I spent some time in the film vault at VSW yesterday, perusing the oddities of the collection. There is quite a bit of odd, which is mainly what I'm looking for right now. Having just entered my third year in the program, there has been precious little time to spend amongst the rather sizable collection of 16mm. To satisfy the practicum requirement for the program, last fall, several of us decided to organize and catalog the titles in the vault into a searchable database, which is nearly complete, and will be a useful resource for anyone looking to access materials. Having worked many hours on that project, I decided as I near the end of my time here, I needed to spend some time bringing some of that celluloid gold to the light of day. So I am working on compiling some found elements into a new film, taking pieces, and creating a new context for them. The technique is certainly not new. In fact, this week is a great opportunity to see and hear about the work of Daniel Eisenberg from the filmmaker himself. He is someone who has worked extensively in this mode, so I look forward to seeing his approach since I have not explored this method much in my own film work.

At this point, I am looking for the obscure; whether it is from science and educational films, or lesser known documentary and news footage, basically anything off the beaten path. I'm drawn to certain titles like "The Golden Age of the Automobile", or along similar lines "Gasoline: More Run for Your Money". Perhaps "The Skeleton: Our Fantastic Framework" will hold promise, or "Is Everybody Happy But Me?". How could I avoid at least viewing the ever enticing "Tumbles, Mumbles and Bumbles"?

I must begin by returning to a film that, at least in part brought me to this project: Bruce Conner's 1967 film "Report", which employs various footage of the JFK assassination in very interesting and unorthodox ways, along with running commentary from a radio report of the incident.

The film produces a fascinating reflection of our societal impulse to revel in, as we are simultaneously repelled by (or at least feign to be), the graphic violence of such an event. It also provides a fascinating commentary on the inane minutiae that at times envelopes the world of broadcast news, as I am all too aware, particularly now in the age of 24 hour news cycles, where reporters and anchors are left to blather on incessantly over layers of graphics and recycled video footage, whether it has relevance or not.

It reminds me of a very intriguing piece by German video artist Bjorn Melhus that I saw at the Denver Art Museum entitled "Deadly Storms".

You can view a short clip of the piece here: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/videos/detail/bjorn-melhus-video-installation-dam/

The piece was both a humorous and astute criticism of the frequent absurdity of the modern formula that television news broadcasts have adopted. It used a far different method than Conner did, and the different eras they were done in also separates the tone of the two works, however they share the critical viewpoint, lingering on the conceptual nature of the imagery, nearly to the point of monotony. And of course, each owes its material directly to very medium that it critiques. In the case of "Report", the use is even more direct than in the Melhus piece, however both attempt to mimic something, even mock it in a way. My approach, and my outcome, will likely be very different, though looking at these types of works is always useful in consideration of how to make use of archival materials.