4 posts tagged “comics”

My filmmaking activities have been curtailed by the day-to-day at the university, but last Friday, 13 February, I screened a short film, "24-Hour Comics Day at Cosmic Monkey", as part of the Oregon 150 commemoration at Western. The short was produced from footage shot for my larger documentary project on the comic book scene in Portland, Oregon (USA). I've inserted the YouTube version below, but better viewing can be found on my lo-fi cinema page at blip.tv.

After pushing my production schedule for 24-Hour Comic Day and Stumptown, I was able to move back into research mode. More particularly, I've been sending out a survey to Portland-based comics creators, and their allies in publishing, libraries, and retail, to get an initial sense of why so many in this community have decided to make the city their home. Now, it's time to sit down with the results and plan the first part of the shoot, which will primarily involve scheduling interviews (another purpose of the survey was to net potential subjects).

I am torn between different ways of approaching the next stage of production. I am drawn both to taking an intensive approach, where we focus on three to four subjects and "their" city, and an extensive one, where we build the documentary around many voices. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or resources to effectively try both angles at once. What I think I might do is identify a few potentially interesting subjects from the surveys, schedule interviews with them, and see what I have. How well those interviews go may hint at whether we should to return to those subjects, or some combination of those I initially talk to and one or two new people, or if we should start building up a pool of interviews to draw on in editing. There are, of course, gradations between these two extreme alternatives, but I think the doc will substantially follow one or the other path.

I should also add that with production picking up, this blog will likely become more active again (I also have this to look to forward this summer).

I have begun work on a documentary that will look at comics culture in Portland, Oregon. Officially, I'm in pre-production, pulling together a crew, doing preliminary research, etc., but in reality the shoot will begin next weekend. My schedule has been forced by the Stumptown Comics Fest moving from September to April, a move which inadvertently drew my attention to 24-Hour Comic Day at Cosmic Monkey Comics in NE Portland, an event that takes place April 5-6. So, since I'm starting ahead of schedule anyway, I figured why not add that to the list.

You can learn more about the documentary at the "official" production blog I've set up on TypePad. I'll continue to blog more informally about the film here on Vox.

The composition of music for 5 Cups of Coffee is underway. I have pieces from Doug and his band and from Rich. I am waiting on work from Jenn. Thanks to Kerry for working with Rich. In the meantime, Maren has done a major revision on a script that is "inspired" by Andi Watson's Geisha. More on that as it comes together (though I should probably keep the lid on the Geisha connection, copyright and all that). In other film-related news, I have reviews and comments on Running with Scissors, Marie Antoinette, and Half Nelson (in the form of a dialogue with Anne-Marie) on refracting kropotkin. I should also mention that I am running Western Oregon's second annual French Film Festival right now. This past week we screened Mondovino (2005) and will be screening La Face Cachee de la Lune (2003) this coming week. Details at the WOU Film Studies blog.