#16mm filmmaking

[iseetheworldinmetaphor]

16mm Stills. Jamaica. January 2023.

[filmcourage]

I Bought A 16mm Bolex Camera And Now I'm Going To Make A Movie With It - P.M. Lipscomb

Watch the video interview on Youtube here.

[rrrauschen]

Kurt Kren, {1957} 1/57: Versuch mit synthetischem Ton (Test) (1/57: Experiment with Synthetic Sound (Test))

[elevatedcult]

Flower child

Colored Film - Nikomat - 16mm

[ninjadeathmedia]

Free Film Grain Overlays

[architectofnada]

INSIDE THE BLIND IRIS, 2023.

https://vimeo.com/835443914

[forgifen]

Freak Wansy Beat

with audio here

[kevinhorn]

I'm proud to share my 3rd full-length skate film 'Perennial'

[swordvixen]

*creativity intensifies*

[skyscapeparadise]

skycape paradise - love song

[pheere]

Today I finally got to see the collapsed building in person. Then I cut some 16mm at an independent filmmakers association booth.

[brokehorrorfan]

4K Ultra HD Review: Basket Case

Unlike most "prestigious" organizations dedicated to the arts (I'm looking at you, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), the Museum of Modern Art doesn't ignore the existence of genre fare. Nevertheless, there's something surreal about seeing "This film is from the collections of The Museum of Modern Art" at the start of Basket Case, a sleazy exploitation picture shot on 16mm over the course of a year for under $35,000.

The 1982 film follows Duane Bradley (Kevin VanHentenryck), who carries around his formerly-conjoined twin brother, a deformed, fleshy menace named Belial, in a wicker basket. While Duane intends to get revenge on the medical professionals who performed their unwanted separation surgery, Belial indiscriminately kills anyone who opens the basket like a malevolent jack in the box.

It's clear from the start that some sort of creature is contained within the basket, but writer-director Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Brain Damage) smartly allows the tension to build before revealing Belial in all his glory at the end of the first act. There's no mistaking it for anything but inanimate rubber (save for a primitive stop-motion sequence), but its blood-curdling screams give it life. Special effects artists Kevin Haney and John Caglione Jr. both won Oscars for Best Makeup — for Driving Miss Daisy and Dick Tracy, respectively — less than a decade removed from Basket Case.

MoMA's 4K restoration of Basket Case's original 16mm AB negative reels arrives on 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) and original uncompressed PCM mono audio via Arrow Video. Importantly, the restoration presents the film in newfound clarity while preserving the '80s NYC grime inherent to the film. The limited edition set comes with reversible artwork, a double-sided fold-out poster, and a booklet with writing on the film by horror historian Michael Gingold and a Basket Case comic strip by Martin Trafford, all housed in a slipcase featuring artwork by Sara Deck.

While no new special features were produced for the 4K, the plethora of existing materials including cover every conceivable aspect of the film. Henenlotter and VanHentenryck's breathless commentary from Arrow's 2017 Blu-ray doubles as a low-budget film school, from reusing sets to dumpster diving for decor. An archival track from Something Weird's 2001 DVD with Henenlotter, producer Edgar Ievins, actress Beverly Bonner, and Basket Case 2 production assistant Scooter McRae repeats most of the insight, but it's fun to hear their rapport.

Interviews are ported over with VanHentenryck, who discusses his cerebral approach to playing the character; Bonner, who wrote and starred in a play examining where her character might be 30 years after Basket Case; Florence and Maryellen Schultz, Henenlotter's identical twin cousins who play nurses in the film and share his unique sense of humor; and legendary film critic and The Last Drive-In host Joe Bob Briggs, whose campaign to host the film's drive-in premiere saved it from being cut by its distributor.

A joke interview with Henenlotter features the filmmaker portrayed by Albert Cadabra, a sideshow performer who edited Henenlotter's Bad Biology, in the nude. The Latvian Connection explores four crucial members of the Basket Case team of Latvian descent: Ievins, associate producer/effects artist Ugis Nigals, casting director/actress Ilze Balodis, and Belial performer Kika Nigals. What’s in the Basket? is a 78-minute documentary produced by Severin Films in 2012 covering the Basket Case franchise with cast and crew.

Three short films are featured: Basket Case 3½, an 8-minute mockumentary from 2017 in which Henenlotter interviews "Duane Bradley" (VanHentenryck) about the events of Basket Case; Slash of the Knife, Henenlotter's 1976 short film that ultimately lead him to make Basket Case, with optional commentary by Henenlotter and playwright Mike Bencivenga and outtakes; and Belial’s Dream, a 2017 stop-motion animated short by Robert Morgan (who just made his feature debut with Stopmotion), accompanied by its own brief making-of featurette.

