bitdepth

Public WiFi in Fredericton

Fred-eZone sign I’ve been up to Fredericton briefly a couple of times in the last 3 weeks and one interesting thing that is going on there is that downtown there is free, unlimited public WiFi access (the Fred-eZone) in the downtown area. The network is made possible due to some forward-thinking in the city when they decided wire up the downtown with fiber in 1999 just as it looked as if there was no end to the dot com boom. The high-speed network downtown was set up for the needs of the city, but with the excess capacity they decided to open it up to the citizens of Fredericton. What a great idea! I haven’t wardriven much, but what is cool about how they have things set up in Fredericton is that there is a little “e” with radiant lines on the side of signposts and buildings in areas that are covered. I sat on a bench with my PowerBook a couple of weeks ago and went online. It was neat to do and it worked well. Inside the Film Co-op (which is just above where the bench is) it didn’t work as well, but that could be due to the walls or other things in between it. It’s great that Fredericton has it and I wonder how many people are using it. It would be great if this would catch on in other places.

May 31, 2004 fredericton, wifi

The Fog of War

Errol Morris is a film craftsman. His films tell challenging stories in visually interesting ways. The Fog of War won the Academy Award for Best Documentary and it is also one of Morris’ best films. The film is built around interviews with Robert S. McNamara. The score by Philip Glass moves the film forward with a steady pace along with archival footage, stills and significant, but understated visuals illuminate, but don’t distract from the lessons of the film. Morris knows how to build a film from various elements that suit the material and The Fog of War is divided into 11 lessons as the organizational principle. While the man and his personal insight are at the centre of the film, it is a fascinating glimpse into the history of the United States and how individuals shape that history. McNamara is amazing to watch and he engages with Morris through the Interrotron, which is a camera with television in front of it. McNamara at one point outlines a fundamental rule for dealing with the media – “Never answer the question that has been asked of you. Answer the question you wish you had been asked.”

Is McNamara spinning us? Yes, of course. But what is the truth? How do we know what happened? How do we know what will happen? These questions form the core of many of Morris’ films and he doesn’t flinch from dealing with them. One of the many things that I admire in Morris’ work is how he lets the audience make up their mind. He takes a point of view, he presents evidence, but he doesn’t hide edits. With earlier Morris films he would insert some black frames to indicate that parts of an interview were cut out, but now he jump cuts because I think that with the interviews it would probably be distracting. The biggest challenge in making a non-fiction film is treating the interviewees with respect, presenting them fairly and telling the story with all of the pieces fitting together to illuminate a life, tell a story and to give us some insight. Errol Morris does that very well and I’m glad that he’s making films.

May 24, 2004 documentary, errolmorris, film, fogofwar, history, philipglass, review, robertsmcnamara, war

Bolex Workshop

Bolex Last weekend I went up to Fredericton for a two-day workshop at the NB Filmmakers’ Coop. It was the Bolex: 2 Day Filmmaking Boot Camp workshop taught by Chris Giles. It was a lot of fun and I learned things that I should have known a decade or two ago. The Bolex is a 16mm motion picture film camera that was first introduced in the 1920s and it is still being manufactured! The coolest part of most Bolex cameras is that they operate using a spring-powered motor, which means that you never have to worry about batteries. In the two days we went through all of the aspects of the camera and lenses, came up with films to shoot, and then loaded the camera and shot the films! The Bolex takes 100 foot rolls of film, which translate into 2 1/2 minutes or 4000 frames. We shot black & white reversal film, which means that there is no workprint and what you get back can be projected. The film is off to the lab now and so I don’t know if it came out or not, but that’s part of the excitement of shooting film. I shot a hybrid stop-motion walk around the block with Cathie LeBlanc as my partner and soon I’ll find out if the exposure and focus was sharp or not. The difference between shooting film and video is quite striking. I haven’t shot film in a long time and I’m always pleasantly surprised at the different perception of time when you shoot film. Shooting film makes you think more carefully about what you are rolling on as with the Bolex you only have 2 1/2 minutes total footage (if you shoot at 24 fps) and can’t run that long on a wind… so you have to have a good idea of what you will have before you shoot. But it frees you up in other ways as you start and then feel the rush of adrenaline as the film runs through the camera.

