Shooting film in 301 Cabot St Gallery

We have turned the 301 Gallery at Montserrat into a film set for the month of June. We are shooting interiors for a film project tentatively titled "Velocity". Much of The Institute's 16mm production gear has been moved over there. It is surprising how quickly the space has filled up. I do not look forward to the strike and load out. Maybe we can have a party. Here are some stills by Lillie Harden from our second night of shooting.

Next Random Orphan Film Show February 24th

Our next Random Orphan Film Show will be on Friday February 24th at 7:30 pm.
We will showing films from our collection of educational, industrial and narrative films.
Each show is chosen at random from the collection by the first arriving audience members.

It is our goal to present these films in the best way possible while preserving the collection for future study.  Visit us at Montserrat College of Art on Friday February 24th at 7:30 pm.

First Random Orphan Show of 2012

We have moved the Random Orphan Showings to once a month. Last night choices gave us three films. Bleeding and Bandaging, Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge, Orthographic Projection.

Bleeding and Bandaging is a Red Cross film aimed at instruction. It addresses the need for quick treatment of bleeding wounds in the event of a disaster. Obviously made before the advent of the Disaster Film genre, it shows a host of curiously passive victims being treated on location in simulated earthquakes, indiustrial accidents, car crashes or un-named disasters. The wound and blood effects are quite realistic and since it has already become a "pink" film from the fading of the color dyes in the film emulsion, the blood is even more rich and red. Not as frightening as being on the last commuter train after a Bruin's game but it is sobering and poignant in the way people are shown caring for each other's bloody wounds in the pre-HIV world.

Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge is a classic short black and white film based on a short story by Amborse Bierce. Directed by the late French Director Robert Enrico in 1962. Shot overseas, it is an impressionistic film that creates and interesting visual space with with lots of camera movement and extreme closeups. The film won best short film awards at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and a short film Academy Award in 1963. The film was later purchased for broadcast on the American television series the Twilight Zone. The sound on our particular print was not great which didn't do justice to the post dubbed sound. (I could have over driven the sound on my amp). The post dubbed breathing and amplified foley sounds of this kind of sound film is remniscent of the intense presence and sonic awareness of the Italian Westerns of Sergio Leonie. Great story and I'm glad we have it in the collection.

Orthographic Projection is an instructional film about mechanical drawing of objects from multiple points of view. From the McGraw Hill company which also published textbooks this used simple and well produced animations that illustrate the principles of drawing multiple views of object for manufacturing purposes. There is little else but information here but those of us who had to learn mechanical drawing in high school were sent right back to those shop classes with the t-squares, numbered pencils and compass sets. An interesting elision happens about the word projection since important operations of projection are described but never explained. This I guess, happens in another film. File under; postwar vocational training.

A good show and a good audience.

January at the Institute

January at the Institute

We look forward to several specific events in January along with some unstructured activity as well.

THE RANDOM ORPHAN SERIES. On Saturday January 14th at 7:30 pm we will be presenting films from our Random Orphan Series. We will continue to show films from our collection chosen primarily at random. Although our method is less rigorous than say, John Cage we will nonetheless leave the choice of films for showing up to the whim of the first audience member arriving. January 14th 7:30 pm.

ONE REEL CHALLENGE. The Institute will continue to solicit film makers to make one reel Super-8 films. Which we will process and show on site. So far, Kathleen Brennan, Joe Shepard have taken the challenge. There are still two challenge rolls of Tri-x out there waiting  to be shot. Ongoing with Matthew and Dan.

A DAY AND AND EVENING OF FILM. This event will bring together Boston based film makers to make a film in a day. This will involve shooting processing, editing and projecting a film in a day in January. Dinner will be served.TBA soon.

SUPER -8 WORKSHOP IN PROGRESS

We finished our first day of the Super-8 Workshop with Tara and Gordon Nelson. We got lots of good information about film, cameras and processing of black and white film. Gordon demonstrated the hand developing process. We got two 50 ft. rolls processed. More to come on the topics of editing, projections, tinting and hand drawing on Super-8. So far, this has been a comprehensive workshop taught by two knowledgable, and fun instructors. Next and final session, next Saturday November 5th, 10 am to 4 pm.

UPDATE ON THE RANDOM ORHAN SHOWINGS

This week we looked an a few films; Hamburg, Blinkety Blank, Frank Film, and American Time Capsule.

HAMBURG was a German language film about the city of Hamburg Germany, meant to go with a German language study guide. Originally in color, there are lots of shots of pink buildings and people over a breezy narration about 1970's Hamburg Germany. Focused on the demographic and cultural aspects of the city. Might be a good starting point for a comparison to present day Hamburg. Organized, all in focus tourism board footage.

BINKETY BLANK This was one of the hand drawn (scratched) films completed in the 1960's by Norman MacLaren of the National Film Board of Canada. Done with an original score it begins as an abstract response to the music which is experimental but not narrative or melodic. As the short film progresses it becomes more literal and narrative and almost whimsical as only a National Film Board of Canada film can be. No edginess. In the end everything turns out OK.

FRANK FILM by Frank Mouris is sort of a failed project film that chronicles Mouris's childhood and experiences with consumer culture through his collection of images. Impessive because it was made before digital image storage and retrieval. Everything is collaged and animated on an optical printer. It represents a bath of images which wash over you as his voice narrates a multi-track version of his biography to date. Funny and powerful at the same time.

AMERICAN TIME CAPSULE -By Chuck Braverman. This film first appeared on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour which aired in the early 70's. It attempts to represent 200 years of American history in 2 minutes and 43 seconds. It is set to a jazz-like drum solo. It seems a bit heavy on the civil war an light on the 60's. Impressive for the same reason that FRANK FILM was. An intensive research and animation project long before Ken Burns ever rolled film.