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

[David Smith]

well done ben!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ben" <rocheb at colorado.edu>
To: "Joe Frank Mailing List" <joe-frank-list at armory.com>
Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 2:14 PM
Subject: Re: [joe-frank-list] Memories by Joe Frank (film vs radio)


> 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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