tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90807903923701811072024-03-18T20:21:58.374-07:00PRESERVATION INSANITYan excuse for sharing information of potential interest about film preservation with a particular emphasis on experimental film. Mark Toscanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10079027906007972300noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-77281650159793711242017-08-01T00:28:00.002-07:002017-08-01T00:35:06.288-07:00MOVING!Hi everyone,<br />
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">SHORT VERSION:</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b style="background-color: yellow;">I've totally moved this site!</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: cyan; font-size: large;"><b>Find it now at:</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/</span></b></a></div>
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<span style="color: cyan;">Please reset your bookmarks/links, as this Blogger version of the site will no longer be updated.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: cyan;">Also please do feel welcome to follow me on Instagram, as my account there is an extension of what this site does, with totally different, much more frequently updated content: </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/preservationinsanity/" style="color: red;" target="_blank"><b>@preservationinsanity</b></a></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">LONG VERSION:</span></b></div>
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It's been three years since I posted anything here, though for about a year now I've been keeping a fairly regular Instagram version of what this blog does (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/preservationinsanity/" target="_blank"><b>@preservationinsanity</b></a> if you're interested, please feel welcome to follow!)</div>
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I think one of the main obstacles to posting more regularly was the pressure I had felt (entirely created by myself) to make each post a fairly elaborate one, lavishly illustrated, super involved, etc. I've realized this isn't at all necessary, and posts can be of any length really, including those overly long and involved ones that some masochistic souls to seem to enjoy...</div>
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So, annoyed at my own lack of contribution to this site (and, by extension, whatever humble contribution to the larger literature of experimental film and archiving it represents), and also buoyed by some recent interactions with enthusiastic archival grad students (thank you Nadja, Krystel, and Eric) for whom I wrote some lengthy thoughts on what I do, I decided to get back to maintaining this site as a hopefully useful (or at least curious) resource for information about experimental film and archiving.</div>
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However, reviving the site necessitated a move to a different domain, for a number of reasons, simplest of which is the fact that I'm much more comfortable with Wordpress now that I've been using it for a few years to make class websites for my CalArts students.</div>
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Another reason is that I hope to eventually include some additional information on the site which could be of use and/or interest to anyone involved or curious about film archiving, experimental film, the film medium, etc., and the new domain was more approachable to me in making such hypothetical additions. This will hopefully include historical texts and anecdotes, technical information, and ideally, if I can put it together in a coherent form for the web, a guide to historical 16mm film stocks that I've been compiling over the past few years.</div>
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Anyhow, I hope you'll come check out the new site! All of the past posts (except a few brief and obsolete ones) are intact at the new location, and in fact even spiffed up, more readable, and with a few very minor but necessary corrections introduced. I've also added a few new posts already, and do intend to keep more regular track of it.</div>
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So please do come and follow the new site and the new location:</div>
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<a href="https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><b>https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/</b></a></div>
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And as always, you're more than welcome to write comments requesting info or posts on certain films, filmmakers, technical info, preservation thoughts, etc. and I'll do my best to answer them!</div>
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Thanks for your time,</div>
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Mark T<br />
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Mark Toscanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10079027906007972300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-74229281445020273402014-08-11T16:04:00.001-07:002017-07-25T19:08:21.596-07:00Runaway<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">PRESERVATION
INSANITY has moved! <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">Please
visit its new location at (and reset your bookmarks to):<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The initial instigation for this blog was my desire (in
November 2007) to <a href="http://preservationinsanity.blogspot.com/2007/11/contact-printer.html" target="_blank">share a photo</a> I’d taken of filmmaker Standish Lawder’s coffee
can contact printer with whomever might find that interesting, which turned out,
much to my surprise, to be a decent amount of people. Over the years, as I’ve irregularly kept this
blog, I’ve been amazed and quite happy to learn that people actually read it,
and that the photo of Standish’s printer remains a favorite search/discovery
for people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Standish passed away in June of this year. I hadn’t been much in touch with him over the
past couple of years, during which time he had departed from his Denver
Darkroom and moved to the Bay Area, though I would
occasionally receive news. We’ve been
able to restore a few of his films, including <i>Necrology</i> (1970), <i>Raindance</i> (1972), and the
little-known but quite lovely <i>Catfilm for Katy & Cynnie</i> (1973). Many others are in the works. Some present quite unusual challenges, and
may someday be the subject of another post here.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The process of unearthing Standish’s film elements back
in 2007 is a story in and of itself. His
studio spaces at the Denver Darkroom were loaded with the multifarious signs of
past, present, and future activity. There
was a bit of motion picture film to be seen here and there throughout the place,
and a small closet did contain several semi-organized stacks of projection
prints. But as Standish’s last 16mm film (</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Regeneration</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">) was completed in 1980, by
2007 his 16mm work, though still of some interest to and evoking some pride for
him, had receded quite a bit into the background of his creative
endeavors. 3D slide installations and
other projects had taken the front-burner role, not to mention his photographic
teaching duties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the dozens and dozens of experimental/independent
filmmakers I’ve worked with over the past eleven years to store, conserve, and
preserve/restore their films, Standish is still, as of this writing, the only
one who expressed some undisguised skepticism about the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences taking an archival interest in his work. I remember him saying, “I have no idea why
the Academy would be interested in my work.
I mean, we thought we were underground back then.” I didn’t know if I should say, “Well, to be honest,
although the Academy is totally supportive of this work, it’s actually just me
and a few other weirdos I work with who actually *know* your films,” because I
nevertheless detected a certain pleasure in his tone at the idea of the Academy
seeking out his work for saving.
Regardless, he was definitely skeptical, and I’m pretty sure it was primarily the
fact that I worked with <a href="http://preservationinsanity.blogspot.com/2012/01/cant-really-express-at-all-how-very-sad.html" target="_blank">Robert Nelson</a> (an old and trusted friend of his) that
he decided to give me a chance. His
skepticism waned as he got a better idea of where I was coming from (he said at
one point, early on, “I thought you just had an obsession for possession” but then realized
I was just trying to save his damn films.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I made a week-long trip to Boulder and Denver in Fall
2007, cramming as many things as I could into the time I had, including
Brakhage research, a lab visit, meeting up with other filmmakers (like Phil
Solomon, whose films I was also working on), a class visit, etc. Before even arriving, I had a mildly alarming
heads-up from Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder, who were teaching at Boulder that
Fall. Sandra and Luis have an excellent installation piece called </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Light Spill</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, in which a full reel of film is running
through a 16mm projector situated in the gallery space, but with no takeup
reel, so the film piles up quite dramatically on the floor around the projector instead of taking
up on a reel. The film used in the
installation is primarily junk film, leader, etc. It’s not meant to be important stuff. While in Boulder, they contacted Standish to see if he had some junk film he wouldn’t mind parting
with for them to use in </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Light Spill</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">.
Without realizing it, he gave them some material which turned out to be
elements for some of his films! Thankfully,
they did fully realize this right away, and let me know, and of course gave it back to
Standish. Luckily I arrived soon after
and met up with Standish to attempt to assemble his surviving film elements and
prints.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time, Standish was planning for a
multi-program retrospective at Anthology Film Archives. In many ways, the timing was perfect, as it
afforded me the opportunity and just enough time to go through his stuff and
figure out the most safe-to-project print for each film, and to have an overall
sense of what state each of the films were in, archivally speaking. It was a bit difficult to wrangle all of this
with Standish, as he hadn’t bothered to keep up on the organization of his film
elements for many years. (He wrote me,
in the middle of all of this, “I suggest the following change to Anthology's
introductory comment: “a retrospective of the work of Standish Lawder, one of
the most hopelessly disorganized of American avant-garde filmmakers...”)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Back to Fall 2007 and the pickup of his films – it was,
to say the least, complicated. Even with
the help of Robert David from Cinema Lab, we had to root around all over the
place to turn things up. And some things
were found in a slightly precarious state – the original printing master for
<i>Corridor</i> (1970), for instance, was found, covered in dust, run halfway through a
projector sitting in a side room.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At one point, after it seemed we had exhausted all hiding
places, Standish mentioned that there could be some film upstairs as well. I went up to find a laundry room, with
several milk crates and other containers spilling over with thousands of
slides, prints, negatives, and film elements, much of it hiding under big piles
of laundry. I don’t want to give the
impression that his place was a pigsty or anything – it was just kind of scattered and
disorganized, and his 16mm films were for him somewhat relegated to a semi-distant past. But it was clearly still very functional
for him - Standish had all kinds of photographic projects going on in his
studio spaces, in various stages of completion, some of them probably in
progress for decades. He was a
consummate tinkerer.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I went into this visit knowing Standish’s filmography
quite well, or so I thought. I had seen
all the films of his that had been at Canyon Cinema when I worked there, some
of them, like <i>Necrology </i>and <i>Runaway </i>(1969) multiple times. But digging through his films in Denver, and
assisting a bit in preparing his retrospective at Anthology led to the
unearthing of some films which had not previously been in distribution, or shown
very much at all, such as <i>Specific Gravity</i> (1969), <i>Sixty Suicide Notes</i> (1972), <i>Budget Film</i> (1969), <i>Automatic
Diaries 1971-73</i> (1973), <i>Headfilm </i>(1969), and <i>Prime Time</i> (1972), among a few others. There was even his very first 16mm film, a parody/homage to his then-father-in-law, Hans Richter, called <i>3x3: A Tic-Tac-Toe Sonata in Three Moves</i> (1963). And in the course of these discoveries with
Standish, a defining, epiphanous moment was given to me. In light of these newly uncovered films of his, I started to ask him about some of the other items that were turning
up, all labeled by him with Dymo tape.
One can said “See You at Mao”.
I asked him what this was, and whether it related to the Godard
film. He said it was a little thing he
had shot during a visit by Godard for a screening of <i>See You at Mao</i> (1970) at Yale in
the early ‘70s. I asked him, “But is it
a film?” (meaning “do you consider this a finished film of yours?”), and he
looked at me like I was an idiot, responding, “Can you put it on a projector?”</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6iTr5g8njqlXLgmr7Nil_9MhGfM3K4dLQKWM_PJYw_Xuzz5myphZaQt3wRLRYC3VkUrKASbpZKaz2ihOR2ifGWYxM3mXNdFcDVcLDfiLa4M48Tsp1ovoFV_E6lHjwc8Hm90ep-qRp0eM7/s1600/SDL09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6iTr5g8njqlXLgmr7Nil_9MhGfM3K4dLQKWM_PJYw_Xuzz5myphZaQt3wRLRYC3VkUrKASbpZKaz2ihOR2ifGWYxM3mXNdFcDVcLDfiLa4M48Tsp1ovoFV_E6lHjwc8Hm90ep-qRp0eM7/s1600/SDL09.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was also on this trip that he gave me the coffee can
contact printer, the homemade machine on which he made <i>Corridor</i>, <i>Runaway</i>,
<i>Roadfilm </i>(1969), and a few others. Here are
some new photos of it, to give a better illustration of its form:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgz4y-5MVifeyxWwfsZ-wZ4qs-Zk1Y0vAC3vWGSZWEGScgawYdRSZJaVSJvnAlncm8m7i-eI45rO96JhVhnKK9WRlYKEjozbV3ZUo0qdJfmRUWxO-l3nxbUK7XB_wsvCi363XTT9s_ijU/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWgz4y-5MVifeyxWwfsZ-wZ4qs-Zk1Y0vAC3vWGSZWEGScgawYdRSZJaVSJvnAlncm8m7i-eI45rO96JhVhnKK9WRlYKEjozbV3ZUo0qdJfmRUWxO-l3nxbUK7XB_wsvCi363XTT9s_ijU/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(3).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH47yPncm_kp6CEIbFMxzIQD33KHWBdz4XVMTBtlPKuPJeksBI8ViQPW3k8wZylkAqFFQ0H7ndzb9_nnrnieJfO9HJqRwuR_bGBa7h4qv2rKgdkpaeRDR8gRQoLAGthkFcRnch-aX2StKC/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH47yPncm_kp6CEIbFMxzIQD33KHWBdz4XVMTBtlPKuPJeksBI8ViQPW3k8wZylkAqFFQ0H7ndzb9_nnrnieJfO9HJqRwuR_bGBa7h4qv2rKgdkpaeRDR8gRQoLAGthkFcRnch-aX2StKC/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(4).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jXGMqTubJru9x94thQbHRuO1dmJmKEQGRSjtfChx9idbiNTbZc5e5etAx1qVchdrv7s4LFTqTfOfrIFYyktcHXOrgz-pGZY95NxSCrR3WohoGgIeICdVHdZweGKJMaqn-R0xq-I2Gt2W/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(5).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jXGMqTubJru9x94thQbHRuO1dmJmKEQGRSjtfChx9idbiNTbZc5e5etAx1qVchdrv7s4LFTqTfOfrIFYyktcHXOrgz-pGZY95NxSCrR3WohoGgIeICdVHdZweGKJMaqn-R0xq-I2Gt2W/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(5).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKmPihhhi6OvlqKphfB1gQjH-yZRuaPiXavPPBnpUa78vnfv-SxNwplP-aS-tKIpaB-y2JJTcbEtNMkgjhmfqwz8uext90kxYQBgYZaQ1G0c0yREScDnBvFPxbAtU5wBC-0ixEVS9zsHzV/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKmPihhhi6OvlqKphfB1gQjH-yZRuaPiXavPPBnpUa78vnfv-SxNwplP-aS-tKIpaB-y2JJTcbEtNMkgjhmfqwz8uext90kxYQBgYZaQ1G0c0yREScDnBvFPxbAtU5wBC-0ixEVS9zsHzV/s1600/SDL+ContactPrinter+(6).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since Standish’s passing, I’ve been in touch with his
daughter Cynthia, and she was kind enough to assemble all of Standish’s
remaining film elements that she could locate, pack them up, and send them to
me at the archive. They arrived today. They fit in one big box, a few dozen
individual cans of stuff. Some are prints,
some may be originals (soon to be determined), some are prints of other people’s
work, etc. :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQI_TMuRaFMpSwY5drBc4Au2NSKZ7T-kgIy5vEceBYol5rcw33vNO77C_XXImCx5kQit0Zd8-Gsx33oXSVofrEkKSJsXbHOwoR94s9m8abHvakaK8rdktmms3DjhEohtnxkCPbQBN4L6x8/s1600/SDLCans-Aug2014+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQI_TMuRaFMpSwY5drBc4Au2NSKZ7T-kgIy5vEceBYol5rcw33vNO77C_XXImCx5kQit0Zd8-Gsx33oXSVofrEkKSJsXbHOwoR94s9m8abHvakaK8rdktmms3DjhEohtnxkCPbQBN4L6x8/s1600/SDLCans-Aug2014+(1).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMtCxzG6mNoZN0iEoKgbYZ4gNpu8u7bntWA39srwd0ucJDRiqHv8zWyZ4OGgl1PmwTPZ6y9f7G-heERXzer1uNiy3zWGRa68eM4GQbSjScdrAJU_eqBd7NyCrTJsdf0NqfGeXjZQssmyn/s1600/SDLCans-Aug2014+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMtCxzG6mNoZN0iEoKgbYZ4gNpu8u7bntWA39srwd0ucJDRiqHv8zWyZ4OGgl1PmwTPZ6y9f7G-heERXzer1uNiy3zWGRa68eM4GQbSjScdrAJU_eqBd7NyCrTJsdf0NqfGeXjZQssmyn/s1600/SDLCans-Aug2014+(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One can in particular promised some very exciting
contents:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HneaeKchRVCh_kW-L-cn0yNTT3EfEuFOg5eGdFFPgRcPKgx4djuzQsLKDaToRsA07WE-bgERlPON_xrh7-gIOSuW8phhGeidL4dUW16pw5gvvkFMNcXTTnilhAs2B6q31KLPrhinRbOA/s1600/IMG_1621.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HneaeKchRVCh_kW-L-cn0yNTT3EfEuFOg5eGdFFPgRcPKgx4djuzQsLKDaToRsA07WE-bgERlPON_xrh7-gIOSuW8phhGeidL4dUW16pw5gvvkFMNcXTTnilhAs2B6q31KLPrhinRbOA/s1600/IMG_1621.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1bqD5qH7iki8_-olgntsVkOx3FxSUrYwS3EBhWTBwIEQQ_m197GlaLKL3w4Ccr5o0IVr9aN5YmzzzhZC785UbVaz6uLTBFcanut4wd2MZJ7Z8E_rW_XaZYGV50PWwnBEC-tJyb7TEL64P/s1600/IMG_1622.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1bqD5qH7iki8_-olgntsVkOx3FxSUrYwS3EBhWTBwIEQQ_m197GlaLKL3w4Ccr5o0IVr9aN5YmzzzhZC785UbVaz6uLTBFcanut4wd2MZJ7Z8E_rW_XaZYGV50PWwnBEC-tJyb7TEL64P/s1600/IMG_1622.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And just like the labeling says, it contained the
original loop Standish used to make <i>Runaway</i>, the film which Jonas Mekas said “achieves
the perfection of all his techniques”, with “the visual strength of an old
Chinese charcoal drawing.” It felt a bit
like finding the missing part of a machine – the coffee can printer – that was
required to make it work. A bit worse
for wear, but still very readily discernible as a crucial moving part in the dormant
apparatus.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-641193579153523502013-08-26T09:49:00.001-07:002017-07-25T19:09:12.755-07:00Cube and Room Drawings<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">PRESERVATION INSANITY has moved! <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">Please visit its new location at (and reset your bookmarks to):<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: red;"><b><a href="https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/">https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/</a></b></span></span></div>
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<b>CUBE AND
ROOM DRAWINGS (1977)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>by David
Haxton<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>16mm, color,
silent (24fps), 12.5min.<span style="font-size: 22pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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The restoration of David Haxton’s <i><b>Cube and Room Drawings</b></i> (1977) is one of the very few in which I’ve actually cut a filmmaker’s
original. In this case, the camera
original is not the same as the “original” conformed printing master for the
finished film, which was lost. But the
presence of the camera original footage for the film enabled me to restore it
using some atypical approaches in printing and restoration.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Here's David's own description of the film:</div>
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<b style="font-style: italic;"><br /></b></div>
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“<b style="font-style: italic;">Cube and Room Drawings </b>begins with a view looking down at an angle toward grey paper covering the floor. A performer enters from the back of the scene and begins drawing lines on the floor. The lines are the beginning of a drawing of a distorted cube. The performer leaves the scene. The paper begins to rotate on the floor. As the paper rotates the cube gradually becomes correctly oriented, as if it were drawn on a vertical piece of paper. The performer enters again and draws another cube that corresponds to the perspective of the other cube. After leaving and re-entering the performer draws red receding lines on the floor. He leaves and the paper rotates and the red lines become a grid that corresponds to the vertical screen. The film continues with several additional actions that continue this theme.”</div>
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<i><b>Cube and Room Drawings</b></i> was shot entirely on 7242
Ektachrome EFB. David Haxton frequently
made use of negative imagery in his films (i.e. the image has negative polarity
in the finished prints), and <i><b>Cube and Room Drawings</b></i> is no exception. The film begins in negative (~100ft.),
switches to positive (~300ft.) and then concludes back in negative
(~100ft.). The sense of action is
continuous from beginning to end, and in fact it was more or less shot in a
single session, with breaks only to reload the camera, or stop it briefly
during some dead time in the execution of the filmed performance.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1977, to make finished prints of the film, David
performed the following steps:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
As mentioned, the entire film was shot on 7242
Ektachrome EFB, yielding a positive image on the original.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The camera original was separated into three parts,
corresponding to the above description.
In the finished film, Parts 1 and 3 are intended to be seen in negative,
and Part 2 is seen in positive.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The B-wind reversal camera original for Parts 1 and 3 were contact printed – as if
negative – to 7381 color print stock, yielding an A-wind color print with
negative polarity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Part 2 was contact printed conventionally to a color reversal print
stock of unknown type (likely Eastman 7389, 7390, or Agfa), yielding an A-wind
color reversal print with positive polarity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Part 2 was also trimmed at its head and tail, and edited
slightly in three places to trim out unwanted excess material, such as some dead time or a flash frame when the camera was stopped at a few points. These edits were done with tape splices.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The negative prints for Parts 1 and 3 were
trimmed at head and tail and tape spliced to the beginning and end,
respectively, of Part 2, completing its negative-positive-negative form. This yielded a
complete A-wind picture roll, an A-roll only, representing the finished,
conformed printing master for the film.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Color reversal prints were then struck from this A-wind
printing master. The two extant prints I
have access to are both B-wind Agfa color reversal prints. It’s possible David also printed to Eastman
7389 (or, less likely, 7390 or 7387), but I have no confirmation of that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sometime in the years following the cessation of his
filmmaking (ca.1982), the originals for nearly all of David’s films were lost,
presumably discarded by the lab where they had been stored.<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, although the functional, conformed printing
master for <i><b>Cube and Room Drawings</b></i> was among the material lost, the raw Ektachrome camera
original material still existed in David’s possession, unexpectedly enabling me to restore
the film using the camera original. To
do so, I needed to replicate the steps done by David in the creation of his
printing master, though with reversal printing stocks no longer available, some
modifications in the process had to be made. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To restore the film in 2013, I took the following steps,
using FotoKem and working with timer Doug Ledin:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Parts 1 and 3 of the camera original, still in separate rolls, were spliced
together leader-to-leader, to be more easily printed together.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Parts 1 and 3 were then contact printed as if negative to an
A-wind 3383 color print, to achieve a print with negative polarity. This was done as a way to work out the timing
lights needed to produce a negative print with good color/density. Although somewhat faded, one of the vintage
Agfa reversal prints was used as a general guide for timing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Once this was approved, Parts 1 and 3 were printed
again, but this time optically, so the image orientation could be flipped,
resulting in a negative print with the necessary B-wind emulsion position. This was returned to me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Using the same vintage Agfa print (which conveniently
had edge numbers printed through two generations from the camera original) as a
reference, I set the various parts up on the bench, and built a set of A/B printing rolls, using a combination of the newly produced negative prints for Parts 1
and 3 and the Ektachrome camera original for Part 2.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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All three parts were now in the correct polarity
(neg/pos/neg), and wind (all B-wind). I
could have assembled them as an A-roll only, with tape splices, as David had in
1977, but was concerned that the mix of polyester (3383) and acetate (7242)
material might cause some printing instability.
