archiculturefilm.com
04JAN2008 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Happy New Year to all our friends, family and supporters from team Archiculture. This month marks the start of our 4th year on the project. Hard to believe that 3 years ago the documentary idea David spoke of at my desk would spur this long journey. We have returned to our editing seats from short journeys to see family and family, and are ready to continue forging through the hours of footage in post. We just sent out our last newsletter for 2008 a couple days ago and are deeply anticipating the new year. Around these parts we like to refer to 2009 as the Year of Archiculture in hopes of having the film completed this year. We are extremely excited with how the footage and story is shaping up but need a lot of time to filter it down into a new trailer and a rough cut. To stay updated throughout the process please subscribe to our newsletters and you will get all the monthly updated details in your inbox.
23DEC2008 - RAW CLIPS POSTED ON THE BLOG
We have posted some raw clips over on our blog as a holiday present to our friends, our online followers and the students we recorded 24/7. These are some of the random moments we captured during the 160 hours of footage shot during production last spring. We just completed our first round of reviewing all of this footage and will begin to frequently release pieces of the clips we have collected. So as we slowly watch and cut and rewatch, we thought it would be a fun way to share what we got on tape. We have continuously attempted to keep this entire filmmaking process as transparent as possible and thought it would be a good way to get some feedback/input during our editing process. So go ahead and give them a look. Tell us what you think - good, bad, laughs, frowns, lost - whatever comes to mind by posting comments below each. Many more are on their way.
Please be sure to send this along to anyone you think may enjoy and don't forget to subscribe to get our monthly newsletters.
15DEC2008 - PHOTO SLIDESHOW ADDED
Just re-organized the photos over on our photos page and added a slideshow function for each stage of pre-production, production and post-production. It was getting a little out of control with so many images and thought it would be good to have a simple way to play them in a continuous timeline. Give it a look and let us know what you think.
09DEC2008 - ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY
We just rolled past our one year marker for arriving at Pratt to start production. What a long journey it has been this past year but how quickly it has gone by. It also marked the birth of co-Director/Producer David Krantz. Head on over to the blog for more reflection and see some photos from the celebrating.
01DEC2008 - ARCHICAST5 POSTED!
Finally!!! We have gotten around to creating a brand spanking new archicast over on our film page . This segment features footage from the past 5 months including trips to South Carolina, North Carolina, Washington DC, Boston, and an overall glimpse back into the filmmaking process. Give it a look to see what we've been up to.
We also just sent out our November Newsletter to our growing list of subscribers. We have evolved to use a secure html-based email program called MailChimp to send out our monthly updates. If you have not received our newsletters in the past subscribe here so you can stay up to date with the project. If you already receive them then please forward it along to a friend to further spread word of the film.
19NOV2008 - NEW TEAM MEMBER MICHAEL SELWA
Some of you may have noticed a new name floating around on the site. We would like to introduce our new Production Assistant, Michael Selwa . Check out his brief bio over on the info page for a little background on the new team member to Archiculture. You will see some of his direct work in the photos taken during both the Shigeru Ban and John Peterson interviews. His role will certainly grow in the coming months as we continue to progress through post-production. We are excited to invite him into the film's family of makers.
10NOV2008 - SHIGERU BAN PHOTOS
Photos taken by Michael Selwa from our interview with Shigeru Ban this past Thursday are up on our photos page . Check them out.
07NOV2008 - SHIGERU BAN INTERVIEW
Just got back a couple hours a go from interviewing Shigeru Ban after his lecture at Pratt Institute . His work crosses the spectrum from low-tech, global disaster structures to high-end, urban condo buildings. I first experienced one of his buildings during the Nomadic Museum 's visit to New York back in 2005. Most people will recognize his work with paper in the form of massive cardboard-like tubes . He presented the perfect chance to discuss the global scale of architecture's social impact due to his work with the UN in the form of disaster relief structures. Photos by Michael Selwa will be up shortly.
30OCT2008 - NEW PHOTOS
We just posted some new photographs over on our photos page . They include shots taken from our new post-production studio, the NOMA conference in DC and interviews with Joe Brown, CEO of EDAW , and John Peterson the founder of Public Architecture . We would like to mention and thank one of our new team members, Michael Selwa, for assisting and taking photos during the John Peterson interview. He will be showing up over on our info page under our growing collection of Archiculture team members.
We hope you all have some great costumes picked out for Halloween tomorrow night. Holidays like these are great excuses to socialize and enjoy the city we are surrounded by. See you on the other side!
27OCT2008 - SPONSPOR WISHES ANSWERED
To rave reviews from our team here at Archiculture headquarters , our fiscal sponsor IFP has stepped into the 21st century by automating their donation process in a simple online format! This is huge. It has taken us up to three months in the past for the donated funds to go from the donor to our debt riddled accounts. So if you've ever been interested in supporting the project you are only one click away . Spread the news! We are doing victory dances in the post-production studio... We have cabin fever and it is only October.
