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| Issue 41: July 1998 |
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A Minute (or More) With Glenn
Glenn Standring’s dynamic video installation is screening in the Film Centre window
and his film Lenny Minute features in Hard Drive Heroes. Glenn talked to Diane
Pivac from the Film Archive.
You made Lenny Minute at art school. What influenced you?
I’d had this character drifting around in my head in various forms for a while.
And I’d been reading quite a lot of detective stories, primarily those of Dashiell
Hammett.
I was struck by the fact that while it came out of a pulp tradition, it was also
&147;high art&148;. Hammett was rewriting the genre, inventing his own and the
quality of the writing was really good. I was kind of obsessed with that and joined
that with this character, Lenny Minute, who I thought was a detective. I’d also
seen things like Bladerunner and Godard’s Alphaville.
Lenny Minute was made on an Amiga 500, tell us about that.
I sat for there for like two and a half weeks through the night digitising single
frames at 25 seconds per frame. Sometimes that really dreary kind of stuff is
what you need to do if you’re going to make it cheaper and do it your own way.
And there’s also a kind of a meditative-ness about that kind of process, you know
utterly inane repetition. It’s almost Zen.
What have you been doing since?
Dave Gibson of the Gibson Group asked me to set up a computer unit and then
direct sketches for the first series of Skitz, so I did that with Danny Mulheron
for a year. I also started having conversations with Dave about developing something
out of Lenny.
After a year of Skitz I went into feature development. The film is based on
the Lenny character but takes him out of animation. It is quite a big budgeted
project so I thought maybe I should do something smaller scale and quicker first.
That’s when I started working on the script for Demons which is in the
Film Commission’s low budget programme. It’s going well...
For Muybridge and Dr Jan Breward is currently screening in the front window
of the Film Centre. What’s behind that?
From working on special effects I’ve learnt the craft and I wanted an opportunity
to use the silicon graphics computers for a bit more self expression. The Gibson
Group supplied the resources. The front window was a perfect opportunity to use
those skills and computers.
I thought it would be quite nice to take something very archaic and computer process
it. I researched Edward Muybridge whose high speed photography preceded cinema.
I decided to take his images and update them and just as I was finishing a friend
of mine died in Dunedin, so I put his image in - because he would have liked it.
What would you say to someone wanting to get into the industry?
I can only talk about the way I did it. There’s no prescription. What you can’t
really teach, and what needs time to develop, is your own aesthetic about the
world and how you see yourself in it. Also, what you want to express and what
is visually the right method for you to express things.
Film courses are great because they give you access to gear, you need that gear,
and it gives you four years to figure out what you want to say and how you want
to say it.
The entire interview is available for research at the Film Archive.
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Festival Fever
The Film Festival celebrates the centenary of New Zealand filmmaking with
the premiere of the restored print of Gustav Pauli’s Under the Southern
Cross and retrospectives of influential filmmakers Len Lye and Cecil Holmes.
The most comprehensive programme ever assembled of Len Lye’s films, including
rarely screened experimental material from New York, has been curated by Jonathan
Dennis, co-ordinator of the Festival’s Special Programmes. “Prepare
to be astonished... this retrospective will be a revelation,” says Jonathan.
Films by Cecil Holmes will also screen in a long overdue tribute to his work.
The retrospective brings together his classic Weekly Review, The
Coaster from 1948, selected documentaries made for the National Film Unit
in the 1940s, the feature Three in One, along with other films he made
in Australia.
The Film Festival’s international archival programme includes Orson Welles’
Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. A major highlight
is the New Zealand premiere of Godard’s Contempt starring Brigitte
Bardot “in all its uncut CinemaScope, pure 60s splendour.” In vivid
contrast will be rare opportunity to experience the films of Man Ray in a special
presentation by Jean-Michel Bouhours, curator for films at the Centre Georges
Pompidou.
The Wellington Film Festival closes with a marvellous live cinema event, Charlie
Chaplin’s City Lights (1931), with accompaniment from the Wellington
Sinfonia conducted by Peter Scholes. Widely regarded as Chaplin’s greatest
comedy, this special event is designed to delight the whole family. Don’t
miss this opportunity to enjoy the greatest of movie comedies in all its original
glory.
Check your Film Festival programme for details.
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The First 15 Years
The recent publication of The Film Archive 15 Year Report, a slim volume looking
back over the first 15 years of the Film Archive’s history, highlights
the dynamic growth and change the organisation has gone through since its founding
in 1981.
