As part of my birthday celebrations starting on the 13th I will present Cinemagic! on Friday, March 15th, 2013 at 1:30pm at the Lantern Church in Calgary, Alberta.
“At once, I could feel sunlight warming my fur, touch the hard, brown grass of Spring, smell the shadows of midnight on our bedroom wall. I heard the patter of butterfly wings and ran in pursuit. I felt the grass beneath my paws shift and split and melt into itself.” Kitty, describing his dream of dying.
Asked to judge films screening at the Living Skies Student Film Festival, I take it upon myself to fail every film better than my student film. Turns out they all fail.
I went with Co-Producer Chrystene Ells to Wascana Park and shot a couple rolls of Super 8mm black and white film to be used as projection art in KaleidoCycle, a play set to open at the end …
Our neighbours to the South are currently creating regulations regarding Internet activity and use. As an Internet user, and personal, intellectual property owner online, I feel that CISPA will allow for abuse of individual rights, while not protecting that which it claims it will protect. Although this is not a law currently in Canada, I think the precedent it will set could encourage similar legislature throughout the world.
The packed house at the Globe Cinema chose Kitty Dreams of Dying as their favourite film of the festival, presenting me with a beautifully crafted glass award from Bee Kingdom. The award is especially appropriate given the performative presentation of the Super 8mm film involved projecting through a live manipulation of warped glass.
The most asked questions that night at the after party were regarding Kitty’s health (he’s still happy and alive) and whether the next film would be projected through the award. :)
Special thanks to live accordion player, Chrystene Ells, and the CSIF for being open to the non-traditional presentation.
One of the best, most intense festivals in the prairies, put on by Xstine Cook and the Calgary Animated Objects Society, the International Festival of Animated Objects will be featuring over a week of performance, puppetry, animated films, artist talks, and workshops in Calgary.
On Friday, March 15th at 1:30pm at the Lantern Church I will present a workshop on Cinemagic Projector Art. If you are in Calgary, come explore the roots of moving image artistry before digital post-production with handcrafted effects created in-camera, or live on-camera. I will help you develop a visceral connection to your film by manipulating the essences of cinema: light and perspective, making you into a Cinemagician!
The workshop demonstrates unique, organic and evocative effects through manually controlled camera and projection techniques. Try your hand at projection art and shadow puppetry, augmented with warped glass and other cinemagic tricks.
This multi-projection piece on Super 8mm will be performed at the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmaker’s $100 Film Festival, March 9th, 2013. Article on the festival by Beat Route.
This piece involves two projectors running simultaneously, one on a swivel, and manual/live manipulation of the projection through warped glass and prism, allowing for overlapping images to spread beyond the normal boundaries of the screen. The palimpsest of this dreamscape follows Kitty through his last moments of life, at least in this reality. Accompanied by live accordion player, Chrystene Ells.
I was pretty stoked when I received the USB stick from Festival Coordinator Tessa MacIntyre. Not only was it a smokin’ USB 2.0 stick, but it had 32 GB of space on it.
“Sweet!” I thought. Now I can format this, give everyone a zero, and start filling it full of photos and music. Maybe even turn it into a portable Minecraft server.
At this point I was informed that I would have to return the stick.
Sick with power, I scrutinized every frame and edit of the students work. I tried my best to find fault with some of my favourite local filmmakers, like Rob Hillstead and Noelle Duddridge (edit: who turned out to win best in their category), but was left with very little to really pick at. Oh, it would have been lovely to comment on a particular clam of their film whenever I would see them in town…
As much as I tried to make it my quest, I had to admit defeat, realizing that all the films were far better than anything I had produced during my years at York. These kids put far too much effort and not nearly enough pretentiousness into their work. Shame really.
The festival is on March 1st and 2nd, 2013 at the University of Regina, Shubox Theatre, with the Gala Awards Ceremony happening at the Owl. Congrats to all the filmmakers. Check out the festival website to learn about the other judges.
Audio post version. Listen to me read the post below while you do your own thing.
Allis likes to play and jump! Jump Allis! I shot this amazing film using my mobile device, which is all I have access to while kittysitting. When I was first getting into computers, this would have 100% blown my mind.
I’ve been reminiscing about my first days with computers and my first build. One day, suddenly, there was a computer in the house and we were all introduced to it. As in, “Family, check out this new object in our home”. I thought, “If computers have a soul,” and it was a definite possibility that they did, “it must be in that monitor that just stares out”. I think William Gibson described it as turned-off-tv grey. It would reflect my image back at me in pixels. I really liked these new guys in my life. I spent a lot of time with a Commodore 64 that is actually still with me, just packed away in storage.
After I shot the Allis film, I had a Google Talk video chat with my friend who is far away. A tiny handheld window, like how a wormhole is supposedly connecting two points of space through the boundaries of dimension. It is amazing.
Unfortunately, no matter how immediate technology can make me feel, it doesn’t close the gap of a great physical distance.
Allis is done with the munch.
Hi World: it’d be great if when I did a Google search, it would also search my bookmarks and email for the information I am looking for. Lately I’ve been stumbling upon the same website that I have already bookmarked a year ago when looking for the same answer. Sometimes I just bookmark or email myself a link to useful information, but don’t really keep track of it.
Audio post version. Listen to me read the post below while you do your own thing.
This little guy died on the lawn that Kitty Hi and I go for walks on. Autumn has arrived, which brings with it much death. It seems like overnight most leaves turned yellow. I must make my way out to the country soon and see the rest of the Fall colours.
Had a great chat with my dad today while doing laundry. It is his birthday this week and I was trying to get some hints for a good gift. He says he really liked the donation to People For Animals that I did for him last time… I suppose that is better than just more stuff.
Played around in Minecraft, figuring out some dispenser traps and hidden chests using sticky pistons. I am working in secret as DM / GM for a friend, building a large Underwater Lair and coming up with the quest narrative. Fun stuff.
Audio post version. Listen to me read the post below while you do your own thing.
It’s a beautiful day. The windows and blinds are open, fresh prairie air is drifting in. It’s time to do some cleaning.
The ebb and flow of disorder in my home can reach extremes during busy times and it has been exceptionally busy lately. All good stuff. The business just didn’t involve keeping things tidy.
As for the subject of yesterday’s post, I actually didn’t fit in much gaming. Instead I settled on the motherboard for the system I am building, the Asus Maximus V Formula, and got well into the research for the RAM.
Just after 2am my brain stopped working, so I purchased an expansion for Civilization, called Gods & Kings. I went with the Celts. Gave it a good try on normal difficulty, but got owned around 10 A.D. when the surrounding civilizations declared war on my people in unison. I guess the computer just wanted to play by itself…
I have been a fan of the Civilization series since the first game. I received a pirated copy from my granddad on five 5.25″ floppy disks in the late 80s. That’s basically before the internet and downloading. The disks arrived in the post with a handwritten note. The credits and unit descriptions were just basic text files, so I was able to put my name in the credits as Modder and change the name of spearmen to robots, for example. I can see that experience influence my current website development and modding of systems like CraftBukkit. Thanks Granddad Hi!
Allis done eating. Listened to C418 while composing this post.
Played around in 
I have been a fan of the Civilization series since the first game. I received a pirated copy from my granddad on five 