Other extras include: the MoMA's 2017 restoration premiere introduction and Q&A with Henenlotter, VanHentenryck, Bonner, the Schultz twins, and Ugis Nigals; The Frisson of Fission, a video essay by film historian Travis Crawford exploring the history of conjoined twins and "freaks" in cinema; a 2011 filming location tour with Henenlotter and rapper R.A. The Rugged Man (who co-wrote Bad Biology) explore the filming locations; outtakes; five image galleries (promotional stills, behind the scenes, ephemera, advertisements, home video releases); three trailers; a TV spot; and two radio spots.

Henenlotter didn't set out to make a cult film — in fact, he didn't think anyone would ever see his feature debut — but that's what he accomplished with Basket Case. Shot on location in New York City, the picture doubles as a time capsule of a seedy version of Times Square that no longer exists; one littered with drug dealers, sex workers, and porno theaters. While the sequels would lean more into the comedy, the original film balanced its camp with well-placed shocks.

Basket Case will be released on 4K Ultra HD on April 30 via Arrow Video.

[thinkingimages]

Inside the Outset: Evoking a Space of Passage is a project by artist and filmmaker Rosa Barba following an invitation by Point Centre for Contemporary Art in Nicosia and curator Mirjam Varadinis to propose and realize a project in Cyprus.

The work proposed by the artist in 2013, started in 2014 and consists of two parts: a film and a long-term open-air cinema installation. The project was then presented to the Italian Council and received the first prize at the international competition (Third Edition) in 2018, and was awarded a grant from DGAAP (Directorate General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Peripheries), Italy.

Barba’s film is exclusively shot in Cyprus, including underwater shots of the Mazotos shipwreck, as well as aerial shots from archaeological sites. It is an investigation into the loaded, transforming topography that is already palpable in the landscape, before we actually understand what language it creates for our society. In that, the film follows Barba’s artistic approach to examine liminal states which manifest in between contested spaces, both mentally and geographically, in order to allow for a new perspective. The inaugural screening took place in Autumn 2021 at the open-air cinema installation in the Buffer Zone.

Inside the Outset: Evoking a Space of Passage, 2021

16mm film transferred to digital and 8k film, sound, 31:15 min

Produced by Point Centre for Contemporary Art, funded by the Italian Council. A collaboration with Famagusta Avenue Garage.

Images: Film still © Rosa Barba

[vintage-every-day]

In 1946, a young filmmaker named Leo Caloia shot 16mm film footage of the "Blue Book Models" -- a group of starlets who posed in fashion shows at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

The Blue Book Modeling Agency was managed by Emmeline Snively, and its most famous member was Norma Jean Baker, later known to the world as Marilyn Monroe. The footage was released in a series of short films made by "World in Color Productions", a short-lived firm created by photographer Harold F. Jenkins.

[elevatedcult]

Hey that’s me !

Shot by a B&W film nikomat 16MM

This was on set shooting for a movie called Oliva Spei

I was on top of a high latter, at this point I was camera oping for a couple scenes !

[mrschwartz]

Alex Turner opens up about The Car, Arctic Monkeys' 20th anniversary album

The frontman of the British band that performs at Primavera Sound, in São Paulo, invests in more abstract lyrics in new album

Published October 16 2022, by Rodrigo Salem

Alex Turner is not satisfied with the lighting in the room chosen as the setting for our interview. It's a small, cozy hipster hotel in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, one of those above a cafe with tables occupied by young people at the computer, and no lines at cash registers that don't accept cash.

The frontman of Arctic Monkeys, the biggest rock band to come out of the UK in the last 20 years, flips the switches until he finds the perfect balance of light. "Is this okay for you?" he asks, but doesn't seem to care too much about the answer.

Turner likes to have complete control over his environment. "Where do you want to sit? This will be the best place, right?" he asks, coffee in hand, already standing in front of a small beige table below the lamp that insisted on not emanating the adequate light.

Shy to the point of never completing a full sentence, as if his mouth didn't keep up with his fast brain, Turner is acutely aware of his obsession with control and attention to detail, something that has only grown bigger in the last few years at the helm of the band. But the singer, guitarist and songwriter lived something different in the creation of The Car, the group's seventh album, which will be released worldwide this week.

After composing the piano demos alone for much of the pandemic, he was reunited with the rest of the band over the summer of last year, in a secluded house that was part of a 12th-century monastery in Suffolk, on the east coast of England.

"We hadn't done that since the first album. I had extra film rolls and I took my 16mm camera to film everything and keep myself busy during the recording. At first, I just wanted to record the memory, but it seemed to help in the work environment, because I stepped out of the process a bit and gave everyone more space," he says.

"James [Ford, record producer] was delighted, because I wasn't looking over his shoulder all the time and being a twat."

The musician's hobby as a filmmaker was not the only novelty in the three weeks of work in the makeshift studio, complete with a piano borrowed from a resident there and the technological arsenal brought in from London. The period was essential for Arctic Monkeys to remember that they are still a rock group formed by friends.

