N or Nor W; study of a Canterbury wind (2011)

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

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)