Instead, I composed the material as A/B rolls, with Parts 1 and 3 in
the A-roll and part 2 in the B-roll. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
To save on the black leader (which is expensive), I used
clear leader as the slug in both rolls, with the exception of a foot of black
before and after the A/B switches, with 16-frame fades to open/close the fader
leading into and following these points.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
As mentioned earlier, in winding through the material in a synchronizer with
the reference print, I also discovered the camera original for Part 2 needed an
extra bit of conforming in five places.
These were the aforementioned edits David had made when originally
assembling his printing master. Using
tape splices as he had, I trimmed the head and tail, and made the three
necessary trims throughout Part 2, which was easier to do given the presence of
the edge numbers in the reference print.
The conforming for Parts 1 and 3 was done by sight, as there were no edge
numbers to go by.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The finished set of A/B rolls then went back to FotoKem,
and an internegative was struck from it, and a check print struck from
that. Release prints followed. (Thanks so much to David Haxton for providing the images!)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wk7c-WQ5pKjV608hs967GiEI_IBM7lPcTGC0CjgvChxBFzV7SlrBlo4jEDWnX5144Pw-ZH9MuLkfp0l88rZr5HGoVzGNi3sY8GK0wTSoQ3PJ0CxG0m5Tz4MRAwAMkwHfzUqmzr5og4gL/s1600/C&RD-prepdrawings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wk7c-WQ5pKjV608hs967GiEI_IBM7lPcTGC0CjgvChxBFzV7SlrBlo4jEDWnX5144Pw-ZH9MuLkfp0l88rZr5HGoVzGNi3sY8GK0wTSoQ3PJ0CxG0m5Tz4MRAwAMkwHfzUqmzr5og4gL/s400/C&RD-prepdrawings.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparatory sketches for <i><b>Cube and Room Drawings</b></i> (David Haxton, 1977)</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-4646347433809539412013-01-04T20:37:00.001-08:002017-07-25T19:09:43.597-07:00Will She Get Over It?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">PRESERVATION INSANITY has moved! <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">Please visit its new location at (and reset your bookmarks to):<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: red;"><b><a href="https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/">https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/</a></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
I don't know who the "she" is in the film's title, nor what it is that "she" needs to get over. At least as of this writing, I've have not seen this film. And yet I'm in the process of restoring it. This has happened more than once (see my <a href="http://preservationinsanity.blogspot.com/2010/02/to-gary-beydler.html" target="_blank">post on Gary Beydler and <i>Venice Pier</i></a>). In my experience of working on the restoration of experimental films, this isn't the norm, but it's not totally unusual. And in the case of Mike Henderson's films, it's quite common. <i><b>Will She Get Over It?</b></i> is a ca.1971 film made by Mike with students in the class he was teaching at UC Davis at the time.<br />
<br />
Before I get to this film in particular, I thought I'd say a little bit about restoring something I haven't seen.<br />
<br />
First of all, the main reason for this to even occur is that there is no extant print of a given film. For example, there may only be the original picture and sound masters, or an internegative. So there's no way to very easily watch the film before working on it. In some cases, I've had a print, but only a print, i.e. the film only survives as a single print, and although I trust the Pageant 250S 16mm projector I generally use here for quick viewings, I usually feel it's just not worth risking it. This was the case with A.K. Dewdney's film <i><b>Wildwood Flower</b></i> (1971), which only survived as a single distribution print, and which I did not screen before using that print as the source for the film's preservation.<br />
<br />
Of course, preserving/restoring something that you haven't seen involves a bit of curatorial chance-taking, but if the filmmaker is a known quantity (artistically/historically speaking), and/or I have it on good authority that the film is significant in some way, I don't consider it all that risky, especially if it really doesn't cost that much to do the work (as with <i><b>Wildwood Flower</b></i>). I discuss this a bit in the aforementioned post on Gary Beydler, but with Dewdney's film, the same held true. Dewdney had made a few films that I had seen, and felt were fairly remarkable (especially his masterpiece <b><i>The Maltese Cross Movement</i></b> (1967)), so I trusted him as a filmmaker. Additionally, the print of <b><i>Wildwood Flower</i></b> had shown at <a href="http://www.lightindustry.org/" target="_blank">Light Industry</a> right before I got it, and a trusted friend who had been at the screening had spoken of how much he'd liked it. That was enough.<br />
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<br />
Mike Henderson may not be a name familiar to many in the experimental film world, even among the very experienced and prolific viewers among us. This is partly because Mike is known much more as a <a href="http://www.hainesgallery.com/artists/Henderson_Mike/Henderson_01.html" target="_blank">painter </a>and blues musician. (If you search him out online, you might find a different artist named Mike Henderson and a different blues musician named Mike Henderson. The way you'll know if you have the wrong guys is that those guys are white.)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=17526" target="_blank">Here's a short piece about Mike from KQED</a>, if you're curious to learn a bit about him.<br />
<br />
Like so many other things, I got turned onto Mike's work because of <a href="http://preservationinsanity.blogspot.com/2012/01/cant-really-express-at-all-how-very-sad.html" target="_blank">Robert Nelson</a>. I was teaching a class at Cal Arts in Fall 2006, and one of the sessions was themed on humor. Bob had suggested I look at Mike's film <b><i>Dufus </i></b>(1970/73). I already knew about Mike through Bob, and the two film collaborations they had done (<b><i>King David</i></b> (1970) and <b><i>Worldly Woman</i></b> (1973)). I had also seen Mike perform (with William Wiley on harmonica) at a reception for Bob at San Francisco Art Institute in 2002. But I had no idea he'd made other films.<br />
<br />
Turned out the Film-makers' Cooperative had two of his films - <b><i>Dufus </i></b>and <b><i>The Last Supper</i></b> (1968-70). I rented <b><i>Dufus</i></b>, showed it in the class, and we were all pretty knocked out by it. Immediately after that class, I called Mike and asked him about his films. Soon after, I was visiting the Bay Area anyway, and we made plans for me to drop by his place to talk more about it. We met up, had a good long talk, and I was thrilled to discover that Mike had not just made those two films, but also a few others. He gave me a reel of four prints to check out back in LA - the aforementioned two, plus <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Shape of Things</i> (ca.1981) and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Down Hear</i> (1972). Two other films - <i style="font-weight: bold;">Too Late To Stop Down Now</i> (1982) and <i style="font-weight: bold;">Ducks Are No Dinners </i>(1983) - were listed as being on the reel too, but were absent, so I could only be tantalized by those fantastic titles. (Mike has a talent for titling, and many of his film and painting titles are packed with wonderfully implicit narrative suggestion. Two of my favorite painting titles of his -- both abstracts -- are <b><i>All You Do</i></b> and <i><b>She Worked For Years</b></i>.)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJK8nhEjRNkagqLMna73j4G1YJjhGRP7g90mZJR-b8YwuvrFi23qoCMavGXLXxTps5GQ2SCH9C6XMB16-p0lfbbOJk98iGykkuWHoWXcVKSSbFbRBGVBbapvnzOQeJwkcUwhwlQNsPOi2z/s1600/MikeHenderson-Dufus-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJK8nhEjRNkagqLMna73j4G1YJjhGRP7g90mZJR-b8YwuvrFi23qoCMavGXLXxTps5GQ2SCH9C6XMB16-p0lfbbOJk98iGykkuWHoWXcVKSSbFbRBGVBbapvnzOQeJwkcUwhwlQNsPOi2z/s320/MikeHenderson-Dufus-04.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Dufus </i></b>(1970/73, 16mm, b/w, sound, 7min.)</td></tr>
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Back in LA, the reel blew me away, especially the incredible <b><i>Down Hear</i></b>. I had a few more chats with Mike, told him I really wanted to restore these films, and not too long after, visited him in the East Bay again. Already excited to see those two other films missing from the reel, I was further surprised to learn that he had actually made more in the neighborhood of TWENTY-FIVE films, once we started digging them out of his basement. I kept finding cans with new, unfamiliar titles on them like <b><i>Harvey Hog</i></b> (1970), <b><i>Just Another Notion</i></b> (1983), <b><i>How to Beat A Dead Horse</i></b> (1983), <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b>, and more, and Mike kept saying, "Oh yeah, that's another one, I'd forgotten about that one..." and laugh his inimitable laugh.<br />
<br />
To cut to the archival chase: Although a number of Mike's films survived as originals plus prints, many survived only one way or the other - as ONLY an original or ONLY a print. Of the films mentioned in the last paragraph, both the originals and a print of <b><i>Down Hear</i></b> survived, <b><i>Harvey Hog</i></b> and <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b> survive only as originals (no prints), and <b><i>Just Another Notion</i></b> and <b><i>How To Beat A Dead Horse</i></b> survive only as prints (no originals). This is a fairly representative sample that you could extend across his whole filmography.<br />
<br />
Part of Mike's sensibility - to just get in there and MAKE things, don't worry about your hangups, don't be afraid of failure - led him to try all kinds of ideas in filmmaking. And thankfully, he had no formal filmmaking training. Bob Nelson just told him to get a camera and get someone to show him how to load it and how to make a correct exposure. Aside from maybe a few other pointers from people about how to splice and where to get your films printed, that was it. He learned the bare minimum he needed to know to actually make films, and then proceeded to create a singular body of independent film work that intertwines complexly with his painting and music, having perhaps more in common with those two disciplines than with other films.<br />
<br />
From a technical/production standpoint, all of Mike's films (except one) were constructed in the same very basic way. They were shot on reversal film (he used both black and white and color), spliced with tape on a guillotine splicer as A-rolls only, and the sound finished on 16mm fullcoat magnetic film. Mike's mag soundtracks were often created not on regular dubbers with a mixing console of any kind, but on a 16mm projector with recording capabilities that his friend Michael Rudnick owned. These two elements would then go to (usually) Monaco Lab in San Francisco, and an electroprinted reversal print would be made. (Electroprinting allowed filmmakers to get an optical track on their print directly from the mag, bypassing the creation of an optical track negative. For filmmakers who were only planning to make a couple of prints, this was cheaper, although the sound quality was often not as good.)<br />
<br />
Sometimes, the splicing tape Mike used was cheap and shitty. Sometimes he didn't even use proper splicing tape, but cellophane tape. It didn't matter - whatever stuck the two pieces of film together and got it through the printer would work fine. He shot cheap and outdated stock sometimes too. And the prints were barely timed, usually just a one-light, but that was OK because Mike had learned how to make a good exposure.<br />
<br />
In the case of <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b>, a few of the things I've mentioned above are at work.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYh5GBK_ShRJDgoWTqXPTTNmM07PEKy-BBl6wsaEm3H2wZ2w3D4VxLvFEiePq6lvgPTrKDHbFPEuNHmwEqrQ1XfuGXKe43Q_QQfoTesk6SV8CIGBnArwJ8nk7VqGSzN4wEbIk_7SE3qqAU/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYh5GBK_ShRJDgoWTqXPTTNmM07PEKy-BBl6wsaEm3H2wZ2w3D4VxLvFEiePq6lvgPTrKDHbFPEuNHmwEqrQ1XfuGXKe43Q_QQfoTesk6SV8CIGBnArwJ8nk7VqGSzN4wEbIk_7SE3qqAU/s320/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+%25281%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
No print survives, or at least we didn't turn it up at Mike's place when we looked. I only have the original tape-spliced b/w reversal A-roll, and the 16mm mag. I know how they sync up because they have hole punches in their leaders, but that's it.<br />
<br />
The tape splices have problems, as with a lot of his originals. There are two different kinds of splice problems that Mike's originals tend to have:<br />
<br />
1. The film ends have separated somewhat under the tape splices, like this:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01L7Y6UWEfVH9g4iCZkkWem1kKqn8bH1gPdSbkXaDV8Ej19f9IoN1uGhsqmKWMYfA5e_VFeRnB9bTsmB-KCmsvmhtIkilTkRxfco5bGvahtj2nCAS_SAvoLMepmL5o76bNZ772RRXYYAE/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(23).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01L7Y6UWEfVH9g4iCZkkWem1kKqn8bH1gPdSbkXaDV8Ej19f9IoN1uGhsqmKWMYfA5e_VFeRnB9bTsmB-KCmsvmhtIkilTkRxfco5bGvahtj2nCAS_SAvoLMepmL5o76bNZ772RRXYYAE/s320/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(23).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">original picture roll for <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This is not a huge problem, but it still needs to be dealt with. Not only would printing this original as-is mean that you'd see a distracting, clear splice-line at every cut, but the improper pitch of the perforations at the stretched splice would create instability in the printer, leading to the creation of little jumps at each cut, possibly with brief focus issues in the few frames immediately before and after the splice.<br />
<br />
2. Tape splices have dried up and crystallized on the film (emulsion and base), and tarnished the silver of the black and white image, like this:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqG69cyvz_1bP8xyceXAuXGTeS9LC1gNQbNxQld_MS3gobzwwCJJZ7kxyqLcY1Stado-SHgj8Ofz-sfBdj1OBlbCajfUQciX8jen5gGy09_0D-Xr4oaGHF53HPzrYuGonC4aZDSgU1AMxp/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(16).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqG69cyvz_1bP8xyceXAuXGTeS9LC1gNQbNxQld_MS3gobzwwCJJZ7kxyqLcY1Stado-SHgj8Ofz-sfBdj1OBlbCajfUQciX8jen5gGy09_0D-Xr4oaGHF53HPzrYuGonC4aZDSgU1AMxp/s320/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(16).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">original picture roll for <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As you can see from the above pictures, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Will She Get Over It?</i> has both of these problems.<br />
<br />
So basically, I had to take apart, clean, and redo every single splice in the film.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwKrvQyHgD09SIP4Cbt_JVto2oxPU7GEC6kXOeXfq7lZmjnRaIpBvcAsWgjLcsG_TrDv_8bxCFf1PHct8BFOvin4qqjKbPyK5qvK_98vYtSHmGoXGoOHv9xyy7axfGjpNWooEdByhvKHLd/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(7).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwKrvQyHgD09SIP4Cbt_JVto2oxPU7GEC6kXOeXfq7lZmjnRaIpBvcAsWgjLcsG_TrDv_8bxCFf1PHct8BFOvin4qqjKbPyK5qvK_98vYtSHmGoXGoOHv9xyy7axfGjpNWooEdByhvKHLd/s200/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(7).JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirczPzUB4hC3HnqK-5kP81sTHLQhNKySrtOlsydRG-OmaDfjN2L-splrJd0OzeJQLQ8VEGM83Rf5dm_JER3u-ikKYhD74JT-GYntLJX5InigYRVuuHEas4FHClgwjvhlKytYr99paUN2ml/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(8).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirczPzUB4hC3HnqK-5kP81sTHLQhNKySrtOlsydRG-OmaDfjN2L-splrJd0OzeJQLQ8VEGM83Rf5dm_JER3u-ikKYhD74JT-GYntLJX5InigYRVuuHEas4FHClgwjvhlKytYr99paUN2ml/s200/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(8).JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
The splices that were merely stretched were easy to fix. Just pull off the tape splices, hand clean the adhesive residue with film cleaner, and resplice them with new tape so they join better.
<br />
<br />
<br />
The splices have also usually left adhesive residue elsewhere too, where they rested against the preceding and subsequent winds of film. This had to be hand-cleaned as well.<br />
<br />
As I mentioned above, Mike's technical aesthetic was in some ways rough, though it's very much the roughness of someone who knows what he wants to express in a direct way, and doing what he needs to do to express it, without worrying about procedure, rules, or standards. It's actually kind of punk, in the way that raw country blues is also punk.<br />
<br />
As I also mentioned, Mike spliced these films in a very simple way using tape on a guillotine splicer. Traditionally, in production and preservation, a splice (especially a tape one) is meant to be as invisible as possible. Mike's splices are not invisible. They're also not self-consciously visible either. They're just there, and they don't care. So I decided the best way to resplice all of these cuts was to do the same thing, on a guillotine splicer, not worrying about making it perfect. I'm not deliberately trying to make them imperfect either. I'm just doing it.<br />
<br />
I've dealt with the badly dried up splices in a similar way, but they need a bit more help. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZnMIYg8y9qsc801soS-4scOmHSvsSQmGKlnUHOI4JKlUYmtLH2h3FDg3QEA1DVc6QKon0NalJqRVYTzMWx9Nqbc9fNWK5-Az-46zg4tUQI9YtWVQSM-2oa1dtmZFJ2oP0kYOLa69pz6h/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+%252820%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZnMIYg8y9qsc801soS-4scOmHSvsSQmGKlnUHOI4JKlUYmtLH2h3FDg3QEA1DVc6QKon0NalJqRVYTzMWx9Nqbc9fNWK5-Az-46zg4tUQI9YtWVQSM-2oa1dtmZFJ2oP0kYOLa69pz6h/s320/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+%252820%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">original picture roll for <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The adhesive wouldn't come off in a hand-cleaning, so in a moment of mild frustration, I just stuck the end of the film right into the film cleaner bottle, like so:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKwV0Qb48FBtR_gU7YTx5QqVcifmgjRv2NQyZ5mfZt7BtVoty_Z22Gy3OsidEYbcBYn1-TSw1tjVAsEJuojPcY0vs68v6l85RvheemZZqnHKsKkh-kalL2jZJpaSGgruywEv6tcC2OYos/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKwV0Qb48FBtR_gU7YTx5QqVcifmgjRv2NQyZ5mfZt7BtVoty_Z22Gy3OsidEYbcBYn1-TSw1tjVAsEJuojPcY0vs68v6l85RvheemZZqnHKsKkh-kalL2jZJpaSGgruywEv6tcC2OYos/s320/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(4).JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
let it sit for a few minutes, pulled it out, and was glad to discover the dried up adhesive had weakened enough that a hand-cleaning would work. I then respliced them.<br />
<br />
Of course, this didn't help the problem of the tarnishing. Here's a top-down view of the above splice so you can see a more extreme example:<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSSvTLFRXtIokr0-DpGecBhyphenhyphenzYh2-kN_ssVrdBe-tMrSVK3kJYBi26AWYyoIj19WDBx4Qw890mwHxopyfQceUciHOq56K-I3z3btRBMdzkqDnGTELRIuFXTor-l7AOTVoou_77D3KbujJ/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+%252822%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWSSvTLFRXtIokr0-DpGecBhyphenhyphenzYh2-kN_ssVrdBe-tMrSVK3kJYBi26AWYyoIj19WDBx4Qw890mwHxopyfQceUciHOq56K-I3z3btRBMdzkqDnGTELRIuFXTor-l7AOTVoou_77D3KbujJ/s320/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+%252822%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">original picture roll for <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Since the film is totally black and white, the brownish tone that you see will be eliminated in the printing process going to a black and white dupe negative. There will still be some visible image degradation built in, but aside from chopping out the frames entirely, there's nothing that can really be done to fix it. The tarnishing in <b><i>Will She Get Over It?</i></b> is infrequent and not that bad, so I decided to just leave the frames as they are. In the case of <b><i>Harvey Hog</i></b>, the tarnishing is much worse, and has turned the two frames under each tape splice into nearly abstract compositions. Talking to Mike, we decided I should cut those frames out of the film entirely, as they intruded too much on what the film is. Although it's a compromise to remove the frames, and unfortunate, the film is not about those frames, and the minimal integrity of those frames should not compromise the integrity of the film as an overall artwork.<br />
<br />
One last thing about preserving <i style="font-weight: bold;">Will She Get Over It?</i> that came up is something that's suggested by my hasty post-it note on the film can as seen above. The original has yellow lightstruck leader at its head, which cuts directly to the first image of the film. This suggests to me that the film, in its printed form, originally began with a fade-in, but I have no way of knowing for sure - there's no print to compare to, no lab paperwork, and Mike doesn't remember. We talked about it, and he said sure, start it with a short fade-in. So that's what I'm doing. It's up to Mike, and it sounds good to me. And it's not the kind of decision -- when dealing with films as beautifully unanxious and liberating as Mike's -- that I'm going to let keep me up at night.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoL-F1MuuC3ZHZS3oHDGEsamkGsA6fTXORb5arFKywj38BcC8_DRbO5b4u3mgCxyQCm2lcwOS_9IBFSczrvd0Ek0fpn1eVujkRj6SmWeOkDToQTQDlU5jy2AujJlqsauvVy66jb7-pP1Fg/s1600/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoL-F1MuuC3ZHZS3oHDGEsamkGsA6fTXORb5arFKywj38BcC8_DRbO5b4u3mgCxyQCm2lcwOS_9IBFSczrvd0Ek0fpn1eVujkRj6SmWeOkDToQTQDlU5jy2AujJlqsauvVy66jb7-pP1Fg/s320/Will+She+Get+Over+It+-+original+(3).JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-19815062894370360532012-08-15T15:04:00.003-07:002017-07-25T19:09:53.049-07:00Later That Same Night (1971) and Pastorale d'Ete (1959) by Will Hindle<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsucGHos8e_5ROFUBKNLEb5mUYmpYAS7rRvdGsqK2v3t1kjL1vW2nhQRS0bdeywOzu4qVkiGUPD2JABK09GdPcdJA6BZ27gjJgNFG7D1xjcPBum-2CQM-CyghTpoEOAxfhEmRsJq_oU3G/s1600/Later02-300dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsucGHos8e_5ROFUBKNLEb5mUYmpYAS7rRvdGsqK2v3t1kjL1vW2nhQRS0bdeywOzu4qVkiGUPD2JABK09GdPcdJA6BZ27gjJgNFG7D1xjcPBum-2CQM-CyghTpoEOAxfhEmRsJq_oU3G/s400/Later02-300dpi.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b> (1971) by Will Hindle</td></tr>
