I wrote this letter of introduction when applying for an art school film job a few years back.
Thank you for looking at my materials as I offer myself for consideration to teach film (there).
What do I think I could bring to your film department?
I have a great love of film and an even greater interest and concern for the lives of people looking for ways to express themselves with film. Of course we are at a time when film as THE MEDIUM is rapidly being displaced by digital means; knowing computers is more important every day. A professor of film at an arts college must know how computers can be used to solve problems and expedite production of ideas into moving pictures.
I have feet in both realms: the digital and its parent analog.
I have collected films and film machines for 25 years and have learned something from each of the formats. I studied animation with Flip Johnson using Bolex cameras, pegboards and lights. Richard Lerman taught filmmaking and sound and became a friend. I taught myself to use the JK optical printer. Soon after, I switched to super-8 filmmaking, which is largely a do-it-yourself media, although some "teachers" included the young German filmmakers, my peers: Matthias Mueller, Jurgen Reble, Caspar Stracke, and all the European, Canadian and American artists I spent time with (Yann Beauvais, Cecile Fontaine, Mike Hoolboom, Alex MacKenzie, Bradley Eros, Jeanne Liotta). I lived super8 film for several years, traveled to numerous festivals. I experimented with many telecine routes, from "Do-It-Myself" to Bob Brodsky's service. I have owned many super8 cameras and projectors and used most existing filmstocks. I bought ORWO super8 cartridges in East Berlin.
Unfortunately, I don't recommend super8 as heartily as I once did, largely because the number of reliable or repairable cameras and projectors has declined. With a good camera, super8 remains a tremendous image making medium, but please have it rendered to digital video ASAP. Super8 projectors are largely unreliable at present.
I've always believed in COLLABORATION as an important avenue of creativity and I've sought out other artists with whom to work.
Parallel to filmmaking, I have studied and practiced RADIO as an art form. I decided somewhere early on that a radio transmitter is a PROJECTOR for sound, and I've always found radio to have great commonalities with film as an expressive tool. My soundtrack work grew out of radio shows I did at the same time as making films; the concurrent practices feed off of one another.
Using film as a PERFORMANCE medium is another area where I've had a lot of experience, beginning with the ALMANAC project, where I used 2 projectors to present the work. I have soaked myself in Gene Youngblood's Expanded Cinema tome and am a great proponent of breaking the single-channel stream of film presentatrion. Working with Wet Gate, where we developed the use of the 16mm projector as a performance instrument in concert, has been a great outlet for my need for a true film practice. (Wet Gate will perform at the Berkeley Art Museum as part of their Friday Night series on January 29th, 2010.)
I do, however, appreciate and champion well made single-channel films. I am not quite the dilettante I was even 10 years ago.
The past 10 years I have tried to function in the wild world of community and commerce, first working in Public Radio and then creating soundtracks for film and television, often for commercials. Again, with a foot in 2 different worlds, I have stayed in touch with the experimental art world while trying to bring my skills into the larger film industry. Perhaps like Paul Sharits and others who wanted to see if they could apply experimental principles to more commercial (or accessible or just distributed) work, I moved to LA 4 years ago. My most recent new project involves writing the script for a teleplay or original series, based on my father's life. I have ongoing relationships and projects with creative people which I am nurturing.
I have always seen film as a great communicating force and have wanted to inject myself into that, into the great machinery of projectors and television screens that can reach people all across the world. Here in Los Angeles that means beginning with a script, so that is an important starting place. I don't mean to say that film cannot contain or even be based upon improvisational elements. When I was younger. film was much more of a diaristic medium for me, whereas now I want to consider carefully each time I engage the film apparatus. It's too expensive a medium at this point.
