Thief of Bagdad

Yvonne Rainer "Hand Movie"

"Rainer's first film, Hand Movie, was shot by fellow dancer William Davis when Rainer was confined to a hospital bed, recovering from major surgery and unable to dance. The resulting five minutes of footage is a sustained close-up shot of Rainer's hand against a grey background as it stretches and contracts, bends and points, performing the kinds of everyday, quotidian movements that characterize her pioneering minimalist choreography." from UBUWEB

 The fingers are like characters in an inscrutable, erotic drama.

 Happy Holidays... I'm in Oconomowoc with the family.

Basketball Series 12.20.11

Carolee Schneemann: Within and Beyond the Premises

If you live in Seattle, this is the last week to see the Carolee Schneemann photos at the Henry.

Stylish Soviet Short About Volleyball (1979)

Hey, when was the last time you just relaxed and watched a stylish Soviet documentary on volleyball? This short is a bonanza for great library music.

"Sycamore Tree" Shoot

Last night we shot the puppet sequence for the "Sycamore Tree" music video. Sam Taylor did the puppet. Chy Chi was shooting, Angelique Rosario did additional hand performance. Photos by Lauren Imbrock.

Jim Henson's Wilkins Coffee Comercials

Basketball Series 12.11.11

Cinema Books

I stopped by Cinema Books today.

Puppet Making 2

The puppets were finished last night while watching "The Fugitive" on tv.

Basketball Series 12.6.11

"Tops" by Charles & Ray Eames

Hey, relax. Watch 'Tops'. Feel good.

Very Nice, Very Nice

From Wikipedia:
"Very Nice, Very Nice" is a 7 minute long avant-garde film made by Arthur Lipsett in 1961, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. While working at the National Film Board, Lipsett collected pieces of audio from the waste bins and pieced them together as a hobby. When his friends head the product of this they suggested that he add images to it. This film is the result.

Puppet Making

Last night Sam and I were working on the puppet again.

Anemic Cinema

Janomegasa

"Janomegasa, or snake-eye, paper rain umbrella, so named because it resembles the eye of a snake when open."

Delia Derbyshire - Mattachin

Basketball Series 11.17.11

The Heavens (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Hi there. Great news. The soundtrack to the Heavens is now downloadable for free. 55 minutes of kosmiche, deep space pop. That's about twice as long as all the episodes put together so there's a lot of great stuff here that didn't make it onto the show. By Peter Pearson. Here he's working with his collaborators Toshio Masuda, Derek Muro, Lorna Krier, and Ben Simon. Download here.

Accident (1967)

Have you ever seen 'Accident'? If you haven't, I have to recommend it with caution, even though I love it. It's an odd movie, and pretty darn slow. It's as awkward as it is elegant. Pauline Kael wrote something like "It's one of the best movies playing right now but that's not saying very much." There's something mesmerizing about its cadence, when you're in the right mood. And there's all these deadpan goofy moments in the film. It's directed by Joseph Losey, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter that's based on a novel by Nicholas Mosley---a great intersection of talent and a pretty great time in all their careers. Both writers make cameos in the film. I bought the Spanish poster for it a couple of years ago, and I love it, check it out here. Watch the whole film here.

Floating Face 10

Last night I saw a program of Jim Henson advertisements and short films, Commercials & Experiments, that was projected on film and looked really great, especially Time Piece. It was at SIFF's new cinema, the reopened Uptown, and screens again tonight at 9:15.

Pet fox trying to get to the Geese

Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany

Here's an hour-long BBC documentary about German rock music from about 1968 to 1977. There's a lot of great interviews in it, a pretty comprehensive survey of musicians from that time.

Mystery Film Still

I found this picture while searching for a Marx Bros post card of Chico on the telephone.

Basketball Series 5 & 6

The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Happy Halloween. Hope your hangover isn't so bad. My weekend was spent helping shoot a PSA about taking a troubled daughter to the dentist. Then I painted a room green. Now it's Halloween on a Monday and I can hear the kids outside. Nobody in my house remembered to get candy this year, so hopefully they'll assume we're not home.

La Choy Dragon

If I Were A Carpenter

Here's the music video I edited for my cousin Jeff's band The Blinding Lights. It's a cover of a Tim Hardin song.

Basketball Series #4

Night Gallery --- "The Eyes"

"The Eyes" is notable for being part of the pilot episode to Rod Serlings darker follow-up to The Twight Zone, Night Gallery. It's also notable for having Joan Crawford in it and for being directed by a 23-year-old Steven Speilberg. Watch it here.

If I Were A Carpenter

It is the story of a couple. A couple in trouble. There is a house. Who is the weird woman? It is a music video for my cousin Jeff's band The Blinding Lights, and I have been editing it all day. Thought I'd share some of the images. They're all taken from three films, links below.