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<br />
This'll be a somewhat basic post, covering two of the Will Hindle films I've been working on lately. (Also working on <b><i>Pasteur3</i></b> (1976), which will perhaps be covered later...)<br />
<br />
I have a particular devotion to restoring Will's films, for various reasons. One of those reasons is that Shellie Fleming is amazing and an inspiration to me, and it's the least I can do for someone to whom Will was such an important person. Another is that I really love Will's work, and definitely think its reputation has waned dramatically over the past 35 years, to the point where not very many people today know his work anymore. There are several reasons for this, which I may get into later or elsewhere, but they have nothing to do with the very high quality of the work itself. Yet another is the nature of Will's collection - upon his sudden death, a lot of his originals were spread around at various labs, and his materials were in somewhat of a shambles. Thanks to Shellie, a lot more was saved than otherwise would've been. Also, a few things turned up at labs, still sitting in their vaults after 35 years. But a lot of it was lost, including the originals for the two films I'm discussing here. So Will's stuff has always seemed to me in dire need of care.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Pastorale d'Ete</i> (1959)</b> is Will's first completed personal film, and <b><i>Later That Same Night</i> (1971)</b> is the first film he fully created and completed in Alabama, where he had planned to build (literally and conceptually) a sort of filmmaking workshop that would be open to other artists. <br />
<br />
The originals for both are totally lost. The last known location of the originals for <b><i>Pastorale d'Ete</i></b> was Deluxe Labs in Hollywood, and the last known location for <b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b> was MPL in Memphis. Nothing ever turned up at either, and in fact MPL stated that any materials not claimed from their vaults were discarded. The original mag soundtrack for <i><b>Later That Same Night</b></i> did actually survive in Will's collection, so I at least had access to the original mixed soundtrack in very good quality and condition.<br />
<br />
Actually, if the originals for <b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b> HAD been available, they may not have been usable anyway. The film uses a variety of stocks, and different processing techniques, including at least one section that seems to clearly have been cut into the originals on color print stock. Most likely, several sequences in the originals would now be moderately-to-totally faded. On the other hand, one 350ft. roll of outtakes that Shellie was able to save are all on 7242 Ektachrome EF daylight, and they look beautiful.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, <i><b>Pastorale d'Ete</b></i> was shot on Kodachrome and what seems to be Plus-X b/w reversal. 900ft. of outtakes survive, all gorgeous, which is a huge bummer in light of what this says about how nice the cut original must've looked.<br />
<br />
So, in order to preserve these films, we just had to work from the best surviving original prints.<br />
<br />
In both cases, the best prints were housed at Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, thanks to a 1960s/70s collector who was particularly a fan of Will's work, and who bought a number of prints from him at that time. She treated them very well, so they remained in quite nice condition, eventually going to PFA. We borrowed these Kodachrome (7387) prints of the films from (the very gracious and helpful) PFA to work from, and they went to Colorlab for duplication.<br />
<br />
The original mag and a different print of <b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b> were both transferred to provide a sound source and reference, respectively. The mag sounded great, and did represent the correct final mix, which was a relief. In the meantime, Colorlab made a new internegative from the PFA Kodachrome print. We then supplied them a new track negative from the restored sound, and they made a new print, matching the Kodachrome print as closely as possible. After two printing passes, it was approved. And it DOES look great, but of course, duplicating Kodachrome is difficult due to its heavy saturation, contrast, density. But I feel confident that Colorlab did as good a job as is possible, and it really does look excellent. <br />
<br />
By the way, I'd like to say here - <i><b>Later That Same Night</b></i> always felt to me like a problem film, and a weaker one, in Will's filmography. It was always one of my least favorites, though I still thought it was curious and interesting. But looking at it a number of times now during this project, I've changed my mind quite a bit, and think it's quite good. The soundtrack is fantastic, and the sound/image relationships in particular are powerful and unexpected. As an experimental cinematic look at the generational, social, and political disenfranchisement of youth and youth culture in the late '60s/early '/70s, it's really powerful and sharp, and feels weirdly contemporary now, with definite resonances in the current interest in so-called freak folk and radical/alternative culture, aesthetics, and history.<br />
<br />
As for <b><i>Pastorale d'Ete</i></b> - though the process here is similar to that of <b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b>, it's a bit more difficult. The soundtrack is not so hard to deal with. It's just a recording of the titular piece of music, by Honegger. We transferred the audio from the same print we're using as a picture source.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_VNJ6rC7WRHflRi5aQQySathqp_4jqaZ0l3KwOox4dla-qX0W-nsRX1T9oo2dmSt1wrD6gDPC3tMIifqOx59zSwRCtpFGqF3pRpZW6GjfQ0MshZ7uR4vhHOh-sHkk4-tKE9upxzqe_tF/s1600/PastoraledEte01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_VNJ6rC7WRHflRi5aQQySathqp_4jqaZ0l3KwOox4dla-qX0W-nsRX1T9oo2dmSt1wrD6gDPC3tMIifqOx59zSwRCtpFGqF3pRpZW6GjfQ0MshZ7uR4vhHOh-sHkk4-tKE9upxzqe_tF/s400/PastoraledEte01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Some frames scanned from outtakes of <b><i>Pastorale d'Ete </i></b>(1959)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5GtFL4XEBoZ6qOcScmFNsd_8-gBLaPlH9zwJzlBtxHkjdgpOQ87YpBZxmhe-yifn7-xTaTAl0LEsynK8Xpg2ehwkWO5kMrYDoC2ciGpWtdLYkYSYIGmPjQX0EBHB_T0ZL5E07Cd1dDG-5/s1600/PastoraledEte03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5GtFL4XEBoZ6qOcScmFNsd_8-gBLaPlH9zwJzlBtxHkjdgpOQ87YpBZxmhe-yifn7-xTaTAl0LEsynK8Xpg2ehwkWO5kMrYDoC2ciGpWtdLYkYSYIGmPjQX0EBHB_T0ZL5E07Cd1dDG-5/s200/PastoraledEte03.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTblIqKBBKYriwupibUc1Wr0JHgIOPaR5oIE0x6SRwRE9kuRjViyZeG-LjsN8u8YHYC2C2432_-qxOouxvc_4XGy722GZQ_2mJz24wXxY-RbaqUJoacxsllWhkMaQho9hMwJqzs5qf2bgH/s1600/PastoraledEte04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTblIqKBBKYriwupibUc1Wr0JHgIOPaR5oIE0x6SRwRE9kuRjViyZeG-LjsN8u8YHYC2C2432_-qxOouxvc_4XGy722GZQ_2mJz24wXxY-RbaqUJoacxsllWhkMaQho9hMwJqzs5qf2bgH/s200/PastoraledEte04.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The above images (sorry, I only currently have low res versions) give some idea of the classical beauty of <b><i>Pastorale d'Ete</i></b>, which is a very elegant and inspired California landscape film.</div>
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Unlike <b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b>, one of the challenges in duplicating the picture for this film lies in the problematic fact that Will shot the color portions of the film on Kodachrome, and also made his finished release prints on Kodachrome print stock. As a result, the Kodachrome prints are very saturated, and more contrasty than Kodachrome prints made from Ektachrome or other lower contrast originals (such as <b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b>). Colorlab's first stab at an internegative was deemed too contrasty to work with. It was made on the recently discontinued 3272 internegative stock, which has now been replaced by 3273, which is essentially a polyester version of the 50D camera negative stock. As of this writing, the second try at a usable internegative is in progress. I have to say, looking at the camera original outtakes for this film is depressing, as it gives me an idea of how nicely the preservation work would come out if we actually had the film's camera original to work from.</div>
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A few more images from <b><i>Later That Same Night</i></b>:</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-5873705789607614412012-06-11T20:52:00.000-07:002017-07-25T19:10:03.189-07:00Studies in Chronovision (1975) by Louis Hock<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">PRESERVATION INSANITY has moved! <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: red;"><b><a href="https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/">https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/</a></b></span></span></div>
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The preservation of Louis Hock’s <b><i>Studies in Chronovision</i></b>
(1975) was fairly simple. I had been
interested in Louis’s films for some time, but hadn’t talked to him about
depositing them at the archive until only about 2010 or so, thanks to the help
and instigation of my buddy Vera Brunner-Sung, who’d been working with Louis
down in San Diego.</div>
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Louis periodically comes up to L.A., so once he’d decided
to deposit his films, he brought them up in a few separate carloads when he was
visiting up here anyway.</div>
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I had never seen <b><i>Studies in Chronovision</i></b> before he
brought his films in, but had read some intriguing and complimentary references
to it here and there. Once I finally got
to see it, I found it one of the more interesting, beautiful, and expressive
time lapse films I could remember seeing.
And given the fact that the camera original had been discarded by Louis
(due to extreme color fading and deterioration), it seemed like an obvious
preservation candidate.</div>
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As I mentioned, the 16mm reversal camera original was gone,
having faded badly over the years. I
don’t know for sure, but this is almost definitely because it was filmed on the
dreaded 7252 Ektachrome Commercial (ECO) stock.
When Kodak reformulated ECO from 7255 to 7252 in 1970, it may have
improved the stock for production use at that time, but it would prove
devastating for filmmakers and archivists down the line, as its color fades
badly, pretty much without exception.</div>
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All that otherwise survived for Louis’s film was a 1970s
internegative made from the original, and two reversal prints, both on 7387
(Kodachrome) print stock. The two prints
were in good physical shape, and with completely stable color. Kodachrome famously – and very unlike 7252 –
is incredibly color-stable. </div>
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One of the prints was a bit warmer and more magenta than
the other. Louis and I compared the two
prints on a bench, and he indicated his preference for the cooler of the two
prints as more accurately reflecting how the film should look.</div>
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Also, the film is silent, so no sound work was needed.</div>
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From here, the process was pretty easy. I got the internegative and the preferred
Kodachrome print to FotoKem Lab in Burbank, and asked them to print the
internegative, matching the supplied Kodachrome print as a reference. In the 1970s, it was common for internegatives
(from reversal originals) to be a ‘one-light’, meaning the color
correction/timing was already built into the internegative, and striking a
print from it could be done at a single set of printing lights, rather than
numerous timing changes from scene to scene.
This was generally accomplished by answer printing the reversal original
to reversal print stock, possibly multiple times with corrections, and, upon
approval of the reversal answer print, those timing settings would be built
into the internegative. If a filmmaker
planned to make several prints of their film, it would be ultimately cheaper to
make an internegative, as release prints off a single-strand internegative
would be notably cheaper than release prints off an A/B –rolled reversal original.</div>
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When printing one of these ‘one-light’ internegatives
these days, they may require a bit of extra timing, due to the changes in film
stocks and the fact that a different lab with different printers is now
printing it. But generally they’re not
too tough to time.</div>
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Since Louis’s internegative was made as a one-light
negative, a minimum of timing was needed at FotoKem, making the printing job a
check print rather than an answer print.
At FotoKem, a check print generally means a minimum of timing effort is
needed, and it’s quite a bit cheaper than an answer print. An answer print job could require not just a
lot of timing changes throughout the negative, but also potentially a few
passes of the negative, making multiple prints with corrected timing changes
until the results are to the filmmaker’s liking.</div>
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Once approved, an interpositive was made from the
internegative, and an additional two release prints. This was a pretty basic preservation, as no
additional internegative was made at this time.
Though it’s always nice to have as many protection elements as possible,
it didn’t seem necessary at this time to make a new internegative from the new
interpositive. The only preservation
benefit to having a new internegative would be to double the number of newly
made elements. The internegative
otherwise doesn’t offer any additional archival stability (it and the IP would
both be the same stock, 3242), and no other prints are needed at this time. Louis isn’t really focused on circulating
16mm prints of his older works, so the three new prints made seem like enough
for now. If additional prints are needed
down the line, a new internegative will be made from the interpositive, to
avoid over-printing the original internegative (which is now, practically
speaking, the original).</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-71809641498003358072012-06-08T12:52:00.000-07:002017-07-25T19:10:16.911-07:00Neuron (1972) by Robert Russett<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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NEURON (1972)</div>
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<i>A quick update (9/3/2013) - since I now have a couple of stills of the film, I thought I'd add them to the post, though I'll leave the photos from Robert's book (below), as they give a better sense of what happens in the film on a frame-by-frame basis.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJfoMxBz2B8o76eWmITUB-x8lLG4eeBAdm_LeJ6JnTmMRmS2YDn4KYwv6KrV81l4fcYmuJCV6XefoYOgCrTzghtEYrDJv0g6aaYmNROu2-CWjb5mIUAdGvb-qPMQlO1nBvrqN15mQqWCOz/s1600/NEURON01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJfoMxBz2B8o76eWmITUB-x8lLG4eeBAdm_LeJ6JnTmMRmS2YDn4KYwv6KrV81l4fcYmuJCV6XefoYOgCrTzghtEYrDJv0g6aaYmNROu2-CWjb5mIUAdGvb-qPMQlO1nBvrqN15mQqWCOz/s320/NEURON01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jnFi9rraNC1vn-uh0MgN9G5p5JXYK4XfrAhtm9N3172XOw7ZHmX13yELpPJ3jjPMsq_0s7Xm6GDvBYKueup4pxSgI33x_joiRto14z5WWmLJvnBEaAfcfZplZH64m3JThHf4sWonEfJY/s1600/NEURON02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7jnFi9rraNC1vn-uh0MgN9G5p5JXYK4XfrAhtm9N3172XOw7ZHmX13yELpPJ3jjPMsq_0s7Xm6GDvBYKueup4pxSgI33x_joiRto14z5WWmLJvnBEaAfcfZplZH64m3JThHf4sWonEfJY/s320/NEURON02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<o:p>Sorry I don't have proper stills of the film handy - instead, here are a few photos of film strips taken from Robert Russett's book, Robert Russett: A Retrospective Survey:</o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpPvAA_7lGuv3EsJf42uzMeZvDQexoX5lFy0C52yhyphenhyphenDbdvTVkL6woYmESAmX9V_r_sol7mrqR2u6VzGzL9MvxmoNJp9cZso5ZO1DQ4Ehqa1Y0sHAiZ_O8FiW882nFAwQ1frmnVjVSGWVO/s1600/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpPvAA_7lGuv3EsJf42uzMeZvDQexoX5lFy0C52yhyphenhyphenDbdvTVkL6woYmESAmX9V_r_sol7mrqR2u6VzGzL9MvxmoNJp9cZso5ZO1DQ4Ehqa1Y0sHAiZ_O8FiW882nFAwQ1frmnVjVSGWVO/s320/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGuq2ibEOmKVL1086YedcJTYsN2bZjLokYdW9_6wbsWzPaOzOV3AoenhgSynM7gxsK_0ABBzjXeB4LNAxyM9x4CS1Bl9UWhurqVU59I0Fg5XSNz6tKFD6W9RkmC34tfQqfhyphenhyphenZndQpQoa57/s1600/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGuq2ibEOmKVL1086YedcJTYsN2bZjLokYdW9_6wbsWzPaOzOV3AoenhgSynM7gxsK_0ABBzjXeB4LNAxyM9x4CS1Bl9UWhurqVU59I0Fg5XSNz6tKFD6W9RkmC34tfQqfhyphenhyphenZndQpQoa57/s320/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+002.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlULC4JarYedMFkP2amWtC17emPLu6CnmAUDuaiQrZt-b3WpdDsH4C7v2Oxx7JkCKlcy1jSY-qTLGkm4DC42v_eX4x2pMlKCVhTYsAr6J8mDkizhDd7AI32-2BzjB-K8HLUA3XCOKOgYF/s1600/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlULC4JarYedMFkP2amWtC17emPLu6CnmAUDuaiQrZt-b3WpdDsH4C7v2Oxx7JkCKlcy1jSY-qTLGkm4DC42v_eX4x2pMlKCVhTYsAr6J8mDkizhDd7AI32-2BzjB-K8HLUA3XCOKOgYF/s320/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8zv198q3K1GfgncuHne-4EoPVCwEZLgydt0YB2ypgXaAw8XIbk792FbqbEpI7lFtYjYw6uNip9tXxcQPa0whWwsNovukcYREswF_DtpMSkAX-2d1FbtBOMqdYcTPAQw-RMs-PK4lvRcO/s1600/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8zv198q3K1GfgncuHne-4EoPVCwEZLgydt0YB2ypgXaAw8XIbk792FbqbEpI7lFtYjYw6uNip9tXxcQPa0whWwsNovukcYREswF_DtpMSkAX-2d1FbtBOMqdYcTPAQw-RMs-PK4lvRcO/s320/RobertRussett-NeuronFromBook+004.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I have to thank the wonderful Michelle Puetz for turning
me onto Robert Russett’s films. Her
enthusiasm for them really encouraged me to seek them (and him) out, eventually
bringing his collection to the film archive in 2011 after a couple of years of
correspondence and discussion.</div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0x2PBfqqoW8kxpbMMCHodWyJu1gbp_c28Dj0DIPg_pjhsY4hFag0X3Rh8TTLKqERrGDkrUKy8hObgo1bq-7gtXlRApRxOYazKYL3wVjOvmae61f9xrx3qwiWVygfgkIPn3_CJ_C76JkII/s1600/QQQW+607.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0x2PBfqqoW8kxpbMMCHodWyJu1gbp_c28Dj0DIPg_pjhsY4hFag0X3Rh8TTLKqERrGDkrUKy8hObgo1bq-7gtXlRApRxOYazKYL3wVjOvmae61f9xrx3qwiWVygfgkIPn3_CJ_C76JkII/s320/QQQW+607.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Various originals for the films of Robert Russett as they arrived in 2011.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Robert has been based in Louisiana for decades, making (I
believe) just about all of his films there.
Though stylistically diverse, and employing a number of different aesthetic
styles and techniques, there’s a consistency of vision which is really deeply
intelligent, and even, I would say, startling.
His abstract works (<i><b>Brain Field, Primary Stimulus, Neuron</b></i>, etc.) are
intense and powerful, and employ unusual visual motifs and techniques to investigate
(I would NOT say “play with”) the deeper recesses of perception and cognition. The rephotography-based films (<b><i>Aprés-Midi, L’Acadie</i></b>,
etc.) are lyrical, but dark and searching, unsettling and elegiac.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
All of Robert’s films were made in reversal. With a few early exceptions, his color films
were all made in Ektachrome, and usually printed on Ektachrome print stocks (primarily
7390). The use of Ektachrome over
Kodachrome (in both shooting and printing) gave somewhat less saturated, more
delicate results, which Robert favored.
Early attempts at making internegatives for the films failed as well,
giving results that Robert felt simply didn’t capture the intended look of the
films at all, particularly with the rephotography pieces.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
With improvements in Kodak’s internegative and print
stocks since the 1970s, and particularly with the high quality lab work
available at specialty labs like Colorlab (where I’m working on <b><i>Neuron</i></b>), I was
pretty confident we could get results with new internegatives that Robert would
be happy with. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As of this writing, the work on <b><i>Neuron </i></b>is nearly done,
but still in progress. Colorlab should
be sending me a print the week of June 11th.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The film, which is about six minutes long, is made up of
two halves, more or less. The first half
is black and white, shot on Tri-X, the second half is a color articulation of
some of the motifs introduced in the first half. Robert may correct me, but it looked to me to
be on 7389 Ektachrome print stock, possibly printed via some multi-part color
additive process. The imagery of the
film consists of different ‘windows’ containing what could perhaps be described
as op art patterns, which move and transform rapidly, with recurring flicker
patterns. The soundtrack is a
repetitive, insistent, ratchety sound which crackles with nervous, propulsive
energy.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The original for the film is cut into a single printing
roll, an A-roll only, and is in great condition, with no damage. The color half has some very mild color
shifting, but nothing we can’t fix in timing.
