Veritas?

The Baba Yaga concert in December 2005. Curiouser and curiouser, most of the 'fake' concertistas from Wednesday's 'cybergig' were also actually at the 'real' gig. So where's the truth? Be there or be square? be there twice or be squared?
The fact of having to do this to wrap up a short film gives me much pause for thought about means of production. the fact of being able to... gives pause for thought in another direction. Not simply a question of learning from one's mistakes, but of recasting your ideas in the light of experience. I do hate studio work, and I don't approve of arranging things. It's the chaos of cinema that stops it being (as someone somewhere once put it) "an inherently bourgeois spectacle". Yes, but as it is indeed a spectacle, which parts of its fabrication can be used to dig into a truth? Any truth?
Stay tuned or go to www.24th-image.blogspot.com

Exposure

We have seen this before, but just thought you'd like to know that this image has been chosen as the Indie end of year poster/postcard as (apparently???) it exemplifies what we are all about. Which is....? Answers on the same postcard, please.
Something about focus, perhaps? Or locking 13-year-old girls in dank cellars with maniacs? Possibly not... eating dead mice? Crawling under damp floorboards? Er... setting fire to houses with inadequately earthed lights?
Indie is all this and more.

We Fake a Gig

OK, so these framegrabs are from the concert footage we simulated at Indie. Much as it breaks my little dogmaheart to do it, i have to say it looks good. In the next days i will take some frames from the actual concert at Joyous Lake earlier in the year, and judge for yourselves whether this footage sits seamlessly inside it. A splendid time was had by all.

She's back

Ah! To be shooting again... well, we did an insert of the concert, frames of which I will put up over this Memorial Day weekend, while the image above comes from the start of the film. Come back, as have we.

Multiplicity vs Simplicity

I know we've dealt with this before, but as the cows come home to roost, it's worth reiterating. What is the point of using two cameras? Or three? What reasons are we dealing with here?
As I sift through tape after tape of duplicate footage, or watch people sift frustratingly through their own stuff - usually unmarked, never synched, etc etc, I have to ask why I wasn't more forceful in my dislike of the technique. It's like the {guys} who have five or six cars... or guitars... or the feminine equivalent, 100 pairs of SHOES. Now I begin to sound like Foamy the Squirrel.
The problems with two camera shoots - why you should absolutely NOT do it, are as follows:
1. Two cameras produce twice as much footage (of the same stuff) as one camera. Do you need it?
2. Keeping synch is usually unnecessary and trying to keep unnecessary synch hamstrings your creativity. It's such a triumph to get your two angles up that important stuff like asynchronous sound, or B-roll, get ingnored.
3. It's next to impossible to light well for two different camera positions simultaneously. Especially on a low budget or natural light shoot. Spend your time and effort working out either a) how to light from your chosen camera position or b) where to place the camera to best take advantage of the existing light
4. The cameras get in each others way - or worse - into each others images. Or worstest of all, the camerapersons are so intimidated they stay squished into the corner just to avoid the above traps. Result: dull and immobile images. Do you want these?
5. Unless you are using identical cameras, the resulting differences in color, contrast and saturation will make image correction an unnecessarily complicated and onerous chore.
6. Six? I haven't even paused to draw breath yet and we are already at number six! If there are at least five good reasons not to do something, you'd better have a really, really good reason to break this rule/advice/guideline.
Like what?
Like the split screen image above? Like a one-of-a-kind or ephemeral event (i.e. when you absolutely cannot retake or creatively change the angle) for example a live show, concert, sports event. Childbirth, unless you got twins, as more and more people seem to have these days. Even then, you'd notice the 'cheat' unless they were identical twins, but I digress... OK, OK... if you are planning to take down a big, public building with Semtex, I guess...
But unless you really need to do one of the above things... NEVER USE TWO CAMERAS!
There, I said it. Now I feel better.

Valhalla

Life can be most odd. Above is a treated photo from inside Valhalla maximum security prison in Westchester County. We were filming a documentary on the justice system, and being a bit of a stickler, wanted to be inside the actual prison of the story. the authorities were very helpful, but the chilly wind of even the disused wing we were allowed to roam free inside was very depressing. me Mum always said I'd end up in jail...
Anyway, after near litigation with that film's producer, I find myself with no artifacts from the film. just this, stolen from the web.
Odd, eh?

