Matte Box Experiments

Before filming The Mystic last semester, I was experimenting a lot with the Bolex mattebox, cutting my own mattes with different flaps in them so I could expose different parts of the image at a time. I worked on creating composite images and multiply exposed images in camera. These trial runs helped me immensely in figuring out how to complete The Mystic.



This was my first experiment. I exposed one v-shaped section of the frame at a time, keeping the camera in roughly the same place (this is filmed from a concrete wall at the intersection of LSD and Monroe) and letting each shot run for about 30 seconds, a full wind on the Bolex. Those dark shapes at the top right of the frame are my fingers holding the flaps up, one at a time. I had to rewind the camera between each exposure, so this strip of film was exposed six times.



This was actually my last experiment that day, in the darkened cafeteria of the Columbus Building. I wanted the shapes to look like they were traveling across the frame, so I used the frame counter to rewind between each take back to the middle of the previous one.



This was my second try (and first success) at making triple exposed matted images. For this shoot I planned out a series on my stright-cut flap matte. I wanted each section of the frame to be exposed three times. I wrote out the sets so that the whole film would be run through the camera six times, with a different organization of flaps open each time.

Your Stripes

Is this funny?
(For Xerox Candy Bar.)

The Mystic

This is a film called, obviously, 'The Mystic'. It was my final project for my Image Making class last semester. I made it over one weekend on one 100' roll of 500T color negative film stock, completely in camera. Following is the long complicated explanation of my methods for those of you geeks actually interested:

The first run of the film through the camera was the most difficult one, since it included bi-packing in the bolex this srip of sequined film every six feet or so. The strip ended up (after splicing only the sequins together, cutting out the empty sewn parts) ten seconds long, and I had worked out that my film would be about two and a half minutes (giving me ample room on either side, since the entire roll is almost three minutes long), meaning I had to pack the sequins into the camera and run it for ten seconds exactly fifteen times. Because this process of loading and unloading the camera had to be done in the dark, I physically marked my film by punching three holes with a hole punch at the very start, and one small thumbtack prick between each run of sequins. I would set my two daylight spools up on the rewinds, in the dark, and then actually tape the sequined strip to the most recent punched hole in the film, roll it up on the spools, and then re-thread the camera being careful to place the taped frame in the gate. When ten seconds had been shot, I carefully wound the camera to the exact frame count, turned off the lights, opened the camera, used a thumbtack to punch through whichever frame was in the gate, unthreaded the camera, set up the spools on the rewind arms, untaped the sequined strip, and started again from the pin prick that I could feel for in the dark.
When I was shooting this bi-packed part I had a lens on the camera (10mm to be exact) and was shooting a blank white wall I had illuminated. I had a matte box attached to the front of the Bolex and on it, a circle matte I had made. The black letters in this film (the dialog, as it's supposed to be understood) were accomplished by cutting out letters from black paper and taping them over the front of my circle matte for specific frame counts.
After all of this I rewound the film again, removing the sequined strip, and synced up my hole punches, then wound the film to the specific frame counts (there was a lot of math and charts and frame counts drawn out before this process started) in which I wanted the glowing white letters. Here, I placed over my circle matte more mattes I had cut out, this time with the negative space being the letters. Then I shot all of the letters I wanted in white as well as the flashing sequences towards the end.
The next step involved rewinding again, recruiting my friend AJ (thanks AJ!), and setting up a simple little set in the shooting space. We put a cloth on the ground and made this crazy light-box thing with brown paper and some chairs and plywood we found lying around, so that there would be a circular light in roughly the same spot as the sequins would have been flashing, so that in the finished film it would look like a crystal ball or something that was illuminating AJ. I made another matte for the camera, this one being the opposite of the first circular matte, a solid circle suspended in front of the lens. You can see the tape holding it up in some of these shots. I also matted off the right half of the frame. Then I had AJ sit and look serious, wearing very little clothing, and wave his arms around. I shot the required number of frames (all counted out beforehand!) with some single framing to make it look choppy and weird.
Then I rewound the film again, removing the matte over the right half of the frame, to the places in the roll where I wanted the close ups. Here I had AJ sit with his forehead against the matte box and squint while I ran the camera at regular speeds and single framing.
Another rewind of the camera, and AJ and I deconstructed our light box and set it up again facing the opposite direction. I matted off the left half of the frame this time and shot AJ again looking serious, but without the arm waving. We cleaned up the space and AJ put his clothes on. Then I dropped the film off at the lab.

