Overland DVD Release

After one year of writing, planning, shooting, editing, recording and editing some more, Freed the Puppet's short work of narrative dance cinema Overland : A Voyage of Limits is ready for release. It will come out in DVD format on December 10th in Winnipeg, complete with deleted scenes, photo gallery, and other supplemental material included. The DVD release is part of J'amusement's 2010 Xmas Show & Sale, and we'll be serving up mulled wine and bowls of seasoned popcorn for the audience, as well as selling xmas gifts (hand made journals and notebooks by Macloud), holding a raffle, and having a late night jam of course! Hope to see you all there!

First Media : Off the Rails

The first media from Off the Rails, webseries by Travis Macloud. Alexandra Elliott plays Nikki Parsons, sociology student turned alien spy through paranoid psychosis. The drawing below is a representation of Nikki, a contribution by Kim Villagante.

We're Off the Rails!

Alex arrived in Victoria last night, and we spent a good glass of wine with make-up artist Mandolyn Jonasson working on Nikki's "look". Off the Rails is a webseries in production for release in Spring 2011. The story follows Nikki Parsons, sociology student on the surface - alien spy under the skin. When her cover is blown, Nikki takes flight, on the run to find her way home.

MSAC - Small Messages

The Main Street Art Collective, initiated by our feature artist Kim Villagante, mounted their first public exhibition last night at Our Town Cafe (245 E Broadway) in Vancouver. Created last spring and grown rapidly over the summer, around a dozen visual artists display individual work on a common theme - Small Messages. Check out the work if you're in Vancouver, and keep up with the MSAC at their blog: mainstreetartcollective.wordpress.com

Kim and I got together last week to record some of her tracks, and I recorded a video excerpt while she warmed up. She's amazing to work with, raw and spontaneous, but with it and present. It took no time to lay down 3 songs, and the result is powerful and beautiful. I'm sure she'll be uploading the songs to her myspace -

myspace.com/kimvillagantemusic - and check the sample below.

Overland : A Voyage of Limits

I am so very pleased to report that Freed the Puppet's dance film Overland is finished! Above is a scene from the movie, where Freed discovers that her luggage has exploded in the baggage car, and makes the decision to abandon her 'baggage' as she searches for a new sense of place.

I'm currently on the west coast, where hopefully we'll have the chance to screen the film for a few people, although we don't have any screenings booked as yet. I'll be joined by Alex next week, and together we'll commence filming for the webseries Off the Rails. More on that to come!

A big thanks to all who supported me during the Overland process!

In Process - Fragmented/Fused

Yesterday afternoon Alex and I wrapped our second blue screen shoot this month, and celebrated a Fragmented/Fused milestone with beer and burgers at the King's Head Pub in Winnipeg's Exchange District. They have local brew company Half Pints on tap ($5.25), including one of the best IPA's I've tried, the Little Scrapper. The citrus rind scent of this strong ale was an able pairing for the Big Kahuna burger ($9.95), a 7oz beef patty with choice of cheeses (I took swiss), jalapenos, sauteed mushrooms, bacon and more. Served with a mound of high quality pub fries, we stuffed our selves with a well deserved feast.

After 10 months and 9 Fragmented/Fused shoots (5 with Alex) in 3 cities, we finally have usable material. It's not all perfect, but there's much I can work with to design and edit video backdrops for live performance. The video above is a sample of the fragmenting technique we used (blue painter's tape) to break up the body. I imagine one of those wooden figures used in drawing. To see more, check out Freed's myspace.

www.myspace.com/freedthepuppet

We have at least one more blue screen event on the calendar, as we've now shot 2 of 3 sections for the project. The third contributes to the narrative of the spectacle, and we are currently developing the characters for this segment of the work. Props to Video Pool and Winnipeg Film Group for the studio space, and Alex for her patience and dedication.

movement, choreography - Alexandra Elliott

set, camera, editing - Travis Macloud

Featured Artist Kim Villagante

Last spring in Vancouver I met Kim Villagante on the UBC campus to tour her studio and discuss art. She's a dynamo - draws, paints, writes, speaks, sings, composes. Over the summer she created and cultivated the Main Street Art Collective, a group of diverse visual artists who cooperate in creative endeavors and create themed work. Their first collection - Small Messages - considers symbolic communication on postcard (5x7) canvas. The group will begin showing the work at the Our Town Cafe in Vancouver, where they have been meeting regularly.

"My art is influenced by graffiti, the flow and the patterns I notice in the world around me, by the passion in music, by my convictions, by my relevations, by emotion, by poetry, by people, by the divine, by love, by pain. A single art piece encapsulates a duality of everything the artist knows and does not know. My art is a raw manifestation and expression of my life being lived."

