Bill Mudge and I were bowled over this week with the news that our short film SchoolRun Strut has been nominated for an award at this year's Twickenham Film Festival.
Its great to be coming home after screening SchoolRun Strut in venues further afield. As you know I'm a Twickenham resident and this is a gentle film about my walk to school with my daughters. Every day is different when you walk to school, a strange shadow, the marks left in the road after roadworks, a view over a railway bridge. Of course it helps if the sun is shining!
Not everything is perfect and I hope the film represents that sometimes I'm absolutely knackered hauling my 40 year old bones along South London pavements.
Last November (2012) I was commissioned by fellow artist Eskild Beck to make a film for the Danish town of Aabenraa.
I've worked with Eskild on exhibitions since 2010 but have never met him or even spoken by phone. As he explained the brief in a series of emails I wondered if this was some bizarre hoax or just another artist's pipe dream.
He didn't quite have any specifications or measurements or deadlines for me but he had a VISION!
In this apparition he saw that the 30 foot silos in his native town would be bathed in light and colour. These harsh totems dedicated to an industrial god would be transformed into a carousel of fun and dancing Mackerel.....
Now just wait a minute.....did he just say 30ft Dancing Mackerel.
Now me and Mudge looked at one another. Was this guy for real. This sounded like a chance of a lifetime or it could all end in a Quixotesque oblivion. So for the next 3 months we bounced ideas and emails back and forth, between London and Aabenraa. We relentlessly watched those gritty murder dramas that have defined Denmark here in England over the past year or so. Our Danish improved a little but our nerves we're frayed.
In the end we delved back into Aabenraa's glory days as port and it picturesque architecture.
Eventually it all came together and we sent it off, not thinking for one moment that it would ever make it onto those huge silos. Just a few days ago we got a surprise, a video and stills with our film in full flow.
Aabenraa Silos
We've made it as part of the Murder Minutes project and hope to perform it live sometime in 2013 with a quartet of Bill Mudge, Duncan Eagles, Max Luthert and Peter Ibbetson.
Check out Max Luthert and Alban Low's most recent Murder Minutes film at the Sputnik Kino, Berlin this January. The British Shorts exhibition project at Sputnik Kinobar presents drawing, photography and special screenings by award winning experimental filmmakers from 12th-16th January 2013.
This will be the first time its been seen in public, so dont miss it!
Our latest film in the Murder Minutes series is in production. Once again it takes it's original inspiration from the murder mystery novels of Agatha Christie.
Its not strictly a 'who dunnit' this time and doesn't unravel in linear form. I've concentrated on 11 of the chararcters from the book 'The Pale Horse'. My daughters and I spent a day re-inacting the mannerisms of the characters using only our hands.
For some time I've been wanting to create a film that was influenced by the film NY Export: Opus Jazz, performed by the New York City Ballet dancers and reimagining Jerome Robbins‘ 1958 “ballet in sneakers”. I was deeply affected by the way the music and art flow together and feeds from one another.
In its simplest sense I'm making finger ballet.
It should be finished around Christmas 2012 and then I'll send it onto Duncan Eagles to record the soundtrack.
Great news for Murder Minutes fans and jazz/art lovers!
The original 'Murder Minutes' film by Alban Low and Bill Mudge has been shortlisted at the Walthamstow International Film Festival. It will be screened at a special event at theBFI Southbank on the 7th September 4-5pm.
The 2012 judges Barry Bliss, Walthamstow-based film director who has recently shot a musical in the area starring Paul McGann and Gary Kemp; Noel Goodwin, Head of Youth Education at the BFI, David Jenkins, Film Critic from Little White Lies magazine and Kate Vogel, TV & Film Producer from the Tate Britain will announce the section and overall winners of the competition after the screening.
A big thank you to Liza and Paul Fletcher who celebrate their 3rd year of exhibiting 3 minute Drama, Documentary, Experimental, Animation and First Films. A fantastic festival where we screened our first film in public. So close to our hearts.
There will also be a chance to see all the films selected - on Saturday 8th and Saturday 15th September at the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow Village from 1pm to 5pm.
The exhibition continues on Sunday 9th and Sunday 16th September from 1pm to 5pm atLotolie Family Hairdressersin Walthamstow Village in the basement.
Murder Minutes 3 Film has reached its half way point. All the images have been created and now sent off Max Luthert. He'll be composing the score over the next couple of weeks.
For more information about Max visit his page.
The most recent film in the series was inspired by Agatha Christie's 'Dead Man's Folly'. As ever, can you guess the murderer with the information provided.
The mystery was solved in the novel by using doodles, and I've encompassed them in this film too. Including a supporter of our projects in Film, Art and Jazz, the legendary Technomist of The Archipelago of Truth. (I didnt deliberately put his name above a monkey on a steeple).
We're still waiting to see where our film Murder 2 will be screened first. I'll let you know as soon as I do.
I've just received the latest score from Bill for Murder Minutes 2.
This time we experimented with a film thats only 59 seconds long to see if we could still maintain a narrative and tension.
Bill's music has created space in a film where none exists, so a big thank you to him.
We'll find a festival or exhibition to enter it in and let you know how we get on.
Alban
ps. drop me an email if you want to know the answer to this murder mystery.
