Grain trailer and Grain: Seeds optical soundtrack gif

The Red Dirt International Film Festival, who programmed "Grain: Seeds" in October of last year, is profiling a different film from the festival each day on their Facebook page. It looked like the other filmmakers mostly had trailers so, even though the film is only 5 minutes long, I made a trailer for it. I used the demo music that I videotaped Erik Sirke playing on an old upright piano in the staff lounge on the second floor of the Education Building. I left his image in the standard def mode I must have shot it in (don't know what camera I used) and inserted footage from the good transfer along with overly dramatic text pages.

Video here is a cropped and 90 degree rotated version which emphasizes the image of the optical soundtrack, which I have cropped from the exhibition versions. 

90 Gigs of "Grain"

My 2k transfer of my new 35mm film "Grain: Seeds" came back today. The only flaw is that the drive they sent was reformatted as a Mac drive and won't mount on my computer. I had to take it to work to check to make sure it is there. It seems to be. The files are stored as individual frames (about 7000 of them) amounting to about 90 gigabytes. I couldn't copy them all, having not brought a large enough backup, but will get it all sorted out soon. I'll be able to use these images to construct multiple aspect ration versions of this film including the original 1.33 to wide screen options. To my surprise, I can also include the optical sound stripe as part of the image (see above). 

no reshooting this scene

We went to the farm this afternoon. I insulated around the window I put in last time. We also inspected the site where the old house was that Margaret's dad and brother burned down a couple weeks ago. I filmed it for "Grain" three years ago (see prior post). All we found a single piece of burnt wood and a bit of electrical wiring.

same old story

I've had a film that I have the footage shot for and voice over written for a year now but have been feeling unable to finish it. Today I recorded William telling the story instead of me (after a significant rewrite). He is more able to perform but he has also become less controlable and insists on ad libbing lines throughout. He also has a continuous cough which I'll need to work around. I took him back to the doctor today and managed to see someone as a drop in. This doctor confirmed that he likely has a viral infection (like Christine suggested yesterday) and has given him an inhaler which should clear it up in a few days. Thank goodness, he has been having a hard time falling asleep or doing anything, it is so persistent.

coming into focus

As the summer comes to an end, I finally start coming into focus. Erik and I finished the main part of the A/B rolling of my 35mm "Grain" film today. I met with a new student. I got some solid work done on my SSHRC application and returned to the archives to study more footage for some tests. Here is a test that isn't working out for me although Erik suggests that I can strengthen the lines using the Path tools in photoshop. I couldn't get it to do what I needed it to, but perhaps I can live with having lost two hours of my life on Monday trying to create it

coming together

I spent the morning working with Erik assembling the footage for my 35mm Grain film "Seeds". I've been creating this footage for three years and I finally have enough. Next thing is to trim it down a bit then do the a/b roll cut (I'm working with my original negatives).
This afternoon I lunched/coffeed with Chrystene Ells, finally catching up with her on all of the changes in her life.

work comes home

This morning I developed the colour 35mm that Erik and I exposed over the past few weeks; a total of 10 strips of 8 feet each. They turned out extremely well. I kept running into the counters in the dark room, either because I am off kilter today or because there is a new glowing clock there that was installed two feet away from where the old one was. I was short on time and had to bring the film home and dry it in the back yard.This evening Derek Olsen came over for supper. He's been in town all week doing some experiments with HD compression and blue ray discs through the NMSL. His feature is set to rendering last night but will take over 100 hours so it will need to be mailed to him.

testing 1-2 uh...

This is a 2 second test of some of the 35mm footage I've been creating for my Grain film series. It is exposed without a camera by laying objects such as grain and other strips of film on top of raw stock in the dark then flashing it with light. Erik and I managed to create about a minute of usable material today, a personal record. The test below is very crudely done by just photographing a few of the strips of film then collaging them into a filmstrip file so that they are transformed into a frame by frame movie. It does do well at simulating the work. This is a positive version as I hope the final film to look. I will intercut 5 seconds of black and white with 5 seconds of colour.