May 18, 2004 16mm, bolex, filmmaking, nbfilmmakerscoop, workshop

Down By Law

Down By Law DVD One of my all-time favourite films is Down By Law, directed by Jim Jarmusch. I haven’t seen it in years and maybe not since the first time that I saw it was in the 80s in a theatre in Montreal. It’s a stunningly beautiful film with amazing black & white cinematography by Robby Müller. The Criterion DVD features a transfer that presents the film in full grayscale glory. The film is languorously paced and follows Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni as they are thrown together in jail. Jarmusch is a master at letting things go on. You capture some amazing moments just by waiting and watching the right people as they improvise. Melody London edited the film and the rhythm is perfect visually and sonically. The film starts and ends with Tom Waits songs and John Lurie provides a great musical score that is almost impossible to separate from the film. While some remastered and retransferred films are accompanied by reworked surround sound soundtracks, the soundtrack of Down By Law is presented in the original mono. I was thinking that it would be a bit flat, but the soundtrack is amazing and full. I’ve been spoiled by technology and the false belief that more is better. A good soundtrack is a good soundtrack and you don’t need all sorts of sounds whizzing around. The location sound is great and it makes me want to record sound again for a film. I was surprised at how wonderful the film was and I’m still amazed by the beauty of it all. The special features are as idiosyncratic as the film and have some interesting telephone conversations between Jarmusch and the three stars. There also are thoughts on the film by Jarmusch which are presented as just sound. It’s better than most commentary tracks as it is difficult to talk about a film for the entire time it is playing. The neat icing on the cake the music video the Jarmusch and Tom Waits collaborated on as part of the Red, Hot and Blue project.
A few years ago I was at a huge film business barbeque in Toronto and I was in the beer tent and I saw Jim Jarmusch standing alone in the tent. I saw him and didn’t go over and say anything as I was afraid that I’d freeze or say something stupid… now I wish that I went over and said, “Hi Jim, thanks for making some great films.”

May 12, 2004 criterion, dvd, jimjarmusch, johnlurie, melodylondon, robbymuller, robertobenigni, tomwaits

Morvern Callar

Morvern Callar still How can you describe something that works so well without saying a lot? One thing that I don’t like about many reviews is the recounting of the plot as a way to fill the space. Scottish director Lynne Ramsay‘s Morvern Callar is a haunting film that is surprising as you watch it and it kept me off-balance and anxious the whole time that I was watching it. There are secrets, but I don’t think that knowing them ruins the enjoyment, but I won’t share them with you as part of the pleasure in watching for me was not know where things were going. Samantha Morton stars as Morvern Callar and she gives a hypnotic performance that combines with great cinematography, editing and direction to create a film that really has stuck with me. I was speechless after it was done and then said, “Wow.” I can’t think of many films that have left me in an unsettled state during the film… the Belgian film C’est Arrivé Près de Chez Vous (Man Bites Dog) did it and there have been other films as well, but while “Man Bites Dog” is deeply disturbing and well-made I may not watch it again. Another film that did it was Lynne Stopkewich‘s Kissed, which is also haunting and disturbing and I will watch again. Is it that Kissed and Morvern Callar were both directed by women (with the same first names as well)?One of the things that I loved about Morvern Callar was Lynne Ramsay’s capturing of moments that felt very real. Things like watching a bug walk under a doorway, the banality of work, talking with a friend’s grandmother, talking with someone at a party while drinking with the noise or just sitting and thinking. It’s great to watch something that is so visual and so subjective and so beautiful. I have the DVD and I think that I’m going to get the soundtrack as well. Warp Records has a good Morvern Callar site for the film with a look that I love. The film was shot in 2001, released in 2002, but for North America it seems as if it was one of those films that people don’t want to release, so it quietly slips out onto DVD with the only features being chapter selection!

May 10, 2004 dvd, film, kissed, lynneramsay, lynnestopkewich, manbitesdog, morverncallar, review, samanthamorton

Public WiFi in Fredericton

The Fog of War

Bolex Workshop

Down By Law

Morvern Callar

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