archiculturefilm.com
11JUL2008 - STEVEN HOLL SUPPORTS
As we continue to edit, our fundraising efforts are continuously being exhausted. Good moments are sprinkled throughout rough times as we begin to truly endure the reality of our current economic landscape in its relationship to the arts. We continue to charge forward and applaud/showcase graciously anyone who sees the potential in the project such as the office of Steven Holl.
Back to the editing station, freelancing and keeping our fingers crossed.
22JUN2008 - GRANT FINALIST
We have just found out from an old friend of ours, Carole Dean, that we have made it to the final stage of the Roy W. Dean New York Video Grant selection. We still have to make the final cut but have our fingers crossed in hopes of being awarded the $20,000 package of support.
05JUN2008 - ARCHICULTURE IN CINCINNATI
If you are in Cincinnati, OH this coming Friday, come see a sneak preview presentation of the documentary at Baba Budan"s. The event will be directed by a few former classmates and friends of mine from Cincinnati's Architecture program, Mark Thomson and Ian McCain, who have graciously taken it upon themselves to organize the event. A portion of the proceeds from the happy hour drinks, coffees and beverages will go towards the project. There will also be a raffle for Archiculture Tshirts, and Buttons between showings of the film's trailer and a few sneak preview clips.
So if you are in the area come out this Friday evening to Clifton after work or school and help support the film. Also, please be sure to notify any one you know who may be interested in the film and in the city.
02JUN2008 - ARCHICAST4 UP
We let a couple of the students take over on this one to give them a little flavor of the other side of the camera. This one has a different feel due to the added dynamic of their questioning, introduction and conclusion. Give it a look over on our films page.
May Newsletter06
01JUN2008 - GOOD BYE PRATT
Archiculture is moving its base. That's right folks, rent is paid and our spot is reserved. Arbuckle Industries, David, Ian, Archiculture, et al are relocating to our new home in Bushwick. Check out our latest blog for a little more info. More details and some photos will be posted once we start moving in this Tuesday. Also, be sure to check out this visual blog of our 17 hour journey to capture Phil Bernstein from this past Tuesday.
For now, David and I continue to hunt for means of making an income via part time jobs and freelance work while keeping Archiculture evolving and fed. We have spent a large amount of time reviewing and logging the 140+ hours of footage shot over the semester and scheduling office presentation and interviews. Pierce, after relocating to South Carolina, has begun working on the film's rough cut, continues to tweak Archicast4 and is editing another video surprise... check out the last few photos from the Move Out set to get a clue.
24MAY2008 - BACK TO BROOKLYN
We arrived back last night from DC on our chariot ride via Bolt Bus which was written about in our latest blog posting on its free wifi network. We are so enamored with their service we have already bought tickets on the coach to Boston this Tuesday to interview Phil Bernstein who is the Vice President of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction division of Autodesk and a professor at Yale University. Autodesk is better known to the architectural community as AutoCAD and Revit. We hope to discuss with Phil the impact technology is having upon today's architecture and the studio setting. For now check out our latest round of photos from DC to see all the amazing people we were able meet with while we were in town. A new Archicast should be up in the next couple weeks.
19MAY2008 - ARCHICULTURE GOES TO DC
We leave this morning on a bus to DC for four days of meetings, presentations and interviews. On the agenda is Jess Wendover, Director of The Mayors" Insitute on City Design (MICD), Michael Geary, Andrew Caruso, and Tony Vanky of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), Jessyca Schwarzkopf the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) Sustainability Resource Architect, Anica Landreneau the Sustainability Knowledge Manager at Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) DC, and Michael Monti the Executive Director for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Hopefully we come back with some new supporters and some amazing footage. We will let you know how it goes and will post a few blogs while we are away. We continue the Archiculture Campaign Trail to DC!
16MAY2008 - ARCHICULTURE GOES TO SOM NYC
The campaign trail has begun! The folks at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) were gracious enough to permit David and I time to present the project to their New York office yesterday evening. The response was very positive to the trailer and sneak preview clips which spawned an interesting Q&A session following. We will begin doing these types of promotional/fundraising presentations at every office or event which will permit us. We figured the last place we can turn to raise funds and awareness for this project is directly to our core audience. If interested let us know and we will make time for you. For now back to the trail planning.
