N or Nor W; study of a Canterbury wind (2011)
PRODUCED BY PORTER PICTURES
Installation: Porter's Cinebooth, SOFA Gallery, UC, Christchurch/Ōtautahi (2012)
An individual viewing experience for people waiting, meeting and moving with 7 minutes to spare.
Porter’s Cinebooth embossed on a copper title plate, evokes early 20th Century projector branding. The name references both Director and the cinematic pioneer Edwin S. Porter, who later moved into manufacturing motion picture projectors for Simplex.
The title N or Nor W pays homage to New Zealand artist Len Lye and his surreal black and white “public information films”, in particular N or NW (1937) commissioned by the General Post Office of Great Britain. Porter appropriates the title and opening sequence of Lye's film, and formal British tone in her "stream of consciousness" styled narrative.
Porter records the Canterbury nor' west wind from beneath a pylon in the middle of an olive grove (Photo: Rob Hood, 2011)
The idea for creating a textured ‘wind study’ was inspired by 1940-50s experimental sound recordings by French artist Pierre Schaeffer, officially termed ‘musique concrète’. Etude aux chemins de fer (1948) or study of trains, is a rhythmically reconstructed composition of train recordings and the first of five compositions publicly broadcast in a series titled ‘Concert de bruits’. Schaeffer’s trains triggered the nor’ wester wind recordings and the fictional, meteorological analogue disc became central to the project’s narrative.
C.U. shot of gramophone grooves through the RedCam viewfinder
Exhibitions/Publication 2012-2013
Derailed from opening at the City Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū due to the Feb 2011 earthquake Porter's MFA film-installation exhibited at the SOFA Gallery, University of Canterbury, September-October 2011.
City Art Depot, Ōtautahi/Christchurch 2012
The Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin, May-June 2012:
http://www.blueoyster.org.nz/exhibitions/pick-n-mix/
NZ Film Archive, Wellington, March-May 2013:
https://www.circuit.org.nz/event/porter%e2%80%99s-cinebooth
Oculus, Visual Arts Postgraduate Journal, Issue #4, 2012
Credits
Writer/Director: ALEXANDRA PORTER
Producer: PORTER PICTURES
Cinematographer: JOHN CHRISSTOFFELS
Sound Recordist: ED LUST
Editor: RICK HARVIE
Animator: NICK WHITE
Matte Painter: EUGENE LEE
Art Dept: ALEXANDRA PORTER
Music: BLUETOPIA composed by Duke Ellington performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
THE CLOCK SYMPHONY - 2ND MOVEMENT composed by JOSEPH HAYDN performed by the APOLLO SYPHONY ORCHESTRA
Cast: SCARLETT KENTISH-BARNES, SARAH KENTISH-BARNES, COSMO KENTISH-BARNES and MARTIN HOWELLS.
Actors Scarlett and Sarah Kentish-Barnes on set (2011)
(DOP) John Chrisstoffels, (Sound Recordist) Ed Lust and (Actor) Martin Howells on set (2011)
Scarlett Kentish-Barnes in the studio with Director (2011)
