Chrystene and Berny at Art For Lunch

After having a goodbye coffee with William's cousins before they head home, I fought through the snow to get back to work and attend a very entertaining and energized presentation by Chrystene and Berny about the Filmpool, the puppet workshops, and the forthcoming IPUFF festival of puppet films. Well attended lecture with great reactions.

Not a snow day ... or is it?

Busy all over today; Trevor Grant did his very enthusiastic end-of-term presentation regarding his MFA status (spoke at length about the films he made in the summer with my course). I met with Erik (after a certain degree of kerfuffle around cars not starting) and had been planning on getting him to copy all of the Sockvile sessions into my computer so we could both be working and discussing them. However, we realized that he is working on a higher version than mine so this will be difficult. We'll move a copy into the university next week, but since Evan left the process of purchasing a high end PC to run HD footage is on the back-burner. The work Erik is doing looks great. In many cases, the eye is completely fooled into believing that the puppets are in front of complex sets: the project will certainly look grander than it started off.  This evening I took William to the Filmpool to see a set of animated films with filmmakers Xstine Cook and Jesse Gouchey  present to show and tell. They also did some workshops at William's school recently but he either missed them (he was sick once and also took a half day to go to Agribition, so perhaps he wasn't there or perhaps they didn't come to his class). Anyway, he loved the work and asked questions. Tanya was there and he got to ask her questions about chemistry as well. We bought the Oilfields of Catan add on set on the way home. I then made good use of the speed of my new computer to compile a set of all digital photos we have of snowmen since 2004. There are over 1100. We certainly have another few hundred on film since we got obsessed with this in 1991, but that will need to wait until I can scan large numbers of my old negs. Here is one from 2004:

My First (green) Car

Today I worked at compiling student files into a dvd to give them so that they can have copies of each others projects as well as their own. I wonder how many ever watch them? I've been doing this for about five  years and never get feed back. It doesn't matter actually, I know it is valuable to me to have them together and I also regret not having copies of my colleagues' projects from when I was in school and would like to have had something like this.

With periods of rendering and capturing time, I started leafing through junk on my office shelf and found this Polaroid photo from on the set of "Jimmy's Game", the infamous Gerry Horne Filmpool workshop film from the late 1980s. The image is the only colour photo I have of my car, a mid-70s Datsun 210 or something close to that. I can't recall who the person/actor is in front of it. I was on set one day and played an undercover cop for one shot. Rather ridiculous, even then. Margaret has always claimed that I forget colours of things and that this car was likely orange. I was delighted to have found this in a Filmpool box about 10 or 15 years ago to prove it to her.

Delivery Day

This morning the chip repair guy came and fixed the two chips we got in our new tub during renovations  around it at $75 per chip. The light fixtures for the bathroom also finally arrived. Luminesque gave us a discount for the inconveniences of the three delays. They aren't installed yet, I'll post pictures when they are. My video card also arrived. I just opened it up and was very intimidated; I think it needs its own licence plate. This thing is massive; it takes two slots and must have five times the mass of my old card. It requires its own power. I was a bit freaked out putting it in but finally got it and now it working really well. I imported photos from my camera and it just immediately sees all the photos and displays the thumbnails; no delays at all.

 

This evening I presented the Fragile Harvest film screening at the Filmpool. The crowd was nice. Everyone stuck around afterwards and talked. (there were about twenty people. quite a few more than are in this photo).

Filmpool Premiere Screening

This evening was the first of two Filmpool premiere screening events, held at the Artesian. I'd seen a few of the films before but there were a number of great surprises. Jason Britski's film "Witchcraft" was excellent, featuring x-rays, very old home movies, and the sound of an optical printer. Ian Campbell presented a video called "Warm Iced Tea" which was short in a very fluid fashion, partially through a drinking glass, with every frame being a bold and dynamic compositional masterpiece.  The Art of Fire Showcase by Rob White laugh out loud funny. I had lengthy conversations with Rob Miller, Jason Shabatoski, Stephen Onda, Rob Hillstead, Janine Windolph, Chrystene Ells, and Jason Britski. I went alone, Margaret having a commitment at OSAC and this show being severely inappropriate for William who stayed home to watch the three hour Terry Pratchett film "Going Postal" for a third time this week.

