From: Marilyn Brakhage (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Jan 22 2004 - 13:43:02 PST
I also remember more the stories about Scott tissue, rather than
Downey, and of Stan's "inventing" the use of slow motion extreme
close-ups for revealing texture. Although the image in my mind for
that is of towels, I can't remember anything more specific. . . .
This work was done in Princeton, I believe. ( . . .The solar
photography in Dog Star Man was not shot by him. There's a credit on
the film, though, stating the agency or institute he got it from (in
Colorado, I believe), which I can't quote exactly without going back
and looking.)
Marilyn
On Thursday, January 22, 2004, at 01:40 PM, Philip Solomon wrote:
> There is definitely a relationship between Stan and Downey in one way
> or another. I was never sure exactly what happened, but here's what I
> remember from our conversations:
>
> 1. Stan did work on commercials in his early career (and he used to
> frequently tell stories about working with the great Boris Kaufman on
> some of these)
>
> 2. He did mention that he was responsible for a famous commercial use
> of slow motion (like the Downey effect of "billowing" that you
> mention), but if memory serves, I thought he said it was a Scott
> tissue commercial that he worked on - but I may be getting this
> confused with Downey ( and I'm reminded of the opening credits of Garp,
> which also references this effect, with a baby "falling" in slo-mo in
> front of a downy fluffy sky backdrop...)
>
> 3. I can't tell you whether he directed these, shot these, or both (on
> the ones with Kaufman, he was assisting, I believe, or acting as a
> camera operator or AC to Kaufman's DP)
>
> 4. I'm not sure whether the Downey/Scott thing was a rip-off of an
> effect that he did on a local commercial, or if he actually worked on
> those nationally broadcast projects - I believe it was the latter. He
> was quite proud of this work in a way, and admired the people that he
> worked with who shot/DP'd commercials, as they were expert and
> painstaking, and could work miracles with light on objects.
>
> 5. I'm not sure where these were done (Denver? South
> Dakota?Princeton?). If they were done locally, most likely Western Cine
> might still have records of this part of his commercial career.
>
> 6. I seem to remember seeing a resume or a complete works list, which
> listed some commercial work and certainly some of science films and
> industrials that he shot or directed (like a film made at CU with
> George Gamow called Mr.Tompkins Inside Himself). Some of this material
> worked its way into Dog Star Man (shooting blood circulation inside a
> bat's wing or an operation of a dog -and the solar flares, which I'm
> not sure if he shot or borrowed).
>
> This is where I will leave it to Fred or Marilyn to fill in the blanks.
>
> Phil Solomon
>
>
> On Thursday, January 22, 2004, at 11:34 AM, jarrod whaley. wrote:
>
>> this is one of those "settle a bet" questions: i seem to remember
>> reading
>> somewhere (possibly here) a while back that stan brakhage made the
>> commercial in which we see the famous image of a bottle of downey
>> falling in
>> slow-motion into a billowy blue (or was it pink?) towel. i told a
>> friend of
>> mine about this a while back, and now an acquaintance of his is
>> questioning
>> the veracity of this claim.
>>
>> could someone (mr. camper?) please corroborate or deny this story? and
>> if
>> brakhage was not the director of the commercial in question, does
>> anyone
>> know which commercials he did make? i'm very curious about this.
>>
>> jarrod whaley.
>> www.oakstreetfilms.com
>> www.freefilmclub.com
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.