The goal in printing the picture is to get the black and white to look
as black and white as possible on the color print stock, as well as match the
colors as well as possible to the extant Ektachrome prints. After I get an approved print, it’ll go to
Robert as well, for his evaluation.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Although the picture presents some minor challenges, the
sound is really where this project gets unique.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As I mentioned above, the soundtrack contains a repetitive
motif which is (as far as I can tell) consistent and unchanging for the
duration of the film. The original sound
elements I received from Robert were an original 1/4” tape, a 16mm fullcoat mag
track, conformed to the original, and an optical track negative.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
All contained the same recorded content, but the optical
track differed in one regard that brought the sound restoration of the film
into the realm of the unusual.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Here’s a picture taken of the original track negative, in
a section at the climax of the film, near its very end:</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-MyOlS5sNGhwwTehw0n5yQgM9UXHrUnzdhnGSrWj3OTOvKy41Ee31hZ0ODc7-eXyNayxbdCOZlcEDpoxF__skt_HLS5ToIF_lJIGIwGf3rS2b8jlrxt8fW-hcLxfUeO7N3uhr5X-TmRc/s1600/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD-MyOlS5sNGhwwTehw0n5yQgM9UXHrUnzdhnGSrWj3OTOvKy41Ee31hZ0ODc7-eXyNayxbdCOZlcEDpoxF__skt_HLS5ToIF_lJIGIwGf3rS2b8jlrxt8fW-hcLxfUeO7N3uhr5X-TmRc/s320/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+004.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As would be the standard thing to do, the track negative
was shot from the conformed 16mm mag, and contains the same audio content. However, in the course of finishing the film,
Robert decided the track needed a little extra element near the very end of the
film, to amp things up at that moment and heighten the film’s intensity. Having at least some interest already in
experiments in graphical, synthetic sound (taken to a fantastic level with his
1977 film <b><i>Primary Stimulus</i></b>), Robert decided to add these adhesive line patterns
– 28 little pieces of them in all – directly to the track negative itself. The result is that all prints of the film
made from that track negative would have these line patterns printed in, which,
when shown on a projector, emit a rapid beeping sound at the film’s climax, on
top of the existing recorded track.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Although it would perhaps be a bit easier in doing the
film’s sound restoration, to re-recorded the sound from this track negative and
create a restored track with those beeps built in, to create a “fool proof”
version of the film’s soundtrack, I felt that this would be a conceptually
impure approach. The graphical,
synthetic, NON-recorded element of the track would be lost, the evidence of
this technique and conceptual approach would be absorbed and normalized,
neutralized in the film’s reprinting. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Thankfully, when Robert sent his originals to the
archive, the elements for <b><i>Neuron </i></b>came with the following envelope: </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHLQ4bPycDryvVg701gtw71TMMtFpAepRY_ryt2JvEIniA4CwvSd99v15rV_df7KQCoxjhLa_ceuJjT2Yih4nOR6kHmhu_QHP069HuRdyFDCmKWSDEvn1yvVgVg0JsvPAwbW_vNJ3jt4F/s1600/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKHLQ4bPycDryvVg701gtw71TMMtFpAepRY_ryt2JvEIniA4CwvSd99v15rV_df7KQCoxjhLa_ceuJjT2Yih4nOR6kHmhu_QHP069HuRdyFDCmKWSDEvn1yvVgVg0JsvPAwbW_vNJ3jt4F/s320/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+006.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZfvYiTnbt8nExnPTOj0qd_H_AKvyLuYbZssFnUZtgGC1vCCwYQERAHJ_Rol4cgHaY0a6gXQJVHUafnfGGx302h9A73I6-n0Q4yAmhsLsvRjUAJ36z9VJ2iCHR2lcfcyBR0XAka6XsNq1f/s1600/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZfvYiTnbt8nExnPTOj0qd_H_AKvyLuYbZssFnUZtgGC1vCCwYQERAHJ_Rol4cgHaY0a6gXQJVHUafnfGGx302h9A73I6-n0Q4yAmhsLsvRjUAJ36z9VJ2iCHR2lcfcyBR0XAka6XsNq1f/s320/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As long as these adhesive patterns still had their
stickiness, I knew I’d be able to recreate the process that Robert had first performed
40 years before. (In case anyone’s
wondering why I didn’t just use Robert’s existing track negative to make new
prints, it’s because the original track negative is B-wind, for printing with
the original, whereas I needed an A-wind track negative, for printing with the
new internegative.)</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Backing up a bit, the sound restoration was done by
transferring the original 16mm mag, checking it against a transfer of a vintage
print to make sure it synched exactly (which it did), then performing only a
little EQ and fixing a few dropouts that had developed in the mag over time. Then a new A-wind track negative was made for
printing with the internegative. A 35mm
preservation mag and digital backups were made as well, on which we also
included the transfer of the reference print, just in case.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
With the new track negative and an envelope of sticky
adhesive line pattern bits on the bench, I lined up Robert’s original track
negative and the new track negative exactly, and marked off the areas I’d need
to apply the patterns on the new track. I
tested one of the sticky patterns on another piece of film, and it stuck fine,
so I proceeded to stick them onto the new track negative like so:</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhgDoaxjaZLdPtvqYaG8XymilYRlSRAhTuimxcDA5vLdOPXn3_dbReBv_bIvxtkRuWy1xg4uZyyrDK7uEgTr9jg_4xZICpeqJME2rQWmWqgwjrVJO3wLci-n4DdsxmKI6QglsrV-WiRMo/s1600/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhgDoaxjaZLdPtvqYaG8XymilYRlSRAhTuimxcDA5vLdOPXn3_dbReBv_bIvxtkRuWy1xg4uZyyrDK7uEgTr9jg_4xZICpeqJME2rQWmWqgwjrVJO3wLci-n4DdsxmKI6QglsrV-WiRMo/s320/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHrBTsQHDkyjB9_RkopCfkc-6pym440NvLJxd8JJ7TcaFYCZi6Kl7Vvpfg7HHZ7aIBSjU5nd5pXD3Z-URAW26WIE2wPiIvDGtehMqkdJNfw5mW95SmJK1nEQiNzk9CD0Q93SCMHPmzJjO7/s1600/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHrBTsQHDkyjB9_RkopCfkc-6pym440NvLJxd8JJ7TcaFYCZi6Kl7Vvpfg7HHZ7aIBSjU5nd5pXD3Z-URAW26WIE2wPiIvDGtehMqkdJNfw5mW95SmJK1nEQiNzk9CD0Q93SCMHPmzJjO7/s320/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasN6jFCGGNVV2Ft3KvBFJeKuJBUHIX2m0lG4MvyzZMG58E1wJ8wfAhILChx2ElJH_pO-WY5BfF_Vkozb6ohPEV1Ynhqk1wqwv2j_0x1fvBiPNAUpiIEzxj9tdY51Wzrf3BTMY_ljFSQQ1/s1600/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasN6jFCGGNVV2Ft3KvBFJeKuJBUHIX2m0lG4MvyzZMG58E1wJ8wfAhILChx2ElJH_pO-WY5BfF_Vkozb6ohPEV1Ynhqk1wqwv2j_0x1fvBiPNAUpiIEzxj9tdY51Wzrf3BTMY_ljFSQQ1/s320/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlFSrZ22sMMtHYknAaXEH4Vn7smtQHCX8NTnLh4FazxoOQftYsYgGDUtP3XENN23g4_FmEpeSIRXvj7ETpLCtGMJUpfrdLVEX_MsyCLi8SuamK9XNIqB0-0OqXFPC_LGddFCGhZQJ6CiC/s1600/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVlFSrZ22sMMtHYknAaXEH4Vn7smtQHCX8NTnLh4FazxoOQftYsYgGDUtP3XENN23g4_FmEpeSIRXvj7ETpLCtGMJUpfrdLVEX_MsyCLi8SuamK9XNIqB0-0OqXFPC_LGddFCGhZQJ6CiC/s320/RobertRussett-Neuron-TrackRestoration+013.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
28 stickers later, I cleaned the track up with a little
bit of film cleaner, let the whole thing sit for a bit, then rewound it and
sent it to Colorlab for printing.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-39697488920925631682012-06-07T15:52:00.003-07:002017-07-25T19:10:25.937-07:00Taking requests.<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">PRESERVATION INSANITY has moved! <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">Please visit its new location at (and reset your bookmarks to):<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: red;"><b><a href="https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/">https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/</a></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After some delay (with no good excuse), I present here a list of films I've been working on preserving/restoring over the past year or two. A lot of these are finished, but a number of them are still in progress, some further along than others. Feel free to make requests on any specific film you'd like me to write about, and I'll do my best to do so. In the interests of me not being overwhelmed, please limit your requests to no more than, say, two titles. </span>
Some projects can be summarized really easily and briefly, some are a lot more involved. <span style="font-family: inherit;">And although I did go over this list pretty closely to make sure they're all things I would/can write about, I reserve the right to change my mind about writing on certain films. Just leave your requests in the comments!</span><br />
<div>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES (Stan Brakhage,
1971)</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ANGIE (ADAM BECKETT FX ROLL) (Adam Beckett/Deirdre
Cowden, 1976)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ANSELMO (Chick Strand, 1967)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT (Stan Brakhage, 1958)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ASPARAGUS (Suzan Pitt, 1979)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE ASSIGNATION (Curtis Harrington, 1953)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BABOBILICONS (Daina Krumins, 1982)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN (Scott Stark, 1997)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BACKGROUND (Carmen D’Avino, 1973)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BATH (Penelope Spheeris, 1969)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE BEARD (Robert Nelson, 1967)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BOOK OF DEAD (Victor Faccinto, 1978)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">BY THE LAKE (Chick Strand, 1986)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CATFILM FOR KATY & CYNNIE (Standish Lawder, 1973)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CHOPPERS (Chris Langdon, ca.1976)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">COLOR FRAGMENTS (Elwood Decker, 1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">COLORFILM (Ben Van Meter, 1965)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CRYSTALS (Elwood Decker, 1951)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CUE ROLLS (Morgan Fisher, 1974)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE DEAD (Stan Brakhage, 1960)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">DEUS EX (Stan Brakhage, 1971)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE DIVINE MIRACLE (Daina Krumins, 1973)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE DOODLERS (Kathy Rose, 1975)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ECLIPSE PREDICTIONS (Diana Wilson, 1982)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">EXPERIMENTS IN MOTION GRAPHICS (John Whitney, 1967-68)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">EYES (Stan Brakhage, 1971)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE FIVE BAD ELEMENTS (Mark LaPore, 1997)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">FURIES (Sara Petty, 1977)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">GRATUITOUS FACTS (Tom Leeser, 1981)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE GREAT SADNESS OF ZOHARA (Nina Menkes, 1983)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">HATS OFF TO HOLLYWOOD (Penelope Spheeris, 1972)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE HOG FARM MOVIE (David Lebrun, 1970)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I DON’T KNOW (Penelope Spheeris, 1970)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">INTEGRATOR (Richard Taylor, 1966)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">INTERVIEW WITH AN ARTIST (Chris Langdon, 1975)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">LATER THAT SAME NIGHT (Will Hindle, 1971)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">LIGHT MODULATORS (Elwood Decker, 1948)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">LOUD VISUAL NOISES (silent version) (Stan Brakhage, 1987)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">LOUD VISUAL NOISES (sound version) (Stan Brakhage, 1987)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">LOVING (Stan Brakhage, 1957)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">MADAME MAO’S LOST LOVE LETTERS (Tom Leeser & Diana
Wilson, 1983)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">MAGDALENA VIRAGA (Nina Menkes, 1986)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">MANZANAR (Robert Nakamura, 1971)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ME & BRUCE & ART (Ben Van Meter, 1968)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">MICRO 2 (Elwood Decker, 1952)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">MOVIE STILLS (J.J. Murphy, 1978)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">NEURON (Robert Russett, 1972)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">NOW PLAYING (Susan Rosenfeld, 1983)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">NOW THAT THE BUFFALO’S GONE (Burton C. Gershfield, 1967)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">OLDS-MO-BILE (Ben Van Meter, 1965)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">OMEGA (Donald Fox, 1970)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">OPPOSING VIEWS (Tom Leeser, 1980)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS PART I: ENTRANCE ENTRANCE (Chris
Regan, 1976)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS PART IV: EXIT (Chris Regan,
ca.1980)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PASSAGE THROUGH: A RITUAL (Stan Brakhage, 1990)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PASTORALE D’ÉTÉ (Will Hindle, 1959)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PENCIL BOOKLINGS (Kathy Rose, 1978)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PHOTOGRAMMETRY SERIES (Louis Hock, 1977)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PICTURE AND SOUND RUSHES (Morgan Fisher, 1973)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PICTURE WITHOUT SOUND (Susan Rosenfeld, 1976)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PRELUDE (Curtis Opliger, 1950)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PRINT GENERATION (J.J. Murphy, 1974)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PROGETTI (Paul Bartel, 1962)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">REFLECTIONS ON BLACK (Stan Brakhage, 1955)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">RENEE WALKING/TV TALKING (Tom Leeser, 1980)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">THE ROCKING CHAIR FILM (Mike Henderson, ca.1972)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM (Warren Haack, 1970)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SEÑORA CON FLORES / WOMAN WITH FLOWERS (Chick Strand,
1995/2011)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SHIT (Penelope Spheeris, 1969)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SHOPPERS MARKET (John Vicario, 1963)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SILENT REVERSAL (Louis Hock, 1972)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SIRIUS REMEMBERED (Stan Brakhage, 1959)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SOFT FICTION (Chick Strand, 1979)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SOME DON’T (Ben Van Meter, 1964)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SOPHISTICATED VAMP (Lynn Fayman, 1958)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">STILL LIVES (Louis Hock, 1975)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">STUDIES IN CHRONOVISION (Louis Hock, 1975)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">SYNTHESIS (Penelope Spheeris, 1968)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">THIS IS THE BRAIN OF OTIS CRAWFIELD (Chris Langdon, 1973)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">UNDER THE JUGGERNAUT (Robert Russett, 1969)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">VERY & NIGHT MULCH (Stan Brakhage, 2001)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WAR IS HELL (Robert Nelson & William Allan, 1968)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WAR ZONE (Neon Park, 1971)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WHITNEY BROTHERS – 1ST HOME MOVIE / THREE UNTITLED FILMS
(John & James Whitney, 1941)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WHY MAN CREATES (Saul Bass, 1968)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WILDWOOD FLOWER (A.K. Dewdney, 1971)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING (Stan Brakhage, 1959)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">WONG SINSAANG (Eddie Wong, 1971)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">YIN HSIEN (Michael Whitney, 1976)</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-40148159068752000892012-03-19T20:28:00.005-07:002017-07-25T19:10:34.788-07:00A million projects.<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">I'm working on a million preservation/restoration projects right now, the vast majority of which are independent/experimental/artists' films. I was thinking of posting a list of a bunch of them here, and having folks who are interested pick a couple of titles that interest them, and I'll write a blog post about what's going on with those specific projects, archivally speaking. I would probably throw in some production info on the films too, in cases where I have info worth repeating.</span></div>
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So hopefully this would not only be of potential interest to fans of this sort of thing, but also would give me "homework", which I think would compel me to be a bit better about writing out descriptions of each project, something I'm a bit behind on at that moment.</div>
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What do you think? I'd have to limit it, though. Can't write on a ton of 'em! Some will be very basic, some will be very elaborate. Comments?</div>
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<span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">In the meantime, here's a picture of the inside of a can that contained a print of </span><i><b>Confrontation at Kent State</b></i> (1970) by Richard Myers et al.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_M0UOENdB3Xs5hr4hLhss0INOLkSbWJy9OpQcbDrT9DXWdqaIEh1KSNIin6LEv9za48v9AoakJTfBeiMiph4wuKik0xgtUcXkdD0Sj_BEt5ccusUDpmZfs7bPkFUtYLm9Dyu2JfmVqs9u/s1600/Confrontation+Kent+State+can+03.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721818953397249122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_M0UOENdB3Xs5hr4hLhss0INOLkSbWJy9OpQcbDrT9DXWdqaIEh1KSNIin6LEv9za48v9AoakJTfBeiMiph4wuKik0xgtUcXkdD0Sj_BEt5ccusUDpmZfs7bPkFUtYLm9Dyu2JfmVqs9u/s320/Confrontation+Kent+State+can+03.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-20024554887967626252012-02-24T12:41:00.044-08:002017-07-25T19:10:51.486-07:00Stan Brakhage's Two Negatives.<div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXoVfXjTm833VwIXJWDjpoiZflsoojU7_yxcxkE4jLstLz6_am2g8rVuqHB6mYnTOss7HZJzKOvDI67ISxvbT8fF_oDLADvq8BKfYwy-b62U4BRxU457RcJSQ6M0GM3Bqy-vyV8MtX7Czr/s1600/Max-originalcan.jpg" style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712805613265059570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXoVfXjTm833VwIXJWDjpoiZflsoojU7_yxcxkE4jLstLz6_am2g8rVuqHB6mYnTOss7HZJzKOvDI67ISxvbT8fF_oDLADvq8BKfYwy-b62U4BRxU457RcJSQ6M0GM3Bqy-vyV8MtX7Czr/s320/Max-originalcan.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></span></div>
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Here's a picture of the can that contained the original negative for Stan Brakhage's late film <i><b>Max</b></i> (2002), a loving portrait of the family cat. It's a lovely film, but it's fair to say that it's not necessarily a particularly well-known or widely acclaimed work from Stan. But what does make it particularly significant is that it is one of only two films that Stan ever shot and finished on negative, and the ONLY film he ever shot and finished on color negative.</div>
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For anyone reading who may not be familiar with film stocks and their history, it was far more common for 16mm independent/experimental filmmakers to shoot and finish in reversal film than in negative film until about the 1980s. Reversal film essentially refers to film that, when shot and processed, yields a positive (rather than negative) image. The earliest 16mm film stocks (beginning in 1923) were reversal, as they were primarily designed for amateur use - the filmmaker would shoot a movie, process the film, and then be able to project the original directly.</div>
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Kodak's first widely marketed color film, Kodachrome, was also reversal, as was its later counterpart, Ektachrome. In fact, if my research serves me right, Kodak didn't even offer a color negative camera stock for general sale in 16mm until 1963-64 (though 16mm black and white negative existed for quite some time before this). Even after this, so-called experimental filmmakers didn't very commonly use 16mm color negative, likely for a few reasons. </div>
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It was, at the time, more expensive. There were also, at the time, many more film stock options in reversal than in negative. There were even three different reversal print stocks co-existing throughout the 1970s. It was also harder to edit for filmmakers who did their own cutting - one would likely have to edit a workprint and then match the negative to the workprint, and for some, I imagine the abstraction of the negative image was not as intuitive to work with. Finally, it could also be that negative stocks' tendencies to be more easily scratched and dirtied, and the increased and potentially distracting visibility of negative dirt and damage (appearing as white rather than black in a projection print) may have dissuaded some from working with it. </div>
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Two of the very few experimental filmmakers I can think of that shot color negative as early as the late 1960s/early 1970s are Morgan Fisher (<b><i>Documentary Footage</i></b>, 1968), Chris Langdon (<b><i>Bondage Girl</i></b>, 1973; <b><i>Love Hospital Trailer</i></b>, 1975).</div>
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From my work on Stan Brakhage's films, it's quite clear that Stan seemed to strive for prints that mirrored his cut original. In other words, he wanted the projection prints to look as closely like his originals as possible - what he saw in editing was what he wanted to get on screen. Stan also famously eschewed workprints in any form, preferring to directly cut his originals, considering the idea of cutting a workprint and then slavishly matching the original to it to be more or less impossible for him - "...my nature is such that when I got to the original I would not be able to just match edge numbers, I would make another whole film." (Q&A at Millennium, 2/19/1972)</div>
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Working in negative was counterintuitive to this editing approach. However, he did shoot and cut one early film on black and white negative: <b><i>Day Break and White Eye</i></b>, from 1957, a transitional sound film that, though very interesting, doesn't screen very much. (Commonly listed in print as "Daybreak and Whiteye", the title as I've written it initially here is how it actually appears on screen.)</div>
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<b><i>Day Break and White Eye</i></b> actually has quite a bit of cutting in it, all done to the original b/w negative, from which prints were then made. By contrast, <b><i>Max </i></b>consists of a single, uncut, 7279 500T camera negative roll, with b/w titles spliced to the beginning and end.</div>
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(I should mention here that although Stan only shot and finished two of his films on negative, a lot of the originals for his optically printed painted films are color negatives, such as <b style="font-style: italic;">Chartres Series</b> (1994), <b><i>Stellar</i></b> (1993), or <b><i>Black Ice</i></b> (1994), among dozens of others. However, these optically conformed negatives were entirely the result of optical printing work from original painted film, undertaken by Sam Bush at Western Cinema Lab according to Stan's instructions. Later painted films made following Sam's departure from the lab were printed to Kodachrome by Mary Beth Reed, Phil Solomon, or Stan himself, as with <b><i>Preludes 1-6</i></b> (1996), <b><i>Micro-Garden</i></b> (2001), or <b><i>Lovesong 5 & Lovesong 6</i></b> (2001).)</div>
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None of this is to say that Stan only shot 16mm negative on these two occasions. As far back as the 1960s, he began to periodically shoot or print onto color negative, to be used in either of two different ways. In some cases, the negative would be incorporated into a positive original as-is, i.e. as an orange-masked, color negative image treated as positive, as with films like <b><i>Scenes From Under Childhood</i></b> (1967) and the <b><i>Sincerity </i></b>films (1973-80). Sometimes the negative would be printed, and the resulting print would be cut into the originals, sometimes alongside its negative counterpart (as in <b><i>The Process</i></b> (1972), <b><i>Tortured Dust</i></b> (1984), and <b><i>Agnus Dei Kinder Synapse</i></b> (1991)).</div>