The Woodworker (1940)

Social-Sex Attitudes in Adolescence (1953)

Marriage is a Partnership (1951)

Basketball Series 3

You Poor Thing -- MKE Photos

I just got back from a trip to Milwaukee where I was putting together some materials for pre-production on "You Poor Thing", a feature film I'd like to shoot there in fall 2012. In the photos: Kara Mulrooney, John Kuehne, and Kristopher Pollard. Photographed by Tate Bunker. Art direction by Amanda Tolefson. Masks by Meghan Savagian.

Leighton Pierce - The Back Steps

i first saw this on the big screen about five years ago and was glad to see it's on the internet. it's footage of his daughters leaving the house on halloween, distorted by feedback, repeated, and set to the sound of wind or waves. it's a transfixing experience. check out leighton pierce's other videos on his Vimeo channel.

The Muppet Show - Pilot

the style of the show is different for the pilot. sketches are shorter and intercut. and Kermit is played by Nigel.

Sitting Target (1972)

I've been wanting to see this since Finders Keepers released the amazing soundtrack in 2007. The soundtrack by Stanley Myers is creepy, badass, and inventive. It's such a great soundtrack to a film that seemed so obscure to me that I guess I assumed the soundtrack outdid the film, and, like so many Italian films of the 70's, assumed it was a mediocre film with a great soundtrack. But wow -- Sitting Target is just as cinematic and brutal as the images the soundtrack inspires. It's great filmmaking; a low-budget(ish) and gritty crime movie that never loses interest.

It's become a fun recession time activity for me to look for hard-to-find bootleg movies on the internet. This one comes from a service I've never used before, and it's a little annoying because you can't watch more than 72 minutes at a time without paying for it. I ended up watching it over two days. Which I didn't really mind, but then, I also apparently don't mind watching sub-VHS quality feature films on the internet.

Watch it here. (Click "Full Movie")

Basketball Series 9.24.11

L'Invenzione Di Morel

Here's a youtube bootleg I couldn't help watching. Emidio Greco's 1974 adaptation of Adolfo Bioy Cesares' The Invention of Morel. I heard it repeated often enough that Last Year in Marienbad was inspired by the book that I began to forget how little they have in common, which made this straight-forward adaptation a bizarre discovery. Without the narration of the fugitive it gets a little ponderous. But it has it's moments. It's almost like a silent film; it's not even much of a problem there's no subtitles. And it's interesting to see Anna Karina cast as Faustine, who was inspired by Louise Brooks.

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

You Poor Thing

Next month I'm excited to be meeting up with Kara and John in Milwaukee to start putting together a feature-length film titled "You Poor Thing". They'll be playing two characters taken from a screenplay I wrote several years ago. Inspired by Bonnie and Clyde films. A couple of broke artists who turn to criminal activities. Also it's a monster movie. He's terrorizing the wayward youth of Milwaukee. I've just started the new script. We're shooting photos in mid-October. And we're aiming for to shoot the film next year in September or October.

Above: a mask I photographed at a grade school art competition while visiting my Grandma in Iowa. The disguises they wear while committing some of their crimes will be based on this mask.

Happy Birthday, Greta Garbo

Today Greta Garbo would be 106 years old. September is also my birthday month. It's been a great month; I've been helping out with other films. And having almost non-stop visitors to Seattle, where the weather was beyond sublime for most of the month. Now it is wet and brisk out. Time to get back to work. Get out the sweaters. Get out the Mal Waldron record.

Watching Patches

A friend of a friend printed these patches on canvas with ink he described as "indestructible". I went to this place in south Wallingford called Luxe Riot, tucked away at the bottom of the hill near Gas Works Park. If anybody wants a patch let me know.

Simon, King of the Witches

I haven't seen this yet but I have to go over to Scarecrow this weekend and get it. Here's the Wikipedia entry. I think I first saw this trailer at the Broadcast forum, where some good, often music-related videos are sometimes posted by their fans.

Basketball Series

The Heavens Update August '11

Hi there. You probably noticed, the last episode I posted of the Heavens was the last of the series. We had been talking here and there of doing a second series about their trip back to the Milky Way, but now that we're talking about collaborating on a feature next year it seems unlikely. That and I kind of just want this little sci-fi drama made entirely in warehouses and bedrooms to stand alone. But I am finishing up this "assembly" version, a 25-minute edit of the series with some new shots and a slightly different pace. I'm in the process of arranging screenings at galleries and microcinemas in New York, Seattle, Portland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Salt Lake City and possibly Berlin. (If you don't live in these cities and want to help me put together a screening where you are, please contact me b.e.perkins@gmail.com)

The above photo: a drawing my friend Sam Tayler did on shrink paper.

The Heavens Episode Five --- Barnaby's Comet

The Heavens Episode Five --- Barnaby's Comet from Brian Perkins on Vimeo.

The Heavens Episode Five --- Barnaby's Comet - Update! Coming Soooon!

the Heavens Episode 5: Barnaby's Comet is actually coming sooooon! It got derailed for a few months there. I've had it at picture lock since January, but Peter got busy with his album, and I went off and did a music video. But now I have all the tracks needed to complete the soundtrack! Stay tuned!

tennis