11MAY2008 - ZAHA HADID CAPTURED
After a missed opportunity on Thursday after Zaha arrived from London for her lecture, we were able to land twenty minutes with one of the most prominent architects in the world following graduation. It took us five different times to set up for the interview before we were able to pull her away from her booked schedule of lecturing, meeting, speaking and accepting an honorary degree from Pratt. It was good training on our end for rapid fire 3 point lighting techniques and testing our abilities with extremely limited settings. A few months ago we would have been unable to deal with such circumstances but now we have become pros. Zaha was very animated and energetic to our questions which will prove invaluable to the film's content. What took 10 hours of work from two people and 20 minutes of Zaha's time will boil down into 15 - 30 seconds of film time. It was all worth it.
Take a look at our latest set of photos from the interview and of graduation to see the production.
07MAY2008 - SEVEN NEW SETS OF PHOTOS
That is right folks, we just put up photos from the last 2 weeks of production. There were over 1500+ taken over that time span, so it took us a good bit of time to digest and post them. They trace all the last minute production/design work leading up and through the final reviews. In two days the students graduate.
We are also scheduled to interview Zaha Hadid, the 2004 Pritzker Prize winner tomorrow night. You can see her work here. She is in the neighborhood for the School of Architecture's Spring Lecture Series and to receive an honorary degree as part of Pratt's Commencement on Friday, May 9. I'll let you know how it goes.
01MAY2008 - SEMESTER DONE, GRANTS OUT
Immediately following Saturday's final honors reviews and a little bit of celebration that evening, we dove deep into two grant submission. The first one was due yesterday for From the Heart Productions' Roy W. Dean New York City Video Grant and the second was due today by the New York State Council on the Arts for Individual Artists in Film, Media and New Technology Productions. Now that these are out of the way and our fingers are crossed, we will begin to determine how we will survive the cost of living in New York City and complete our transformation into Archiculture salesman. We have trips scheduled to DC and Yale University for interviews/fund raising in May. We will also be presenting at a few office in New York throughout the month to help raise funds. Much more to share in the pipeline but too early to unveil. We will keep you posted as we acclimate to our new post-production lives.
25APR2008 - FINAL REVIEWS ARE TODAY
Today starting at 10AM is the final review for the thesis students. It is the climax of the semester and the closure of major production for Archiculture. Lots to share but too exhausted and busy filming to fully describe. Their journey as students of architecture and our own as documentary filmmakers are coming to an end.
20APR2008 - SPRING ARRIVES IN NYC
Not to make the situation worse for the students, but spring has finally arrived in full force. This is making it very difficult to stay inside and labor over a computer, drafting table or model. We have managed to get outside for a few campus shots and capturing a couple of the students on bicycles or skateboards. Photos will soon follow.
If you have not looked in a while check out some of the recent post in the student's blog such as the recent thread of "Quotes," the "COUNTDOWN" realization or the anthem "I think you need a healthy dose of Thesis."
We have also been fairly busy keeping our blog updated with new posts; "Breaking Down the Barrier," "It is 4am, where is your kid at?," "A shake of reflection, a bit of excitment, and a tad of terror" or everyone's favorite "Discouraged, Like a Boneless Chicken."
16APR2008 - MODEL MAKING
The students have moved into a very intense mode of production using computers, 3D printers, laser cutters, the woodshop, plotters, plaster casts and the metal shop. Amongst this we were able to interview one of the students at his office and home studio. There is even a visit from Legoman. Check out the two new sets of photos from the past week to see their round the clock efforts.
