strange frame: Love & Sax

There is a fundamental question for film at the point in history when anything is possible:

Is film a metaphor or a mirror?

For a metaphor, I don’t need a false sense of realism that directors drop the moment they need to move the narrative forward.

IMHO, it is often distracting because as they reach for more realism, to hold that mirror to the audience, I see how they have fallen short. Most of us on this planet are not reflected in that mirror – whether we be too short, too tall, too dark skinned, too light haired, too male or too female. The script becomes camp and the suspension of disbelief is lost…

…but if the film embraces its role as metaphor. If the filmmaker is a storyteller, not a con man, we can slip into this new world with its quirks (Jeunet) and mannerisms (Almodóvar)…enjoying the play of it.

Each story is part of our modern mythology. Each story sheds light on our humanity.
Which stories will we spend time discussing?

Ultra Low Emissions Filmmaker. I guess that’s me.

You hear a lot of talk about “carbon neutral films”. Most of these films have a part of their budget set aside for buying carbon credits to off set the carbon foot print of the film. Usually in the form of promoting alternative energy – like wind farms. The films themselves chow carbon. Lots of it.

Today we bought tilapia to stock our fish pond. It is right next to our water tank where we catch 100% of the water we use. It is just south of our solar panel covered garage where we generate most of our power. By the time we get an electric car, we will be generating 100% of our power. Down by the house, we have a chicken run. 13 hens making sometimes 13 eggs in a day. Chickens are the easiest way to deal with your home’s table scraps and other compost. The chicken manure goes into our vegetable garden.

We also have 3 goats, 2 sheep, a mess of koi, and tens of thousands of guppies (to control the mosquitoes).

We try to limit our waste, but we only have to take the trash out once every 6 weeks.

If you think we are roughing it, trust me we’re not. We have a large pool, ocean view, and wild birds regularly roost in the tree line surrounding our house. We have two streams which will eventually have microhydro installations on them.

If you’d like to know more, just ask.

I’ve been corresponding with a fellow animator up in Canada for a number of years. Today he wrote a nice piece about my work on strange frame.

Joshua Tr3

Mahalo Keith!