BIRTH OF A NOTION was this year’s EMMEDIA production access screening. I missed the first half, but the second half was a lot of fun. This year it was at the Plaza, so there was proper movie popcorn and everything. It was more satisfying than the same event last year because of the setting; this year it all felt a little more exciting. Greg Debicki was really funny taking us though his process and his project Interacting with Nature Through Generative Audio. He used nature, which he captured via video to generate sound in Pd. I expected it to sound like noise, but it had some musicality to it. I think it was his choice of sound (clicks and beats and snaps), they didn’t sound discordant. His work will be posted on EMs site a little later and I’m looking forward to spending a little time with the resulting piece.
And seriously? Michael Welchman’s WITCH had lungs that breathed! Apparently they were real animal lungs, which is a little morbid, but it was about a witch after all. The lungs could easily have been an installation all their own. That they were executed to be just a small part of a film is amazing. The entire production had a very sculptural feel to it. The movements of the actors and the framing was also very sculpltural. In one scene where the children are brandishing knives the actors look like animatronics. The lighting was striking and created a high relief to the film with the dark background fading away farther than the action. The lighting made the actors feel like they weren’t in the environment so much as in front of it. The narration audio was portrayed as if it were being played on one of those old reel to reel tapes, and it even sounded like the tape had slippage and stretch. Very well done.
Plan B by Aran Wilkinson-Blanc was just fun, about a robot and a mysterious girl and a hapless theater attendant. It also starred the Plaza theater, so that was synchronicity. This work had really striking visuals, and it is no surprise that Aran is an accomplished photographer. Each shot was framed photographically and graphically. He made good use of long and close up shots. The strange thing was Jordan Kidney was in this film, with a little dog. Jordan was my Multi-Agents TA. And Aran was in my U of C 101 group when I was a leader. I sometimes have these weird and strange clashes of worlds. It was all so much coincidence. But my own personal drama aside this film was just fun to watch with a bit of a surpise ending.
Also, here is the original Birth Of A Notion. Just a bit more to add.
When did this happen? September 10, 2009.