Victoria Day art creation

Victoria Day today. We went to the short parade on Elphanstone to open the Cathedral Village Arts Festival, then to the park and had some fun drawing with the "comic jam" run by Allan Dotson inside the Balkwill Centre. Later I took William to the playground where I shot 300 feet of film of him playing with trucks in the sand for my "Grain" project.

research day 1

Erik started with me today. We talked, did some preliminary thinking about "Rerun", looked at the 3D scanner again, and developed some film. I invited Berny hi to join us and develop some film too as I won't be able to join up with the Filmpool's film frenzy this year so he'll need to take charge. We dried the film outside but it had grown so cold that the drying war very slow and painful on our our hands. I finally processed two rolls I shot in September 2008 of macro close ups of grasshoppers; it will be important to my fall episode of "Grain".

recording

I recorded music in the studio today. With Jeff Looysen I recorded a new pass for "Modern" as well as the incidental music I need for "Grain" and will also be able to use some of the session potentially to replace the lost music from the Film Frenzy workshop film I made last year. This evening I recorded trumpet for "Modern" with Nigel Taylor. It sure takes some lung power to play continuously for 15 minutes.

Incredible

(Image: William and cousin's on Tom Sukanen's ship)

I am starting to get back on track with my projects. I think it takes the completion of some important tasks for me to start feeling positive about what I'm doing. For example, today I had the music from yesterday under my belt and was able to start laying it out with the picture and suddenly I'm able to imagine finishing the project (Modern) rather than it being another albatross around my neck. As well, I think the long End of Life documentary is a step closer; I reviewed a work in progress today and it is able to go to it's next step (audio correction and sweetening). Next Tuesday we record again and I should also be able to get some incidental music for "Grain" recorded and be able to complete that film. On top of all that, I went out and had a wonderful time with William this evening, walking as he rode his bike. We dropped off William's old Dash (from the Incredibles) jacket for Gavin's son Jack. Jack burst into tears when confronted by me and his dad trying to put a jacket on him; completely inconsolable. I figure Jack must have thought the jacket was to correspond to leaving and that he didn't want to leave, especially with a stranger. Or perhaps he's just not as into the Incredibles as we'd be led to believe.

finished

Well, almost finished. I have the first of my "Grain" films nearly done. It is a ten minute, 16mm film called "Grain - Summer: I Can't See the Forest Through My Dreams". Perhaps the longest title of any of my films. It might change but I'll likely shoot the title cards in the next day or two. I'll still need to do a negative cut on it and a final sound mix but none of that worries me much. I have a work in progress to send to Antimatter. I feel pretty good about it, the footage is beautiful.

William goes to school

William started grade 2 today with a new teacher to the school. He enjoyed his day.
I shot a few hundred feet of grasshoppers with a macro lens on the way to work then Eric and I solarized the footage, although much of it messed up. This is done by turning on some light mid way through the processing stage of the film. The last roll I did, I covered the wet will film grains of wheat before flashing it. I think this had some interesting affects. I've not watched any of it yet since I had to rush to a meeting as soon as the film was dry, then home to see how William's school day was.
I posted a new Delusia video, although admittedly this one was much better in colour.

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.