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In the late 1980s, as the range of reversal stocks diminished and fewer labs could process and print them, Stan began to shoot quite a bit of color negative. However, rather than shoot negative and cut and finish on negative, he would instead shoot negative, print it, and then use this print as his original. The color print would be treated in the same way as reversal, as a positive original which Stan would edit and complete in positive. The lab would then make an internegative from this cut original so that prints could be struck.</div>
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The originals for quite a few films from this period incorporate color print this way (usually 7384 and 7386 print stocks). Some films are entirely or nearly entirely color print originals, such as <b><i>The Thatch of Night</i></b> (1990), <b><i>Visions in Meditation #1</i></b> (1989), <b><i>Boulder Blues and Pearls And...</i></b> (1993), and <b><i>Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse</i></b> (1991). Other films incorporate a diverse mix of color print, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and other stocks, such as <b style="font-style: italic;">Visions in Meditation #2 </b>(1989), <b><i>The Mammals of Victoria</i></b> (1994), and <b><i>The Cat of the Worm's Green Realm</i></b> (1997).</div>
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One interesting by-product of this filmmaking approach is the increased presence of both positive and negative dirt/damage in the films that incorporate color print stock. As Stan used what was most likely just dry-gate dailies in his editing of color print, there is usually some noticeable negative dirt printed into the color positive stock. Additionally, while Ektachrome and especially Kodachrome were fairly resilient to scratching during his editing process, the color print stock was softer and more susceptible to damage, so (usually) green and yellow emulsion marks and scratches are often visible in these films. If you have volume 2 of Criterion's 'by Brakhage' DVD series, you can spot these qualities in some of the aforementioned films.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEOyyWWQY9nw7RkWPKRdW_pXC8l7YMrtmOEkz8_u1nkO7TRzJW_tUX9DmO3WryUAWrPP2gTQTZZixIUn0escYeN4UNBEk2jAFB7trDbS6x7of00DUPvsRtCew73dDtAzOrTIwnE8rKSCus/s1600/TorturedDust-Part2-original+tagged.jpg" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712919194821174098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEOyyWWQY9nw7RkWPKRdW_pXC8l7YMrtmOEkz8_u1nkO7TRzJW_tUX9DmO3WryUAWrPP2gTQTZZixIUn0escYeN4UNBEk2jAFB7trDbS6x7of00DUPvsRtCew73dDtAzOrTIwnE8rKSCus/s320/TorturedDust-Part2-original+tagged.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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Original picture roll for <b><i>Tortured Dust</i></b> (part 2) (1984), showing (L-to-R) one frame of Kodachrome, two frames of faded color print, three frames of color negative. Also on display here is Stan's signature technique of splicing in 2 frames of black leader at every single cut of a film.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-82575831700651087512012-01-10T18:05:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:11:01.154-07:00Goodbye, Bob.<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianMUPp8RYdPRYxkU29uNpROnf9HoS-JSejhycFO-xjOTLCybmhRzmyomCrSM-GGxY-fAuHcABdQwgMtDi6c7cvxFgOA00GYfTPhwXJNCFbfCecq_NWLmlVFS26x3PrBSw8z3hGbQhBVSG/s1600/PlasticHaircut-RN.jpg" style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696190210246671202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianMUPp8RYdPRYxkU29uNpROnf9HoS-JSejhycFO-xjOTLCybmhRzmyomCrSM-GGxY-fAuHcABdQwgMtDi6c7cvxFgOA00GYfTPhwXJNCFbfCecq_NWLmlVFS26x3PrBSw8z3hGbQhBVSG/s320/PlasticHaircut-RN.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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Robert Nelson (1930-2012)</div>
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Can't really express at all how very sad I am to report that Robert Nelson has died. He was 81. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer about a year ago, and had decided to not receive treatment, to go out in his own way, as he could only do, as Chick Strand had decided to do before him.</div>
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All things considered, Bob was doing pretty well all year, actually. He had moments, sometimes days, of fatigue and feeling kind of lousy, but had plenty of good days too. I last spoke to him about a week ago and we talked about meeting up soon. He sounded great, and was as sharp as ever. So when I got the call from Wiley today, the news was a bit of a shock to me, as Bob had still seemed so vital and alive a week before.</div>
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He hadn’t been taking any medication or treatment beyond the herbal kind, and had continued to live on his own in the mountains in the small house he built in gorgeous Mendocino County. An inimitably homespun and offhand philosopher, he would say things to me like, “what the hell, I’ve had a good run.” I made him some CDs to check out a few months ago, and after he’d listened to and enjoyed them a few times he unexpectedly sent them back, saying “they were really good, I just don’t want to accumulate any more shit.”</div>
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Bob has easily been one of the most important people in my life, a massive source of influence, inspiration, support, friendship, and good company for the past ten years. His films are still huge for me. and will be til I die. </div>
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I sought him out in 2001 when I worked at Canyon Cinema. I had seen Bleu Shut and Hot Leatherette, and they had both knocked me out, especially Bleu Shut. At the time, my friend Martha was a preservationist at the Academy Film Archive in L.A., and she and I concocted a proposal for Bob and the Academy to start getting his filmography preserved, film by film. After he answered my initial letter, Bob and I had exchanged a few more letters (he was a great letter-writer) without yet meeting. One day without warning, he just strolled into the Canyon office on Third. Dominic hadn’t seen him in a few years at least, and said, almost in shock, “…Well hi, Bob!” Bob and I met, had lunch and talked about the archiving thing, and a deal was hatched. He was still very skeptical about the value of his work and his own desire for people to even see the films, but a project at the Academy was worked out, and Martha preserved The Off-Handed Jape and Deep Westurn right away, with Bob still not really wanting the films to see the light of day. I took over when I was hired to replace her in ’03, when she left to work in Tanzania, and have worked on a bunch of ‘em since then. </div>
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Over the years, a certain visceral block about his films, a desire to destroy many of them or at least keep them withdrawn from view, loosened and relented, in some cases title by title. I worked on him to do screenings, and though he wouldn’t initially appear in person, he approved the occasional showing of individual films starting in late 2003. In 2004, with Craig Baldwin’s help, we were able to do a 3-day retrospective at Other Cinema, with Bob in person, which marked a big change in his attitude about the work. The voluminous positive feedback from audiences I was able to pass on encouraged him more and more to lighten up about it all. He started making appearances, including some brilliant ones at Oberhausen, Vienna, and elsewhere. He even started working on several new films (left uncompleted) in 2007 or so, one of which was a collaboration we discussed at length, and which I hope I can actually complete now.</div>
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I was always thrilled to pass word along to him about how much one or more of his films had influenced someone I’d met, because by the 1990s, he had gotten really apathetic about a lot of them. But the interest in his films over the past ten years was something he really enjoyed, and he came around to re-embracing many of his own films. (Some of them remained to him nausea-inducing failures, though. Mention What Do You Talk About? or The Beard, and he would groan.) He was thrilled his work still resonated with people, or just made them laugh. Sometimes younger filmmakers would track him down and send him their work, and he always looked at it with a fresh, critical gaze, responding with his genuine and thoughtful reactions, which sometimes led to extended correspondences.</div>
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I always found him incredibly open, curious, wise, attentive, interested. He was just so fucking great to hang out with. How many people over 30 (let alone 80) still approach life, conversation, questions, EVERYTHING, with a completely open, curious mind, capable of considering and reconsidering, changing, reorienting…? Even in screening Q&As, when asked a question about Bleu Shut or Blondino that he’d probably been asked dozens of times before, he would seriously consider the question and try to give a unique, thoughtful answer. He was so full of consideration and wisdom, always gave me (and others) great advice. </div>
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So many filmmakers are filmmakers in some way or other because of Bob (among them Peter Hutton, Fred Worden, Chris Langdon, Curt McDowell, Mike Henderson, numerous others). Peter once told me that when he saw Bob’s films for the first time, his reaction was “wait, you can make movies like that?”, and started making films himself. David Wilson (of Museum of Jurassic Technology fame) was deeply inspired by The Awful Backlash, and wasn’t the only one to have that reaction. Bob named the classic film Near the Big Chakra, with his gift for evocative titles. Bob could also be burtally honest about someone’s work, because he felt a friend was due that honesty and respect, even if it cost him a few friendships. Bob was the person I was most nervous and yet most eager to show my own films, and his positive, thoughtful reactions meant something immeasurable to me, as did the criticism of one film of mine he thought was a stinker.</div>
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When an artist dies, the inevitable retrospectives follow. But that’s OK. Bob was happy to have his work rediscovered, and thrilled that anybody still found it entertaining, funny, enlightening, whatever. I already miss him deeply, but am excited that his films (and his spirit, a very palpable, inextricable part of them) are, and will continue to be, very much with us.</div>
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If anyone would like to send any thoughts, reminiscences, testimonials, etc. about Bob or his work to me, I’d be happy to share them with his family and friends.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKVQTzmx5UlKLHO1msK4MdYFEbu_oA8xpvnmyoXd1YVlyxiGpNxDYlDSJj9IsjgnmlG4dGDJQ8BNUAbEaRlE6CmNehv83qTTFjh3pm2Pty8rshp3efL5_5VuFnaUmI8Pru1I3ZMK1B1thG/s1600/Nelson_Robert.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696190502542495106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKVQTzmx5UlKLHO1msK4MdYFEbu_oA8xpvnmyoXd1YVlyxiGpNxDYlDSJj9IsjgnmlG4dGDJQ8BNUAbEaRlE6CmNehv83qTTFjh3pm2Pty8rshp3efL5_5VuFnaUmI8Pru1I3ZMK1B1thG/s320/Nelson_Robert.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 210px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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Bob Nelson, ca. mid-1960s</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizq4jhfhAc2NXhyuh4IV9H33VbcG2nOj4T4308SV3vaKT-hrhFJTtOBSTfC4HM8dDD5WSd1n08dSnspuqP8Tft4FnQDwy0PKBvKjB-WF7g4sobLZX4zzh_N9miqTEFvOcOFt3fKtYnDWkx/s1600/RobertNelsonInOberhausen.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696191121613113362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizq4jhfhAc2NXhyuh4IV9H33VbcG2nOj4T4308SV3vaKT-hrhFJTtOBSTfC4HM8dDD5WSd1n08dSnspuqP8Tft4FnQDwy0PKBvKjB-WF7g4sobLZX4zzh_N9miqTEFvOcOFt3fKtYnDWkx/s320/RobertNelsonInOberhausen.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 319px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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Bob Nelson in Oberhausen, 2006 (photo by Mark Toscano)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzhUWrep1myFDULAy43plBIHbK4XJU73ezTk8CqXvADvOSGNGiWCGK0jnQCp2-QZvZhyphenhyphenHh-kh1TiPeeuJuEeO4pAUEtj1QYug3sEsGd98ycahCHhrvhT5ZuJgKMhGnG-s8V12hYLVaoi8/s1600/Robert+Nelson+-+GreatBlondino-poster.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696191124143731970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzhUWrep1myFDULAy43plBIHbK4XJU73ezTk8CqXvADvOSGNGiWCGK0jnQCp2-QZvZhyphenhyphenHh-kh1TiPeeuJuEeO4pAUEtj1QYug3sEsGd98ycahCHhrvhT5ZuJgKMhGnG-s8V12hYLVaoi8/s320/Robert+Nelson+-+GreatBlondino-poster.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 259px;" /></a><br />
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Original poster for the premiere of <i>The Great Blondino</i> (1967)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhKya2pQmhHfo8LYBZ3z4mvNbh0yA8NYCD49C-SmeOdjCFt79KombKGvQoeSS4B43aFr1mXIokjD-CLjidIotQPF06cYAsl3szgc6KwOnqfVK76J2Cl_5Ey2LgV4404FGS7VgpObJjtJF/s1600/Robert+Nelson+-+TheOffHandedJape01.jpg" style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696191128645028642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhKya2pQmhHfo8LYBZ3z4mvNbh0yA8NYCD49C-SmeOdjCFt79KombKGvQoeSS4B43aFr1mXIokjD-CLjidIotQPF06cYAsl3szgc6KwOnqfVK76J2Cl_5Ey2LgV4404FGS7VgpObJjtJF/s320/Robert+Nelson+-+TheOffHandedJape01.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 143px;" /></a></div>
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Bob in <i>The Off-Handed Jape</i> (1967)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ8YnF9jcU2sh4btq7XtxNC0kaHeq2roaFmxChCoo_AJNE5UWfPo1C9R_ZQysuT4iQJim157uC-V35eqsICY65ft61qUVjAbjLltbZEk_D2lNo10BVxwuUqIVLwXhGYPilZMy0f1uZRy06/s1600/GreatBlondino-ProductionPhotoByJackFulton04.jpg" style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696191140093835650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ8YnF9jcU2sh4btq7XtxNC0kaHeq2roaFmxChCoo_AJNE5UWfPo1C9R_ZQysuT4iQJim157uC-V35eqsICY65ft61qUVjAbjLltbZEk_D2lNo10BVxwuUqIVLwXhGYPilZMy0f1uZRy06/s320/GreatBlondino-ProductionPhotoByJackFulton04.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 254px;" /></a></div>
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Shooting <i>The Great Blondino</i> (1967) in San Francisco. (Bob is on the left, Wiley on the right.)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqws7PKb3jF0pLw5LmXMsFNvsolZDSt51ruIiPoQm8HJtfp4agT1t0Wz0uAnmAr7Xe8OXyLlMRuNu7Kjz42b58Y0AKa4HH44dgqV_Q8pohY_EGS2IlSE__efe1hhRAiP-cr8sc6vwi1Olt/s1600/OhDemWatermelonsProductionStill01.jpg" style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696191148773168130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqws7PKb3jF0pLw5LmXMsFNvsolZDSt51ruIiPoQm8HJtfp4agT1t0Wz0uAnmAr7Xe8OXyLlMRuNu7Kjz42b58Y0AKa4HH44dgqV_Q8pohY_EGS2IlSE__efe1hhRAiP-cr8sc6vwi1Olt/s320/OhDemWatermelonsProductionStill01.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 229px;" /></a></div>
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Production still from <i>Oh Dem Watermelons</i> (1965)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTOkmteDlPxCNX8wwvYadApuWO3I2LcY4E_SHLhvfJiZSly5Oql4VeC9v2VvmMDA4zDr6Lh10BYj06mk1AIVkLzuToCpblqSQDdkayDMNUwQcXDI2BBkymbkEmUucyRECwnX_xQiv5gA9/s1600/BS01-1200.jpg" style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696191530347300450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvTOkmteDlPxCNX8wwvYadApuWO3I2LcY4E_SHLhvfJiZSly5Oql4VeC9v2VvmMDA4zDr6Lh10BYj06mk1AIVkLzuToCpblqSQDdkayDMNUwQcXDI2BBkymbkEmUucyRECwnX_xQiv5gA9/s320/BS01-1200.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 239px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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Bob in <i>Bleu Shut</i> (1970)</div>
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Still from <i>Hauling Toto Big</i> (1997)</div>
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Bob in Blondino costume in <i>The Great Blondino Preview</i> (1967)</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-17864997178932406022011-11-24T09:47:00.001-08:002017-07-25T19:11:11.901-07:00Will Hindle's Visual Cue Rolls<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7cp2Z3acAphclm__UpqEEGYE2sMEksBPesiAkF58X7xlrepSLwtin3BRXst7wSwNelmjavqJnBtcuJJXlIUfAJySx8-6Cr5c93U02yc3H7WmpHTGy2WRstxHqVyi6td2g9FN5xxVlLSfm/s1600/WatersmithCueRoll00.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678626628986672178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7cp2Z3acAphclm__UpqEEGYE2sMEksBPesiAkF58X7xlrepSLwtin3BRXst7wSwNelmjavqJnBtcuJJXlIUfAJySx8-6Cr5c93U02yc3H7WmpHTGy2WRstxHqVyi6td2g9FN5xxVlLSfm/s200/WatersmithCueRoll00.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
Happy Thanksgiving! Decided to write a quick(?) post before starting to peel potatoes.<br />
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When I started working at the film archive in 2003, one of the first filmmakers whose work I wanted to do something to preserve/restore was Will Hindle. Will died in 1987. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was easily one of the more influential and acclaimed experimental filmmakers working. Even his earliest films, like <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Pastorale d'ete</span> (1958)</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Non Catholicam</span> (1957-63/64)</span> had a huge influence on people like Bruce Baillie (who helped Will shoot <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Non Catholicam</span>). Stan Brakhage was a great friend and admirer. By all accounts, Will was a deeply intelligent, sensitive, and intense person and artist, who affected many he encountered over a few decades of existence on the independent film scene. Several of his 1970s/80s students I've spoken to have a profound connection to him, and count him as a chief influence in their lives. A much more extensive post should be written on Will, but I'll try to address that in the future.<br />
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One important thing to mention is that Will's films wouldn't have survived if it weren't for the incredible Shellie Fleming, who has not only been an exceptionally influential professor for many SAIC students over the years, but was also the person who really single-handedly saved and cared for what survived of Will's films for many years until she and I got in touch in 2003 to talk about preserving them. She has been an important inspiration to me as well.<br />
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A lot of pictures for today's post, all of a single object. One of Will's most complex films in terms of its visual choreography and editing, is <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Watersmith</span> (1969)</span>. Will clearly had an incredibly deep and perhaps even innate understanding of the possibilities of film printing. His editing and composition reflects this, and his most accomplished films, like <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Billabong</span> (1968)</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Chinese Firedrill</span> (1968)</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Watersmith</span> reflect a truly uncanny understanding of the remote capabilities of a film printer and the seemingly inconceivably rich ways in which that process could be manipulated and exploited.<br />
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In working with Will's surviving film materials, one method I've realized that he employed to visualize this process is that of the visual cue roll. Although I can imagine that other filmmakers must have used similar methods (perhaps Scott Bartlett or Tom DeWitt?), Will's visual cue rolls are the only ones I've personally encountered. At the archive, visual cue rolls for <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Billabong</span>, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Chinese Firedrill</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Watersmith</span> have all survived, and they're fascinating to wind through. Essentially, they function as a map to the printing of the film.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Watersmith</span></span> was constructed in 16mm reversal A/B/C rolls, meaning there were three full-length printing rolls which, when printed in succession onto the same receiving print stock, employing all the various effects/dissolves/etc Will charted, would create a complete print with all its desired effects, color timing, and so forth. Accompanying these actual printing rolls would be the visual cue roll. See the pictures below to get an idea of what I'm talking about. The visual cue roll is a roll of lightstruck leader, the kind of stuff you'd normally splice onto the head or tail of a film, for example. Will created a roll of leader that matched the printing rolls in length, with matching head and tail cue marks as well. Then, throughout the visual cue roll, he would make notations and labels in magic marker indicating the various effects, color timing requests, and other descriptions of how the A/B/C rolls should be printed by the lab (in this case, Deluxe Hollywood).<br />
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To me, this is a remarkable primary document, which not only illuminates Will's process itself, but expresses some of the complexity of his conception for his films as (if I could borrow the expression) sculptures in time. The interaction of layers, the procession of sequences in tandem and succession, are incredibly rich, often moving, highly intuitive yet inexplicable - in other words, Will's films often have the effect of hitting the viewer on both a gut and intellectual level without you knowing precisely why. I think his control of visual language, in both pure image/sound relationships and in the use of powerful narrative fragments and suggestions, is incredibly unique, and hopefully his work will experience some kind of rediscovery in the near future. I'm currently working on preserving a few of his films, and a few more are short on the heels of these. Unfortunately, the one film that perhaps suffers the most, archivally speaking, is <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Watersmith</span> itself. For while the visual cue roll survives in all of its suggestiveness, the original A/B/C rolls are lost.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYchF7NPi_Fluj6ycl_DBMD_fNsPyJJX-yJGxzX_MaNguujqo_LyhEdqxCcDLUXBZybYqQYYZemiOvvHkbJPReqm5DgQTbxm-2-zbGC0vnju6hFpQ7-Xqbk05dTcD215uyxUuzGyQnZZx/s1600/WatersmithCueRoll18.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678628377335360162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYchF7NPi_Fluj6ycl_DBMD_fNsPyJJX-yJGxzX_MaNguujqo_LyhEdqxCcDLUXBZybYqQYYZemiOvvHkbJPReqm5DgQTbxm-2-zbGC0vnju6hFpQ7-Xqbk05dTcD215uyxUuzGyQnZZx/s200/WatersmithCueRoll18.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-35422074316075776632011-09-22T16:04:00.000-07:002017-07-25T19:11:23.539-07:00I'm a bad blogger, but I'll try to be better.<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">PRESERVATION INSANITY has moved! <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">Please visit its new location at (and reset your bookmarks to):<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: red;"><b><a href="https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/">https://preservationinsanity.wordpress.com/</a></b></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpGkJJ8AbNZiftcBqzVw0MJc48-xLANJjP-bhFbnB7pFe7VmqNSFBxkFBcYCwORGPWbh9vgRB4e3c-vgSJmhNchoa-PN4hnvpPyK8B8pdZnGA2kKNmD-OmS88s386Zgq_5MpnkWa91VU9o/s1600/DeathOfTheGorilla04.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655324172671488050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpGkJJ8AbNZiftcBqzVw0MJc48-xLANJjP-bhFbnB7pFe7VmqNSFBxkFBcYCwORGPWbh9vgRB4e3c-vgSJmhNchoa-PN4hnvpPyK8B8pdZnGA2kKNmD-OmS88s386Zgq_5MpnkWa91VU9o/s200/DeathOfTheGorilla04.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 147px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; width: 200px;" /></a></div>
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Sometimes I update with reasonable regularity, then I'll go months with no sign of life. Sorry about that.<br />
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There has been so much going on for the past year in my film world/life that it's often hard to keep up. Between the ever-increasing volume of preservation and restoration work (not to mention all the filmmaker and lab interactions, inspections, inventory, and collection management that goes with it, and even further not to mention the horrendous amount of email I feel like I'm always drowning in), plus the huge amount of stuff I have going on with <a href="http://www.lafilmforum.org/">Los Angeles Filmforum</a>'s very exciting Alternative Projections project, it's been hard for me to make time to post thing here.</div>