OK! If you read all that, thanks. I was in a state of suspended mild anxiety the whole time since a lot of this stuff I was trying for the first time - mostly, I hadn't done all of those things all at once before - and there were so many ways I could of fucked it up. The room in which I did all my bi-packing was not entirely light proof, which shows in the fogging of parts of the film, but I don't really mind that. There is only one place in which I seriously didn't get what I wanted, but you have to ask me or guess if you want to know what it is.

I conceived of and executed this film in about four days, and because of that I feel that it's not that conceptually interesting. Visually, I think, it's a resounding success and I am very excited about the future possibilities opened to me by this experiment. I'd like to use these techniques and more considered ideas to make similar films that actually mean something. I'll keep you posted.

I Have No Interest In Drawing Animals

More from old sketchbook. I like my notes to myself in these, and especially the old lady sitting in front of the mystery tree. Her face is totally fucked up logically, but you get a ton of information from it.

That drawing animals thing is still true, by the way. Animals suck.

Sequin Sequence

The first video is one of the first things I made this semester in my Image Making class. It's a strip of clear 16mm leader with about ten seconds of thread sewn through each frame; every two seconds (every 48 frames) I switched from just thread to thread and sequins, one sequin per frame. This effectively created (as you can see) one giant sequin flashing different colors for a couple seconds.

The second video is a rayogram onto color positive film stock. I took the unexposed film and held the strip of sequins against it, with a light table below. By turning on the light table for a second or two the film was exposed, light shining through the sequined film strip, and an image was created that roughly (really roughly) approximated the first embroidered strip of film. My group and I also played with a bunch of filters laid on the light table, which is where all those crazy colors come from.

Nautical Warning

 This is the cover of my current sketchbook. Her name was not invented by me, but by Andrew.

Potluck Planning

And here is something more from that old sketchbook. I used to throw a lot of dinner parties. I love cooking and I love hosting and I think I'm pretty decent at both. In this instance, I was planning a meal for about ten people, including some vegetarians, and because, well, not really because of anything, I drew pictures to go with all my ingredient lists.

Here is another thing from the same sketchbook that I think is really funny. Like, really funny. I don't know what it means so don't ask, although I do vividly recall completing these steps on several occasions.

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

 I made this mini-comic last week for my Indie Comics class. I found a zine called "Elvis Goes to Parkes" about a bunch of non-Elvis fans dressing up for an Elvis convention. The zine is just a bunch of low-res bitmapped photos of Elvis impersonators. I really liked the range of characters and effort. It was an assignment to respond to whatever zine we picked out, but after I finished this (in its physical form it's a little twelve page booklet) I liked it so much I decided to keep working on it. I'll be printing copies in my offset printing class, and probably add a layer of inkwash tone, a la Alison Bechdel's newer stuff. (Many artists do this but I've been thinking a lot about Alison Bechdel recently, after re-reading Fun Home and talking to my mom about how she was a fan in the eighties. Alison also talked to my class yesterday over Skype, which was pretty cool and also weird, having a giant pixelated head on the wall, and she's coming to Chicago next weekend to be at Women and Children First's 30th anniversary party.) Anyway, I like this little comic because to me it's all about this kind of postmortem obsession and devotion, sad and funny and strange.

Electrolyte Enhanced Doritos

More pages from that old sketchbook. That is a cutout from a Doritos bag in the middle. The brown coffee stain occurred later but I think it really helps with the overall what-is-this-shit aesthetic.

Brainstorm

From an old sketchbook, circa 2007. I think I was in my Media Practices class (the prerequisite to all film and video classes). I remember my friend Nick leaning over my shoulder, chuckling and getting glared at by the teacher.