award

I'd like to congratulate Tatiana Maslany, who was on the winning team with me at the Saskatchewan Filmpool's first annual 48 Hour Filmmaking Frenzy six years ago. This weekend she received the special jury prize at Sundance this weekend. I know I can't take ALL the credit but...

restored

Today I finally finished restoring "Daytona: A Happening", a film by Jean Oser that was accidentally cannibalized for found footage sometime last year. Luckily most of the parts were intact. I accidentally destroyed a six inch part in the process and have another six inch part that part that I could not locate a home for. There are a couple other gaps but overall it is there.
Jean Oser was a film editor and a great filmmaker in his own right. He made quite a few short commissioned films in the fifties and sixties (industrials when such things were still pretty cool). He then came to teach at the UofR where he became one of the most influential people in the creation of a film community and film industry in Saskatchewan. The films he made are housed at the Saskatchewan Filmpool and are unlikely to be housed collectively anywhere else in the world. While many of them likely exist in other collections or in the archives of their commissioning companies, no one else has them collected as "Jean Oser" films. This one in particular is a fast paced short about motorcycle racing. Made in the 60s, it is filled with odd bits of slang. At one point the narrator points out that when the race is over, the action hasn't stopped and we see the rider necking with a sexy girl. It was commissioned by the Triumph Motorcycle company.
It was Paul's birthday today: HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL. We had pizza and cake. His brother Mike came to town and surprised him half way through supper. Then we went to the opening at the Dunlop. William was doing a number of drawings and had them laid out on the floor. Two people, including one person who is a programmer at another local art gallery, walked by just as he'd finished them and stepped directly on them. What kind of people go to art galleries these days?

Frenzy frenzy complete

Racing the clock, our team (me, Steve Sutherland, and Kevin MacKenzie) watched and cataloged our raw film footage, wrote our title cards (more difficult than it sounds), edited the film, recorded a musical score for the film, then I took that home and mixed Steve's trumpet with voices we recorded of our process yesterday, then got it to the filmpool and I still had to double splice all the cuts, completing it at 7:35 for the 7:30 screening. We won. William took Berny at face value when he said we could take the trophy home for the year.

Mr. Saul

I'm not Mr. Saul, but I play him in the movies. My most recent, and likely last, installment of my "Mr. Saul" film series screened this evening with an assortment of other films at the RPL as part of the Filmpool spring premier. We also screened "Bonnie's Indescribable Predicament" with Eric Hill playing a live score on a keyboard. We had a question and answer thing afterward, no one asked me anything.

got some sleep and developed some film

Felt pretty good today, got a whole 8 hours sleep last night somehow (not all in a row of course) and we developed a 100'roll of 35mm film using new colour developer and new colour bleach/fix, it turned out okay although not very colourful. The other colour rolls I did looked generally dim and brown, but I made up for it with 3 rolls of perfect black and white. I had a Filmpool planning session at 5:30 so we cut out early. Planning was good. William and finished his Ferrari Lego when we got home, I'll be posting a video on his blog later tonight.

359

I just found The Incredibles soundtrack at the library. I'd meant to order in on line a couple of years ago, having never been able to find it on the shelf, but I rarely get around to that sort of thing. Then on a whim I glanced through soundtracks at the library while waiting for Margaret to get coffee for her break and there it was. It's great in the car, classic 60s style, but po-mo, so that always makes it better.
Eric and I did some more film copying with the flatbed, this time copying film that have optical soundtracks on them to see how well those copy. We probably won't develop them for a week, so I'll have to wait to find out (unless I slip in and do the black and white one...?).
We were supposed to have our first Filmpool Board meeting of the new year this evening but didn't get quorum. Eric is a newcomer to the Board so we talked for a while about things that we didn't need to make decisions about and to bring him up to speed on what the Board does (which I can't reveal here, or else I'll have to kill you).

