One of the biggest challenges I've faced in maintaining my blog is keeping an order and structure to my posts, both past and present. Some of my edits have been removed or changed, I've changed, and as always, time gives you a different view and context of what some of your projects mean to you. This has resulted in a lot of back tracking.
I've always promoted this site as both a personal blog and portfolio, so there's been a steady mix of homevideo/vacation/everyday edits mixed in with my narrative/comedy/festival work. In my videography I've tried to give a simplified reference to a lot of the projects that I've uploaded and written about here. Just this weekend I was busy with a lot of fixing old links, uploading old videos to my account again, creating video playlists, and refreshing old posts that refer to some of my larger projects from over the years.
Editing Luke has really been an evolution, and I've noticed it more now than ever. I've never had so much of my footage as accessible as it is now, all in a single location, all referenced, and everyday a bit closer to having full stories posted about all the various individual productions. It's been a year and seven months in the making, and with that comes a certain strength in being able to talk about my creative growth with strangers and actually be able to share it with anyone who's interested in seeing it.
Below I've posted a collection of playlists that I recently updated/created over the weekend. Have a look and thanks for stopping by folks!
I have only a handful of movies in my filmography that I'd actually categorize as stereotypical film school flicks. These are movies that are overly artsy, ambiguous, reference suicide or death, and every film student makes one at some point. They're experiments. That said, Hip Hop Ninny Shoe Satisfaction is actually quite an innocent and playful short in the guise of something far more pretentious.
The project was a joint undertaking with my friend Jennifer Eisler in the winter semester of 2004. We were both taking Film 202, which was a second year core production class focused on experimental film. This project specifically was an exercise in shooting with several types of 16mm film using the Bolex camera. Subsequently, my short Keys to Existence was my final project in this class.
Our original concept involved comparing and contrasting various parts of the body with similar machines and their functions. It seemed like a good idea when we wrote our proposal, but come the day of the shoot we were both feeling pretty uninspired. After a lengthy and cold Regina winter we were finally starting to see the effects of spring roll in so we decided to go for a walk instead.
Jen was wearing her classy 'old lady Eisler shoes' and that mixed with the melting snow, mud, sunshine, and project deadline had us going on a spontaneous whim. I started shooting Jen walking through the park, through puddles and on the playground equipment. It was honestly a big risk on our part, not only being concerned about our exposures with the film, but switching up our concept so suddenly. All I really remember about it now though, is that we both seemed to have a lot of fun that afternoon, which for me ended with a home cooked meal with the Eisler family - a big bonus after all the canned food I'd been eating in the dorms.
When all was said and done, I can't really remember the screening in class, but it's likely because our final projects would've also been in the works at that time. What does stick with me is the process of how this production unfolded, and the memories created from the stress and excitment of essentially winging it.
To me the title explains it all. Hip - as in artsy. Hop - quite literally jumping around. Ninny - foolish. Shoe - the subject. Satisfaction - the feeling after getting it done. Hip Hop Ninny Shoe Satisfaction, it just rolls off the tongue.
I can't expect everyone to respond to this short the way Jen and I would, but for us, I think this stands out as one of our classic film school experiments. And for that, it's hard not to be nostalgic.
Hip Hop Ninny Shoe Satisfaction (2004) Directed by Luke Fandrich & Jennifer Eisler
This latest episode was filmed over the Christmas holidays, and is my first brand new short to debut in 2009. The Chico Bandito series can now be seen in HD directly on my YouTube account, which offers an excellent viewing experience, however, it's still nice to see things unfold here on the blog.
Episode 4 has been the most time consuming of the series to produce, and I expect that trend to continue with the episodes to come. Not only are the schemes getting bigger, but I'm trying new things each time and also trying to work my way along to the big conclusion. Like I've mentioned previously, this is all an exercise in editing, staging and movement as there's no dialogue to explain things throughout. It makes Chico's escape all the more universal. Plus, it's simple, clean and I like the structure of making serials as the concept is already there.
I can't say what's going to come next exactly, but it's sure to be good. In the meantime, enjoy the fourth installment of Chico Bandito!
