Open House at the NW Film Center Jan 6th

The School of Film opens its doors to prospective students Tuesday, Jan 6 at 7 pm. This is a free event where you can learn what’s on offer for winter term and meet people involved in the school. Some of the possible courses include hands-on basics of camera operation, lighting, digital editing, and sound recording. There’s also special seminars available throughout the winter term: the art of the interview; storyboarding; evolving a personal body of work. If you want to come to the open house, it’s free. They do ask that you reserve a space: call (503) 221-1156

Women filmmakers can take special advantage of Sisters in Cinema on Tuesday, Jan 13th at 6:30 pm. It’s an opportunity to workshop your work-in-progress with a supportive group of creative professionals, or just come to meet people and learn more about what’s developing in Portland. If you have work to show, contact Pam by 5 pm Monday, Jan 12th (classes@nwfilm.org, 503-221-1156).

Location: 934 SW Salmon
Tuition: Free – Pre-registration required

Celebrate Portland in 30 Seconds Film Festival

Here’s an opportunity to turn on the camera, press record and focus on what you love about Portland. I went into the Northwest Film Center today to see what’s up with their new location. It’s a nicely remodeled building at 934 SW Salmon, just a block uphill on SW 10th from the Public Library. While talking with the office manager, Kristy Conrad, I noticed an open call for entries to celebrate Portland in the 30 Second Film Festival.

Okay, so this part of the event is secret, and maybe why you haven’t heard of it: “This is a surprise for Mayor-Elect Sam Adams!” The entries chosen for their ability to celebrate and inspire Portland will be shown at Sam Adam’s Winter Gala and Swearing In, on January 31, 2009.

So the deadline looms: January 9th. I hope you have time to film 30 seconds of Portland (all styles are acceptable) and drop off your entry on DVD, DV tape, or MOV file (using animation code c) by 5 pm Jan 9 at the Northwest Film Center. Hey, an opportunity to get involved and check out another great resource in Portland.

Yes, that’s right, all entries “must be 30 seconds in length or shorter, and express original sentiment about what makes Portland wild, weird, or otherwise wonderful. No copyrighted music, please.” Check out Public Domain Music. The Festival requests each entrant to creatively introduce themselves in 10 seconds or less before their 30 second film (the intro showcases who made the film, and it doesn’t eat into the 30 second time limit).

Brody on Broadway

“Please make mistakes,” Brad Fortier, comedian and educational director at The Brody Theater explains, “they’re essential to this art, because a lot of those mistakes can become very brilliant comedy if we utilize rather than minimize the mistakes.” Fortier talks casually with students, “Improv training really opens a different way of being – when you eradicate insecurities around mistakes. With improv we’re breaking social norms to get to this comedy.” People come to the show to be entertained and maybe, with a desire to participate. One of the attractions of the theater is a chance to enroll in classes, overcome your fear of speaking in public, and be spontaneously creative with people.

The Brody Theater has been active in Portland for twelve years and just leased a new home at 16 NW Broadway. It’s in the lower part of the Broadway Hotel, between Helen’s Market and Ichiban Sushi. The Housing Authority of Portland welcomed the theater to Old Town in hopes of creating a positive alternative to the dive bars and dance clubs in downtown. Check their website for showtimes: www.brodytheater.com

Mix Company and Drink

I call Izara at the door to the Gentry apartments. The buzzer doesn’t work and luckily, I had read the birthday invitation carefully and noted her telephone number. We had just met at the Fresh Pot two weeks ago. I was walking towards the book return next to where she was sitting; she looked at me and said, “Arthur.” – I wondered where I knew her from – “It’s Izara.”

More than a year ago, we became friends online and exchanged a few messages. She rides a unicycle, juggles, sings and plays the ukulele. Izara closed her messages by saying Best to you, and I thought that was better than saying Best, and Best Regards, (too formal), and Best Wishes, (for hoped for things and special occasions – like a birthday. I had wrapped a graphic novel in blue paper to give Izara). After talking in person for the first time at the Fresh Pot, the next day I ran into her at the library – she was doing a practice test for the LSAT.