329

Another busy day, well not too bad except the conflict in my usually calm Sunday. The Filmpool AGM was this afternoon. I rarely miss these. I think I might have missed 1996 as I was in Toronto on the tail end of my graduate work, but otherwise it is likely that I've attended every one since I joined in 1984. I came to the meeting today in jacket and tie and cut out after 30 minutes to attend Brett Bell and Hildy Bowen's wedding. It was to be outside but needed to move in due to rain, but was still nice. Not as much of the film crowd as I'd been expecting. Didn't know what to get them as they didn't have a registry, but that is explained in their wedding blog - read the first part, quite funny. Anyway, this is the second wedding of Brett's that William has attended, but likely the last. They both have such wicked senses of humor that they are bound to make it. Here they are "sucking face" as they discussed in their blog:

308

Last night was nuts, I was so tired I fell asleep at 10 but then woke up with a sore throat at 3:30 and got up and watched half of Blacula which I'd taped the night before. William called out, having woken up and heard the tv, so I went up and slept with him a few minutes then went to bed. I woke again at 6:30 and watched the end of Blacula (he never calls himself that, thankfully, but was named that by Dracula in the 18th century when he was being "cursed". Neither as good nor as bad as I'd hoped. I liked the bar scenes with the comments about his cool cape though. The black and white gay designers who bought Dracula's castle at the beginning were an embarrassing hoot.
We finished the Film Frenzy today. The group I was with, consisting of me, Raoul Cormier a sculptor and musician recently here from Quebec, Ramona Furkert who is rekindling her interest since taking a year of film about 10 years ago, and Debbie Bradford, a creative young woman and mother of a four year old. It was quite interesting (could have been frustrating if I had different expectations) to work with the team, none of whom I'd met before. We all seemed more interested in talking about making a film than actually doing it. This led to hours of discussion. Editing only expounded this situation. We spent six hours putting the footage together today, about four of those were talking about the philosophy of the project, the meaning of the animals and scultures in the shots, Eisenstein's montage theory, surrealism, conflict/non-conflict, and countless other ideas. It took ages to come to consensus. The Filmpool requred other decisions by the end such as a name for our film (Take a few shots on the wild slide) and for our group, which went from "birdbath" to the "birdbathers". We screened the films tonight with Raoul playing live guitar to accompany our film. A jury met and then Jemma Gilboy and Berny Hi announced the winners:

I'm finally back on the cup!!! I was on the winning team for the first two years but then lost on years three and four. Now I'll be on three of the five plaques for this cup. It's built in the classic way so that new tiers can be added, and one already has. Here is the team: L-R: Debbie, Ramona, Raoul, me.
William was in the film so he came, had a good time, took some picures (not this one).

307

I'm wishing to say "I had a lazy day" but instead, yet again, I had a busy day. It was the beginning of the 48 hour Filmmaking Frenzy at the Filmpool. Since 9 am this morning I was out with my group shooting film then in the darkroom developing. The results are looking good, although the project is less focused than I'd have preferred. Editing will be more of a challenge than usual. The screening will be tomorrow night at 7:30 at the Filmpool. It was also free comic book day. Margaret and William got to a store but I missed out. She got me a Hellboy comic, so I'm happy.

199

We had a Filmpool Board meeting today. It went fine,the policy book is one meeting away from being done. I forgot my notes and in mid meeting, with a dire feeling that I had something to say but the paper in front of me just wasn't talking to me, I called home and Margaret read my notes off my copy by the bed. One of the areas we are working on it policy regarding grievances. In our first draft we only acknowledge problems between staff or staff and Board. However, I suggested we must recognise problems that might arise between members and staff or members and Board. It then hearkens back to the fact that Margaret was offered no recourse in the bullying she underwent from Keith Calhoun at CJTR radio where she had been a member and volunteer for three years. Without policy, their Board has just swept it under the carpet. Calhoon has cancelled at least one more show since then and at least one Board member from CJTR has resigned over their pigheaded behavior. The names of the CJTR puppet Board are still not available on their website. Margaret's show, which aired for an hour on two days of the week, is still not replaced (after 3 months) and continues to be filled with randomly selected music.

167

This morning I stopped by the Filmpool and finally started doing the volunteering I have been so remiss in these past few years, I helped clean up for the Christmas party. This afternoon I got a draft of my Splice article written (sitting at 3000 words now), and then we all went to the party. They auctioned off film cans with prizes in them. William really loved the idea of bidding on them so we bought two, the first one for $11 that contained $12 worth of theatre tickets plus some candy canes, and the last one with the grand prize for $43 with undisclosed contents (remind me to tell you about it after Christmas).

