Many years ago over a period of 5 years, I made 3 short films which were intended as companion pieces:
"My Belle"
"Hey Marcel..."
"Queen of the Night"
I had always hoped that one day I would show them together as a "triptych" in a public space, but that never eventuated.
I did realise a sort of unification of the three under the heading "TRIPTYCH" when I remastered and released them on DVD via Artfilms.
Recently I decided to create a short experimental version which would present the three separate films as panels on a single screen.
Finally, forty years since I created these films, I have realised that dream with a lot of help from two people in particular.
First, Bill McDonald who composed the music for each of the three original works. I was very lucky that Bill was introduced to me by our mutual friend Robert Ratti, who also starred in "Queen of the Night". Bill's music for the three separate films fitted them like a glove, I have always been incredibly grateful that he composed those tracks. However, in creating the new version of "3 panels" we agreed that Bill would create a new piece, not trying to match any of the old music tracks.
The second person I need to thank here especially is Alix Jackson, whom I met when he was working for Kriszta Doczy at Artfilms.
I find Alix really great to work with and it was he who helped me create the re-mastered version of "Triptych" in 2017. This time I needed his assistance in working through the technical issues of 3 panels in one widescreen format.
So here now is "3 panels", a new event drawn from films I made forty years ago.
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Peter, this is fabulous! The three films are independently wonderful but all together like this is a revelation! I will talk more privately about this. Truly a great decision to put them together in '3 Panels'.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks David, it took a long while to get to this, as you well know... I travel very slowly these days. My god, that was a quick response David! I had barely completed posting it!
ReplyDeleteGreat combination all 3 together ! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWorks a treat as a triptych!
ReplyDelete... Ian (not anonymous!!)
DeleteThanks Ian, I had to find a title which would remove it from my previous use of Triptych when we "remastered" the three films into a continuous piece in 2017. I hope the title "3 panels" does that. Also, I quite like the idea of getting away from the medieval connotations which include "altarpiece". This is a sort of secular altarpiece. But choosing the title was not easy for me because I felt burdened from the past going right back to 1980s. Thanks Ian, your input is always welcome.
DeleteExcellent work, Peter. It must be very pleasing to be able to create the one frame with all three works in it, albeit snippets of the works. Clearly there are parallels between the works, around the human form, and the eyes, and then light and motion. An other-worldly mood is certainly created !
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill. Yes, it was a very pleasing exercise all round. I had to re-think the films because each one has its own logic and form, but then I realised I had to break away from their original structures to let the 3 panels work against each other and still occasionally leave room for each other. Also I'm enjoying working with DaVinci Resolve but I've had to learn its particular logic which seems quite different from other editing platforms. Then I had to get Alix to refine what I had set up because the laying out of the screens on the background was too difficult for me on my own. Alix makes it look easy! It's a steep learning curve for me Bill, but it's working.
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