[joe-frank-list] Memories by Joe Frank (film vs radio)

[ben]

Hi

Here is a short film I made in a school a few years ago using Joe  
Frank's Eye in the Sky program.  I got his permission to use it, and  
it has won several awards at film festivals.

http://homepage.mac.com/rocheb/iMovieTheater2.html


On Apr 4, 2006, at 11:08 PM, B T wrote:

> (where are you all Frankophiles?)
>
> I just recently re-signed up to joefrank.com and listened/watched  
> that rare
> film, "Memories" by Joe Frank.
>
> Though I've enjoy(ed) Joe on the radio with his voice and ambient  
> music in the
> background all these years, these films have really opened the  
> possibilities of
> putting Joe's stories/thoughts on film.
>
> In one extreme, you have a film such as "After Hours" which has a  
> scene or two
> directly from Joe's work.  But while watching it, you don't get  
> that Joe Frank
> feel--that dark milieu--mostly his raspy voice, the droning beats  
> that's all
> part of what we know as the Joe Frank experience.  Sure, some may  
> argue that
> his programs do have parts with non-Joe characters interacting with  
> other
> characters without background music, and still you feel that it's a  
> Joe
> program.  But there's something lacking in the above film.
>
> Films that work for Joe's programs have several nuances.  First,  
> they're black
> and white.  It brings you back to days long gone when color was  
> only in the
> imaginations.  Perhaps it is like this very discussion of film vs  
> radio where
> radio was what existed before television. It's not too new as to  
> lose it's
> original appeal.
>
> Second, there are dream like sequences to them. Not only in  
> content, but in how
> we are shown what is going on. In "Memories," some shots are done  
> very smoothly
> by a talented steady cam operator moving from place to place as if  
> we were
> hovering. It relates to some of Joe's programs where the listener  
> is really
> just hovering above listening in on a conversation or more  
> compelling, the
> inner thoughts of a character or Joe himself.
>
> Thirdly, the use of blurring. Characters are at times left  
> unfocused. This
> works wonderfully to enhance what is being said by the narrator,  
> mostly Joe.
> You aren't so much observing what they are wearing or how they look  
> but
> listening in on their thoughts.  It allows us to watch the film and  
> yet, still
> have the priority be on what you hear.
>
> Forthly, the pace. It's slow compared to hollywood's 21 min weekly  
> half hour
> shows where they try to cram in as much information to have a  
> resolution to
> their story. The slowness allows you to take in what you're  
> listening. It's
> like when Joe finishes a part of his monologue, and the music  
> continues so as
> to indirectly say, 'there, now ponder over it.'
>
> Fifthly, and most important, the film MUST have Joe's voice and music
> interspersed within it.
>
> B
>
>
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