Triptych

Who are these geezers, then? On the left is old Lars Trier back in the day. Turns out he was almost our patron saint last year. What with 5 Obstructions, me endlessly ranting about Dogma, and The Idiots, and then Dogville... as the pseudonymous R. Zimmerman once said, "Open your ears and your eyes and you're influenced". Who will it be this year? German Expressionists? Korean horror films? Jean-Luc Godard? Jeunet? Guy Debord? Wes Anderson? Linklater?
Our breath is bated.
Looking at the new batches of rushes from the Indie Lab program, I am heartened and stunned that therre seems to be a leap in visual quality. not only better camerawork, but more effortless images, which as we all know are harder to capture...b or maybe video games encourage a mobile eye...???

PS The other two are Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson, filming 'Breaking the Waves'.

Sushi Western

This gleeful piece of mischief is from the 'to be continued' end of Ian's film. Reviewed the footage with him yesterday and today, and thanks to (?) Joe's 'VIVID' button on his camera (what on earth could that be?) it looks great. We equally opted not to light the cabin interiors, which - under ample daylight and windows - gave lovely fall-offs across the floors and made shadow and silhouette a necessary and beautiful part of the film. I am reminded of an argument between terry Gilliam and the Monty Python guys, way back when they were filming 'Holy Grail'. Gilliam wanted to take time to get the look right, or at least, to make the look an important part of the film. The others just wanted to get the performance right. Wrong. As not only Gilliam's later work shows, and Terry Jones' work (he went on to solo direct the rest of the Pythons' films) taking care of the image actually adds depth to the comedy.
Anyway, this one looks really good. You shall see.

No Llores

It's always nice to see your mates doing well, in this case, a perceptive book on the hazards of being a professional screenwriter. Those of you with decent Spanish can check out the university of Buenos Aires website.
just about the only thing Miguel and I argue about, or have different emotional responses to, are the English and Argentine soccer teams. Hope that Messi and Rooney get a chance to face each other this year, despite their respective injuries. Oh well.

Beneath the cobblestones, the beach

Which is to say, don't know why this link to another of my favourite French 'objets trouves' the RXR sign "Un train peut cacher un autre", which means literally, one train can hide another, but practically means, 'don't cross the lines, you moron, there might be another train coming'... which itself has several obvious and fun sidebar implications and/or interpretations, all correspondences being useful in philosophy as in art.
Well, the photo above literally means what the post title says, but like many many of Debord's formulations, has a poetic concision where the metaphor is also the reality, viz: beneath the hard exterior is a softness; beneath the functionality (and obligation) lies freedom; and quite literally, cobblestones are embedded in fine sand.
Now, what has this got to do with anything? I will speak no more of the ALYCE project until it is about to be done and dusted. rather, of the shoot of Ian penman's film this weekend, where two events occurred (as usual as I ramble on, I might find three events, or four, bear with me): one: though the story was conceived as a kind of jokey pastiche (spaghetti westerns and samurai movies) nevertheless, we kept bumping up against beautiful images, breath-stoppingly touching acting (kudos Chimi Ch. K. L.) and general depth inside the play. In other words, the best of all worlds. One reason can hide another. And also two: you cannot make a child struggle with concepts (imagine your father is leaving home) but must give simple concrete instructions - 'Look at Will's back as he walks away until he turns around and Ian says 'CUT!'. Three: silhouettes have no relief. You'll see, a kiss is just a kiss. Unless it wasn't.
All right. Notes from many new projects underway to follow these next three weeks.
Beneath the effort, the fun.

Stolen and de-interlaced

Just to let you know that rust never sleeps, and that not only is work being done (visual proof, these fiuve new stills) but that new skills are being learnt - in this case how to get those annoying steppy lines off a video image, a process known as de-interlacing, taught to staff member by student. thus fulfilling part of our remit. The resultant sharper images are all pulled from the almost done edits of the Alyce clips. Enjoy.
This weekend sees the onslaught of Indie Lab final project filming, great things expected as ever, we left in the dust, as usual.

Marrakesh market

Brief update: Ultra Terra accepted for Reel Teens festival. And Dan C.'s 'Runaway ball' also inducted. Congrats both. Though for bayla this is all very fast... I wonder if Dan - who's slap in the middle of editing his next short, feels odd at a premier of his last year's film? Time loops. Alyce is progressing - jennillian 'finished' edit with me being unSpocklike and reviewing a couple of alternate choices; Bacci re-dubbing some sound... hard, isn't it?; Dan close to a final cut; Becky, I guess...; trevor finished the animated filming, now only to put on a time line - his treatment of the start is luvverly - Dum though I be.
Hope I can whittle some stills - DE-INTERLACED - for you tomorrow.

Oh, and Jolie came in and liked the rough cut. Pledges to get the remaining bits in the can next weekend. Phew, as the heat rises, and edit room resembles more and more Marrakesh market... I mean - a lot of happy, busy people. See photo.