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!