A hallucinogenic look at clips from several old Science-Fiction film from the 1950s. I find that rendering the visuals to an unintelligible degree enhances the weirdness of the dialog.
Category Archives: cinema
pr. cl. (a CalArts optical printer film circa 1975-77)
I was a a student T.A. at Cal Arts 1975-1976, and I was tasked with instructing fellow students on the operation of the Optical Printer and the Oxberry Animation Stand (skills I acquired from the great Pat O’Neill, a mentor). In the course of teaching Optical Printer techniques, the class did little film experiments (which I used to keep in film cans that I labeled “pr. cl.”, my abbreviation for “printer class”). I left CalArts before the end of the 1976 academic year to work at Industrial Light & Magic on a film called Star Wars, and the classes were ably taken over by David Wilson. One of the students in the class, Rick Blanchard, ended up with the “little experiments” and created this film. Crazy, but I have no memory of how I ended up with a print of the film, which I had digitized a number of years ago, along with other films, and promptly forgot about.
CalArts optical printer, circa 1973:
CORONA MIX – cloud abstractions
Thanks to Covid-19, I haven’t been able to get out much and add to my time-lapse library. So, I stayed home and pointed my camera at the sky. Rather than present them straight, I added some simple blending effects and created this film, a memento of sheltering in place. Find beauty where you can.
Tarantula (!) 1955 in QUAD-o-RAMA !!
Truncated and QUAD-o-RAMAed so that you can experience and enjoy this classic 1950s science fiction film in exactly 10 minutes. Note the exclamation mark after Tarantula only appears in the advertising art but not on the main title of the actual film, a fascinating bit of useless trivia.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco – Opening Montage
The Last Black Man In San Francisco (2019) is a beautiful elegy of a film, and offers a truly unique view of the City as captured in the brilliant opening montage, which sets the tone for the film that follows. The film has a great score by Emile Mosseri, but the music used in the opening montage is actually by Michael Nyman – “MGV (Musique a Grande Vitesse” originally commissioned to celebrate the inauguration of the TGV North-European Paris-Lille line in 1993. The film also features an astounding cover of “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)” featuring Mike Marshall (vocals) & Daniel Herskedal (tuba). Just see the film!
From Darkness to Light: incredible time-lapse storm film by Ty Schmitt
WoW ! Great time-lapse footage by former NFL player Ty Schmitt, now pursuing a career in fine art photography.
QUAD-o-RAMA: Monster On The Campus (1958)
Absorb the essence of this neglected film in less than 8 minutes !!
Quad-O-Rama™: In order to match the cacophonous assault of today’s films, older films can be truncated (all the boring parts are deleted), and then cut in to 4 equal sections to be displayed simultaneously. Hence, a standard length film can be displayed in 10 minutes or less, but still retain coherence to the original.
Cuarón, Roma (trailer), Pink Floyd
This is a beautiful film, gorgeously photographed in black & white, casual and breathtaking at the same time, impeccably choreographed, alive with the mystery that is life. Yeah, I really liked it. Best to see it on the big screen. This trailer just appeared to remind me of the films transcendent greatness. The Pink Floyd music (not used in the actual film) really sells it.
QUAD-o-RAMA: Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)
Ray Harryhausen’s least favorite film? I edited the film down to less than 1/2 of its original length and gave it the QUAD-o-RAMA treatment, now you can absorb the essence of the film in 10 minutes of cacophonous glory.
Displaced Clouds
Standard time lapse clouds with a simple displacement map effect applied. The displacement map is a blurred version of the same clouds with a horizontal and/or vertical shift. More of these experiments can be found in my opArt loop collection on Vimeo.
Lapsed Time Images 