time for another post

well hello there! i know its been a while but i have soooo much to talk about since we last met. 6 x 1 came and went last week and it was very instructional and a super learning experience. not only did i learn all about ray o grams and the like but i had a lot of fun doing it as well. everything i learned on tues was strengthened on wednesday when i saw david gatten in a separate lecture. he gave the kind of talk to the class that i would wish others would give...he was very honest and sincere and actually some of the subjects he touched on i kind of knew already but it was a comfort to hear it come from someone who did all the struggling already in this industry. He told a story of his first exposure to hand film processing and then he showed us the film he created. i was surprised to see a lot of the students not taking notes but i took 4 pages worth. his experience was invaluable to me and something that a book could never tell you. i was super psyched to be there and i would say that it would be probably one of the existing highlights of my academic studies here at uncw. i would rank it right up there with my two favorite classes thus far : visionaries and iconoclasts with william verrone my 1st semester and the history of avant garde film with dr. kreul. we'll see if 6 x 1 makes the cut in this highly regarded list, but so far i am having the most fun in this class and hope for more fun. in the david gatten class we went over items we had done before like the magazine transfer but we used splicing tape instead of packing tape this time. i thought that this was the better choice (splicing tape) b/c you could know right then and there if it was going to fit on the film strip b/c it was the same size. the most invaluable items i learned was that of the times used to tone film, that was the coolest because it reminded me of my black and white 35 mm film days at cape fear comm coll when we used blue toner. i used blue toner on my holga camera print (holga cameras are like toy cameras but the exposure is more squarish and you can tape the camera so your images edges can be custom) i used this toned image after scanning into a short doc (8 min)for my title page and it was so cool. the fact you can accomplish the same with film and do it yourself and create color images with cheap b/w 16 mm film. very exciting. now i just need a place to do it. i would love to hear my wife's reaction when i bring chemicals to the house that have a picture of a dead tree or fish on the package. talk to ya again. once again here is some pics for you to freak on!