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But I do definitely want to continue to be able to share the bizarre or interesting projects, findings, discoveries, etc. that I feel are a big part of my work, so I'll try update things a bit more regularly here. I just have to cultivate it as a habitual activity.</div>
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Above is a still from the incredible <b><i>The Death of the Gorilla</i></b> (1966), by the inimitable <a href="http://www.hallucinograms.com/">Peter Mays</a>. This is what you might call a local classic, in that it's known to the L.A. avant-garde community, and is a crucial part of L.A. avant-garde history, but it's been shamefully left out of a lot of larger histories of experimental film. This film is a masterwork and should be a classic, (whatever that means). It's also now newly restored, and is showing in the 2011 edition of Views From the Avant-Garde at New York Film Festival, as well as other locales, and I hope you get a chance to check it out.</div>
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Peter made this film by shooting 100ft. camera rolls of 16mm 7255 Ektachrome Commercial off of his television. He would run the film entirely through the camera with a certain color gel in front of the lens, and shoot fragmented bursts of primarily low-budget horror, sci-fi, and exotica stuff, with some <i>King Kong</i> and other recognizable features thrown into the mix. Upon reaching the end of the roll, he would rewind the entire roll, then do another full pass in-camera, shooting again off the television, this time with a different color gel. He sometimes did 6-8 full passes with 6-8 different colors in this manner. He got roll after roll of amazing, kaleidoscopic material this way. Immediately after getting his very best roll yet, he produced a total dud, which is how he knew the shooting was done. He then VERY extensively edited the material into a rough psychedelic narrative, and also created a similarly kaleidoscopic collage soundtrack to go with the image. The end result is 16 minutes of mind-blowing psychedelic genius, with all superimpositions produced in-camera, no exception.</div>
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Actually, you may have already seen some images from this film without realizing it. Strips from the film make up the entire cover of Taschen's Art Cinema coffee table book.</div>
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The preservation didn't actually take a ton of time. But it was an interesting experience, and unique in a couple of ways.</div>
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Peter had actually undertaken his own project to preserve and make available his work a few years prior, culminating in an incredibly elaborate and resourcefully executed DVD set of his work, from his earliest shorts to his most recent Flash animations. With a lot of films in his filmography, and some of them confusing due to variant versions, incompleteness, and other issues, he and I agreed that the best way to start working on anything of his was to go title-by-title, with The Death of the Gorilla seeming an obvious place to start, it being his most well-known film.</div>
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Peter had attempted to get the original 16mm mag track for the film transferred a few years back, to no success. The audio house had told him it couldn't be done effectively, and instead he made a new optical track positive from his track negative, and used that as the audio source for his digital transfer and DVD. </div>
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Acetate mag stock does have a tendency to deteriorate more readily and alarmingly than picture, something to do with the metal oxide "aggravating" the acetate base it's on. Most mag stocks switched to much more stable polyester in the 1970s/'80s.</div>
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When I got the mag track from Peter, it was pretty stinky with vinegar syndrome, and fairly warped and starting to curl. But it wasn't as bad as some really nasty mags I'd encountered, and I was pretty confident it could be transferred. Nick Bergh at Endpoint Audio really knows how to handle deteriorating mag well, and I gave it to him, which eventually yielded a very nice transfer. At Audio Mechanics, we checked the mag against an existing transfer of the optical track, and it was superior, though not by a huge margin, as the source for the track's audio was recorded ambiently off of television with a mic, and was pretty lo-fi to begin with. But the mag still sounded a bit better.</div>
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In the meantime, the original picture had its own issues. 7255 Ektachrome Commercial stock doesn't have nearly the color stability problems of its successor, the dreaded 7252 ECO (covered elsewhere in this blog), and Peter's original still has great looking color and contrast. It was also undamaged - no tears, perf damage, anything like that.</div>
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Normally, an element like this would be printed on a wetgate printer, the liquid in the gate helping to fill in scratches and blemishes on the source element, so the newly made element is as scratch-free and clean as possible. But we couldn't print Peter's original this way for two reasons. First, the head and tail titles were hand-painted (and beautifully, I might add - see end of this post). More problematic were the splices - Peter had originally edited the film with tape splices, which have held firm, but separated slightly over time, leaving a sliver of a gap in between pretty much all of them (and there are many many hundreds of splices in the original). If printed as-is, these slivers of splice gaps would be visible throughout the movie as punctuating white horizontal bars, occurring annoyingly and constantly throughout the film, especially since the framelines shift a bit over the course of the movie. To compensate for this, Peter, in his incredible focus and diligence, actually blackened out the splice gaps with a black marker, OVER the tape splices. So any attempt to clean or wet-print this original would wash away not only the hand-painted titles, but ALL of the "corrections" to the splice gaps. Yikes.</div>
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Also, because the adhesive from the tape splices had oozed somewhat over the years, every opposite lap of film from any given tape splice had dirt and adhesive residue stuck to it, on both sides of the film, constantly, throughout its entire length. Yikes again.</div>
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What to do? Well, the solution was painfully clear. I had to hand clean the entire thing, a foot at a time, all the way through, on both base and emulsion sides of the roll. Which I did. I hand-cleaned every single instance of that adhesive gunk and the dirt sticking to the adhesive gunk, through 600+ feet of the original for this film, on both sides. It took a while, but not as long as I thought it would.</div>
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In the meantime, another unique aspect of the project presented itself, which was very helpful. Extremely presciently, Peter had cut together a short, 50ft. roll of original outtakes from the film which represented a lot of the film's various looks. He did this specifically to be used as a test roll, so the lab could print the short test roll and experiment with exposures and timing, rather than print the full original a bunch of times. VERY helpful.</div>
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So while cleaning the original, I sent this test roll to the lab - Colorlab in this case. The wonderful and brilliant timer there, Chris Hughes, and the great Julia Nicoll got the test roll printed to internegative, then timed to print. Peter and I had decided pretty early on that the film should absolutely be printed as a "one light". In other words, there would be no timing light changes for the entirety of the film - one "best" light setting would be used for the whole thing. The reasoning for this was twofold - Peter had originally printed it this way in the 1960s, and the nature of the film's concept and making suggested this approach made the most sense. In other words, all of the superimpositions and color effects should be treated equally on a neutral grounding, not diversely modified from sequence to sequence or anything like that.</div>
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Additionally, Peter and I agreed the lab should try to make the new print look as much like the original as possible. Normally one might be matching a screening print of a film rather than the original, because perhaps there's a certain amount of color correction or other exposure modification that would have taken place in the film's printing. But in this case, we agreed that matching the original again fit the film's concept and execution, and also allowed for a very fine, subtle, high quality mirroring of the original as an object, rather than trying to artificially match a Kodachrome print, which would be a lot less subtle, a lot more contrasty, and miss the film's fine detail somewhat.</div>
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The test came back from Colorlab looking great, and needed only a tiny correction (1 point lighter, 1 point less blue). It looked beautiful. In the meantime, I had finished hand-cleaning the original, and shipped it to Colorlab for them to do another dry cleaning pass and then print it according to the results gotten from the test. Also in the meantime, the sound work had been finished and a new digital sound master, new mag track, and new optical track negative were created. Colorlab produced a new internegative and a first answer print with sound that hit the film exactly on the money. It looked fantastic. Peter saw it and was absolutely thrilled. I compared it to the 1960s Kodachrome print, which, though also beautiful, was not as good as the new one, which had a lot more range of color and subtlety of detail, closer to the original. </div>
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The new print premiered at Rotterdam 2011 in a pair of restored L.A. experimental film programs I put together, and I hope Rob Todd doesn't mind me quoting him as calling the film "a maximalist monsterpiece".</div>
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To conclude this really long post, I thought I'd share a few more stills from the film:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8qPxyxdHXUFiGOc9BpBcdwABZxy6yM9WSPHYOV8SCstAo1au9AMe4w37zQhh-3yi5xnL-A7iWQ5jImAenJcvf7EBzXJQntNdc8rQQQyxHfKHLpjcReng9snteX-qIxT1mclE4pj807i2/s1600/DeathOfTheGorilla10.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655337173065615826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA8qPxyxdHXUFiGOc9BpBcdwABZxy6yM9WSPHYOV8SCstAo1au9AMe4w37zQhh-3yi5xnL-A7iWQ5jImAenJcvf7EBzXJQntNdc8rQQQyxHfKHLpjcReng9snteX-qIxT1mclE4pj807i2/s200/DeathOfTheGorilla10.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 148px; width: 200px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQR0l25FLiMrOPX1hQTm68mbafyg-qdakuJPtjVM3ajjVEUrcx2YiQsugLaN_PxOEx0zPcISIE-nzzur5u6Nxf5EB8tRI-Tq9VlLI2W_3EGClLATaR3fiHOAncJHgpNIWisEsVigZllhD/s1600/DeathOfTheGorilla11.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655337345729589570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQR0l25FLiMrOPX1hQTm68mbafyg-qdakuJPtjVM3ajjVEUrcx2YiQsugLaN_PxOEx0zPcISIE-nzzur5u6Nxf5EB8tRI-Tq9VlLI2W_3EGClLATaR3fiHOAncJHgpNIWisEsVigZllhD/s200/DeathOfTheGorilla11.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 148px; width: 200px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OXo_HECeKAeqrv7PeguB6r29Q826FFB-6alH9yS2thklKsMmeM6MpPHRWhxUuxEDVgoAhMzFxFUuusie1z48W3aBySeMgSOAKWq6xwXUqZpigS1klaoEdbKj8wEnQ6ui6cH5t9WjFWLi/s1600/DeathOfTheGorilla12.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655337499460092050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OXo_HECeKAeqrv7PeguB6r29Q826FFB-6alH9yS2thklKsMmeM6MpPHRWhxUuxEDVgoAhMzFxFUuusie1z48W3aBySeMgSOAKWq6xwXUqZpigS1klaoEdbKj8wEnQ6ui6cH5t9WjFWLi/s200/DeathOfTheGorilla12.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 146px; width: 200px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaR2V7HFnM2HwKpvrGQOfdKBKCKJP1LXzvMh2-bB7QaqzUzWlwgciBlEbZY9q2pZmIQQMTtRSsP2bbXG4YurpPfakFNzGqGVmfZGJZTtJHCoOY24sVznvPRfPc75N2b_Y89HO56EoBva8U/s1600/DeathOfTheGorilla14.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655337568216838482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaR2V7HFnM2HwKpvrGQOfdKBKCKJP1LXzvMh2-bB7QaqzUzWlwgciBlEbZY9q2pZmIQQMTtRSsP2bbXG4YurpPfakFNzGqGVmfZGJZTtJHCoOY24sVznvPRfPc75N2b_Y89HO56EoBva8U/s200/DeathOfTheGorilla14.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 148px; width: 200px;" /></a></div>
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Adding three images to this post that show the hand-painted titles in the film's original. I had originally planned to put these images in from the beginning, but my laptop (on which they were held hostage) crapped out, and I only got it fixed in late December 2011... Enjoy!</div>
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696285503601753426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWlwsJXJ2lv1v2zKGMZ7Am7DM4dM20XzJhyt0uk21nsRM7WC6uzAfWUISmaVob_AvYG-Uh8OwvVeNdZ47HnVmQn2A-WERQyVY-PmiASzRpqlrqHos6R0R6yKE-TkDUILMBc0z_8NgSSER/s320/cdc+018.jpg" style="color: rgb(0 , 0 , 238); cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; width: 320px;" /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim12sJccCW0d3k4y_4yxoyCBllZ1wYokSyVJMwvl2jq7GcpUtxAALcE52rvwx3N1ko6JYim0IKnLFBTOT0Hwc20lrDpjd0nJuWWsZnFaYI4pIGp1_tYtQStUhyphenhyphenn517n6CKdv63CQ_KpsQx/s1600/cdc+023.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696285508671452850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim12sJccCW0d3k4y_4yxoyCBllZ1wYokSyVJMwvl2jq7GcpUtxAALcE52rvwx3N1ko6JYim0IKnLFBTOT0Hwc20lrDpjd0nJuWWsZnFaYI4pIGp1_tYtQStUhyphenhyphenn517n6CKdv63CQ_KpsQx/s320/cdc+023.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Gu9B4OvjEhsuSlvM2z2zCXFZ1lnHIsVR2s8Pti_RPD3IpCB_05siRpMn-Q3RUHHklqaA21J0YRgUI-yJLATLMmWNEcCGe9edpUxljsxHV-0X-ygej8cNuETc8uFkg9HZfEsT0SvdAlJY/s1600/cdc+038.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5696285523644823634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Gu9B4OvjEhsuSlvM2z2zCXFZ1lnHIsVR2s8Pti_RPD3IpCB_05siRpMn-Q3RUHHklqaA21J0YRgUI-yJLATLMmWNEcCGe9edpUxljsxHV-0X-ygej8cNuETc8uFkg9HZfEsT0SvdAlJY/s320/cdc+038.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-35898061277581043322010-12-30T00:21:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:11:51.458-07:00RIP<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzsIok-INMdflmWwxkzjH0h5e0ptM_9iVMNwZSnf4iMRn9hT8-vZmujLYbVZxD6oqJNliLc1UC5aZQTI8K6Y7t_IYJtMXd-9cdMk4Vuv1_0X7jnYr_-mBEmD7ULubhCB4xh15XgvUZnfm/s1600/abb+022.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556392352030906050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzsIok-INMdflmWwxkzjH0h5e0ptM_9iVMNwZSnf4iMRn9hT8-vZmujLYbVZxD6oqJNliLc1UC5aZQTI8K6Y7t_IYJtMXd-9cdMk4Vuv1_0X7jnYr_-mBEmD7ULubhCB4xh15XgvUZnfm/s200/abb+022.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
What is there to be said? News articles <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/us/30film.html?scp=2&sq=kodachrome&st=cse">abound</a>, generally containing accurate info about this very, very special film stock. Kodak announced its discontinuation on June 22, 2009, and the last day you can get your Kodachrome processed (by the indefatigable <a href="http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/">Dwayne's Photo</a>) is today, Thursday, December 30, 2010.<br />
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The photo above shows the one and only roll of 16mm Kodachrome I ever managed to shoot in my life. I bought it a few years ago before I even owned a 16mm camera, and shot it only a month ago or so, and just sent it to Dwayne's two days ago. Very curious about how it'll come out. I also sent six super 8 rolls, from which I expect varying levels of successful/unsuccessful processing - one of them was shot in 1986 by me as a kid, one was shot in 2007 on stock from 1984, and the rest are of more recent vintage, but stored inconsistently over the last couple of years. Hopefully there will be some positive surprises.<br />
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In my restoration work, Kodachrome can present some unique issues in duplication via internegative, particularly because it's a direct projection stock, i.e. meant to be viewed/projected as an original. Its higher contrast and unique image qualities mean special steps have to be taken for its successful duplication. Some labs flash the internegative slightly and then pull two stops, to lower contrast. Or one stop. Or 1.5 stops. Or ...? I'm sure there are other tricks of the trade employed at various facilities sensitive to the special needs of Kodachrome, some of them perhaps proprietary secrets, who knows?<br />
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I've had the pleasure of working on preserving/restoring various films shot on Kodachrome over the past seven years, and here's a list of some of them off the top of my head (alphabetical by filmmaker name):<br />
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Mirror (Gary Beydler, 1974)<br />
Hand Held Day (Gary Beydler, 1975)<br />
The Wonder Ring (Stan Brakhage, 1955)<br />
Gnir Rednow (Stan Brakhage & Joseph Cornell, 1955/late '60s)<br />
The Act of Seeing with one's own eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1971) (some sequences)<br />
Odds & Ends (Jane Conger Belson Shimane, 1958)<br />
Sam Fuller's WWII home movies (Samuel Fuller, 1945) (some rolls)<br />
The Assignation (Curtis Harrington, 1953)<br />
Mother Goose Stories & Fairy Tales (Ray Harryhausen, 1946-1953)<br />
Angel Blue Sweet Wings (Chick Strand, 1966)<br />
Five Film Exercises (John and James Whitney, ca.1944-1946)<br />
Yantra (James Whitney, 1957)<br />
Lapis (James Whitney, 1966) (both Yantra and Lapis projects involved a test approach to digital restoration of the films, which yielded very intriguing results) (collaboration w/ John Whitney Jr.)<br />
Mozart Rondo (John Whitney, 1952)<br />
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...not to mention the various avant-garde films that were saved and ONLY preservable/restorable thanks to the existence of a Kodachrome (7387) print. Common through the early '70s, Kodachrome prints were color reversal prints on a variation (?) of Kodachrome, usually meant for printing from lower contrast originals, like ECO (Ektachrome Commercial). Like the camera stock, these prints are gorgeous, and have incredible color stability.<br />
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With the introduction of a higher contrast Ektachrome print stock in the early '70s, use of the Kodachrome print stock diminished until it was discontinued altogether in August 1981. But because these 1970s ECO originals are often faded, or originals may be lost, it's the ultra-fine, ultra-stable Kodachrome prints that can alternatively provide the basis for a restoration, to impressively high quality results.<br />
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Some films I've worked on that were preserved from (or with the help of) a surviving Kodachrome print include:<br />
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Dear Janice (Adam Beckett, 1972) (originals lost) (collaboration w/ iotaCenter)<br />
Evolution of the Red Star (Adam Beckett, 1973) (originals lost) (collaboration w/ iotaCenter)<br />
Heavy-Light (Adam Beckett, 1973) (originals faded) (collaboration w/ iotaCenter)<br />
Los Ojos (Gary Beydler, 1975) (originals lost)<br />
Nothing Happened This Morning (David Bienstock, 1965) (color section only) (originals lost) (still in progress)<br />
Brummer's (David Bienstock, 1967) (originals lost)<br />
The Riddle of Lumen (Stan Brakhage, 1972) (some faded shots in the original)<br />
The Room (Carmen D'Avino, 1958) (originals lost)<br />
A Trip (Carmen D'Avino, 1960) (originals lost)<br />
The Maltese Cross Movement (A.K. Dewdney, 1967) (originals lost)<br />
Bertha's Children (Roberta Friedman & Grahame Weinbren, 1976) (originals faded)<br />
Murray and Max Talk About Money (Roberta Friedman & Grahame Weinbren, 1979) (originals lost)<br />
Now That the Buffalo's Gone (Burton C. Gershfield, 1967) (originals lost) (still in progress)<br />
The Wormwood Star (Curtis Harrington, 1956) (originals lost)<br />
unc. (Bruce Lane, 1966) (originals lost)<br />
Go Oh Wow (Chris Langdon, 1972) (originals lost)<br />
various color trailers (Chris Langdon, ca.1973-74) (originals lost)<br />
The Alphabet (David Lynch, 1967) (originals partially damaged) (still in progress)<br />
Sears Sox (Pat O'Neill, Chick Strand, and Martin Muller, ca.1968) (originals lost)<br />
Mirror People (Kathy Rose, 1974) (originals lost)<br />
Throbs (Fred Worden, 1972) (originals lost)<br />
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*<br />
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And for those of you who have found yourselves with some Kodachrome you didn't get around to shooting in time for the processing deadline: Remember that Kodachrome can be <a href="http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00XvHp">processed as black and white</a>, so it's not entirely useless now, and I've heard you can get interestingly high contrast results. (In fact, Kodachrome is technically a black and white stock, with the color dye only being created in the processing - this is a large part of why it's so complicated to process.) Or, consider donating an unused box to a local film archive or film museum to be saved as an artifact.<br />
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Hope everybody who had wanted to shoot it got to shoot it. Crazy to think of an analog in other arts/media - is there one? I suppose one could lament never having had the chance to shoot on 1/2-inch open reel video, but the decks and cameras still exist and you could always use old stock, which is plentiful, though it might involve taping over something. Obscure forms of printmaking are still doable, as are numerous uncommon photographic processes. You can still paint with centuries-old oil paint recipes if you really want to and people are making absinthe traditionally again. What other art form besides photographic film (and definitely video too) is so technologically dependent as to render entire avenues of creative and/or technological exploration utterly obsolete, unattainable, killed? Then again, Polaroid was saved from this fate by passionate supporters, so maybe there are possibilities for Kodachrome, though I'm very doubtful.<br />
