OILYFILMS

This week’s film is  the video for MeatDraw’ s “Old World.”   We shot it at the beginning of September, with the donated time and talents of dozens of people. It is  one continuous shot, and travels from earth to space and back. Quite an ambitious undertaking, and very different than the films I normally make, but I’m pleased with the results.

Daniel Lombardi, the Art Director, filmed some “behind the scenes” footage…of how we choreographed and made it all happen and the 20+ people involved in the actual shooting. I’ll try to post it soon.

CBC Radio 3  did an interview with the band (hilarious!), and premiered the video this week on the R3TV podcast.

You can find the original post here (with links to subscribe in iTunes)

http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2008/10/R3TV-Episode-69-Meat-Draw

or you can watch the YouTube version here:

Or just the Old World video in Quicktime format here:

 

 MeatDraw - Old World - Music Video by Scott Amos: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Unfortunately, like most  broadcasters, they chopped the credits off the end, so here they are in text format. This video would not have happened without the help of all these people. Thanks to all of you.
S.

Starring:

Chai Ross
Apple Matthews

and
MeatDraw:
- Marco Bozenich
- Stefan Bozenich
- Lily Fawn
- Marek Tyler
- Megan Boddy

Director: Scott Amos
Art Director: Daniel Lombardi
DOP: Daniel Hogg
Cinematography Consultant: Cyrus Block
Gaffer: D.W. Wilson
Stage Managers:
Gillian Reiss
Sarah-Jane Pelzer

Make-up: Erin Froese

Grips:

Colin Hender
Mike Wolske
Talitha Cummins
Jeremy Lutter
Jamie Tanner
Darryl Tamney
Glen O’Neill
Kelsey Oetting

Photos:
Kelly Duncan
Kristen Kilistoff
Darryl Tamney

Props/Sets Construction:
Daniel Lombardi
Scott Amos
Jim Vanderhorst
Adrienne Traviss
Jesse Ladret
Brendan Piper
Colin Hender
Minako Hender
Kristen Kilistoff
Paulina Ortlieb

Craft Services:
Connie Rock

Thanks to:
Open Space - Helen Marzoff, Dallas Duobaitis, Alan Kollins, Ross Angus Macaulay
Cook Street Do-it Center. MediaNet, CineVic, Michael Lee Macdonald, Steve Hender. Empress Painting, Marci Ross, Amber Matthews and Gumper.

ahhh. scribbling. mindless and meditative doodles. pencil crayons on paper. The soundtrack was made with a circuit-bent late-80’s Realistic keyboard. I took it apart, and poked around at it a bit, wired up a few extra things, and now it makes interesting painful noises, so I recorded it, then chopped up the sounds into something a little more organized and palatable.

 

 circle_bent: scott amos: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There’s something about duct-taping magnifying lenses to my camera that i really dig. maybe it’s the soft, dreamy edges that everything gets, maybe it’s how mysterious and different everything looks. This was a clip of colour 16mm that I slowed down, and was fortunate to have David Parfit create a great electro-acoustic soundtrack for it.

 

 Green: a film excercise by Scott Amos, with music by David Parfit: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Went to Mayne Island last weekend for a wedding, and filmed some things around the island with the bolex. As luck would have it, either the bolex was empty, or had the wrong kind of film in it whenever I stumbled into something I wanted to shoot. So I used my cellphone instead. really low rez, but it worked. Mike Wolske made the music.

 

 "springwater" a short film experiment by Scott Amos: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

And in other news, we finished shooting a new MeatDraw video for their song “Old World” last weekend. I still need to do some tweaking, but it should be finished soon, and posted online. In the next couple weeks - Upcoming Screenings - “Grass” is Playing in Australia at the FLEXIFF Festival, and  “Turbulence” and “Glimpse” are playing in Seattle at the NorthWest Film Forum. “Birds” is playing at the Portobello in England. Unfortunately I can’t go to see any of them, but maybe you can.

It has been a busy summer trying to keep up with everything, but a few more weekly film exercises are getting finished up. This one is called “oxide” and is a snippit of colour 16mm film. I’ve been playing around with extension tubes and close-up lenses duct-taped to a Bolex. Some interesting surreal textures when you look at the world so closely. The soundtrack is courtesy of Mike Wolske.

 

 oxide: A short film excercise by Scott Amos: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

My Bolex died. In the middle of a shoot. This is the last thing it recorded. I’m calling it “Swansong.”

