March 15th, 2008

The rebirth of "the death of cleopatra"
shooting went phenonmenally well of the recasting event! we had so many wonderful people around to help with casting and filming. this is a few minute segment of the most intense part of the process. mixing the polyurethane liquid foam parts for 30 seconds before it starts to rapidly expand 18 to 1 ! by the time we got the fourth bucket in... we were pushing the top of the mold to keep the material in, only to be splattered by this toxic polymer.... i think it was a fun event for all... something new no doubt. the 16mm we shot turned out beautifully.. with some minor fogging on some parts... which i still havent figured out why... mysterious... anyways, this film is coming together... ive got to start editing pretty soon here. today. here's to keeping my mind open, for the film to guide me to new places... i learned that sometimes accidents are what turn out the best, and control can be stifling to what the medium seeks to do....

the queen himself

Queen Kleopatra Ptolemy VII

diario del primer rodaje...
underway... after a last minute, mold (as in decay and fiberglass shell) crisis... today i think all is resolved and we are proceeding with casting her majesty, the last pharaoh of Egypt. we are filming tomorrow, sat. and sunday march 15th and 16th in a dynamic, and industrial sculpture studio. i must say that i really like working with these other materials, thinking dimensionally, instead of temporal moving images. i am reminded that sculpture is also a temporal medium... in its spacial experience... the time of viewing, and also in its own finite life. in a lot of ways, cinema and sculpture are very similar.... so tomorrow... i think all i need to be worried about... are shots. framing, lighting... making sure the film captures... the event. pouring white expanding liquid into her... to fill her joints, and crevices, to give her a life... pretty soon there will be two of her. ive become so attached to this beautiful amber fiberglass mold, spent a lot of time with her, then abandoned her... i dont know what exactly it will feel like for me... to realize her birth in positive form... and not the negative, ive been working with up to this point.

wish me luck.... uh... internet....