12APR2008 - HARVARD PHOTOS
We just posted some new photos of our trip to Harvard to present and film at the FuturePresent symposium and Structures for Inclusion Conference. It was an amazing mix of students, professors and professionals discussing case studies from around the world on socially conscious design initiatives. Putting the power of the built environment back into the hands of the communities who are severely underserved was the rallying cry. Two of the students from Pratt, whom we are documenting, were also invited to come along to join in the conversation. Personally, it was an extremely inspiring group of people to listen to, film and interview. Some of the people we were able to grab for short interviews for our film were Derek Ham, Clifton James, Steve Lewis, Toni Griffin and Casius Pealer. The Archiculture Team would like to specifically thank Harvard, Design Corps and the efforts of the GSD student group for Social Change and Activism for thinking of our project and making our participation possible.
For the full list of photos from the event, visit our Archiculture facebook group.
10APR2008 - PRODUCTION MODE
Like the students, we have gone into a very intense production mode. They are receiving their last significant critiques this week as they transition into full blown production for the final two weeks of the semester. The hopes are to have all their major design ideas solidified by the end of today's studio, so they are only "ironing out the details" when they begin to construct final models and drawings. Some are further along than others, but the studio's intensity is definitely building.
In culmination with their efforts we are attempting to capture as much of this creation as possible. Some amazing ideas will formalize and be created over the last few weeks of the semester and we have to be there with our cameras. Late night bodega runs for coffee, going to the hardware store for sheets of MDF, sporadic cigarette breaks are all apart of the studio culture. We must capture them before our characters vanish. So we must apologize in advance for any less frequent news updates leading up to graduation. Please bare with us, we will be back to normal in a few weeks.
02APR2008 - ARCHICULTURE GOES TO HARVARD
We will be presenting tomorrow at the FuturePresent symposium at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. We were invited up by the Social Change and Activism student group to film the event and give a presentation on our documentary. Pierce and I will stay throughout the weekend to cover the Structures for Inclusion Conference and get some key interviews from the amazing list of speakers. David will come back to New York on Friday to present at the Northeast AIAS Quad Conference being held here at Pratt to architecture students visiting from as far away as Virginia to Maine. So we are very busy pushing the project out to a greater range of the architectural community and are very excited for the people we are about to interview and film for Archiculture.
See you when we all get back. For now check out some of the recent blogs by us and the student, and the new photos uploaded today.
28MAR2008 - ARCHICAST3 UPLOADED
Our latest episode of our Archicasts has been posted on our films page. Give it a view to see how production has been treating us the past month along with our recent adventures during spring break. Of course a new Archicast coincides with our monthly newsletter which went out this morning for March. If you are interested in receiving these notifications email us at subscribe[at]archiculturefilm.com or you can stay even more up to date by adding our new RSS Feed.
26MAR2008 - SUPER CONNECTED
A whole bunch of icons have been inserted at the top of our website to further the network of Archiculture. Some of you may know a lot of them, others may know none. The point is to enable users of social networks, social bookmarks, wikis, photo networks and video sharing to have greater access to the content of Archiculture.
Another major addition is the new RSS Feed button at the top left corner. This enables instant updates when new news, blogs, photos, or archicasts are uploaded. For more information on RSS Feeds and how to set one up check out this wikipedia article.
24MAR2008 - COUNTDOWN
Now that spring break is behind us and the halls are filling back up with students, the reality of the end of Archiculture's production is growning near. We are five weeks from final reviews and seven from graduation. The clock is ticking and the amount of work to accomplish for both us and the students is building. It will be an exciting process to capture.
20MAR2008 - SPRING BREAK
We just got back from a trip north to interview a few of the students' parents. It was nice to get out of the city for a bit and see where some of them grew up. Each family greeted us with open arms and lots of fantastic food. We thank them each for inviting us into their homes.
Photos from the trip will be up shortly, but for now we just uploaded three new sets. Photos from the week leading up to midterms, from the two days of midterm critiques and from our Trailer Debut party at the Center for Architecture are now up on our photos page.
14MAR2008 - OUR TRAILER DEBUT
We have finally arrived to a very significant stage in the lifespan of any documentary film project, the Trailer. This is the point at which others are able to begin to comprehend your concept with actual footage. Real people with vivid moments in motion. No more text, graphics, articles, descriptions, or our own talking heads, it is all in this 2 minute and 30 second clip to begin to understand and embrace the story. We only hope our families, supporters, donors, friends, viewers and potential grant funders see the potential in this glimpse into the future of Archiculture.