My friend Gerald Saul, who has been making a film-a-week this year as well (and, unlike me, is keeping up with it) did a series of films called “How to be an Experimental Filmmaker”

I like the idea, so I made a list that accompanies this week’s film

• How to be an Experimental Filmmaker
• Step #1 - Use old, antiquated equipment
• Step #2  - Get professionals to be your on-screen talent. Make sure they have flown in from another country
• Step #3 - Forget to close the gate on the camera. Blame the old equipment. (see Step #1)
• Step #4  Have the camera completely break down half-way through the shoot (see Step #1)
• Step #5 - Tint and tone the blurry footage and release it on the internet
• Step #6 - Pretend that the film ended up exactly as you had planned.

 

 Swansong - an experimental film by Scott Amos: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The ghostly image is Carly Berrett, an incredible modern dancer from Utah. We met during MediaNet’s Dance for the Camera Workshop a couple weeks ago. Lots of fun. Embarrassing that half of the footage didn’t work out.  

Fortunately, most of the other footage worked out and will be made into a different film, the film I had initially intended to do (without some of the parts.) Still a lot of post production to do on that, so in the meantime, here is the final film that ran through my Bolex. I find it mesmerizing.

Mike Wolske made the soundtrack, but I played around with it a bit.

An experiment with acrylic paints, india inks and drain cleaner on an old 16mm film
(I think there’s some dog hair in there too)

 

 Primordial Soup pt.1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This month at Open Space: The Deceleration Chamber.

The Deceleration Chamber is concerned with two entangled ideas: the elasticity of time—especially slow time—and how time is specifically experienced when one is away from familiar surroundings: on tour, traveling or on vacation. Encountering the unfamiliar, being lost or disorientated affects how time is perceived, how data is recorded and recollected, and how all of us choose the mode by which we measure, mark or experience the passage of time.

Artists Scott Amos, Frédérick Belzile, Scott Conarroe, Nathalie Daoust, and Daniel Tom explore differential time scales and refer to time not only as interval or measurement, but also as an active element in the construction of art. The Deceleration Chamber offers compelling time studies that directly and indirectly play off the habits, schedules and the erratic timetables of permanent and transitory populations.

It’s up until August 16th at 510 Fort St. in Victoria, from 10 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday.

With the help of Brian Macdonald and the the staff and volunteers at Open Space, I installed a 9 channel video installation for the show titled “Our Victoria.” This is a clip from the ninth channel. Colin Hander and Mike Wolske did the sound.

 

 Our Victoria from the Deceleration Chamber at Open Space: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here’s the little Blurb I wrote up about the piece.

Victoria is a city of postcard images, but the most impressive things never seem to make it to the printer. The Inner Harbour and the Parliament Buildings provide the background for millions of snapshots a year; They are the basis of visitors’ memories of our city. Although they are a part of our city, they are not the places that we frequent, the Victoria that we know and love. They are the parts that we show to others. The magical parts of the city we keep to ourselves.

When visiting other places, time passes differently, more slowly, you take notice of little details: the weathered bricks on a building, the intricacies of power lines, the reflections in windows. Everyday objects and places are rendered extraordinary by simply taking the time to observe them.

Our hometowns have similar delicate features, but we seldom notice. They are simply distractions that we pass by.

Our Victoria is a nine channel video installation, made to emulate old home movies. Although filmed in 2006, it looks as though it’s from past decades. The nine televisions are nine individual rolls of film, raw and unedited to emulate the frenetic nature of home movies and the raw memories they capture. It is an intimate look into the places that only the most adventurous visitors will see, the places that you won’t see in brochures, the places that have not yet been reduced to postcards.

Here it is folks. A new music video for Hank and Lily’s “Xanadu.” The song is from there newly-released album “North America.” Of course, it stars both Hank and Lily. I love this song!

 

 "Xanadu" by Hank and Lily: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

They’re doing some touring this summer through Ontario and Alberta, and you can find the schedule on their MySpace page here. I could gush about how great Hank and Lily are, but instead I’ll just say - If you only see one show this summer, go see Hank and Lily. Seriously. Ask anyone who has ever seen the show; I wish I could describe it in words.

Here it is in action, the mechanical set that I built in the basement…too bad it’s only for a little bit of screen time, I’ll have to use it again for another film.