"We had a lot of laughs and watched the Euro Cup together. It was important to have that band energy again," says Turner, revealing that Body Paint, The Car's latest single, only took its final form because of this camaraderie. "The distorted guitar at the end just came about because I wanted to do that solo with them. It sounds obvious, but being together changes the dynamics of how I play."

Ironically, the album's main theme seems to circle around characters that don't seem to fit the environment they're in. In Body Paint itself, which wouldn't be out of place in one of George Martin's orchestrated productions for The Beatles, Turner sings that he's "keeping on [his] costume and calling it a writing tool."

Jet Skis On The Moat, played on a sultry guitar and with a broken rhythm reminiscent of U2's The Playboy Mansion, brings a Hollywood psychedelic mood—"jet skis on the moat / they filmed everything in CinemaScope, but this is the last time you will ride them, though".

"I was imagining this perception of us living like rock stars in a fantasy castle on a mountain, riding jet skis, disconnected from everything," says Turner.

In I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am, he seems to describe a strange trip on a luxury yacht off the coast of France, a country where he usually goes with his girlfriend, French singer Louise Verneuil, since he moved back to England from Los Angeles. "I spend less time here, but I love this city. It's where I have my friends," he says.

Extremely protective of his privacy, Alex Turner does not confirm any theories that could refer to his life beyond music. However, he admits that feeling like a fish out of water is one of the themes of the record. "I've definitely written this time about someone who doesn't fit in," he says as he pulls out of his green jacket two folded sheets of paper filled with his lyrics and assorted notes.

I question the reason for keeping this material around and the singer lets his guard down. "I think that this way I can have these conversations more easily, and stay on the same level as other people. You've read the lyrics, listened to the record, and I thought I should do the same to meet you in the middle," he says, soon bringing back up his good-humored defenses. "And it also serves to intimidate people."

Not that he seems to want to intimidate anyone. Turner can barely look up, more concerned with focusing on some object and finding the right words for his answers. Keeping the lyrics in your pocket serves to rediscover the words of the songs.

One of the most brilliant songwriters of modern British rock and someone who has managed to portray the yearnings and feelings of an entire millennial generation, he says his lyrics come out of the space between the conscious and the unconscious.

In The Car, they seem even more abstract. "I love leaving space for lyrics not to be fully understood and to become more interesting as the years go by. I like to explore things that are difficult to talk about."

Does that mean that Alex Turner, who, two decades ago, rehearsed in a garage with Jamie Cook on guitar, Andy Nicholson on bass, later replaced by Nick O'Malley, and Matt Helders on drums, in Sheffield, is finally noticing the inevitable passage of time?

"Funny, it's hard to accept that it's been 20 years," he says. "But we're alive and active. That happens a lot when I'm singing the old songs now. I remember something, not necessarily the lyrics, but the environment, a person and the sensations of the past."

A rich past, we must add. Arctic Monkeys have gone through several phases in these two decades. It began with the confessional hip-hop-enamored rock of the first two albums, a formula that propelled the group into the stratosphere of fame. It gained weight with the stoner rock of Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on 2009's Humbug and the stadium hard rock of 2013's AM. And it culminated in the journey away from Earth in 2018's jazzy Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.

The Car continues the sonic exploration of their previous work, but brings guitars back to the songs and a Turner interested in using his voice as an instrument. "I don't know if Alex from 20 years ago would like this sound," he wonders. "Secretly, I wanted something along those lines then, but it wasn't within my reach at the time. On second thought, I think he would like it. But if he wouldn't like it, then fuck it," he jokes.

He admits that he changed his way of looking at music and even composing. On previous albums, he wrote the lyrics and then thought of the melody. The music now comes first.

"I made an effort to put the lyrics in sync with a melody that gives me permission to use certain words," says the musician. "I didn't focus on that in the past, I think it started on AM, when I started to change the lyrics as I was influenced by the sound in the studio."

Back on stage since a few weeks ago, Turner believes the pandemic has changed the relationship between band and audience. "The first time we performed was powerful," he says. "There's a new energy that encourages me. I'm trying not to behave the same way on stage. I think some of that comes from the younger crowd."

Brazil is going to feel this in a few days. Arctic Monkeys closes the first day of Primavera Sound, in São Paulo, on November 5th, already oiling the show with a new repertoire. "When we arrive in Brazil, I want to test two new songs and leave some old ones behind," says the singer, who already says that the next album may come out faster than expected after the long gestation of The Car.

Unable to play shows, the group spent a year polishing up the album in post-production. "We had more time to work on the record and I like to think that this had a positive influence on the final result, as we had more space to hone, think and fight for certain ideas", says Turner. "I love the idea of doing something different, like writing, recording and releasing in a week. Maybe it's a fun idea for the next project."