super 8 travels

It's been a fabulous few weeks of film. Starting with the 6th annual attack here in LA, then off to North Carolina.
Cucalorus, wilmington nc. nov 8-11 My film "cold?" was screened. Many new films, docs at this great festival. My fav pic of the fest: two headed cow

Nov 13, Super 8 workshop - unc chapel hill. Nov. 13. Around 25 students attended my 2 hour super 8 filmmaking workshop held in Swain Hall. We're bringing filmmaking on film back to UNC. If you can learn to tell a story on one roll of super 8 film, that will translate into creating cohesive films on all other mediums and formats. Norwood and Kodak donated 2 super 8 cameras to the lab for students to check out. The UNC film lab now has 7 super 8 cameras for their students. Kodak also donated super 8 film to further kickstart the program. UNC also has a student run video production group - STV, that is dedicated to giving all students a chance to get experience behind and in front of the camera.

Flicker Chapel Hill. Their 61st screening packed over 100 people into the Cat's Cradle. It was a beautiful coincidence that Flicker was happening the one night I was in Chapel Hill. My fav film of the evening was from Flicker Richmond - "The Peritoneal Surfaces are Smooth and Glistening" by Walker Allen.

Super 8 on the brain

Last night I dreamed I was about to shoot some super 8 film. I was holding the cartridge in my hand, and began to break the plastic lip that informs the camera if the cartridge is color or black and white. I had color film, but the plastic wasn't notched so i had to break it the way you would break the record tab on a cassette. Super 8 is on my brain and filling my subconsious.

Attack is Back!

flicker los angeles presents the 6th annual Attack of the 50 Foot Reels. All the films were turned in Oct 16 and processed at Yale Film and Video in North Hollywood. Keith is always very supportive of the Attack and is a wonderful super 8 ally. Greg at Yale ran the controls on friday as we transferred the Super 8 films to digi-beta and dv-cam. Yale has a great Rank machine where they can transfer reversal and negative. Most of the films this year were shot at 18fps. Even without the sound, I am very impressed by a lot of the images that our 21 filmmakers captured. Originally there were 25 filmmakers, but a few couldn't survive the intensity and challenge of the Attack. Over the next few days i'll be syncing up the soundtracks that everyone has turned in. It's going to be a good night nov 6 at the egyptian so come on out.

Cold? A new Super 8 film by Norwood Cheek

Watch
Cold?


This film was shot on one roll of super 8 film, March 25, 2006 in Singapore...

king of the hill

Noir film festival at the Cinematheque. Ran into Parigi who told me that king of the hill is back! I'm pumped for my NC filmmaking pals Autschuler and Krinski. They've had me on 3 episodes and it's a blast. I always play a punk kid who tries to get Bobby in trouble = yes i'm a victim of type-casting. My fav was "reborn to be wild", and it turns out there's a promo pic from that in GiantMag this month - recognize the cartoon skater version of me??? The striped socks are a dead giveaway. This was a nice welcome back to LA, plus going to see films that you can't see anywhere else. Andrea & I last week at a great screening at Film Forum.

BIG FOOT?

After Adelaide, I flew to Kuala Lumpur, then took a 6 hour train ride through the rich green and lush forests of Malaysia to Singapore. As it turns out, there have been several Yeti sightings in this region. I was on the look out from my speedy train and foggy window. It's very humid here, the vegetation is thick, and perhaps if you look closely, there could be solid evidence, or at least digital soft evidence of the Big foot. I believe it.

adelaide wrap-up

as the sky over adelaide seemed to turn into a giant super 8 film reel, the shoot the fringe big premiere of all 41 super 8 films was tuesday night March 14 at fowler's live. The place was packed and many of the films were stellar! and 39 of them had original soundtrax. I ran into a man who is promoting a new australian flag, I threw a lot of arrows with my friend chris, and met lots of amazing and talented people in Adelaide. I will miss my living room = the grace, and my sleeping quarters upstairs. I still never got used to walking on the left hand side of the sidewalk, the coffee in adelaide rocks, there are sharks in the water but that just adds to the adventure, i should invest in coopers, my friend will sheridan played drums and we played four songs saturday night at the grace, he rocked! i love a pony glass but it's dangerous and very fragile, i hope to come back next year...

sites around town

Most locals say that Adelaide is the classic small town, a little sleepy and easy-going. This time of year when the Festival and Fringe are going it is quite bustling and energetic and exciting. A few things (apart from the driving on the wrong side of the road) stand out = like almost every car has a trailer hitch...I don't know what this means, but it does seem like a lot of folks here are quite nomadic or maybe they enjoy towing a bbq. Another confusing thing is that all streets change name at king william street, because "you can't cross the king". In the southern hemisphere, the sun travels from right to left across the sky.and then my fav is the fact that someone had already bought the rights to the name burger king in australia, and so the chain is called hungry jacks.

OZ camera of choice

Many of the filmmakers here partcipating in Shoot the Fringe have some stellar cameras such as the Canon 814e.

A Rollei, a really awesome Agfa (with the biggest viewing screen I've seen), several Bauer's and a heavy-as-lead Chinon were some of the stand-outs. The South-Australian's obviously took their super 8 filmmaking seriously as these were all very expensive cameras back in the day. And now, 45 filmmakers are putting them to the test, shooting their 50 foot masterpieces this week...

beauty and sadness

Don Knotts was a king. We are truly lucky that his unparalleled comic genius is preserved and available to watch and enjoy any time.

Adelaide

It's the last day of summer here in Adelaide , the star of the southern hemisphere.

flicker in Australia:days 1-5

Still a bit jet lagged, i'm finding my way here in Adelaide at the Fringe Festival.


I led my first workshop. 45 filmmakers participated = 40 of them had their own camera! They have one week to make their super 8 film...



my friend Clanger is letting me stay in the super swank Grace Emily Hotel.


my room is excellent. high ceiling. and the sun sets right outside my window...

14 hour flight from LA to taipai. the water fountains at the airport have paper cups.

flicker los angeles

flicker los angeles
I've arrived in Adelaide for the Fringe Festival. Super 8 is in the air. over 40 filmmakers will be taking the workshop on sunday. Due to travels, i lost tuesday. That tricky international date line.