High-tech Analog

Although i work with an immersing technology called "film". I have to keep up with technology. Actually the term "film" is, as we speak, being considered as "old school" since nowadays almost everything including filming is being done digital. Technology appears and disappear in a blink of the eye. In all this massive power play of corporates i play a modest role. I decide whether or not i give in to the temptation of the final answer in the latest technology. Well.....
Actually i did the opposite. I bought myself an old 16mm film projector. Yes, an old grumpy machine that makes the noises of a rusty grinder. So now what. I could play my own old films, which still gives me the  creeps. (Cause a film is never finished, it is just being left alone because of the deadline.) So i decided to hunt for old 16mm features.
There it all started. I never expected to be lurched in the underbelly of film-enthusiasts, collectors, professional dealers etc. Cause believe or not you can buy approximately every modern feature on real film.
I decided to make a list of the movies that made the most impact on me, past and present. I came up with a list of 42 films, ranging from my youth up until now. My friends wonder what will happen to my home. Since film takes a little more space than blue-rays or dvd's. And considering that i live in a shoe-box apartment, being the only edit studio in town with a bed, a African gray parrot and a Norwegian Forrest cat, they might had a point.
But was caught with the virus called "collecting".  So i made my move and searched on E-bay, etc. My first
battle i lost. Cause on E-bay apparently you need to be very aware of the time of ending of the auction, since everybody seems to bid in the last hour. That way i saw at least 2 films pass to the wrong owner.
But i learned my first victory came with the won auction of a '70s film "The boys of Brazil", i was delighted.
The film is a very good made translation Ira Levin's novel, about the cloning of Hitler.

I organized my first "movie theater evening" with my friends. Who, without exception, thought i was going through some kind of midlife crises, investing in an 16mm projector. The sound of the projector was like putting an iPhone in a grinder. And since you can't spice all the reels together after every reel there was an, involuntary pause. The funny part was that the can like sound together with the sound of the projector reminded most of my audience of the old school film-evenings they had in there past. (Yeah they or all 30/40 something) Nevertheless the only one who didn't like it was of-course my parrot who tried to overrule the sound with all impersonations she got. (Which means loudly recalling all her favorite sound, from sing "Fly me to the moon" to doing sounds of my fridge, farts, burbs, my telephone ring, doorbells, a dog, the chorus of the latest music video i cut, and of course her absolute favorite shouting my name.) Needless to say that it was a spectacular viewing of the film with a complete new soundtrack. (It ceased when i give her an apple somewhere between reel 1 and 2) Nevertheless my audience endured all of this an actually liked it.

Later that evening the discussion started, due to probably the wine and other spirits, why i didn't bought a HD beamer. I mean my whole edit room is full of high tech equipment. But there lays the answer, I'm already high tech. Flat screens, 30" monitors etc. I use it all ready. But my urge was to revive a little history. Like in the beginning when i was fascinated by that old school flicker on a huge white screen. And strangely enough
the old school method of screening a film was also visible in my audience behavior, no talking, no running away or checking the blackberries or iPhone. They just sit there as in the old days, experiencing the film.
So there i was in a high-tech surrounding playing analog film, although after the viewing i woke up the next morning with grinding sound of my parrot's impersonation of a 16mm projector.

Coco

coco, a photo by Morbidey on Flickr.

Every morning I'm being greeted by my African grey parrot. 'Good morning' she says. Her wings are folded. I got her just before the moment she was killed. A refuge needed the cage for worse cases. I couldn't let her die. She will survive me though.
Most of the time, if i let her, she rushes to my shoulder. We watch together the morning sky of Amsterdam. Out of my window. People rushing by, herons, gullies and crows fly by.
Then i start working, she hears sounds and sees images. Birds, people and images,. Sometimes she puts her claw in my shoulder. When the film is scary or sometimes the music is building up a plot, she shivers, she reacts, her claws in my shoulder. She is my first public to my films.
Sometimes, i recall the days i studied with my master who died a couple of years ago. Is she my guardian?
The experience of watching a film together with her is amazing . Man and animal. We both were watching 1,5 hour of film.
Sometimes i felt the little claws in my shoulder. When it was exiting. Man and animal can have a relation, a strange moment of togetherness, a strange bound. She my first critic and endless love.