Re: Will Hindle

From: owen (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Aug 24 2006 - 22:02:50 PDT


Hi,
Sad that the Watersmith original is missing. That film is really
something. The MoMA had a decent print of that.
But I think there was a vertical scratch somewhere near the start.
Great optical work, I think. Audience responded really well to that one.
And Billabong, actually, I recall The Donnell Media Library had the
best print around of that, last I knew, better than Canyon's I think.
How enjoyable was his use of color in that one too.
Good luck. It's great you're doing this work.
owen plotkin

On Aug 24, 2006, at 3:50 PM, Mark Toscano wrote:

> Will's films are quite unique and beautiful, and
> extreme technical mastery is a particular trait of his
> films. They don't get screened nearly as much
> anymore, but in their heyday, they were quite known
> and won many awards. Time-Life even distributed three
> of them at one point. Will stopped making films more
> or less in the mid-'70s, but got back into it in the
> early-'80s, though he never totally finished another
> film after Pasteur3 in 1976. He died in 1987. These
> reasons are also why his films aren't known as much,
> as he kind of stopped actively showing and promoting
> them and making new work thirty years ago.
>
> I've been working on the restoration of a couple of
> them - Non Catholicam and Saint Flournoy Lobos
> Logos... - for some time, and it's extremely involved,
> even though we have the originals for both to work
> from. At some point, I should write up a description
> of the process, because it's pretty nuts, especially
> for Flournoy.
>
> The sound has been restored already for those two (and
> FFFTCM), and is just waiting on the picture work to be
> finished, which will take another few months at least,
> unfortunately.
>
> One of the things I was looking for was a nice print
> of Non Catholicam, which was needed to restore one
> shot in the film not conformed correctly or fixable in
> the originals. Canyon ended up having a good print,
> though it's interesting to hear the Co-op print is
> nice. I may have to look at that one...
>
> The long term plan is to restore many of Will's films,
> hopefully all of them. There are only 11, but the
> originals are lost for 5 of them. MoMA has the
> originals for Chinese Firedrill and Billabong, and I
> have no idea what condition they're in. I have the
> originals here for Saint Flournoy, Non Catholicam,
> Pasteur3, and FFFTCM (this one on loan from PFA).
>
> The originals for Watersmith, Pastorale d'ete, Later
> That Same Night, 29: Merci Merci, and Trekkerriff have
> so far remained missing. It especially bothers me
> that for someone who was so precise and meticulous
> about the look and sound of his films, we'll have to
> restore a handful of them from prints. They're mostly
> gorgeous reversal prints, but it's pretty sad the
> originals can't be found and used in the restorations.
>
> Hope this is of some interest - feel free to email
> with questions/ideas/etc. -
>
> thanks,
>
> Mark T
>
>
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.