PAINFUL FILM EDITING: THE SUPEREIGHTER SYNDROME

Shooting a documentary as "Perfect Antarctic Madness" with real S8 film imposes rigorous discipline in every sense in order not to waste valuable film, which, in the month and a half I spent in Antarctica, I was only able to carry in very limited quantities, traveling only me, without any help.

In documentaries, obviously,  without a story board, it´s inevitable to have to shorten shots. This is something very painful: we must fight against what I call "the supereighter syndrome", that is, the tendency to use practically everything that has been filmed. 

However, and with great pain in my heart, for a documentary that will be released commercially in theaters and broadcast on television, there is no alternative but to shorten scenes. 

It hurts a lot to use scissors because we are talking about cutting in the original film that lived with me my hardships in the continent of desolation. But there is no other option. 

Of course, I will keep the "out takes" on a reel, in my film archive, because you never know if I will be able to use them as a resource in another job.

TEASERS DE "PERFECTA LOCURA ANTÁRTICA": MONTAJE TERMINADO

En la festividad del Día de Todos los Santos, 1 de noviembre de 2023, los tres teasers, o avances preliminares,  de minuto y medio cada uno,  del largometraje "Perfecta Locura Antártica", quedan totalmente montados por fin.  Uno de ellos, resume en noventa segundos el recorrido en la Antártida durante mes y medio con incontables peripecias y aventuras, desde el paso del suroeste, atravesando el Polo Sur Magnético, hasta el paso del noroeste, por el Mar de Hoces, sufriendo la "coctelera de Drake".

Otro, es el digesto de uno los capítulos mas relevantes en lo personal: la estancia en la Cabaña de Shackelton en Cabo Royds, en las coordenadas  77º 33´S 166º10´E, con filmaciones aéreas rodadas con película desde helicóptero, no con un ilegal dron. 

El tercer teaser resume el proceso de ¿cómo se hizo? el documental: desde la carga de la película en cuarto oscuro de Súper-8 en cartuchos de Single-8, las peripecias del traslado para evitar los Rayos X, el revelado y el montaje fílmico, cortando y pegando la película, empleando cinco moviolas simultáneas, labores en las que conté con la ayuda de mi mano derecha Álex López y, en el desarrollo tecnológico, también de José Manuel Pérez Romero, el técnico de Xerox que lo sabe todo sobre los proyectores de cine Fumeo (los tres compartimos una actividad confesable: ¡filmamos con la ZC1000!)

Ahora sólo queda titular, etalonar y digitalizar para su difusión por internet en un formato absolutamente innovador, si bien haré copia física para mostrar en las televisiones no en digital sino llevando mi maletín retroproyector de Súper-8, totalmente restaurado y puesto a punto, como se puede ver en el vídeo inferior: 

¿Por qué se hace esperar? El cine, incluso cuando hay un apoyo institucional, es un proceso lento, pues cada paso necesita un proceso mecánico químico artesanal, que, además, como creador, me gusta hacer por mi mismo (ya saben, "un hombre orquesta", para el Caghadic), pero este mes de noviembre,  por fin, el teaser triple, debería estar publicado... aunque la copia física, titulada, va a ser imposible, mucho me temo,  que llegue del laboratorio para la VII edición del Sellier Film Festival. 

  

SURPRISING TEASER OF "PERFECT ANTARCTIC MADNESS", very soon!!!

The advance in the work of the teaser of "Perfect Antarctic Madness" is going a little slower than expected but, working with real cinema, that is, with film, Super-8 film,  especially if it is done independently, the "tempo" is different. However, Álex et moi we are both very happy, not only in relation to the narrative but also with the unusual aspect ratio that we will use for the teaser: something like this has never been done with film.

 We will demonstrate once again how  Super-8 can be at the forefront of artistic creation WITH CAPITAL LETTERS (that is, mastering all the techniques of cinema, from reloading the film into its cartridges to manual processing, passing through controlling the entire process from the beginnin until the end).

ROARING 40s, FURIOUS 50s AND SCREAMING 60s, with Super8, slide and Instax film!!!

ROARING 40s, FURIOUS 50s AND SCREAMING 60s, which I filmed in Super8 and photographed with Polaroid-type instant film Fujifilm Instax!

In my navigation from New Zealand to the South Magnetic Pole, I discovered that the terrible winds have names: from 40 degrees of latitude they are known as "the roaring forties", from 50º they are "the furious fifty" and from 60 degrees south "the screaming sixty". I have never experienced something so terrifying in my life, nor do I think I will ever experience it again: a combination of relentless wind that blew mercilessly without any land to hinder its force around the planet, blowing from all points of the compass!

Between the 48º and 61º South, these winds drive the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). This is the greatest current in the world, with a flow equal to more than a hundred times that of all the world's rivers put together, wich extends to depths of 2000-4000 meters, and can be as wide as 2000 km.

Apart from Kodak Super 8 film and Kodak and Fujifilm slide film, I also carried Fujifilm Instax instant photographic film to use with my Mint camera. My initial Instax material consisted of only 80 photographs, but, as I found these types of cartridges in a store in Invercargill, I used up all the local stock!!!, taking 10 packages of 20 photographs each, knowing that I was not going to have any more have to go through any major X-ray inspection.

It is possibly the first one someone had photographed with this type of material in Antarctica!  I have a good part of this Instax photographs displayed on the cork here in my office, and, like everyone who comes, it catches their attention, I´m designing an exhibition that combines Instax photographs, Kodak Ektachrome slides that would work in continuous projection and motion picture film loops as well,  together with the cameras used and other material, in what would be a didactic experience to complement non-theatrical projections of "Perfect Antarctic Madness " in 16 mm with the projector in situ, between the audience.

There has never been a project like this in Antarctica, entirely photochemical, combining Super-8 manually recharged in Single-8 chassis, film slides and instant film. And it was carried out not from London or Los Angeles, but from the antipodes of New Zealand, in this end of the world that is Galicia. What do you think, friends?

ANTARCTICA AND ITS TERRORIFIC PLACE NAMES.

During the month and a half that I was filming on the continent of desolation the full lengh film feature "Perfect Antarctic Madness" many place names caught my attention, devastating to the spirit, such as Deception Island, Danger Islets, Cape Disillusionment, Bay of Exasperation, but, above all , Mount Terror and Mount Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on the planet.

"Terror" and "Erebus", in Latin, were named in honor of the two ships with which James Clark Ross made the famous expedition in which one of the objectives was to find the south magnetic pole.

Erebus, in Latin, comes from Greek, and in Spanish it translates as "érebo", "erebo" or "érebos": it is synonymous with hell, very appropriate for the sensations felt there, at -35 degrees Celsius and an inclement wind.

This feat is narrated at greater length in the feature-length documentary filmed in Super-8!, for the first time in these forgotten lands of the hands of God.