facility. It required very little cleaning and only needed lubricant at several points on the rollers.

April 02, 2007  –  permalink