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In the meantime, I'm glad I like the 7285 Ektachrome so much (available in 16mm and super 8). It's really quite beautiful, give it a shot if you haven't tried it yet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-14200607441774151712010-12-07T00:43:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:12:00.366-07:00Deteriorated 28mm diacetate.<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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Not much to say here, other than that these are some particularly nice photos I managed of a badly deteriorated 28mm diacetate print of Les Misérables (maybe the 1917 version?). Broadly speaking, as a format 28mm was more or less killed by the introduction of 16mm in 1923. Enjoy! (?)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2bjiVOIseBYPu1OAtv_DdegzKQoikLQmuMI5iLR5TNO7gDnuA1PlFj_F2cDN5ZFy7N4DOfihGC-x9LsJ0RRGTyGmVP0m8lfaLgYmVdznN5w8eaU-09AuNVTTdv-0OYgV7MmVZ_Eq-nBEH/s1600/BBB+024.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547862212413226146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2bjiVOIseBYPu1OAtv_DdegzKQoikLQmuMI5iLR5TNO7gDnuA1PlFj_F2cDN5ZFy7N4DOfihGC-x9LsJ0RRGTyGmVP0m8lfaLgYmVdznN5w8eaU-09AuNVTTdv-0OYgV7MmVZ_Eq-nBEH/s200/BBB+024.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIrf2AzJThdCFiraSYffuvnM7ZpNB-_K-T0GfeLopB5BiOm79I0NEIhp0hRMd9WrGAmK1fAxhT-wIAJ9eIusi_k3IRdu0OxKviRWQptlwMpf3JoxWtdYyP6i2CE-Iay87_sFC01FR0KIT/s1600/BBB+035.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547863288004339890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIIrf2AzJThdCFiraSYffuvnM7ZpNB-_K-T0GfeLopB5BiOm79I0NEIhp0hRMd9WrGAmK1fAxhT-wIAJ9eIusi_k3IRdu0OxKviRWQptlwMpf3JoxWtdYyP6i2CE-Iay87_sFC01FR0KIT/s200/BBB+035.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfizO_I9dbMkg161cht3rGxK7ofYQBPU1ZHrM4MFdbMPYOyFoK4De0kcCJESNjiMDnlbnCmzSPJWbCWTKc_l4paFFZtX3-rd1ANMbEtBR8aZ18RU5jlkFkTwfIX_WxvqQn0eTzPfdZAkP/s1600/BBB+036.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547863291282289650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfizO_I9dbMkg161cht3rGxK7ofYQBPU1ZHrM4MFdbMPYOyFoK4De0kcCJESNjiMDnlbnCmzSPJWbCWTKc_l4paFFZtX3-rd1ANMbEtBR8aZ18RU5jlkFkTwfIX_WxvqQn0eTzPfdZAkP/s200/BBB+036.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8vPQpmFJpbsZtxtT62mYysdK_4daqJGFGjUm-AKFjOhDJdQuWHpMRJgecJzVkkoE7Y95uw-M9DtUZ-76j64rlKUmf71KeSe3J5eGQGxr8IEHUJNc2Lgcw6RyZVwn8SNWSdTbPLCGTFTpx/s1600/BBB+030.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547863274576508114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8vPQpmFJpbsZtxtT62mYysdK_4daqJGFGjUm-AKFjOhDJdQuWHpMRJgecJzVkkoE7Y95uw-M9DtUZ-76j64rlKUmf71KeSe3J5eGQGxr8IEHUJNc2Lgcw6RyZVwn8SNWSdTbPLCGTFTpx/s200/BBB+030.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNZ3otBdd0z6DqFtED4tBYH_YFyeDuhnt5V_ySQJO1maZW92c7xQHPigPg_gQEjELIsRwylqPldkWktGssG9LviDn5VEWhz2zJcnPX774qTw6rX6YhkVmFLRdyhblUlxDvbRYkutRnAqcM/s1600/BBB+033.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547863286403584738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNZ3otBdd0z6DqFtED4tBYH_YFyeDuhnt5V_ySQJO1maZW92c7xQHPigPg_gQEjELIsRwylqPldkWktGssG9LviDn5VEWhz2zJcnPX774qTw6rX6YhkVmFLRdyhblUlxDvbRYkutRnAqcM/s200/BBB+033.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdpJamwGLGQLlRy9W2Ns0nSymbAVghcMDlcZHxRmHDPkidHqgopZ8CqUzBk6e4y237OLHuGUSz6S5QZzqcY3E_jHSobI5ndDiKxUAS_uOoYC76DwF7XmPCLfai-9n3nR7XC_7PHADpqnro/s1600/BBB+026.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547862482003941090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdpJamwGLGQLlRy9W2Ns0nSymbAVghcMDlcZHxRmHDPkidHqgopZ8CqUzBk6e4y237OLHuGUSz6S5QZzqcY3E_jHSobI5ndDiKxUAS_uOoYC76DwF7XmPCLfai-9n3nR7XC_7PHADpqnro/s200/BBB+026.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM57eB8fE6SQLoZpwGxZwuAKlqQJBjfPdY2U67F2f7mZrWoy2bQjvaNi8xvXAYCzFFmxHcjh9GTOOll1YvVNTlvpR9e2V-k_4JGv4Hth4QFuhuNQi3BGxYGw-EERo_Px09EfcqhEAjqUJs/s1600/BBB+029.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547863275908052002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM57eB8fE6SQLoZpwGxZwuAKlqQJBjfPdY2U67F2f7mZrWoy2bQjvaNi8xvXAYCzFFmxHcjh9GTOOll1YvVNTlvpR9e2V-k_4JGv4Hth4QFuhuNQi3BGxYGw-EERo_Px09EfcqhEAjqUJs/s200/BBB+029.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdpJamwGLGQLlRy9W2Ns0nSymbAVghcMDlcZHxRmHDPkidHqgopZ8CqUzBk6e4y237OLHuGUSz6S5QZzqcY3E_jHSobI5ndDiKxUAS_uOoYC76DwF7XmPCLfai-9n3nR7XC_7PHADpqnro/s1600/BBB+026.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN9fYb7gUhvhTV0kEF1-S52Z-iK4_lnalXcVbuNWHY7z_h0tcemvxTULG-IZNisnGK5aF2gSfHiU5QGXAUli2sFcA5pBYI-Slv-5L5XFf4Mwn9S8bQjxtz8DyFzaIytGqLrZfGcD60ZYZ6/s1600/BBB+027.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547862631982431186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN9fYb7gUhvhTV0kEF1-S52Z-iK4_lnalXcVbuNWHY7z_h0tcemvxTULG-IZNisnGK5aF2gSfHiU5QGXAUli2sFcA5pBYI-Slv-5L5XFf4Mwn9S8bQjxtz8DyFzaIytGqLrZfGcD60ZYZ6/s200/BBB+027.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9QRupHU0OEW-it97RLea_d0OOz1aZSep_UI_phP8bivcU8L_sy6SfjnQ4Ts9FFDwenfY3BX-Ex-RqcUr9eMVtngTQTlk_xIKZhE-6CWMbCb1mZvKf0uLRxThJNu-Rugj7Z9AAfKQBlen/s1600/BBB+025.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547863652572613282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9QRupHU0OEW-it97RLea_d0OOz1aZSep_UI_phP8bivcU8L_sy6SfjnQ4Ts9FFDwenfY3BX-Ex-RqcUr9eMVtngTQTlk_xIKZhE-6CWMbCb1mZvKf0uLRxThJNu-Rugj7Z9AAfKQBlen/s200/BBB+025.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-85805460811627765322010-11-21T14:58:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:12:08.897-07:00This one frame...<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigdukfpF4pLpWkVIXRM6zCAqFSfOrmjqneEhNFp3QLexQHf5DwnfKFElg63TjKNxcfjXrBOXWw4Eqa8VBw5IGJmwSBmk6gnvk33MMEkKfWi-eygfXq691-V51VCqzJ3__BBn0Za4AhFLPy/s1600/RRR+032.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542142218309598066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigdukfpF4pLpWkVIXRM6zCAqFSfOrmjqneEhNFp3QLexQHf5DwnfKFElg63TjKNxcfjXrBOXWw4Eqa8VBw5IGJmwSBmk6gnvk33MMEkKfWi-eygfXq691-V51VCqzJ3__BBn0Za4AhFLPy/s400/RRR+032.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>...is the reason why we had to print Ben VanMeter's <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">S.F. Trips Festival - An Opening</span> (1967) without cleaning it, or via a liquid gate printer. But that's OK! Ben is a filmmaker who was particularly attuned to the physical qualities of cinema, and I don't mean just its usual textures and surfaces.<br />
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This film was shot on January 21-23, 1966, at the massively significant Trips Festival, which occurred at Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco. I can't imagine what it must have actually been like to attend, but from all accounts, the Trips Festival was a pretty startlingly rapturous event. All the arts were on display, often intermixed, whether it be light show performance, electronic and tape music, film projections, performances, the Grateful Dead, interactive displays, any number of other possibilities. It was an incredibly extensive interactive multimedia event that allowed attendees and participants to utterly free associate their way through the nearly limitless artistic and aesthetic endeavors then brewing and boiling over from the Bay Area underground.<br />
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Ben VanMeter, who had arrived in the Bay Area from Oklahoma in the very early '60s, was already a known filmmaker, having made several significant 16mm shorts that were playing regularly around town and elsewhere on the underground cinema circuit. Ben's approach was in many ways marked by a deep and intuitive lyricism, letting internal and external energies often direct his improvisatory responsive, but disciplined camera, resulting in a free-flowing "river of images" (to quote Robert Nelson) that is beautifully free-associative and ephemeral.<br />
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Ben seems to have first (successfully) tried this approach with the remarkable <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Olds-Mo-Bile </span>(1964) (recently renamed <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Bolex Peyote Bardo</span> by Ben), a 12-minute b/w film for which Ben intuitively filmed a full roll, rewound it, then filmed over it again, then again, to create unexpected in-camera superimpositions. But it's not a film of total chance - it's a quite successful combination of certain preplanned layer interactions and a basic trust of his own muse, a highly integrated mix of the intentional and the fortuitous.<br />
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Although this approach in some ways reached its zenith in Ben's feature <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Acid Mantra</span> (1968), perhaps the most striking and near-perfect articulation of the technique is to be found in <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">S.F. Trips Festival</span>.<br />
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Ben had three camera rolls of 7255 Ektachrome Commercial, which he fully ran through his camera each day of the 3-day Trips Festival. The end result was three 100ft. rolls of film that each had been triple exposed in-camera, each layer of exposure representing a day of the festival. Aside from just two or three necessary structural edits, Ben just spliced the three rolls together essentially unedited. This was then set to a soundtrack that was achieved in roughly the same manner, via triple layering of sound he recorded throughout the festival.<br />
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Ben calls the film "a documentary of the Trips Festival from the point of view of a goldfish in the punch bowl." Indeed, it seems that a participatory, impressionistic, kaleidoscopic piece such as this would be the only way to document such an event, in which simultaneity and multimedia (both intentional and accidental) ruled. Ben's dual approach of open and considered pre-structuring, plus an intuitive embrace of the happenstance and unexpected, results in a hypnotic audiovisual cornucopia which nevertheless also does well to document the event in a strange sort of impressionistic semi-clarity. The whole film hovers between kinetic psychedelic light show and home movie informality.<br />
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As for preservation of the film (since this blog is about Preservation Insanity)....<br />
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Well, the preservation wasn't that insane. Having viewed a 1967 Kodachrome print a number of times, I was surprised to discover the single hand-painted frame shown above once inspecting the film's camera original - I had never noticed it during my viewings of the film. Winding to the same spot on the Kodachrome print, there it was, but really washed out and not very visible. In fact, overall, the Kodachrome print was missing a lot of the original's subtle shadow and highlight detail, which is not surprising, given that the Kodachrome print stock (7387) was gorgeous, but would inevitably gain contrast and lose shadow and highlight detail particularly in a dark, richly colorful film like S.F. Trips Festival.<br />
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Color-wise, the Kodachrome print basically looked identical to the original. After talking to Ben, it became clear that we could match the original in terms of exposure, and since his intention in printing the film was essentially to duplicate the original as-is, we didn't seek to color-correct or boost contrast or any other particular thing. Since the one frame of hand-painting meant the original couldn't be cleaned conventionally, I basically just wound through it a few times with a dry velvet, and also checked it carefully throughout for any schmutz or gunk, of which I found none - the original was thankfully quite clean. <br />
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FotoKem Labs carefully printed a new polyester internegative, dry gate, without further cleaning, and timed the new print to match the original as closely as possible. We were, in a sense, treating the original as a sort of neutral canvas on which all the recorded events happened in the colors and light/dark relationships as they did. Similar to Gary Beydler's <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Venice Pier </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>(1976), the original was treated as much as a one-light as possible - the film stock being sort of a scientific control, upon which all the individual events recorded could express themselves as they did, with no additional photochemical or artistic intervention.<br />
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Does that make sense? J.J. Murphy's <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Print Generation</span> (1974), about which I've been promising an entry here for a year or two, is similar - the filmic space is on its essential level a neutral one in which the activity/process unfolds, unblemished and unmodified by additional tinkering. The process by which the film is made is tied to the material in a way that would make any extra superficial changes dishonest and destructive. As freeform as it plays, Ben's film is precisely this as well, so we basically timed the restoration to match the look of the original, hand-painted frame and all.<br />
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Incidentally, the hand-painted frame is over what would otherwise be a flash frame. Though there are other flash frames here and there throughout the film, I guess Ben took a liking to this one and decided to decorate it!<br />
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Thanks for reading. I'll try to post a bit more regularly than I have been... Let me know if you enjoy this sort of thing! I should do an entry on Ben's <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Acid Mantra</span>, come to think of it... maybe that'll be up next...<br />
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One other note - if you attended the opening night of PFA's Radical Light series on 10/15/2010, you may have seen <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">S.F. Trips Festival</span>, which quietly premiered there in its restored version. But I'll be doing my best to get it around so folks can see it, it's a film I like very much and think many others will too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-53838846570768982422010-04-28T09:03:00.000-07:002017-07-25T19:12:18.533-07:00Slightly tarnished?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge3CdaK1MnPNC5E9HW24bdpGcHZJfn-89nczLTJ4K6ZRK1uPtHm4RJl7UJZTdLQiLcDcngKRtD81UeK3BPVnnDvcGQKHaNtAIsGasESgDNHlQmEnNgJJRX3JtnMFsfYa4ONHS_Un5F4Lzw/s1600/LLL+100.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465224308751116082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge3CdaK1MnPNC5E9HW24bdpGcHZJfn-89nczLTJ4K6ZRK1uPtHm4RJl7UJZTdLQiLcDcngKRtD81UeK3BPVnnDvcGQKHaNtAIsGasESgDNHlQmEnNgJJRX3JtnMFsfYa4ONHS_Un5F4Lzw/s320/LLL+100.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 240px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
I've been working with Pacific Film Archive on restoring 8 films by the wonderful Chick Strand. One of them, an early favorite called <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Waterfall</span> (1967), is comprised almost entirely of hand-processed, solarized, black and white negative. I was surprised to discover, upon winding through the original, that some odd tarnishing/discoloration had occurred in a few spots. This probably gradually developed over the years. An internegative made ten years ago displays these artifacts too, so they've been there for some time. Vintage prints from ca.1972-73 don't have them. At any rate, they're in only a few places, Chick accepted them in the previous internegative, and they're not very out of aesthetic character with the rest of the film, so it was decided to leave them alone. I've attached a photo of the original here so you can check it out.<br />
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Another thing to note in this photo - the perforation damage. The last time the original was printed, it was damaged somewhat extensively, but thankfully only resulting in torn perforations - albeit 30ft. of torn perforations. But no image damage. Some of it was edge-taped at the time, some not. At first I was concerned that, even with better tape repairs, the original was too fragile to risk printing again. But realizing the original is entirely double-perf stock (as seen in the photo here), I came up with an alternate solution which would simply involve printing it from heads-to-tails using the other side of the perforations. Normally, this original, which is A-wind, would need to print from tails-to-heads, because of its emulsion position (16mm can have the emulsion on either side in relation to perforation/soundtrack placement). But as it's double-perf, we can do it the other way around too. So the perf damage will still be fixed better, but we won't have to be as freaked out printing it, since we'll be using the undamaged perf side to drive the film through the printer.<br />
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One final thing I discovered in working on this film also concerns emulsion position (B-wind vs. A-wind). Upon inspecting some early Kodachrome (7387) prints, I discovered that the original lab that had printed the film (Deluxe Hollywood), had treated the film, not surprisingly, as B-wind. Most 16mm originals are B-wind, and in fact there's a mix of both A-wind and B-wind material in the film, though it's almost entirely A-wind. So when Deluxe originally printed this original, they printed it with the emulsion flopped for almost the whole film, so all the early Kodachrome prints were soft, except for the three or four short shots that were B-wind in the original. (All the other shots printed as slightly soft, because the film was printing through the base rather than emulsion.) When the original was printed again by Chick in the late '90s (at FotoKem this time), they got it right, printing it correctly as A-wind. I didn't want to just assume anything though, so I did a close inspection of several prints and the original, and talked to some folks very close to Chick (she had passed away before I could ask her about this). We all concluded that printing it as A-wind was the better way to go.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-16326378487327121262010-03-02T18:48:00.001-08:002017-07-25T19:12:28.795-07:00My cup runneth over.<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfBkxW03l19Et5CMJCY5jVI_rMWqq3mTG3GSJhFR9zc3ce5fX4TACPZvtA3Zaisox8ZPn2wikHYpofUeqkGh_uHadeQ0EGhhI0aUW5r5MwmX743_mWSyjsDn7BcMUWaMdPHz7sBk0H582/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-01.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234494735578674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfBkxW03l19Et5CMJCY5jVI_rMWqq3mTG3GSJhFR9zc3ce5fX4TACPZvtA3Zaisox8ZPn2wikHYpofUeqkGh_uHadeQ0EGhhI0aUW5r5MwmX743_mWSyjsDn7BcMUWaMdPHz7sBk0H582/s200/23rdPBreel4-01.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a>Since Criterion announced the release date of volume two of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">by Brakhage</span> (May 25), I thought it would be nice to post a number of photos here that relate to it somehow. These 9 images show the ORIGINAL 8mm edited picture roll for reel 4 of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">23rd Psalm Branch</span> (1967), a film that is included on the volume two DVD. The original is really quite incredible, having been assembled in a veritably sculptural way, with much rapid cutting and surface modification. It's a wonder that it's still in one piece - in fact, the originals are so far in excellent condition, with no real damage (as of this writing, I've been through 4 of the 10 reels). You'll see hand-painting/-tinting, found footage, heavy cutting, and adhesive pattern applications. The first photo here, of the film on its original reel, hopefully gives you an idea of the amount of attention and energy Stan put into this material.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS2GA4XH8Ja0PWpLKnCyiyjOJvaz2GOKA_wweFE0RerObnkxHj85kEtMa9aUFCFLXSGL1lVxYWe0W5aUw0eVJAnMX_xADWPFvnY1UXivYYPPlK6gG7MmrXHBd7CKvlJDfQas6PB1NwzDt_/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-02.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234451482748194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS2GA4XH8Ja0PWpLKnCyiyjOJvaz2GOKA_wweFE0RerObnkxHj85kEtMa9aUFCFLXSGL1lVxYWe0W5aUw0eVJAnMX_xADWPFvnY1UXivYYPPlK6gG7MmrXHBd7CKvlJDfQas6PB1NwzDt_/s200/23rdPBreel4-02.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 80px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkh-Rr4lMNTpBR-fbRMI4SCHsBNsRKO-FGmUCXd1HQXTdBCZ409XXNpFuzVgJOl9e3jBDN4SxD5pgRtcf1IW4TTbPJlmC9JUriHFHUQPzbGz6xw_Iid0SAND7QBZMfVKzX6Vt9qLa9gKyr/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-03.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234285023010770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkh-Rr4lMNTpBR-fbRMI4SCHsBNsRKO-FGmUCXd1HQXTdBCZ409XXNpFuzVgJOl9e3jBDN4SxD5pgRtcf1IW4TTbPJlmC9JUriHFHUQPzbGz6xw_Iid0SAND7QBZMfVKzX6Vt9qLa9gKyr/s200/23rdPBreel4-03.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 101px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcccfZZYngHIOiov31j_GKxU_MEO5CXd32NAAjC9XwNl5xR_YkDpaAxixkUSwSO4Q-_GrR5ViAPEKV48wuL6Bh7TYO-43qB6Lw7sv8kqfVI60BQa7LZ7Ux_7SNsQV-xSipq06f807TqFx/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-04.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234227799211682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcccfZZYngHIOiov31j_GKxU_MEO5CXd32NAAjC9XwNl5xR_YkDpaAxixkUSwSO4Q-_GrR5ViAPEKV48wuL6Bh7TYO-43qB6Lw7sv8kqfVI60BQa7LZ7Ux_7SNsQV-xSipq06f807TqFx/s200/23rdPBreel4-04.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzEKxh5Tl1ko5whQLe5FFMFem4ztMaEUNZc8buIyNoVNUy4KWZctwhSvnkKJ3l6CE9k4m_zGWbuMd1PlRSs6TpHQDWQB5llU0Qv4gCGaMYxE6KWkevJL0Nlk0MWldq2QLYlypsbrPU9Qe/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-05.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234177306668850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzEKxh5Tl1ko5whQLe5FFMFem4ztMaEUNZc8buIyNoVNUy4KWZctwhSvnkKJ3l6CE9k4m_zGWbuMd1PlRSs6TpHQDWQB5llU0Qv4gCGaMYxE6KWkevJL0Nlk0MWldq2QLYlypsbrPU9Qe/s200/23rdPBreel4-05.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgggFwOtVNUF91cMGLB2i-fyO7G1QWrgv8M7BDkaY42oxD3QjxfulTTrfc8WnEkTlfD0ny2QDVcCBl4w_QVCYg6_rSLQ4weGaXQih5Vj2igtFDhz-WKREwdO85Jk3mt6Z6ERcN21bQg_yyq/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-06.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234130211263010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgggFwOtVNUF91cMGLB2i-fyO7G1QWrgv8M7BDkaY42oxD3QjxfulTTrfc8WnEkTlfD0ny2QDVcCBl4w_QVCYg6_rSLQ4weGaXQih5Vj2igtFDhz-WKREwdO85Jk3mt6Z6ERcN21bQg_yyq/s200/23rdPBreel4-06.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy63OQ-IDxLp0_mo2giJcCAx2cy-1IHJKWSxhetpepjzOMWdBTUYerJ3Kwimh6F-PNg3zdvw00WUw7zp6S-sAV2AaEi2ZvXiUnIeO0q5RJtCStUf_IwHc-OjDxdx75GLYZFsEEXZJ0-hYz/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-07.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234090408483906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy63OQ-IDxLp0_mo2giJcCAx2cy-1IHJKWSxhetpepjzOMWdBTUYerJ3Kwimh6F-PNg3zdvw00WUw7zp6S-sAV2AaEi2ZvXiUnIeO0q5RJtCStUf_IwHc-OjDxdx75GLYZFsEEXZJ0-hYz/s200/23rdPBreel4-07.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_IlaP3KC8q7jNrEYPekUHaRgTdIDSJLmMuUp4h-fjarv4OcATyp_GN_ECaLiwaNQRJ4hEksxN8BqUuBwjHMMBIDbEetwCHzPxToTmT79G5EBEKK5tDnT9VXDkAH5gHmpx0nzAL4GiT5w/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-08.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234051345998818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_IlaP3KC8q7jNrEYPekUHaRgTdIDSJLmMuUp4h-fjarv4OcATyp_GN_ECaLiwaNQRJ4hEksxN8BqUuBwjHMMBIDbEetwCHzPxToTmT79G5EBEKK5tDnT9VXDkAH5gHmpx0nzAL4GiT5w/s200/23rdPBreel4-08.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2NQTALjbsnIUpNyb_zcgofrW7C9MPFgNAqN7dMQN_fB9pmppORy3VLvhyLqZwUjl3BvcgeZmqlbO5tHeF3VqT9zJcgZfrbIHsfwUozMgP03PCmwwoVx6_ikjJZk4Fl0jWTKoJA-Bk1vKC/s1600-h/23rdPBreel4-09.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444234010533559746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2NQTALjbsnIUpNyb_zcgofrW7C9MPFgNAqN7dMQN_fB9pmppORy3VLvhyLqZwUjl3BvcgeZmqlbO5tHeF3VqT9zJcgZfrbIHsfwUozMgP03PCmwwoVx6_ikjJZk4Fl0jWTKoJA-Bk1vKC/s200/23rdPBreel4-09.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-5785448390078891142010-02-23T17:50:00.001-08:002017-07-25T19:12:47.003-07:00To Gary Beydler<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5zG7CXkKfNQMt1bO1OlM_8PFJ9BUbDypHQ9LKiTagrv6X0CI8yOHjcYRJ5hyphenhyphenxecYxzwDncRKjU6uRx2HUcBTTLwTSD3tfuUR1oWfHBw1DCVrda5jMOiGrBphyphenhyphendNYRSKLoxoXlYOwsSuy/s1600-h/VenicePier01small.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441621646287775154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP5zG7CXkKfNQMt1bO1OlM_8PFJ9BUbDypHQ9LKiTagrv6X0CI8yOHjcYRJ5hyphenhyphenxecYxzwDncRKjU6uRx2HUcBTTLwTSD3tfuUR1oWfHBw1DCVrda5jMOiGrBphyphenhyphendNYRSKLoxoXlYOwsSuy/s200/VenicePier01small.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 145px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJwvnKlb9I8h91mrICPP_adOoY8K503sZV8gZ-1b6y0ET9ooU18nBgUWthYbGPmEQO-T5qmVrKFjXoY8Id0XeGgBNoL7f8LboaurLphN4cFjqNqztfP_rqkJLBX2AyJ_TAFO1f13tIhz_e/s1600-h/VenicePier02small.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441621723402654402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJwvnKlb9I8h91mrICPP_adOoY8K503sZV8gZ-1b6y0ET9ooU18nBgUWthYbGPmEQO-T5qmVrKFjXoY8Id0XeGgBNoL7f8LboaurLphN4cFjqNqztfP_rqkJLBX2AyJ_TAFO1f13tIhz_e/s200/VenicePier02small.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 149px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZQMZ1Pt1leJ34J1rD7s_2tHqpUtm4-ePC5ettncwa8IMDFjykO2wMTSMyu9NajkhuWHZeLwm8goOrSNz1g0Ppcdzyr_FA-9SbVmVRrKS4sI1X9ummcvC2hFA4YnzKeYVGJSjaUQoxdit/s1600-h/VenicePier03small.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441621839858714338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimZQMZ1Pt1leJ34J1rD7s_2tHqpUtm4-ePC5ettncwa8IMDFjykO2wMTSMyu9NajkhuWHZeLwm8goOrSNz1g0Ppcdzyr_FA-9SbVmVRrKS4sI1X9ummcvC2hFA4YnzKeYVGJSjaUQoxdit/s200/VenicePier03small.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 149px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GL93j_jOTdiI17-1Hn_GgDNZG6kEVF03CmgZbtYeewcGVPLlLjcZoRV8DeB0vSQXWddPp7HraPpUL1aTqLha85EFnTYlWofbnOXzrMSD6tCwBRjp_YskOcZgGl2Dgf8MxbnmmUJuMA5N/s1600-h/VenicePier04small.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441622013713332802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GL93j_jOTdiI17-1Hn_GgDNZG6kEVF03CmgZbtYeewcGVPLlLjcZoRV8DeB0vSQXWddPp7HraPpUL1aTqLha85EFnTYlWofbnOXzrMSD6tCwBRjp_YskOcZgGl2Dgf8MxbnmmUJuMA5N/s200/VenicePier04small.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 149px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
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The wonderfully poetic and imaginative artist/filmmaker Gary Beydler passed away on January 16, 2010. I had the great fortune to work with him on restoring his films beginning in 2007, but the great misfortune to have never gotten the opportunity to meet him in person. These four images above are from his final film, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Venice Pier</span>, which was completed in 1976. Running 16 minutes in length, it's his longest film by far, and also his only sound film. I wanted to share these few images and a telling of the story of its restoration as a tribute to Gary and his work. (This entry will run longer than the usual.)<br />