A young couple walk up SW 12th and let themselves in the front door; across the lobby I see Izara wearing a red and

Fuzz and Pluck

One thing you have to be ready for if you read Fuzz and Pluck, you’re going to laugh. I semi-guarantee this – if I can offer guarantees as a book reviewer, I would like to guarantee Fuzz and Pluck with this statement: it’s funny. I stand behind that statement. Let’s look at it: a plucked rooster and a discarded stuffed bear walking down the road. Yes, this is very much a part of it. They embark on their journey. “I’m tired,” says Fuzz. “Oh come on,” Pluck demands, “what do you think you have two legs for?”

When all other avenues to truth and justice are exhausted and a man must amuse himself, yet he has ideals – beliefs about life and beauty – lofty things, that must be delivered with due justice and truth, he has no other recourse than to make art. An artist must not go lax on his ideals, no matter the subject. Be your subject a plucked rooster, justice must be done by it. Be it a stuffed bear, okay, take comfort. Let’s examine a moment the relationship between Fuzz and Pluck. The perfect passive aggressive couple: Fuzz and Pluck. A pissed rooster – hey, he’s a plucked rooster: he’s good reason to be angry. And a stuffed bear, prone to doubt and insecurity. The repartee between these two is

The Lagoon

A black triangle to one side of the nose is a graphic trademark of Lilli Carré. It drew my attention when I read The Lagoon, and after a while it becomes something you see but don’t notice. It’s like recognizing a person, oh that’s Lillie Carré. When I first encountered her trademark nose, I kept looking at Grandpa where he says, “I couldn’t make up a song that pretty, you know that!” The tip of Grandpa’s nose meets his laugh line and flattens the effect of the rendering to make the black triangle look like a hole. An optical effect where the positive and negative shapes swap places.

Carré draws figures with the push and pull of black and white. Transitions between the two poles often employ the artist’s brush in the manner of woodcut illustrations. In woodcut, the tool gouges out the black. Her brush feathers in the black. The gouge and the brush. Hard metal. Soft fiber. They’re strong opposites and they can create a very similar graphic style. Black and white. There’s no crosshatching. The white shapes are

Powr Mastrs – Vol 2

“The answers I’m searching for, I find behind the Brown Door,” Buell Kazee says and descends into the cellar of Plex Knowe Crypt. He inserts the key and opens the door. “Buell,” exclaims a blister-headed monster behind the brown door. One skeletal arm and one green tentacle emerge from the monster’s shrimp-shaped carapace.

“Viskoser Tod. Are you hungry?” Buell asks.

“Yesss . . . Hungry . . ,” hisses Viskoser Tod.

Buell explodes with laughter: “HA HA HA!”

Holding the green tentacle in one hand, Buel laughs.

Answers?

Buell must have been asking a rather simple question, or maybe Viskoser Tod could destroy Mosfet? I wrestle with questions. The shinny blue volume I hold in my hands. I can. I must. The great questions lead to greater awareness, and I have possession of

Curious Comedy in NE Portland

by Arthur Smid

The players leap up, taking the stage to ask for a suggestion from the audience. “Name one place where you go to get things done!” A barber shop. Garage. Mardi Gras. The atmosphere in the room is collaborative. The audience isn’t waiting for the comic to fail, or waiting for a laugh; they’re waiting to see what happens next. The expansive room lofts upward forty feet with ceiling fans slowly turning. A simple proscenium arch sits on a plywood stage so new you can smell the cut wood. Mardi Gras starts with one player stepping forward to say he has really good candy – he’s throwing candy from the float. The players respond to each other by affirming and adding on; it’s the “yes and” aesthetic that builds character and story into long-form improvisational theater, and it gets things done.

“Stacey and I came here from Chicago about a year ago with the idea to open a comedy theater,” Bob Ladewig, one of the co-owners, explains the theater’s origins. Stacy Hallal started studying comedy in 1999 at the Brody theater in Portland. She began touring with another woman performing as “All Jane No Dick” and traveled