It will be will be debuted live tonight at the Center for Architecture in New York and online via Archinect.com at 7PM. We will post it on our films page tonight when we arrive back from celebrating.
If you have any comments. We would love to hear them. Good, bad or ugly we need them to keep us engergized and pushing our own abilities. Send them to trailer[at]archiculture.com.
For Immediate Release - Archiculture Trailer Debut Party
Friday March 14th 2008
6pm - 8pm
Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY 10012
Event Flier
Archiculture is a feature length documentary that examines contemporary issues surrounding the realm of architecture through the perspective of university students during their final thesis semester. The film uses the students' projects and their stories to examine contemporary issues surrounding the profession of architecture.
Please spread word to anyone you feel who would be interested in the project and may be in the city that evening. We need your help to expose others to the project and can't wait to showcase the film at such a fantastic location.
A list of speakers is being formalized for the evening, along with a brief presentation by the film's creators to introduce the trailer. Food and drinks will be provided.
01MAR2008 - BEN PARKER JOINS TEAM
In our ever present search for writing talent we have landed a new Grant Coordinator in Ben Parker. With a degree from Clemson University in English, Ben has been instrumental in developing and editing grants and proposals for Archiculture. Without his expansive knowledge of morphemes, demonstrative adjectives, zero articles, the Flesch-Kincaid Index, and capital letters we don't know where we'd be. We welcome Ben to the team.
26FEB2008 - EMILY LEVY JOINS TEAM
In the constant search for new team members, we have landed a critical one in our new production assistant Emily Levy. She is a recent graduate of Pratt's architecture program and her local knowledge has proven invaluable. Emily has been involved with the front end of editing our trailer, managing our photography collection, coordinating efforts for the trailer debut event, and providing a much needed injection of creative life into the project a few days a week. We look forward to her continued input into the project.
23FEB2008 - THOM MAYNE INTERVIEW
We were able to corral Thom Mayne of Morphosis into an interview following his lecture last night at Pratt. Thom has a pretty impressive portfolio of work and recieved the Pritzker Prize in March 2005 for his efforts. He also helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) in 1972, and frequently teaches at both UCLA and SCI-ARC today. The interview was brief but we covered a wide array of topics from the meaning/purpose of the architectural thesis, what today's students face in the field, and what are some of the significant issues facing the profession and our society. Keep an eye out for some of this footage in our trailer.< /p>
22FEB2008 - NEW PHOTOS
We have new pictures up on our photos page from the past two weeks of production. You'll see a few shots from our professor interviews, some of the recent studio moments, and a few detail shots of the students' work. There will be more photos coming online as we progress towards the midterm reviews March 10th and 13th, and prepare for the Trailer Debut Party
.
20FEB08 - FLYCAM HAS LANDED
This 24/7 live feed, aka "MomCast," of our office at the School of Architecture at Pratt, is to show the 24 hour nature of this documentary's production as we attempt to keep up with the students' schedules. The students have been joking that we have been uncomfortable when they point the handicams at us, so we thought we would level the playing field with our own documentation. David goes further into the logic behind the streaming video on his latest blog posting.
We do not know what this feed will turn into, but are open to your interpretations. I could see us setting this up occasionally in the studio space during the busy nights leading up to a major critique or scheduling live viewing sessions as the film unfolds. For now we stream to you a live feed from our filmmaking base.
15FEB08 - MAURICE COX INTERVIEW
We had the pleasure yesterday of interviewing Maurice Cox, the new Director of Design for the National Endowment for the Arts. If you have not heard of him yet, you should. The man has carved out a pretty amazing path with his architectural training. In brief, he received his degree from Cooper Union here in New York, then moved to Italy where he worked with Giovanna Galfione. He then began to teach at Syracuse University's Italian Program before joining the University of Virginia's faculty in 1993. Since he has been an elected City Counsel member and Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, and helped found the CP+D Workshop. The interview covered a broad range of topics from democratic design, to architecture's role in our daily lives, to the purpose of an architectural thesis project. The exciting part for us was the realization that we just shot at least a few minutes that will definitely end up in the film, due to the clarity and elegance of Maurice's powerful answers. Keep an eye out for some of these moments when our trailer is cut in mid March.
