T.A.P.E. Analog Filmmaking Proficiency Series

Join our Patreon at just $5/month to access great classes like this! 

See more workshops and screenings at whammyanalog.com

Over a handful of Tuesdays in September, T.A.P.E. workshops led a series of analog filmmaking proficiency workshops, free to members of our Patreon.

Celebrating a summer of amazing preservation efforts, including the launch of Home Video Day in August, we were ready to get back to filmmaking workshops. Past participants have asked us for more hands-on time with the cameras and developing tanks, with the goal of developing greater knowledge and fluidity with these tools. And as a rental library for our equipment, we want to prolong the life of our tools by handing them off to confident technicians.

 

Bolex H16 Rex 5 Proficiency Series

Tuesday, August 27 & Tuesday, September 3, 2024 

We are able to offer these classes for free through the generous donations of Jessica G.Z. and Darrell Brett. Jessica, T.A.P.E.'s founder, is passionate about sharing their knowledge gained with over a decade of analog filmmaking and projection experience. Darrell graduated from CalArts where his focus was the photochemical process, cinematography and projection. He is the head projectionist at Brain Dead Studios on Fairfax, where Jessica projects film and video as well.

The first two workshops covered essential skills and knowledge about the Bolex Rex-5 camera, currently available for rental at just $25/day for T.A.P.E. members. Participants learned essential skills such as: 

• Identify all the parts of the camera
• Read a light meter
• Set diopters to their eyesight
• Focus their image
• Load 16mm film
• Understanding shutter speed & shutter angle

They also got to play with some of features that make a Bolex Rex-5 magical such as: 

• Double exposure with the frame counter and wind key
• In-camera transitions

With their combined experience, our teachers offered advice on analog and digital workflows, including essential knowledge on accessing affordable developing and scanning lab services. These conversations empowered new filmmakers to be informed so they can talk to these technicians fluidity and with confidence, getting the results they want. 

Before renting the Bolex, we require passing scores for a proficiency test, ensuring that the filmmaker can confidently care for our equipment. Those who attended the workshop were prepped for this proficiency test!

Lomo Tank Proficiency Series

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

The following week, Jessica led a Lomo Tank Proficiency workshop to prepare filmmakers for the essential skills in home developing motion picture film. Home developing can often be intimidating, so these essential skill workshops break down some of the more technical aspects to loading film into these specialty tanks. 

Donated to T.A.P.E. by Mono Non Aware, the Lomo 8mm/16mm tank allows you to wind 2 rolls of small-gauge film into slotted grooves for even distribution of developing liquids.

It's magical to see how filmmakers get excited about home-developing projects, realizing the potential of saving money and experimenting visually.

Join our Patreon at just $5/month to access great classes like this! 

See more workshops and screenings at whammyanalog.com

T.A.P.E. Equipment Rental Rates for Patreon Members

To schedule an equipment rental, email info@tapeanalog.org

BOLEX H16 REX 5 -- $25/day $110/Week

Lomo Tank -- $20/day $75/Week

See more at tapeanalog.org

Blog written by Jackie Forsyte, T.A.P.E.'s Technical Director. Jackie is an Audio-Visual Archivist. She loved getting to learn alongside enthusastic filmmakers in this series and cannot wait for more. 

What particularly excited me about film was its magic ability to make even the most imaginative concept seem real. For if the tree in the scene was real and true, the event which one caused to occur beneath it seemed also real and true. And so one could create new realities which, being rendered visible, could stand up to the challenge of “Show me!” 

We are moved by what we see, according to how we see it. [...] The creative effort should be directed not at making a thing look like itself, but at using the capacity of the camera to make it look like what the audience should feel about it. [...] Here was a medium which could project in real terms those inner realities by which people truly live. [...] And since the cinema seemed peculiarly qualified to project those inner realities, I had always been impatient with what I felt was a criminal neglect of that potent magic power. -Maya Deren, Essential Deren: Collected Writings on Film