It paints a picture of a unique organisation – one which holds the national
moving image collection, but which is not a government body; which does not
own its collections, but provides access to an increasingly diverse group of
users.
One measure of the growth of the Archive, particularly in the last 5 years,
is the rise in audiences from fewer than 5,000 in 1992 to over 90,000 last year.
Over the same period the collection has increased from around 15,000 to more
than 30,000 titles and the annual operating budget from $1.1 million to nearly
$2.5 million.
The 15 Year report was prepared as part of the process of finalising the new
Five Year Plan for the Film Archive which will be published later this year.
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Our Last Pioneer
Ted Coubray, 1990 – 1997
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Ted (right) with his brother
Fred filming scenes of Bishop Cleary’s funeral from the
top of the Radio Films Sound truck, August 1929 |
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First generation filmmaker Ted Coubray died in Sydney on 10 December
1997. During a life-time in film Edwin (Ted) Coubray was a projectionist,
cameraman, actor, director, producer, sound-film pioneer and inventor.
Beginning in 1921, Ted’s whole career was about movie making.
He worked as the assistant cameraman and occasional extra on the
great historical epic Birth of New Zealand (1922) and in
1925 he was cameraman for Gustav Pauli’s Under the Southern
Cross.
Ted formed NZ Radio Films Ltd in Auckland in 1926 and made a wonderful, inventive
series of short industry sponsored documentaries, including Bottled Health
(1926), about milk bottling at Ambury’s and Magic Collar Box (1927),
collar-making at Archibald Clarke’s factory.
In 1927 Coubray wrote, produced and directed the horse-racing feature Carbine’s
Heritage. The film attracted capacity audiences screening simultaneously
in three Auckland cinemas. The single print was rushed between the theatres
by motorcycle and session times were staggered to meet demand.
Ted was always dedicated to experiment and invention. As soon as the ‘talkies’
arrived in New Zealand in early 1929 he began experiments to make his own sound-on-film
system. Six months and £3,000 later the Coubray-tone sound system was
operational, an entirely NZ-made enterprise and the first of its kind in Australasia.
The Coubray Collection of films, equipment, stills and papers is available for
research at the Film Archive.
A documentary portrait of Ted Coubray, Mouth Wide Open screens in
the Film Festival, in Auckland on Thursday, 16 and in Wellington on Monday,
27 July.
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Reeling Them In
Visitor numbers continue to rise at the Film Centre with a solid programme
of exhibitions, films and programmes reaching new audiences.
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Students from Tom Hunter’s
film course at Wellington College soak up Hard Drive Heroes. |
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Education Programmes Co-ordinator, Alex Burton, says visits from
school groups have almost doubled since he began work at the Film
Centre in March 1997. Alex has also been on the road presenting
programmes in schools. He estimates that by the end of this year
around 8,000 teachers and students will have experienced a Film
Centre presentation.
Using a wide range of film resources, from early silent to modern television
images, Alex has been developing specialised screening programmes that are fully
integrated into theprimary and secondary school curriculum. Compilations include
Changing Face of Wellington, Changes in Film Technology, The
Sixties and Leaders, which focuses on famous New Zealand political
identities. Contemporary films such as O Tamaiti and Heavenly Creatures
are also in demand for close reading by media studies students.
The success of the programmes is reflected in the very positive responses received
from teachers and students. “Students aren’t used to studying geography
and history by watching films, so they think it’s pretty wild” Alex
says.
Film Centre Co-ordinator, Steve Russell, has also developed new audiences
this year, through joint ventures with other organisations. The successful Wenders
to the End of the World a photographic exhibition with accompanying film
programme, was presented in association with the Goethe-Institut. Cinema
Europe: Celebrating Europe Day was initiated by the European Union with
the support of the British Council and the British High Commission. The week
long festival of feature films is set to become a regular event at the Film
Centre.
The front window at the nose of the Film Centre building is fast becoming
an exhibition space in its own right. A street audience, numbering in the thousands,
passes daily. Currently showing is For Muybridge and Dr Jan Breward,
a video installation by Glen Standring. Steve Russell says “We hope the
video wall will become a regular showcase for the work of contemporary video
artists.”
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Southern Success
Stewart Islanders flocked to Halfmoon Bay in late March for a screening of
early films to promote the Southland / Central Otago Last Film Search.
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The Last Film Search van travels
south. Photo Jamie Lean |
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Presented by the Film Archive and Bank of New Zealand, the screening
was the first on the Island in 25 years and attracted more than
200 people – about three quarters of the permanent population.