08FEB08 - NEW PHOTOS ARE POSTED
Photos from the past three weeks of production are up on our photos page. We will attempt to load a new set each week, so stay tuned. Also, be sure to click on one of the thumbnails to see the new slideshow our web master Doug has created for easier viewing.
05FEB08 - FIRST ARCHICAST IS UP
We have begun a video blog called Archicasts on the films page. The first one is up now and begins to tell the story from the perspective of the creators, David, Ian and Pierce. Please give it a look and let us know what you think. We plan on releasing new casts about once a month. If you would like to know when new ones are posted, please send an email to our subscribe[at]archiculturefilm.com with subscribe in the subject line. Once you subscribe you will be included to our newsletter list. For examples checkout our first three from the past few months.
January Newsletter03
December Newsletter02
November Newsletter01
28JAN08 - STUDENTS' BLOG BEGINS
In an attempt to open up our own process of making the film, we began a directors' blog back in October. We also recently created a blog space for both the faculty and students to write their own posts throughout the making of the film. We left the format very open for the students in an attempt to make it an exploration into their thesis experiences. We hope you check out the posts from this past week and continue to follow them through the next 13 weeks of creation. Who knows were their writings will take us.
As for the faculty blog, it will be up shortly after I get them set up.
22JAN08 - ONE WEEK IN
We have shot one week of footage so far. The Undergraduate Chair, Evan Douglis, formally introduced us to the 5th year thesis students and faculty this past Thursday. Following his introduction, the three of us presented a brief outline of the history of the project and our shooting agenda. We then opened the floor for a public Q&A session for the students and faculty. Some great questions and concerns were posed about the project. We answered each to the best of our abilities and left with a very high level of support. Close to every student who attended was interested in being interviewed and will permit us to film them. Now that we have begun to establish a rapport with the students, we embark on a similar dialogue with the professors over the next couple weeks.
Beyond filmming we have been busy going to the P/A Awards, streamlining our workflow, logging footage, updating our website, blogging, planning a big trailer debut party, meeting local organizations, meeting directors Alysa Nahmias of Unfinished Spaces and Anna Holtzman of Subway Dreams, getting interviewed by the Clinton Hill Blog, nestling into our new production lives and actively pursuing new sources of funding.
14JAN08 - CAMERAS ROLL
The spring semester at Pratt began today and so did full blown production of Archiculture. We spent most of the afternoon capturing the School of Architecture buzzing with refreshed students and faculty in the midst of the semesterly studio selection lottery. What a stark contrast in footage between the calm and quiet halls of last night, to the energic faces that have now filled the building. We will post some still shots of the footage in the next week or so.
Also, details on the package we wrote about arriving on Sunday are available on our recent blog posting.
11JAN08 - OUR PRESENT ARRIVES SUNDAY
That's right folks. The project is getting a belated holiday gift on Sunday at JFK airport in the form of a 180 lb package. We will reveal greater details once we get it back to the school and unwrap our new toy to find out exactly what it can do. For now all we can tell you is that it will infinitely increase the potential of this film.
05JAN08 - FINAL PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT
First off, Happy New Year! We have now officially been working on this project for a year and a half...
Enough reflection, now onto the fun stuff. With steady feedback from our group of filmmaking friends and online research we have decided to forego our plans to shoot the film on our Sony FX1 and instead use Panasonic's HVX200. This change in equipment means a significant upgrade to the creative options (and cost) we now have for the footage. David and I originally learned on a HVX200 with Empty Kingdom, so we are reasonably prepared for the transition but are quite excited with the new footage potential. New frame rates, recording formats, color quality, stereo XLR jacks, and the list of benefits goes on. Mostly geeky film stuff but it will have a drastic impact upon the quality of the final HD film.
Beyond that we also purchased our second on-camera light, two body rigs, and another full audio kit to complete our two one-man camera crews. The next week will be spent testing the equipment in the studio spaces before the students arrive back January 14th.
Pre-Production News
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