To see and read her work

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimvillagante

To hear her music

http://www.myspace.com/kimvillagantemusic

Seeing Blue

Fragmented/Fused Bluescreen Shoot

No, this isn't a picture of the wide, blue, Winnipeg sky that so often covers this prairie city. It's actually a shot of the blue wall at the Winnipeg Film Group, where Alex and I spent the day yesterday shooting video for the Freed the Puppet project's "new" stage show Fragmented/Fused. I place the word 'new' in quotations because I've been experimenting with Chroma Keying for this project for almost a year, beginning last November with shoots from Vancouver to Montreal. I started with bright green bristol board, isolating various participants' body fragments and learning how to key the colour and drop the background. Last spring with the help of Freed contributor and dancer Karissa Fyrrar, we shot in the green screen room at SFU's SIAT campus. That's where I realized we needed a floor, which we found at Video Pool and the Winnipeg Film Group. These two media co-op's, in the ArtSpace building in Winnipeg's Exchange District, provide members with production assistance, equipment and facility rental, and opportunities for submission. We've (Alex and I) had one shoot at Video Pool and two at WFG so far, and have another booked for the 16th of this month. This last shoot will hopefully garner us all the necessary material to complete the Fragmented/Fused video component in time for display and performance on the road in October!

Bill Beso and Boon

I arrived in Winnipeg last night, where I'm setting up the studio to record and edit the sound for Overland. But before laying into 3 weeks of intense sound and image work the belly must be full. I've been wanting to try Boon Burger Cafe since I saw it set to open last spring. I recruited my friend and local artist Ravi Shukla to show me the spot, give his impressions, and doodle on the waxy paper tray covers...

drawing by Bill Beso

Boon (www.boonburger.ca) is located at 79 Sherbrook St. in a cute little building that once housed the Common Ground Cafe. Boon is equally as quaint as Common Ground was, but for very different reasons. Entirely plant based, the fare is simple - burgers, fries, soup, and salad, but 9 different sandwiches offer the diner a choice of flavours. I ordered the daily special : a Falafel Burger ($7.25), which was, as expected, falafel patty on flatbread with tahini sauce, cucumbers, red onion, tomato. The patty wasn't dry and the tahini sauce was excellent. The veggies were fresh, and although the bread itself could have been warmer, overall it was incredibly satisfying. Ravi ordered the Phish Burger ($7.25), a secret 'phish' patty with faux tartar, pickles, red onion, tomato, and lettuce. I had a bite, and from that one taste I say authentic fish flavour for real. Ravi also had a Lassi ($3.75), a blend of strawberry, orange, and banana sans milk of any kind. It reminded me of working at the Orange Julius counter in St.Vital Mall in Winnipeg's south end. I would have put more crushed ice in it, but that might be an undue Slurpee influence. We split a large order of Fries ($5.95), sesame crusted thin cut russet (I believe) potatoes, cooked in enough oil to be moist while hot, but not greasy. They toughened as they cooled, but I like crunchy fries, and they had all kinds of spicy red sauces to blend and dip. The dining room houses two large, long picnic tables with patrons squeezing in together, and a steady stream of take out patrons and full benches reveal that Boon burger is a popular choice among Wolseleyites for a healthy, tasty, and environmentally sound supper. They even have a bike thru window!

East to West

The cherry trees are dropping blossoms on the streets of Kitsilano, and on the island it smells like summer. I screened Overland last night at the Duncan Garage Showroom, tacked on the bill yet again with Paper Beat Scissors. Check out one of Tim's new songs in the vid above. Sadly, I ran out of memory before he finished the song, but it's a beautiful listen anyway. Many thanks to him for inviting us to screen at his shows in Winnipeg and Duncan. As it turned out, we took a couple train legs together, from Toronto to Winnipeg, and from Saskatoon to Vancouver, so I got to catch his show a few times on this tour. Good luck with the rest of your tour Tim! I'm kicking around Vanisle and Vancouver for a bit, and will be showing Overland and getting feedback from Karissa next week, after which I'll feel fully ready to hit the editing studio again to cut the full film. Thanks to everyone who has helped me with this process, I've learned so much in such a short time. 

It's time to turn a bit of attention to the Fragmented/Fused video series for Freed the Puppet, and I have a couple sessions in a green screen studio in Vancouver with Karissa coming up, and a blue screen shoot with Alex in Winnipeg in early May. I'm making a brief stop in Saskatoon on the way back to MB, for the monthly jam with the crew at Free Flow Dance! I'm super excited for it, screenings are a very passive performance, and I'm looking forward to a more active art engagement. It feels like forever since I participated in a fab jam!

