Post #790207

Margate. TLDR: Mat tried to make a film in the 90s at a party, failed, and this is the uncut mess, rediscovered 30 years later. So, back in the mid 90s, being an artist as I was, I was making portraits of people. I was filming on 8mm colour cine film, asking people to stay completely still for 10 seconds then looping and projecting the film like it was a still photo. I really loved the portraits. Still life, but despite best efforts of the sitters, there was always a little movement in the expression. Living, breathing portraits. You could feel the life running through them, even when motionless (the flicker of the frames projected added to this effect). I had an offshoot idea. I'd got my hands on some black and white film, really grainy, 1920s style. I wanted to film portraits of people off their heads, gurning and mashed up on ecstasy (molly), same portrait concept, but with a Nosferatu aesthetic. The plan was to do this at a house party we were having. When reality/good sense hit, I realised this probably wasn't a great idea for the subjects (my friends), who probably might not want to be immortalised like this, so I bailed on it. But I was at a 2 day party with a camera. It was a weird weekend. We partied for 48 hours, it was messy, we were young. In the aftermath of the party, still intoxicated, but in a different mindset, we, the party stragglers, decided to build a diorama of an imaginary British coastal town in the corner of the room, made of blankets, cigarette packets, beer cans, cigarette papers, rice spilled from takeaway meals and whatever other debris was lying around on the floor. Ten folks in their early 20's, hung over, drinking beer, smoking and sitting around in the filth, enthusiastically crafting boats, planes, buildings, a lighthouse made from a disgarded asthma inhaler and, my particular favourite, a seagull made from rizla cigarette paper. During the weekend I filmed a bit of footage, unstaged, of people partying and crashed out, and then captured some of the making of "Margate", our imaginary seaside town (Margate is an actual coastal town but this was not based on it, not sure why we called it that). Finally we made some hurried, wonky, stop frame animation to bring Margate to life. We had a genius idea for the sea, and used spilt rice from somebody's takeaway curry to create wash and waves in the water. I developed the film but my projector broke and this sat unwatched or edited in a can for 30 years. Occasionally I reminisce about the carefree days of our youth with Mrs B, days where you could lose a weekend in hedonism that would spawn creativity, for no particular reason other than as something to do drinking off a hangover. Mrs B got the reel digitised for my birthday and here it is, unedited. To the viewer it looks a mess, but to me it contains memories and fragments of a time lost. I added music* which kind of reflects how I see the footage now, not as I would have then. This has been a very long post, probably longer than the film itself which is 3 minutes. *Proc Fiskal – she's veiled https://peertube.wtf/w/8JUNLzAiC87qHTtR9XHWbj