Week 9: Long-Take Bolextravaganzahhh3!

This past Saturday (yes, we had class on Saturday) our class gathered on campus from 12pm-4pm with the task of shooting (in groups of four) one continuous minute-long take on a 16mm Bolex, then processing the footage in a darkroom and finally projecting and transferring the footage to video.

A few days in advance, the weather forecast was not promising for Saturday: rain and drizzle fo' shizzle.

But, the class was instructed that the show would go on - barring a tornado - and students were strongly encouraged to bring umbrellas, swimsuits, raincoats or other impervious accouterments - hence, a few umbrellas in the long-takes. The result was four pretty off-the-wall long-takes and a rollicking good time.

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So, a bit more about the process. As mentioned, the class shot with a 16mm Bolex, which has a 28 second wind (at 24fps - sound speed). Since each group needed a one-minute long-take, they needed to undercrank the camera at half-sound-speed (12fps). Thus, they were able to shoot for 56 seconds. However, when the film was projected at 24fps, it played at twice the speed (see movie clip, below).

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In Final Cut, students take the transferred-to-video Bolex footage and invert it to a positive image and then slow the footage down to half the speed to get something closer to reality. See the modified footage, below:

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Below, a few more digital stills from the shoot.





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AND FINALLY! ~ All four of the long-takes

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Week 6: Pixillation

As we have quite a bit of super 8 footage left over from last week's animation shoot, there is an opportunity experiment with pixillation, a stop motion technique where live actors are used as frame-by-frame subjects in an animated film. The actors repeatedly pose while one or more frames are taken and then change poses slightly before the next frame or frames are clicked off. These actors become living stop motion puppets.

Also, this week, we watched the finished cameraless filmmaking assignment, "the Four Elements." See below, a compilation of excerpts from each of the 8 projects.

Click To Play

WEEK 3: More film-manipulation techniques

Thus far in class, we've talked about scratching, painting and bleaching film, creating magazine transfers and rayograms in addition to contact printing.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is so much we can do in the realm of cameraless filmmaking that a semester (much less, six weeks) couldn't possibly cover the territory.

But to arouse your imaginations further, below is another example of film manipuation, inspired by Roger Beebe's TBTX Dance .

This example shows how we can print images (using a standard desktop printer) directly onto clear leader.

First, it helps to have a template that perfectly represents the dimensions of the clear leader on which we will print (in this case 16mm leader).



Print out the template and tape 16mm clear leader, so that the sprocket holes of the film match up with the black sprocket holes on the template.



Then, take the template FILE into Photoshop or some other digital image creating program and superimpose a series of images (I have used vector shapes) within the sprocket holes. Save this as a SECOND file.



Next, take your template with the clear leader filmstrips taped to it and print the second file (the one with the repetative images) onto the template with the filmstrips.



Splice those clear leader strips together, load them into the projector and you're ready to go. See example of projected image, below:

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Another movie example:

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And a bit of the filmstrip from which the film was created:



To get a filmstrip animation template, CLICK HERE. This pdf document can be printed out and also opened in Photoshop.

Earth, Wind, Fire, Water

Students in UNCW's 6X1 class were assigned the task of representing "the four elements," using 16mm clear leader, inks, paints, salt, oil, magazines and packaging tape. The video is a class compilation of each of the one-minute "element" projects.

Hand Processing Footage

The above example is a result of laying objects directly on unexposed film and then exposing the film to light - a process of creating Rayograms. Below you'll see an itemized version of the above 16mm handprocessing demo footage from the 6X1 class. Various objects such as glass beads, salt crystals and rice were placed directly on strips of 16mm hi-con film (Kodak 7363), the film was then briefly flashed to light and processed in Dektol developer. This filmstock and developer are ideal for the process because it allows filmmakers to see the film develop before their eyes, under a red safe-light.

Pictured first in each of the below examples is the filmstrip as it would be seen in its physical form. Then there is a very short video clip that shows that filmstrip as it would appear projected. Oh, and a little frame blending was applied to the video. I actually prefer the above composite video without the frame blending because you can more clearly see the objects on the film - but hey, that's just me.

1. Glass Beads and Bubble Wrap

(click on image for larger view of filmstrip)




2. Super 8 Film Footage: Telephone Booth Number Pad
(click on image for larger view of filmstrip)





3. Contact Printing: Stars and Leaves

(click on image for larger view of filmstrip)




4. Contact Printing: Sliced Up 16mm Stock Footage Taped to 16mm Clear Leader

(click on image for larger view of filmstrip)




5. Rice, Salt and Pushpins

(click on image for larger view of filmstrip)