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Berny Hi

Beyond coordinating productions at the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, Berny focuses as a filmmaker in the development of a unique approach to storytelling involving the manipulation of multiple projected moving images on Super 8mm / 16mm celluloid through warped glass and prisms. Using this technique, he recently performed the otherworldly story of Kitty Dreams of Dying. Recent traditional screenings include Milk River, a 16mm film hand processed at the Film Retreat, and Véronique à vélo, a multi-award winning b&w 16mm film that pays homage to the French New Wave Cinema. He hosts BernyHi.ca, a blog which showcases his ongoing experimental film research, and videos featuring his feline friend with kidney failure, Kitty. Ever looking for new, fun art projects to make, he delved into a few interdisciplinary projects with fellow art cohort, Chrystene Ells. In KaleidoCycle { Globe Theatre 2012 }, they teamed up to produce a black box theatre play relating the story of Chrystene’s departure from her body through the top of her head. The adventure was explored through physical theatre, mask work, clowning, puppetry, and celluloid 16mm and Super 8mm projection performance art.

Apr 30 2012

Hand processing Super 8mm for multidisciplinary play KaleidoCycle

By Film, KaleidoCycle No Comments

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 of May, 2012 at the Globe Theatre [KaleidoCycle page on the Globe Theatre website]. Over the weekend the film was hand processed as a negative image in buckets in the basement lab of Daniel Suchoboki [who donated his facilities]. The results were fantastic!
These images will be projected on some of the performers live during the play.

Apr 16 2012

Wrapped master exterior shots on a puppet film

By Film No Comments


This weekend we wrapped the master exterior shots for Chrystene Ells‘ puppet film. We shot in the PuppetWorks at the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative.

The shoot went really well and everyone was in good spirits. Sarah Huber was also on set, helping out in the camera department. We had a jib on a dolly set up and were shooting on the Panasonic HVX200.
We got the giggles late into the day. This is a common “been on set too long” phenomenon. Puppets can seem pretty funny after a while, especially when you start talking to them more than the puppeteer under the table. They are so tiny and they look around with the same mannerisms as you and me.

Apr 12 2012

Website conversion

By Website work No Comments

The past week has been spent moving and converting the website content from my personalized format [using mainly Flash] to WordPress. It’s been fun and not too difficult. I am learning a bit of CSS, learning how to Inspect Elements in Chrome [a fantastic tool] and use that information, and created my own child theme based off the wonderful Graphene theme by Syahir Hakim. Mr. Hakim offers a lot of user support on his forum, which is greatly appreciated.

Some of the obstacles I have had to overcome are small details that I am just being picky over, like font colours and proper grid layout. I am slowly getting used to not having control over every aspect such as letting embedded video do what it wants, which is probably a good thing so that I can focus on creating content instead of figuring out ways of presenting it.

Jun 14 2010

OnFire

By Website work No Comments

Hoping to make a quick addition to the workshop area, a clip from some play I was having with Cabin Fever footage [see fig 4.0]. Just getting myself used to working with this particular footage and using musical beats to drive the edit. mainly uploading it for a collaborator I’ll be hanging with in a week.
Off to IMAA onfire. Comin’ in hot!

Jun 05 2010

Filming “!”

By Film, Website work No Comments
  • In preparation for a weekend filmmaking frenzy at the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, I went out one sunny day and shot some footage to test out my skillz at hand-processing in a bucket [see fig. 3.9]. Note that it is difficult to shoot a butterfly who is struggling, just as you are, to stay upright in the wicked wind.
  • Not much updating done to the site, just cleaned up my code comments. O did, however, send off about fifteen hundred feet of film [Super 8mm & regular 16mm], so I should have that back at the end of the month, transferred to HD. some of it is for Cabin Fever [actually, I will finally have a proper transfer of the genesis footage of Cabin Fever], and some of it is some pleasant vacation footage.
May 09 2010

Got a cold :[

By Website work No Comments
  • Spent most of the day getting a piercing. It ks just a small nose ring [see fig. 3.8], watched Eat Drink Man Woman and decided to try to eat out less often.
  • Majority of the work I did on the site this evening won’t be seen by anyone. I constructed a simple non flash version for search engine spiders to build their little nests in.