142

So I made some calls this morning and figured out why I don't have my work email anymore - Access Communications has blocked it because of that virus I have. Apparently they mailed me a letter but I still don't have it. On the phone they said I should go to "housecall", virus scanning thing that they trust - this is of course the big problem in that you don't really know what to trust and what might just add to the problem -- so I did so and spent 5 hours getting this thing to scan the computer and determine I have 74 problems and then to get the updates to windows to take care of them. Finally, at the end of it all, the virus is still there. It seems that Access also knows it as they have just taken my email away again (I had it for a few hours today). So what else did I do today? I found Margaret some scissors (not the same name brand, but they are spring type so that's good) and went to the Filmpool Board meeting (that I'd forgotten about until this afternoon when I got a phone call about it at the exact moment I was reading the reminder email. I read a bit about lens theory (including a bit or two I didn't already know) and did not mail all the letters I've got sitting here. I didn't sleep well last night and spent the day tired and convinced that the world is conspiring to ensure I don't have big enough hard drives.

112

We had a Filmpool Board meeting this morning, they've been devilishly difficult to schedule, I missed one in July and we've not had quorum for another since. We talked a lot about spaces that the Filmpool could move to, and basically if we should move at this time. Then I went home to make cookie batter, a double batch of cranberry with orange rind instead of lemon as I don't have any lemons in the house.

when G met M

So I was standing in the rain and Tanya rode by, as if on cue, but perhaps I should begin earlier...

Began today with a trip out to Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy William a new coat. While the name says it all, I was suddenly surprised that it actually WAS a co-op and as such, served its members. You buy in for life (does everyone who is a member of a film co-op across the country know that once they join, they can vote until such time that their membership is specifically revoked? Filmpool began a policy a few years ago to send people letters at some point after their dues with a few months late to remove them from the membership, but these each needed to be voted on by the Board of Directors. Anyway, I got pretty tired of walking around Victoria so I checked out of the hotel at 10:55 and asked if they could call the airport bus. The bus said they could come at 11:05, and they did. I therefore got to the airport before noon for my 2pm flight. As the check in person was not busy, she started looking for the best seat for me to stretch out and then asked if I'd prefer to be on the 1:00 flight, I agreed and before I knew it I was munching peanuts (honey roasted, my own purchase, nothing was given on the flight) and soaring over Georgia Straight. Instead of an expensive cab or slow bus, I caught the quick Vancouver airport bus, about to leave, and got to the Sky-Train and scooted towards Burnaby. The instructions I had became unclear once I was off the train and walking "past the big high-rises" of which there were more than one (more than 5) so I was standing in the rain and a bicycle with a familiar rider nearly passed me by and I yelled out "Tanya".

We're vegging out and watching a movie tonight. Doug just got back in, he was in (ironically) Victoria for the past day going to the big museum (which I still didn't go to as it was 24 dollars).

I did other stuff yesterday but I can't remember right now.

broken record

I was asked by Felipe Diaz the other day if I'd be the quizmaster for the 50-104 film festival awards evening, which was tonight, and to come up with questions that might be judged not by the right answer, but by the best answer, so I came up with this list of questions.

1. Bruce McDonald, where did he sleep during production of Road Kill?

2. Arthur Lipsett worked for the NFB throughout the 1960s but left in 1970. He returned for short while in 1978 but did not stay long. What was the primary reason the Arthur Lipsett used in his written letter of resignation from the NFB to producer Bobn Verral in 1978 for leaving the
NFB?

3. Before he was a cylon on Battlestar Galactica, Callum Keith Rennie starring in what film by Michael Hoolboom, and what was the subject matter of that film?

4. Whose visit to Regina in 1998 has been credited for inspiring the creation of the One Take Super 8 event?

5. What did Guy Maddin use as a soundstage for the production of his third feature film, “Careful”?

6. Before his series “Wapos Bay” had the support of the NFB, SCN, and APTN, Dennis Jackson shot a student film that acted as the pilot for the series. Where was this pilot shot?

7. What year, or years, was “The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood” made and what the significance of its completion to Newfoundland?

8. What did David Cronenberg study in university and what, if anything, did he graduate with a degree in?

9. Brad Castor, director of “Get a Job”, and Cordel Barker, director of “The Cat Came Back” worked together in their early careers as animators making short interstitials for Sesame Street and created weekly televisions commercials for what company

10. What years did Jean Oser live in Regina?

Tie breaker: What is Felipe Diaz’s chosen porn name?.