I must be wicked

I can't every feel rested. I'm barely able to hold my eyes open as I wait for this dvd of the Guy Maddin-esque video that Eric and I made over the past week to burn so I can spend my lunch hour tomorrow with Eric kinescoping, in between my classes with my two grad students. I felt pretty alert while driving home the other day from Prince Albert, I credit the three espressos I had that day, and almost no food. I'm noticing that food makes me very tired.
So last week we went to Prince Albert. Paul came with us, so the car was full. In Saskatoon we had a Fudruckers burger and I got the new Douglas Copeland book, the Gum Thief, from the McNally and Robinson book store on 8th. We visited with Judy McNaughton and Michel Boutan in PA, seeing their studios and so on. There was a parade that was rained on by the bucket but we were able to hide out in the art centre. Day two was really William's day. We spent some time in downtown PA, in a used book store I found "The President Vanishes" by Rex Stout, one of the few of his books we don't have yet. We got some Lego on sale at the Zellers, went to the water slide for a few hours, then A&W for supper and back on the road to Waskasiu. William and Margaret went into the rooftop hot tub while I tried to shoot some film. The sunset on the pier was incredible. The next morning we discovered that the bakery nearby was pretty good and quite cheap, so we survived on pastry half the time. William got to start his Lego and we started each morning with Adam West Batman episodes on the laptop. The battery belt stopped working and wouldn't charge, so I couldn't shoot time exposures. I shot a lot of other footage instead, mostly beach stuff, and I sat down in the lobby for two hours and wrote out the soundtrack to one of the four Grain films, I'm pretty happy about that. I dropped my still camera and now the lens doesn't retract and it doesn't take pictures. I replaced it yesterday. I just discovered that the videos the new one shoots are not recognized by After Effects, grrrr. The next day was our last. We went on a hike and I shot more film, 16mm, super-8, and video (with a video camera rather than my still camera). Unlike the way up, I did all the driving back. Felt very in the moment most of the way. Not bad trip, everyone had fun. Best of all, no one insisted that I should wear shorts the entire trip!

Home from Waskasiu

We got home a few minutes ago from a trip to Prince Albert and Waskasiu. I shot a fair amount of film, both super-8 and 16mm, as well as video and stills. The battery belt doesn't seem to be working so I couldn't do any time laps and time exposures I'd wanted to do, but I did sit quietly in the lobby for an hour or two and finally figure out what this film is about and draft a voice over for part of it (I want to work mostly without words for two of the films, and with words for the other two, so this is a big step). I'll call this film "Grain: you can't see the forest through the dreams". The other technical glitch was that I dropped and broke my still camera, very depressed about that. Fortunately the price of them has plummeted so it'll be easier to just buy a new one rather than get it fixed. More details tomorrow.

fast paced creativity

In the course of three hours I worked on, hmm, I think about 3 or four projects. First thing this morning (or about 10-10:30am) Eric and I shot footage in the studio to create homages to four different Norman McLaren films. I then set up the microphone for a recording with Elder Betty for the End of Life project and, while it was set up anyway, recorded an all new "Mr. Saul" soundtrack. After the recording with Elder Betty, I created and copied to transparencies, the title sequence for the 35mm ray-o-gram style film I've been making. All this while almost dizzy with exhaustion since William woke me up at 5 (I went to sleep at 1:30) and was dehydrated from the physical activity of the shoot (lots of physical movement).
Here is a silent first cut of a video we shot today in reference to McLaren's 1956 "Blur Test".

full day at work

I got a ride in to work with Paul today and was able to put in a solid 9-5. Eric, who seems to have the same level of exhaustion that I'm experiencing, slept in but eventually we got set up to shoot photograms. It took me about one hour to create 100 feet of this work, laying 8 feet at a time down on the slots I have and laying objects on top of it such as kernels of wheat. These images are of course the cornerstone of the "Grain" film project, playing on the idea of film grain and grain grain through the direct physical contact of the two and the drawing of the audiences' attention to the film surface. We switched to using a larger flash for exposing the film for these and bounced the light off of the ceiling. This allowed us to work on either side of the table and not have to be standing or walking at all during the process. I didn't do much developing of film (other than the first 8 foot test) because maintenance is waxing the floor in the student lounge and they moved all their furniture into the darkroom. We also did more kinescoping, redoing a bunch of the later episodes of Professor Delusia.

Monday break ins

Someone broke into our car this morning or last night. I guess it wasn't a real break in, as the car seems to have been unlocked, and it wasn't really a theft, as nothing appears to be missing. This morning, the door was slightly ajar and the ash tray was pulled out (I don't think we kept anything in there as far as I recall) and the cds were pulled out, but they obviously didn't know good music since the best of Dean Martin was not taken, nor any of the other treasures.
Eric and I developed a few hundred feet of film today. I mixed up some paper developer and we did some film with it. I also developed the roll I shot on Saturday, it looks great. I should probably get back to black and white high contrast film, it always turns out for me now.
I posted the first video from my new Professor Delusia the Nocturnalist series.