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I first contacted Gary in 2007 to inquire about his films. I had seen <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Pasadena Freeway Stills</span> and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Hand Held Day</span> thanks to David James, and thought they were wonderful works. As I had begun to eagerly search out L.A. filmmakers and their films, I called Gary and asked him where they were kept, if he wanted to deposit them at the archive where I work, and so forth. I found him a very interesting conversationalist, with a great and unexpected sense of sometimes dry, sometimes absurd humor. He did indeed have his films, and he would dig them up and send them to me.<br />
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All told, Gary made six films that could be considered finished pieces: <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mirror </span>(1974), <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Pasadena Freeway Stills</span> (1974), <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Hand Held Day</span> (1975), <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Los Ojos</span> (1974), <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Glass Face</span> (1975), and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Venice Pier</span> (1976). All are 16mm except <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Mirror</span>, which was made in super 8. There is something miraculous about each one - in fact, the more I think about them, the more I feel that word really fits. I think anyone who's seen the films will at least partly agree with me on that.<br />
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I had only known about four of the films (the first four mentioned above), from an article David James had written in the mid-'70s (David's first published piece ever, he tells me). <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Glass Face</span>, it turns out, was never really shown, and, like <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Los Ojos</span>, it's one of Gary's more sweetly silly films, perhaps not as profound as the others, but just as jewel-like and heartfelt in their way.<br />
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At first, Gary had only turned up some of his material. Aside from some material for the films I already knew, he told me he had found "this other film I made about the Venice Pier - you probably haven't seen it." He proceeded to describe it to me- he had filmed it over the course of an entire year, shooting at different points on the Venice pier at different times of day, every couple of days. The finished film unfolds as a spatially "correct" procession down the entirety of the Venice pier, but with the shooting chronology all mixed up. Each cut could be a jump forward or backward in time, go from night to day, from September to June to January, rain to sunshine, populated to empty, but always moving forward to the end of the pier, one cement block at a time.<br />
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The film sounded amazing to me. Knowing his other films, I automatically trusted Gary's talent and creativity. There was no way this film could be a stinker. I was extremely eager to see it. He sent it to me in the first batch of stuff he found, but it wasn't a print of the film - it was the original picture and sound rolls. He couldn't find the print.<br />
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The originals also had the beginnings of vinegar syndrome, a deadly, uncurable disease among acetate film stock. It can potentially be slowed down with good climate-controlled storage, but not stopped. So I was faced with a situation in which I needed to decide if I should spend a good chunk of my allotted preservation money on a film I'd never seen, a film which, though it had shown in a premiere few-week run at an opening Gary had at the Gagosian Gallery, had otherwise never been seen, and certainly never written about at any length. It was more or less a forgotten, invisible film.<br />
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Gary had also told me it was his favorite of his films, and he was really bummed that people in 1976 hadn't seemed interested in it. It was his last film - he gave up artmaking and filmmaking soon after that showing. How could I need any more impetus to preserve this film? A master filmmaker, whose favorite and most ambitious of his own films was neglected in its time... there was no question of preserving <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Venice Pier</span>.<br />
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It was incredibly tantalizing - but not very revealing - to hear the full soundtrack, after I had it transferred and reviewed it for dropouts and other problems (using DJ Audio and Audio Mechanics, two great audio houses). The original picture roll, all shot in the same kind of Ektachrome, offered me a look at the imagery from beginning to end - but only on the rewind bench. Knowing the film's concept, the roll of film on the bench made sense to me, but at risk of sounding overly dramatic, I sincerely felt its magic and beauty was still totally unreachable.<br />
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The original was in great physical shape, with no damage, other than the vinegar syndrome. I sent it to Colorlab in Maryland, who had done some great work with me on other projects. Meanwhile, a new optical track negative had been created from the sound restoration work, and it was sent to Colorlab as well. After talking to Gary about the color, I told Colorlab to just match the new print to the original - Gary had never manipulated the timing, and wanted to print to look just like he had shot it.<br />
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The first print finally arrived, I believe, on August 1, 2008, and it honestly was the most eagerly anticipated screening of my archival career. I grabbed my colleague Joe Lindner, who had been interested in the film as well, and we immediately threaded it up in our small screening room, and watched <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Venice Pier</span> for the first time.<br />
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At this point, it would be ludicrous to try to describe the experience, but the film totally exceeded all of my expectations. It is breathtaking. Almost a year had passed between Gary's first description of the film to me, and my first opportunity to see it, with a fair amount of lab work and waiting in between.<br />
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I work on a lot of "well-known" avant-garde filmmakers' work, but I also work on a lot of obscure stuff. It's so hard to figure out sometimes how to get people to take a chance on showing or teaching a film they don't know. When films get preserved that don't have some built-in scholarship behind them, they sometimes need an incredible push to bring them into visibility. New scholarship is urgently needed on previously unwritten histories of forgotten and unknown works. Outside of the academic realm, these works simply need to be shown and seen.<br />
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Although Gary is a known filmmaker, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Venice Pier</span> is not a known film. But it is an absolute masterpiece. I'm not one to mindlessly promote, and I certainly don't make anything off of doing so, but before Gary died, he eagerly agreed to let prints of his films go to Canyon Cinema as they got preserved, and we were able to get <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Venice Pier</span> (and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Pasadena Freeway Stills</span>) in there, much to his pleasure (and more to come). I hereby enthusiastically challenge those of you that teach and curate film to give this amazing film a chance - show it to students, show it in museums, microcinemas, cinematheques, on rooftops, wherever. It really is as wonderful as it sounds.<br />
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It can be rented (on 16mm) from <a href="http://www.canyoncinema.com/">Canyon Cinema</a>. Thanks for reading this extra-long entry.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-38259979077662452242009-05-07T10:22:00.000-07:002017-07-25T19:13:01.057-07:00an ephemeral sculpture<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b><span style="color: red;">PRESERVATION INSANITY has moved! <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrrx5OPpr-Zb_JlI5__e3ysQtAXd7srZSRgPVJY4Wmk811qu-LIJsAl5wNRmUpTQasg1vemcrdLamVzn2ODERLWiuJ5lSy7DCblKSUuKqgvIsAsC5ZUegMiOECd6sjJR9Ff11VbbhRRp0K/s1600-h/IngaFilm.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333133857153896002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrrx5OPpr-Zb_JlI5__e3ysQtAXd7srZSRgPVJY4Wmk811qu-LIJsAl5wNRmUpTQasg1vemcrdLamVzn2ODERLWiuJ5lSy7DCblKSUuKqgvIsAsC5ZUegMiOECd6sjJR9Ff11VbbhRRp0K/s200/IngaFilm.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a>Inga (the artist formerly known as Chris Langdon) and I were going through some of her film, and this one roll of faded 7381-color-print-shot-in-c<span class="word_break"></span>amera-as-negative unspooled in this way that we both thought was pretty magnificent.<br />
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Incidentally, Chris Langdon and Fred Worden, when they were at Cal Arts ca.1972-73, completed two films that were shot using print stock rather than camera stock (Now, You Can Do Anything and Venusville), as well as shooting (but never finishing) a third film, called The Boat Show. <br />
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I'll be showing a restored print of Venusville on 5/29/09 at the Hammer Museum for those who might be interested to see it. And Now, You Can Do Anything is in the works to be restored by this Fall.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-15933062611858760082009-02-26T08:56:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:13:13.608-07:00Not about film preservation, but...<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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...I was just thinking this might be a fun thing to put up regardless. I find it kind of touching too, so I hope no one thinks it's too frivolous or anecdotal. I feel like this kind of stuff is also really crucial in its way, even if superficially it may seem trivial or indulgent for me to post it here.<br />
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In November of 2007 I visited Boulder and Denver to do a whole mess of stuff, although the primary reason for the trip was to spend some time with the Stan Brakhage papers, housed at CU. Aside from finding a lot of documents (particularly lab invoices) that would be extremely helpful to the restoration work on Stan's films, a lot of interesting ephemera related to Stan's life and career. In some cases, I took snapshots of some of this material, even if not relevant to actual preservation work, usually because I found it interesting or helpful to filling in holes in what I knew about Stan's biography during the early-to-mid-'50s in particular, a period of his life I'm very curious about.<br />
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A lot of folks who've studied experimental film know that Stan and filmmaker Larry Jordan went to high school together. Here's an article from the school's newspaper following a play they appeared in together. The school is South High, the paper was called (is still called?) The Confederate, and the date of this little article is February 21, 1951. That's Larry on the left, and Stan in the middle.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjmhUW95KSQo8o8rZ1oXHTttZ0DU1C5IVAqvJKq4l-gpgmoQPrH5fMEj3zhpXhPoz0ufBEgHf7Hej11FNqOnTuv8QYXxlG4ZBYC-Dzh3dyCf2q4ci93fBR9WBFe3rNeBL3LsN5MT0ajfdZ/s1600-h/BrakhageJordanarticle-02-21-51.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307153753470158834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjmhUW95KSQo8o8rZ1oXHTttZ0DU1C5IVAqvJKq4l-gpgmoQPrH5fMEj3zhpXhPoz0ufBEgHf7Hej11FNqOnTuv8QYXxlG4ZBYC-Dzh3dyCf2q4ci93fBR9WBFe3rNeBL3LsN5MT0ajfdZ/s200/BrakhageJordanarticle-02-21-51.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
I just hope you find this sort of curious and sweet, and of historical interest, and I promise I'll get back to focusing on the usual stuff after this.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-58992557347142577982009-02-16T21:35:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:13:25.275-07:00Hell Spit Flexion.<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCHrQwej8Bf5y2R0SIGdLADKX2LuuUz8gC4yhJRrdtFLlSu1QqChqEIYtR20_AtyJfaeVW8qRTziad4AM97LnwOJA1nLaxx_sK0dN8eS2wLnYMtPt-kIfSe30COZtznkNBmOrMHBxL4f0/s1600-h/HellSpit01-wm.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303636183795568082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCHrQwej8Bf5y2R0SIGdLADKX2LuuUz8gC4yhJRrdtFLlSu1QqChqEIYtR20_AtyJfaeVW8qRTziad4AM97LnwOJA1nLaxx_sK0dN8eS2wLnYMtPt-kIfSe30COZtznkNBmOrMHBxL4f0/s200/HellSpit01-wm.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a>Several months ago, I went through pretty much all of Stan Brakhage's 35mm painted originals to figure out what was up with them regarding their condition, production process, and what they might need in terms of preservation. <br />
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Now, maybe this is something some people have already noticed, but personally I was surprised to discover that Stan created <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Hell Spit Flexion</span> (1983) by painting over a 35mm print of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Garden of Earthly Delights</span> (1981). The photo here is of the painted original, and you can see this magenta, faded print of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Garden</span>... underneath the paint, particularly in the lower center (as it's oriented in this photo) of the middle frame.<br />
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The color in the underlying print of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Garden</span>... is faded because, as many of you probably know, Eastman Kodak's color print stock (in particular) had major dye stability problems up to 1982-83, when it was reformulated to "low-fade" LPP stock following a major outcry and ultimatum from dozens of filmmaking luminaries (one of whom was Stan Brakhage).<br />
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So there is already a 35mm internegative of the film, made in 1983 from this painted original, which could sensibly be considered an "original negative" of sorts. However, if we decided to go back to this painted original to make a new preservation negative, the faded color of the underlying <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Garden</span>... print would make it very difficult (or perhaps impossible) to match the original appearance of the film at the time of its making.<br />
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Here's another picture from the original, this time of the titlecard. Notice how it's actually made up of the original blank copyright notice frames from <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Garden</span>... (time to get out your Criterion DVD), except with "Hell Spit Flexion" scratched in, and the copyright year changed (also via scratching) from "1981" to "1983". (For that matter, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Hell Spit Flexion</span> is on the Criterion DVD too, as part of <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Dante Quartet</span> (1987), although it might be hard to compare, as it's the tiniest part of the Quartet.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFj7mlYsnACEBfyCevN8e7LIiOLcWBRe2TkYCqKCCRYGC6bPgHB1-riuoJ2PDZvTV0AaFVH7suyoxuCIY96v50Cc3m70VJ4O5861LRuxCrjtPptMKiOsLhwiUws7Up0_WQFhrAkCU_2IVh/s1600-h/HellSpit02-wm.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303640304511904946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFj7mlYsnACEBfyCevN8e7LIiOLcWBRe2TkYCqKCCRYGC6bPgHB1-riuoJ2PDZvTV0AaFVH7suyoxuCIY96v50Cc3m70VJ4O5861LRuxCrjtPptMKiOsLhwiUws7Up0_WQFhrAkCU_2IVh/s200/HellSpit02-wm.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 200px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 150px;" /></a><br />
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That's all for now... as I said in the previous post, let me know if you think the watermarking thing is OK, or annoying, or ineffectual, or whatever. Thanks!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-50240955763006329182009-02-15T16:36:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:13:57.218-07:00Suggestions? Comments? Questions?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEB7Cm0xBqY0ZmBANbsnxnBfrs7L8zQfpagjIp3dhimFjj6nAblvFF1yF3eKJB7kCNCTHAo7pZk1Z_4WHcupaYHnQYEkW-QG07livLKlo5iR580yTAtmOXTD4nJvIDdg4ymd9IY1CYnh7a/s1600-h/Picasso+Loop+01.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303190701576055570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEB7Cm0xBqY0ZmBANbsnxnBfrs7L8zQfpagjIp3dhimFjj6nAblvFF1yF3eKJB7kCNCTHAo7pZk1Z_4WHcupaYHnQYEkW-QG07livLKlo5iR580yTAtmOXTD4nJvIDdg4ymd9IY1CYnh7a/s200/Picasso+Loop+01.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
I have no idea how many people look at this blog, especially considering it's so sporadically updated. But sometimes people will mention to me that they check it periodically, so I guess <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">some</span>body's looking at it.<br />
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Anyway, I thought I'd specifically solicit suggestions, request, comments, etc. at this point. Do you have questions about something general or something in particular that I might be able to answer through this blog? Requests for coverage of specific films/filmmakers/questions about film preservation? Random thoughts? General feedback? Students of film archiving are particularly welcome and encouraged.<br />
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I'd love to hear from people, both to get a sense of who's actually reading this thing, and with the idea that if people have specific questions or feedback, it'll probably prompt me to update more regularly.<br />
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Anyhow, thanks for reading!<br />
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-Mark T<br />
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P.S. For those of you in the Bay Area, hope you can make it to the SF Cinematheque screening I'll be doing on April 1 at Yerba Buena. It'll be a nice, hefty show of restored experimental works from L.A. in the '60s-'70s. Lots of beautiful and crazy stuff, including films by Thom Andersen, Morgan Fisher, Gary Beydler, Roberta Friedman & Grahame Weinbren, David Wilson, Diana Wilson, Fred Worden, Chris Langdon, and Pat O'Neill.<br />
<a href="http://www.sfcinematheque.org/calendar.php">http://www.sfcinematheque.org/calendar.php</a><br />
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p.p.s. The "cut here" image is from a preservation project I've been working on for <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Picasso</span> (1973) by Chris Langdon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-23670105648028056672008-12-09T23:31:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:14:26.572-07:00Scratch n Sniff?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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Lewis Klahr originally assembled his 1987 film <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Her Fragrant Emulsion</span> in Super 8 by taking lots of chopped up strips of film and collaging them together with splicing tape. This roll (about 30 or 40 feet in length) was then copied to Super 8 Ektachrome. Lew then constructed his edit for the film from this Ektachrome material.<br />
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Lew made quite a few Super 8 films, and had some of them blown up to 16mm, but felt they didn't translate well to the larger medium. He told me that <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Her Fragrant Emulsion</span> is pretty much the only one that he thought benefited from the blowup, and this is the primary form in which the film has been shown. <br />
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Here are some photos I took today of the collaged Super 8 original:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM0Fdoj8pthrurCOU0Gckq0SBSPEFFmZQ-3iT5BP6uscsiPEuH6SOusMVKnnccD8PwrRbHxyuU1t7hzWFZs_26Caw1QYyJiYOYQjslk0Ohs-DmFoX9Qb-AZJbg1wn2WZ9fs-qzid_bgGsL/s1600-h/HFE53.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278064515104393074" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM0Fdoj8pthrurCOU0Gckq0SBSPEFFmZQ-3iT5BP6uscsiPEuH6SOusMVKnnccD8PwrRbHxyuU1t7hzWFZs_26Caw1QYyJiYOYQjslk0Ohs-DmFoX9Qb-AZJbg1wn2WZ9fs-qzid_bgGsL/s200/HFE53.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvSleeSDVbk9JTiCfs3g8dYAcqBfhGj9EP3DOcS6S-PXeex0Vzdeg6ePga_Bcy-YMXd7xM70kogmjItHXXbNIKm01jASaYC1z2ylkswxzxrWoARwVDgH9otyz84OW2HuHpcRtrtYvJR7U/s1600-h/HFE57.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278064804865682130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvSleeSDVbk9JTiCfs3g8dYAcqBfhGj9EP3DOcS6S-PXeex0Vzdeg6ePga_Bcy-YMXd7xM70kogmjItHXXbNIKm01jASaYC1z2ylkswxzxrWoARwVDgH9otyz84OW2HuHpcRtrtYvJR7U/s200/HFE57.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZSgJKFFkfT4qkjY4NRAHQH4-FlYzVGYo9txYfYUMwUzESaTMSZ8yVwAJqw7bU7v_mM8uhMQyCaMTKRqfNRrLWN7-A7YQkbxNYQSUhMhhg1yiPcDmG8yWzgX4S2vaQt8D1Dob0sm3OzFn/s1600-h/HFE58.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278064962882590114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZZSgJKFFkfT4qkjY4NRAHQH4-FlYzVGYo9txYfYUMwUzESaTMSZ8yVwAJqw7bU7v_mM8uhMQyCaMTKRqfNRrLWN7-A7YQkbxNYQSUhMhhg1yiPcDmG8yWzgX4S2vaQt8D1Dob0sm3OzFn/s200/HFE58.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZ_pbf_mb9zRDmCbkWylfNan71YsYgaRMsMMmIWx3CazyA7_V9XAtOCiMjYx010jpftAM9TAz8XXPu6DLcKLPBpR12xV-pSFnjaRSLprX6B9N_NGi_FvRbWvfRcIdAz2B9vixjrwCS4-_/s1600-h/HFE59.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278065127860544210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZ_pbf_mb9zRDmCbkWylfNan71YsYgaRMsMMmIWx3CazyA7_V9XAtOCiMjYx010jpftAM9TAz8XXPu6DLcKLPBpR12xV-pSFnjaRSLprX6B9N_NGi_FvRbWvfRcIdAz2B9vixjrwCS4-_/s200/HFE59.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUZf6Za_iczT2wOtm4TsJ7d91BApY3_QMaA0PmH52jr9XfeoE4ci34_7MiO6sHBLVwRS_4OnW6y5OA2go5O2G8l1x6D4x1KyjcT2qZMm5R-LZk5q0JeHV7Ur2oXl-LjfTtbmFlD4eqeohC/s1600-h/HFE66.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278065331680113634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUZf6Za_iczT2wOtm4TsJ7d91BApY3_QMaA0PmH52jr9XfeoE4ci34_7MiO6sHBLVwRS_4OnW6y5OA2go5O2G8l1x6D4x1KyjcT2qZMm5R-LZk5q0JeHV7Ur2oXl-LjfTtbmFlD4eqeohC/s200/HFE66.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYa8QD3XRSeQd1iS0ZI61isV8Z9ntIlpeOtoXnYi4UwkhyphenhyphenJonkZSlosdAVsvD2FrdHdxDRPA-2jEt_TMCZIt_vRF_d0lvs5RdaMbUGcjVSWCS6FoncR8SDGx5F8dDODsRxcxnbkdbbUe1/s1600-h/HFE67.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278065408301253682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYa8QD3XRSeQd1iS0ZI61isV8Z9ntIlpeOtoXnYi4UwkhyphenhyphenJonkZSlosdAVsvD2FrdHdxDRPA-2jEt_TMCZIt_vRF_d0lvs5RdaMbUGcjVSWCS6FoncR8SDGx5F8dDODsRxcxnbkdbbUe1/s200/HFE67.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYHqedjTyJXU95SIg70z6oLBxA0ZIFYScJr1mfbQWelGX22BiSkI4rT1g7PhEs_kdVs20PTRDCJQ-X9Awn5zJHqueGwbGPAeluDqjB_e0XpgwW-E7VGqTSp0bH-aB1hvC74tu53ERV79H/s1600-h/HFE84.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278065486351067186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiYHqedjTyJXU95SIg70z6oLBxA0ZIFYScJr1mfbQWelGX22BiSkI4rT1g7PhEs_kdVs20PTRDCJQ-X9Awn5zJHqueGwbGPAeluDqjB_e0XpgwW-E7VGqTSp0bH-aB1hvC74tu53ERV79H/s200/HFE84.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; height: 150px; width: 200px;" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9080790392370181107.post-37365973475797876272008-11-23T01:15:00.000-08:002017-07-25T19:14:36.962-07:00More Insomnia.<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RpltRRZsjU-YnqitY3nITfuEIiFho9qN3aGuUw3AA_-VTL9GMmtxfK31ih6pcizIos75QHl9hhwoWZ7g1-ZJM9JHnZBX_UGC8mbln1cJGkeHsZMg0gYF7xw5Gk1FuMlGQ9gRMCIa10O2/s1600-h/Insomnia+241.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271783354427034626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3RpltRRZsjU-YnqitY3nITfuEIiFho9qN3aGuUw3AA_-VTL9GMmtxfK31ih6pcizIos75QHl9hhwoWZ7g1-ZJM9JHnZBX_UGC8mbln1cJGkeHsZMg0gYF7xw5Gk1FuMlGQ9gRMCIa10O2/s200/Insomnia+241.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgu6FX0gxn6DGiE7SQkcrVxvreo66gRui-RoqcLRPEPP-2KeYuBUz1hlO418fOLUoTZEKQ57qjVQY5iNc0WffeRKekTWGVIFE4e4aTwTPJ_4WhOw_vGi9mDYN4bQhlaNvt7M_l7U5brSs/s1600-h/Insomnia+237.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271783350499561842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNgu6FX0gxn6DGiE7SQkcrVxvreo66gRui-RoqcLRPEPP-2KeYuBUz1hlO418fOLUoTZEKQ57qjVQY5iNc0WffeRKekTWGVIFE4e4aTwTPJ_4WhOw_vGi9mDYN4bQhlaNvt7M_l7U5brSs/s200/Insomnia+237.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;" /></a>Two more pictures of the original for Fred Worden's 16mm film <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Insomnia</span> (1981) ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0