The southern search was the 11th regional search in the Bank of New Zealand
sponsored project which began in 1992. The five screenings held during the search
were attended by more than 2000 people. Over 420 films were deposited with the
Film Archive, which brings the total number of films found on Last Film Searches
to over 7000.
The next Search, covering the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel, will take place
this October. The Northland Return Screenings will be held in early July.
Next year the Last Film Search will go off-shore. A search concentrating on
New Zealand material held in Australian archives and institutions is currently
being planned.
A highlight of the Film Archive’s millennium celebrations will be the
grand finale of the Last Film Search. A programme of film treasures collected
during the eight year search will tour nationwide.
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Tracking the Film Archive
In June the Film Archive announced that for the third successive month its
research library had supported more than 100 reference projects.
The library’s extensive computer database supports more than
5,000 specialist publications and 2,500 VHS reference tapes and
also provides information about the entire collection.
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PAD – the Public Access
database is available for free public use |
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“Every week we receive an extraordinary mix of access requests,”
says Virginia Callanan, the Archive’s Registrar. “A family
is tracing their grandfather in a newsreel; an advertising company
wants home movie footage for a burger commercial; an `historian
is researching the NZ wars.”
“The Film Archive is an excellent public resource. The collections include
over 30,000 moving image titles as well as books, posters, photographs, scripts
and audio tapes.”
Home movies, newsreels, features, TV commercials and programmes, music videos
and documentaries are just some of the moving images available for viewing.
“Reference viewing is easy and free,” says Virginia. “The Reference
Library, the Public Access Database and Film Centre exhibitions all provide
plenty of opportunities to discover the collection. Outreach programmes, like
the Last Film Search, school screenings, Te Hokinga Mai and national video-access
programme, known as VACCESSremote, cater for audiences nationwide”.
If the Film Archive can’t help, a researcher may be referred to another
organisation which can. National Archives holds the copyright for government
productions and the New Zealand Television Archive manages TVNZ and NZBC copyright
as well as the last 25 years of National Film Unit productions. Unlike other
archives or stock footage libraries, the Film Archive does not own its collections.
“The copyright—the rights of the makers of the film or video, is not
passed on to the Film Archive when the item is deposited”, says Virginia.
“The depositor still owns the physical property - the actual reels of film
or the video tape. Depositors may also own the copyright, but not always. For
instance, they may have purchased the film from a garage sale or found it at
the tip.”
The Film Archive also offers a footage sales service and regularly contributes
to contemporary productions. Motormania, Forgotten Silver,
The Drum, The New Zealand Wars and music videos for The Exponents
and Moana & the Moa Hunters are just a few examples.
“Procedures are usually very straightforward,” says Bronwyn Taylor,
Client Services Manager, “but purchasing may involve ethical and legal
hurdles. Agreements with depositors, copyright, preservation and cultural issues
must all be considered, especially the rights of families, hapu and whanau.”
The Copyright Act does not acknowledge Maori cultural rights regarding moving
images, but the Film Archive does. For this reason, the Archive is working hard
to establish relationships with hapu and whanau to formalise access procedures
for films with Maori images.
Although reference services are free, fees apply for commercial re-use.
“Most clients understand the need for us to charge for commercial services
so that we can continue to provide a diverse range of reference services for
free,” says Bronwyn. “Revenue from footage sales is minimal and is
always pumped back into the collection. This way people can have access to our
national moving image collection.”
The Film Archive Reference Library is open Monday - Friday 9am-5pm.
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News Clips
Otherwise Fine
Wellington group supports education, distribution and exhibition of works by
young film makers. Other assists with the production of short films
and co-ordinates a mentor programme with industry professionals including Gaylene
Preston, MAP Film Productions, William Brandt and Dave Gibson. Next issue Newsreel
profiles Other founding member Robyn Venables.
Rosier and Rosier
The Rosier Fund, dedicated to preserving early New Zealand films, received a
major boost with a grant from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. The grant, along
with contributions from other supporters, means the fund is half way towards
its target of raising $250,000 by the year 2000. The fund was established in
recognition of the late Vaughan and Laura Rosier, passionate supporters of the
Film Archive.
Home and Away
Film Archive staff have been travelling the globe. Frank Stark attended the
annual FIAF (International Federation Of Film Archives) Congress held in Prague
during March. Also in March Cushla Vula was in Hanoi at the SEAPAVAA (South
East Asian and Pacific Audio Visual Archives Association) Conference.
Jane Paul will be travelling in September on a Churchill Fellowship to research
New Zealand films held overseas. Jane would welcome information
about holdings in European and American collections – jane@nzfa.org.nz
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