So, a couple years ago the Hollywood King of 3-D, Ray Zone, gave the Godfather of Queer Cinema, Mike Kuchar, a 3-D camera.
Let me take a little step back. Ray Zone was probably the single biggest advocate for Stereoscopic 3-D imaging that could ever be compiled in a living being. He was very positive, loveable and really interested in everything you had to say.
I was opening my semi-secret gallery and screening space in the dark corner of Skid Row in LA. My very first film screening was a selection of Mike Kuchar's videos. I flew him to LA and set him up in my apartment/gallery. It was his first time to LA in almost 3 decades. It was a great show with a full house including Mr. Ray Zone. I believe it was the first time Ray had seen Mike's work, but he knew of Mike's reputation. Ray being the generous person that he is and also always trying to spread the gospel of 3D gave Mike the new Fuji W3 Finepix 3D camera telling Mike that he "just wanted to see what he would do with it".
Mike graciously accepted the camera and when he returned to his home, San Francisco, he began making plans to start on a new project. Mike shot a few scenes with some of his regular stars, but at a certain point he simply had to abandon the project. You must understand, Mike is a very traditional filmmaker. Sometime in the 80's he transitioned from film to video and later still he transitioned to digital video tape. All of these processes are radically different and each transition took many years for him to master. Now, in his 70's, he seems reluctant to make the transition to digital video files (SD card) based footage. This is due mostly to the fact that he has no computer and no way of editing the footage.
The camera sat on the shelf with the footage for months. It sat as Mike witnessed his brother, George, fight his battle with cancer and lose. It sat for another year when Ray unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and left us with endless questions.
Eventually, Mike decided to give me the camera. He knew I worked in 3D and lucky for us all the footage that Mike shot was still on the card in the camera.
I started working on the footage, but quickly realized that even though the W3 camera is revolutionary in putting 3D easily into the hands of anyone it still has many bugs. With this camera there is a problem with the alignment of the two images and for 3D that is an enormous problem. It's basically the difference between seeing 3-D and giving everyone a headache. So, I spend much time fixing the footage to prepare it for editing.
Now I am finally at the stage of editing. It's still going to take more time, but for now I have a few images for you to see - to be viewed in anaglyph (red-blue) glasses. Not perfect, but getting there.
Well, I'm already behind in my project for the Echo Park Film Center's LA AIR (artist in residence) program. I have until Feb 28th to make a film. I'm working with my buddy Ale again and he's made a great soundtrack.
I've shot just about everything I need (I think) and I'm editing. I had to scrap the idea of shooting entirely on Single-8 fuji film, but I still shot some stuff on Single-8 and I'm waiting for it to get back to me. Yet, I have to say every day that passes I'm less hopeful I'll get the footage in time to use it (and I even gave them a cool Kodachrome pin when I returned my footage - Retro8.com have been a huge hassle).
Well, now I am editing and thinking how daunting all my animation and FX work will be. I want to add all the missing marquee sign and neon lights to what is up to 7 minutes of footage, but will likely be closer to 10 minutes.
These are the images I'm referencing. The theatres include the Mason, Orpheum, Loew's State, the Philharmonic Auditorum, Olympic and Tower (during the Newsreel days).
Philharmonic Auditorum
Philharmonic Auditorum
Orpheum
The Philharmonic Auditorum has one of the most elaborate signs and lights of any of the downtown LA movie palaces. It's actually really hard to tell from some pictures but the roof top sign is shifted back by about 20 feet and on the East most building and so it's just right of where you would enter and all the lights go up the building. A little strangely positioned.
The Orpheum was originally a Vaudville house. And the rooftop marquee used to have that in the title. It also used to face both East and West because the old Central Station where people would get off after spending the last 3 days traveling from New York, Chicago or somewhere else was located directly East of here. In the 30's Union Station was built where Chinatown was, Chinatown moved and so did a lot of interest in entertainment and business. Lucky enough the Orpheum was restored and looks amazing. But the "Vaudville" part is gone.
The State used to be called "Loew's State". Yes, the same as the Loew's theatre chain originally established by Marcus Loew. The building used to have a sign that ran up to the top and a couple different entrances with signs directing you to them. It was quite elaborate.
The Mason was originally an Opera House back at the turn of the last century. Later it became the first cinema in LA to be exclusively Mexican Cinema. Now? It's that giant hole of a block next to the LA Times building - ugly, stupid and anything would be better then that...even a parking lot!
A less remembered cinema, was not on the Broadway strip, but still interesting and found itself in a few movies over the decades. The marquee is still there. The building facade has changed (for the better), but the marquee is painted almost completely black. It seems obvious that the owner wants to get rid of it. Kinda sad.
This is a quick mock up of how I want to put the Loew's State together.
And here is a postcard I made and came out with a nice fake neon and florescent glow look that I'm going to use for the actual film.
So, I have a lot of work ahead and I might not finish in time, but I think whatever I do get done will be amazing.
A little history:
Single-8 film, one of the more rarely used stocks. This was Fuji's version of Super 8. So, to explain this a little, Kodak originally created S8 to be extremely easy to shoot for home movie purposes. It came in a cartridge so there was no threading at all. It was just like sticking a cassette into a tape deck. They, of course, patented this cartridge so that no other company could manufacture the stock and therefore most camera companies made Super 8 cameras.
Fuji decided to make their own version of the cartridge and did so in such a way that you could do one or two of the functions that was impossible with the Kodak cartridge - namely run the film in reverse (this might seem simple and unnecessary, but can come in handy for camera tricks). This warranted the need for Sinlge-8 cameras, which were only manufactured by Fuji. This stock and cameras were really only popular in Japan.
