As a teen with my first video camera from 1979, I was intrigued with empty industrial landscapes in the early stages of development around Irving where I grew up, that appeared abandoned and other-worldly with empty gray structures and no one around for miles. They were free sets that gave scale to my backyard epics, and no one bothered me as I built a fire or wandered off, leaving my camera in the middle of a road for hours.
Lynch's Eraserhead was an early influence, lingering on a grungy environment to become the foreground in a surreal narrative. I desperately wanted a Super8 camera for Xmas 1979, but instead Dad gave the family this thing called a "video camera." I thought, oh well, I just have to save my donut shop checks to get a decent film camera.
But the next day, my mind was blown to discover that for the $10 cost of 3 minutes of super8 film that never looked anything like you hoped, I could record 2 HOURS of video, AND see exactly what I was recording, AND play back each take immediately... AND record over to edit in-camera!?! I thought, fuck film. Video was way more versatile, and allowed us to play and teach ourselves for no cost.
I am also intrigued with portals or gateways between worlds, which I often have recurring dreams about. And I liked the way footage looked after reshooting it while playing back on a TV. Filmmaker wannabe friends and I taught ourselves by imitating movies, and struggled to find ways to make our low-rez vids look interesting. Most things we shot had no beginning or end, but we grooved on trippy ambient visuals. Humans have a shorter attention span these days, but "liminal" has become more of a thing now, and I wanted to digitize the footage before the old VHS oxide became any more degraded.
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