my short film at Mlps/St. Paul Int'l Film Fest

[grainy]

Hello folks! I'm delighted to annonce that my short film "The Last City in the East" will be premiering at the Minneapolis/ St. Paul International Film Festival on April 19 at 7pm at the mighty St. Anthony Main theater.
If you're in the area, we'd love to see you there. You can also see some of the advice I've asked for on this forum applied on the big screen. Film was processed by AlphaCine, 10 k transfer done by Spectra.
Here's a screen grab from the film which is also serving as the poster still.
http://lastcityintheeast.blogspot.com/2 ... oster.html
best regards
Erik Hammen (grainy)

[Jean Poirier]

Congratulations and best luck to you and your team. Jean

[grainy]

Congratulations and best luck to you and your team. Jean

Merci and thank you, Jean! Here are some images from the film; Super 8 frames that we used for a poster and "lobby card".
regards
G

[David M. Leugers]

How about some details about your film? Length, shooting stock, cameras used etc, lots people on this forum would be interested in. I love the B+W, good luck!

[Mana]

Yes, I think David is right, tell us more about your project! Also, I really like how the poster turned out. The contrast between the back round and the man crossing the street in the snow.

[carllooper]

Hi Grainy,

is it possible to get DVD versions of your films? If so, could you let me know what I'll need to do in order to purchase such. I am quite intrigued by the history behind The Time of the Robots and would love to see what you've done there. And the posters for The Last City in the East invoke an atmosphere of which I would dearly love to see more. Unfortunately I can't make the premiere.

cheers
Carl

[grainy]

Yes, I think David is right, tell us more about your project! Also, I really like how the poster turned out. The contrast between the back round and the man crossing the street in the snow.

Thanks David and Mana! - delighted to share! Should've thought to do it off the bat.

The LAST CITY IN THE EAST is a 6 minute short about punk poet Paul Dickinson, who returns to the city that made him - St Paul, MN.
It was shot on Super 8 TriX reversal, with some 35mm and 120 still film inserts, in a single day last February around the Midway, Selby, and Frogtown areas of St. Paul.
The super 8 film was processed at Alphacine in Seattle, and transferred at Spectra in LA, both who I recommend highly - they love the format and are friendly, quick, and helpful.

The shoot was very tight. We had actually scheduled an additional half day to do pickups before the big day of shooting, but that time was shot when the city was hit with a blizzard. Luckily, the next day, our full day, it was sunny and comparitively easy to shoot, though it was quite cold.

The camera I used was a Sankyo XL420 Supertronic. I bought it for $25 from a kid last year, originally intending it to be a backup for my GAF -- but when I saw what I had in the Sankyo (it sports an f 1.2 lens) it got promoted to my main rig.
The manual exposure control and built-in light meter on the Sankyo seemed to work well for us.

We used only available light. In the frame grabs above, the interior shots were taken in a north-facing cafe, where I made sure we had window seats, and the sun, enhanced by the snow, gave us pretty good light and some nice contrast.

(I was considering bringing some foamcore but it was bright enough that day that I didn't bother. I was my own producer/PA, so we had to travel very light. )

Also, I shot at 18 fps to get an extra stop in my film speed, and to economize. Spectra transferred it so it plays like 24fps, and it looks totally natural. There was one scene where our guy is walking quickly, and it looked a tiny bit too quick, so I slowed it down in Final Cut Pro to about 80%. But that said, fast walking tends to look funny anyway, so that might not even count.

In addition to the super 8 footage, we also intercut some still photos, which were shot alternatly with generic 400 asa b/w film on a Lomo LCA, and one roll of ilford 3200 on a Holga. Using the Lomo at dusk was a mistake, the auto shutter control alwasy stayed open too long and the "nightyness" of the dusk images was kind of washed out. The 3200 ended up being the best bet for our one night shot, even though we pushed it 3 stops and it came out a bit too light, it was a lot easier to slightly darken that one in post.
Ironically, the super 8 would have worked just as well with for the night shot. -- I did get some footage just before I pulled out the still cameras, and it came out with plenty of black but with enough detail so you really get that "night" feeling. However, it was so cold out that after a long day of shooting, even with breaks in the diner, a warm truck, and resting under my down jacket, it finally stopped moving. In hindsight I might've been able to swap out the batteries and fired it up again, but my actors had gone inside and cracked open some beers by that time, and since we did have the Holga shots to work with, and it was written that way, I figured it was time to wrap.
Thinking about it some more, I also bet the Super 8 frame rate dipped below 18 as the camera started to slow down, and maybe that's why I got such a good dying image...

The film itself basically follows Mr. Dickinson around the city, and we hear a handful of his recorded works as voice-overs on the soundtrack as it pertains to where he is. Dickinson has a very engaging speaking voice and personality (his band toured with Sonic Youth and Pavement and he ran the famous Speedboat Gallery for years) and his poetry has a scrap yard-with-a-side-of romance ethos that made it work very well, I think, with the grainy b/w look of Tri X.

I actually got a chance to see the famous Beat movie "Pull my Daisy" a few days before the shoot for the first time, and while it's not the same film at all, they both share a scruffy, salt of the earth approach that I hope is appealing to our audience.
We'll be projecting on the big screen at the St. Anthony Main theater using the uncompressed Quicktime file from FCP. I've never that before, and I'm hoping for the best!

regards
Erik

[grainy]

Hi Grainy,

is it possible to get DVD versions of your films? If so, could you let me know what I'll need to do in order to purchase such. I am quite intrigued by the history behind The Time of the Robots and would love to see what you've done there. And the posters for The Last City in the East invoke an atmosphere of which I would dearly love to see more. Unfortunately I can't make the premiere.

cheers
Carl

Hi Carl - Not yet, but I'd be delighted to add you to my updates list... I need to figure out how to do that on the blog. I'm going to make the festival rounds with Last City before I do a DVD, but it'll definitely be available somehow and I will certainly let you know one way or the other!

Re: Time of the Robots -- thanks for asking! -- will also be ready to hit the festival circuit in just a few months. I have a few editorial details to complete, and this month I'm a bit distracted by the premier of 'Last City, but TOTR is a long time in the making and, I'm happy to say, a very unusual feature, so I'm eager to get it out to the world and I hope you will enjoy it.
best regards
Erik

[Mana]

Sounded fun Grainy, good luck at the festivals!

[super8man]

That was a great read of your write-up/notes on the filming. Very interesting and I could easily visualize your settings.

Cheers,
Mike

[carllooper]

but I'd be delighted to add you to my updates list...

Thanks Eric. I'll PM you my email address.

Carl