As a film stock, Single-8 is identical to Super 8 except for the cartridge (and Fuji film has a polyester base where Kodak mostly has an acetate base). So, once your film was processed and returned you could still use your Super 8 projector to run Single-8 film.
Last year Fuji discontinued the final stock of Single-8. This was a time when I was struggling financially and therefore I could not purchase any film, sad to say.
Single-8 and me:
A couple years ago I met a generous and elegant filmmaker named Sky David through my involvement with the iotaCenter. He told me he had quite a bit of film equipment that he wanted to get rid of and that included Sinlge-8 camera. So he inquired if I might know anyone who would want it. I jumped at the opportunity and exclaimed that I would. He quickly mailed me this extremely complex Fujica ZC1000.
But he also included 4 rolls of film, which I was not expecting. They all referenced an expiration date of some time in the early 80's, which only added to my excitement receiving this treasure in the mail. This was the first time in about 5 years or more that I had some film to shoot. I still had my 16mm bolex (with light leaks) and a Super-8 camera that the motor was wearing down and only running intermittently.
So, I'd just been given my best working camera and film. It took me some time, but I'd decided to finally shoot the rolls of film. Some on my roof top (with an amazing skyline of downtown LA) and some in other places. But then I was in a predicament. I didn't know where I could process the rolls.
I'd contacted Retro8.com in Japan, but they'd quoted me something to the effect of $50/roll for processing. So, $200. No thanks. I looked into Rocky Mountain Film Labs, which normally is extremely helpful, but not in this case. I searched and searched online for any processing information, but to no avail. So, I just hung on to the rolls for almost two years - exposed, but unprocessed.
Eventually, I'd decided, for some reason, that I was going to try hand processing using the E-6 technique. I got a small kit from Freestyle Photography in Hollywood and I did a snip test including these rolls and some other 16mm film I had in my arsenal.
To my surprise the only rolls that worked were the Fuji Single-8 film.
This ended up being some of the best stock I'd ever shot. Specifically the Fujichrome R25N, which has a greenish tint to the stock. Of course, you can see there are color shifts due to the old date of the stock and there seems to be some mold or something that animates about half way through, but it looks amazing! I was in love....
Kodak usually ends up being more of an orange colored stock, but the R25N being green was really breath taking. There was only one roll of RT200 and that ended up being kind of blue as well. So, I was not as keen to that stock, but it was still fun to shoot.
The breakup:
From this experience it renewed my interest and desire to shoot some more film and as the Fuji camera was my only working camera I'd decided to get some more Single-8. The only place I can still find some Fuji film and specially in the Single-8 cartridge is from Retro8.com based in Tokyo.
In November I decided to use this film for my current project with my residency at the Echo Park Film Center. However in dealing with Retro8 over the past 3 months I've so many delays and frustrating occurrences with them that I can not use Single-8 film and finish the project on time.
Originally, I'd decided to get one of their variety packs. I wanted to test each of the stocks that they had and then pick one to make my project with. This consisted of the R25N, Cinevia 50, Cinevia 100 and Retro-X (b/w) all reversal stocks and some of them were custom made.
In particular the Cinevia 100, which I tried shooting and shooting and shooting, but something was wrong. Eventually, I decided to test the stock to see if it was moving in the camera at all and I found out that the take-up side of the spool was not pulling the film through.
So, I had to send it back to Retro8 to fix. Which took a few unanswered emails to figure out what to do and get it done (I even included a nice note in returning it and a Kodachrome pin I'd gotten from EPFC as a nice Japanese style gift, but that didn't seem to help).
This was back in early December and now 6 weeks later I have received nothing. I was told that the cartridge was shipped before Christmas and I keep emailing Retro8 for updates, but they are always reluctant to respond and demanding that they shipped it off with no interest in trying to make this ordeal any better.
So, again, I have 3 rolls of exposed, but unprocessed film. I paid $250 for these four rolls and that included processing. So, I still have to go through the same BS when I have them processed.
Unfortunately, I payed them via paypal, which only gives you 45 days to dispute a charge.
And now it's too late to use the film for my project, which makes me very sad. At this point I don't think I'll want to use Single-8 film again. It's sad cause the moment I fell in love with it was also the moment that it became out of reach. It's like a one-night-stand. Leaves you happy, but wanting more and now they won't return my phone calls.
The only thing I'm trying to figure out is if I can recycle the old cartridges from the films I hand-processed. That way I can use any film (and I have a roll of Kodachrome in a S8 cartridge - unexposed) and insert it into the Single-8 cartridge. It seems doable, but I can't figure out how to pry the cartridge open without damaging it. Then I'd also have to correctly put new film into it....in complete darkness.
In February I begin my AIR (Artist in Residence) at the EPFC (Echo Park Film Center). I have a lot of things I'm preparing for this right now. So check back for updates.
For now keep in mind I will have a screening with a few films including a brand new one I will be completing for this residency, which will take place on Thursday Feb 28th.
I will also be hosting a workshop on film projection and expanded cinema on February 23rd starting around noon. As a projectionist for over 10 years and the current head projectionist at RedCat you might learn a thing or two ;) I'll also be discussing some of my secrets of when I do live visual or expanded cinema performances.
The Philharmonic Auditorum has one of the most elaborate signs and lights of any of the downtown LA movie palaces. It's actually really hard to tell from some pictures but the roof top sign is shifted back by about 20 feet and on the East most building and so it's just right of where you would enter and all the lights go up the building. A little strangely positioned.
