"influence" magazine - volume 2, number 1
"ABOVE GROUND"
by Peter Walsh
Maryland Institute Station Auditorium
Friday, November 4, 1988
Director Tentatively a Convenience showed a ten-minute fragment of raw footage, shot recently in Europe. It condensed over 40 hours of material he has recently transfered from th European PAL video system to the American NTSC system. Entitled "A walk through Murraygate in Dundee on the 13th of August, 1988", the video is exactly that. Used to the fast-paced image-processing of American t.v., Tentatively's long single shot disconcertingly brings the question of time to the forefront. I found myself wishing that he would cut to another shot or speed things up while we were watching the backs of people's shirts or peering thru a crowd at a street performance piece. But mimicking real life, people walked in real time--the amount of time it actually takes to get from point A to point B--and one second lasted one second. The idea of one long shot also brings up the tape's similarity to Baltimorean Rob Tregenza's 35mm film "Talking to Strangers", which has done well at international film festivals this year. "A Walk Through Murraygate..." was, at least formally, a kind of low-budget video short of Tregenza's feature, although its sources are probably closer to Warhol's films.
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page
to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page
to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience
to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important
for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH
to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)