Winnipeg Screening

We were lucky enough to make a fantastic connection for a Winnipeg screening of Overland yesterday. Halifax's Paper Beat Scissors is currently on tour and together with Steve R. Sayno of Winnipeg generously invited us to show Overland at their gig at Ragpickers on Thursday. Thanks to Tim and Dave for welcoming is on the bill and to Kiersten for putting us all in touch. The details are on the above poster, hope to see all you peg city dwellers there!

And We're Off

What a fantastic winter it was, the "best winter yet" as I wrote in the guestbook at the Halifax Backpacker's Hostel, where I lived and worked and edited and recorded sound for Overland. A huge THANK YOU! to Michelle Strum, the hostel's owner, who once again indulged my artistic endeavors and tolerated my do-as-I-like-as-long-as-it-gets-done work routine. I screened the first Leg of Overland at the hostel on Friday, and so far people are digging the film it seems. I am fired up to get to the second Leg! I arrived in Montreal this morning, where I will show the cut for some friends, and drop off some DVDs with an eye towards presenting the full film here on our fall tour. We're showing in Winnipeg on April 15th or 16th, venue to be announced. On this tour I'm also taking up the camera to continue work on Fragmented/Fused with dancers Alexandra Elliott, Karissa Fyrrar, and Kyle Syverson, in front of the green screen if we can find one in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Saskatoon. More from the road in the coming days, and much love and thanks to the amazing friends in Halifax who supported me through the Overland process. I'll miss you all until we meet again! A special thanks also to director/editor Caley Maclennan for showing me where to trim the fat. On tour!

Overland - Lover's Quarrel

I'm four-and-a-half days into a nine day sound recording intensive for Overland, and took a pause this morning to export and release a preview scene. Here it is! Dance by Alexandra Elliott (left) and Karissa Fyrrar (right); Sound and Video by Macloud, music adapted from a Hotchiwitchi piece called Former Argentinian, MacNeil/Miller.

I'll be on the rails this spring with the first Leg of Overland in tow. We aren't booking public screenings, but I'll be showing the episode as much and wherever I can from Halifax to Victoria between April 10 and May 11, on our Spring Tour 2010!

We more or less finished up filming Overland on Monday, with a dawn shoot on the shores of Point Pleasant Park. After a big wrap lunch at MB house Alex, Karissa, Lien, and I grabbed the ferry across the harbor to take a few photos. It was an insane and wonderful week, and I have to thank Karissa (on right) and Alex (on left) profusely for their wonderful work. I can't wait for you all to see these two battle it out for control of Freed's body and soul, but enough spoilers. I'm back in Montreal, repeating the journey to get supplementary footage and sound samples. I board the Hep yet again tomorrow, bound for Halifax. Next is the immense job of working through the footage, editing and scoring, and I am looking forward to the long dark hours this process entails. It looks like I'll be doing post in Halifax, as my plan to work at it Montreal for March fell through. Ah well, there's no place like home. We're planning on premiering the first "leg" at the Dance On Screen event in Halifax on April 7th, and then I'll be heading coast to coast with screenings (hopefully) in Montreal, St. Catharine's, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Vancouver, and Victoria.  

Freed the Puppet - Overland

Well after 10 weeks of prep and production, we're all set to start filming! Alex, Karissa and myself will all converge in Montreal early next week to start the process, finishing up in Halifax on the 22nd. The above photo is Point Pleasant Park at dusk, one of the final scenes of the film. 

Overland in 2010

Overland : A Voyage of Limits

We're full swing into production of Overland, a dance film for the Freed the Puppet project. Busy plotting and preparing to shoot it at the end of February in Montreal, on the train down to, and in, Halifax. An Atlantic shore sunrise in the middle of February? I'm hoping for a major weather event! We're hoping to get the film premiered at the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival in April, and after that, on tour! 

Overland explores the constraints of time and travel, of space and self, and discovers both the freedoms and anxieties of migration. An individual departs their life in one city for another, searching for a renewed sense of place in a fresh environment. After severing all ties, the main character boards the train bound for new horizons, and must accept what has been lost in leaving in order to uncover what can be found through change.

We're very happy, and lucky, to have Alexandra Elliott dancing Freed in the film. Alex has been a regular contributor to the project since the first jam, and brings complete context to the role. Also joining the cast is Karissa Fyrrar, who currently practices in Vancouver. Karissa will be on a two week break from her studies of SFU, and her original plan to travel to Montreal and Halifax over Reading Week got the ideas flowing for this production!

More to come!