The newer pieces are still in the works. I was away in Vancouver and Whistler this week, collecting new footage, but had to bring the film back home for developing.
So, I’m putting up an older piece, called Memory Lapse. It won the “Best Short Fiction” award at the Lausanne Underground Film Fest, and screened at a bunch of different festivals. It also inspired an older video podcast that I did called “Other Peoples Memories,” that was clips of old 8mm home movies that I collect, strangers’ home movies. Michael Lee Macdonald did the animation, and Mike Wolske did the music. You can also find it on the MediaNet Video Podcast.
And, this week, we’re being featured on Miro, you can check it out here. It’s an Internet TV aggregator. There are more than 4000 different channels. Pretty cool stuff. And we’re listed at Canadapodcasts.ca now too.
Made this one for the Victoria Film Festival’s “My Victoria” Film contest. They wanted a one-minute Victoria-centric film. While wandering around the immerweb, trying to figure out what to do for the film, I stumbled into the the raciest historical tidbit about my quaint little town. It’s about an architect named Francis Rattenbury. Adultery. Murder. Juicy stuff. Here is the film I made:
I ended up winning the “Capital History Award” for it, and did a little interview with the Susan McLean from the Provincial Capital Commission. I found it online here: http://www.bcpcc.com/pages/news.htm
Rattenbury scandal provides fodder
for Capital History Award winner
March 2008 - Not only did Francis Rattenbury design Victoria’s signature buildings, including the Parliament Buildings, the Empress Hotel, the Crystal Garden and the CP Steamship terminal, but the renowned architect was a key character in the raciest scandal of the 1920s and 30s.
The steamier side of Rattenbury — from leaving his wife for a younger woman to his murder in England by his chauffer who was having an affair with his second wife, through to her stabbing death — provided a smorgasbord of tantalizing historical tidbits and fascinating imagery for Victoria filmmaker Scott Amos.
Combining archival photographs and new video footage, Amos pieced together Rattenbury’s sordid final years for his short film “Victim of an Evil Seductress” to win the Provincial Capital Commission’s Capital History Award at this year’s Victoria Film Festival.
Thanks to the internet, Scott was able to conduct much of his research on the renowned architect, accessing historical information and archived photographs. Using a 1952 16-mm Bolex camera, he began filming. Working out of his basement, Scott processed the film in buckets of chemicals, deliberately scratching the black and white film to make it look old.
Originally from Ontario, Amos hitchhiked to Victoria 10 years ago, with a guitar on his back and $20 in his pocket. It’s the story films are made of and was the topic of his second film entered in this year’s festival entitled “Waiting.”
Earning some money busking in Bastion Square, he eventually earned a writing degree from the University of Victoria, where one of his professors handed him a video camera for a film project. It was a pivotal moment in Scott’s life. “I got myself into huge debt buying equipment,” he laughed. He also started making short films.
Now a Teacher’s Assistant in UVic’s Fine Arts Department and working at Medianet, a video co-op business, Amos is a five-year veteran of the Victoria Film Festival. The My Victoria category suits his style, he says, providing an avenue to show off his work. “I make a lot of Island-centric movies.”
“The festival is a great way to be exposed to artistic work that you wouldn’t normally see,” he said. “There’s a lot of local and Canadian content and it’s great to see what’s happening in my field.”
The My Victoria competition is an opportunity for local artists to have their work shown on the Big Screen and to expose people to the unique voices of the local independent film community, he added. It also provides an incentive to film a changing world, he noted. Amos is the first to admit the world, as most people see it, isn’t his cup of tea. “The real world doesn’t interest me,” he said. “I live it every day so I don’t need to film it. I’d rather film a world that doesn’t exist or to see the existing world in a way I’ve never seen it before.”
But add an experimental twist and it’s award time for Amos.
This started as an old educational film called “I am Joe’s Spine.” And then I wrecked it a bunch. I buried myself in my basement lab, and listened continuously to the new Run Chico Run CD that I got. It’s called “Rocket Surgery” and it’s fantastic. Thankfully, the band has let me use a snippit of their song “Slow” to accompany the film, so you can hear how cool it is yourself. Their myspace is here, and their website is here, but I have no idea where to buy the album. I got it at their show…it’s on green vinyl too! Did you hear that?
GREEN VINYL. Badass.
“I Am Fine” was made by scratching at the old film, with a bit of chemical manipulation, and then some compositing and digital effects on the ol’ computer. I’m hoping the Chicos’ll let me make them a music video over the summer. we’ll see.
and, like I promised, here is the Quicktime version.
This is some 16mm film that I found in my basement, that I had shot, but never processed. Now that I can look at it, although I shot it for no particular reason, it seems to have some meaning to it. It’s a little cliche, so I couldn’t bring myself to say it outright, but it’s there in the footage. It has to do with perception…or something like that. Perhaps the creepiest thing I’ve ever made. You were warned. Film by Scott Amos, Music by Mike Wolske.
And over the next week, I’ve decided to repost all the past episodes in Quicktime format for a video podcast. I just can’t handle how bad YouTube mangles everything.