25OCT2008 - BRUNNER GRANT SUBMISSION
Today marks yet another journey down the yellow brick road of grant pursuits. This one seems to be right up our alley for potential funding from a grant resource. The Arnold W. Brunner Grant via the Center for Architecture Foundation presents an extremely odd mixture of architecture funding which has a history of supporting film projects. This last aspect is extremely crucial to our endeavor. As many people know there is a plethora of grant and funding sources for film projects but few will even consider a project with underproven filmmakers such as David and myself without a pedegree of feature-length successes. The rich get richer, or they have a rich uncle. So we have consistently looked to our community of architecture and design to get behind this project financially to help tell their story to a broader audience. To date we have not been able to lock in a substantial grant but have been consistent finalists. Second place does not get a film into theaters so our fingers are crossed.
A blog on the subject is rumbling.
19OCT2008 - ARCH SCHOOLS EXHIBIT
We were invited to participate in the opening of the Arch Schools exhibit at the Center for Architecture on Saturday. We had a loop of still photographs from production and the pre-trailer playing throughout the day-long opening. Students from thirteen architecture schools throughout the northeast ranging from Yale, to Buffalo, to U. Penn came to visit local offices, present their top projects, engage in a dean's roundtable discussion and then party into the night. The reaction to the documentary was very energizing and we got to meet a lot of passionate young students.
16OCT2008 - JOE BROWN: CEO OF EDAW
We just got back from the EDAW office here in New York where we interviewed Joe Brown this morning. The interview covered an array of topics from education, sustainability, and technology with a specific focus upon the global scale and interdisciplinary design work of EDAW . Photos of this interview to follow next week after our scheduled interview of founder and chair of Public Architecture , John Peterson.
13OCT2008 - OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
Over the next few months, we will begin to make some significant changes to our website to promote even greater transparency in our filmmaking process and ramp up the promotional efforts as we begin this final stretch. A new and improved Directors' Blog will begin to leak sneak preview clips during editing with an open platform to permit your own commentary on our editing decisions. We will also start expanding our shop to include some new items. We just added a Limited Edition Archiculture Moleskin Sketchbooks which was handed out to the graduating thesis students as a show of gratitude for permitting us into their studios. We only have 19 available, so grab them quick. Also a new archicast is in the making and should be up shortly.
Also for those of you who have not subscribed[at]archiculturefilm[dot]com yet, here is our latest newsletter. As always you can get up to the minute updates via our RSS Feed .
October Newsletter07
08OCT2008 - BACK FROM NOMA CONFERENCE
We headed down to DC this past weekend to attend and present at this year's National NOMA Conference . After a brief presentation about the project and showing of a few "sneak" preview clips, we engaged the crowd in a 30 minute discussion on the film. A wide array of questions were posed ranging from the experience of taking cameras into the studio environment, to the personal transition from architecture to film, to the future of diversity within the profession. Everytime we present the project at this early, uncompleted state it continues to solidify the film's ability to spur a greater discussion within the design community. Thank you to all who attended. These presentations continue to provide us the energy to push forward.
30SEPG2008 - 140+HRS OF FOOTAGE DOWN TO 20
While we were down in the Carolinas getting interviews with Mayor Joe Riley and Bryan Bell, we were able to get a copy of our footage from our editor Pierce. He has taken the 140 plus hours of raw footage and made the first pass of "selects." This has cut away all the fat of the project down to a live timeline of 20 hours in the editing studio. David and I will now take our turn at repeatedly watching the footage and further condensing it down to meet our vision of the script. This is an extremely exciting moment in the evolution of the project to be cutting together our footage and watching the realization of our concept for the documentary steadily evolute into a feature film. We are on the final stretch! We still have so much further to go, but the film is becoming a reality.
27SEPG2008 - AIA NY STATE CONVENTION
Today, David and I headed up to White Plains, NY to presented the documentary film project to a group of enthusiastic architects at the annual New York State AIA convention. After our brief slide presentation outlining the project's origination, history, goals and timeline we showed the group a few raw cuts of footage. This sparked a pretty engaging 45 minute discussion on the documentary project. Everything from the experience and process of introducing a camera into the studio environment, to technology's influence on today's students, to the film's use as a future dialogue piece for architects and students to analyze our current standing, were discussed during the session.It was good preparation to our upcoming presentation at the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) National Conference this coming weekend in DC. If you are around the capital we will be speaking Friday at 5:30.
03SEPG2008 - EDAW|AECOM KEEPS FILM GOING!
This is the biggest and most critical news we have been able to announce since we wrapped major photography with the students' graduation in early May. EDAW and parent their company AECOM have joined the ranks of David and I, to become Glass House Supporters of Archiculture. That's right folks, due to the pursuasive powers of Mr. Garrett Avery and the vision of the amazing people at EDAW|AECOM, we are able to continue work on the project. Their $10,000 donation will continue our payments of editing station fees and hours put forth towards the rough cut of the film. We have not been lucky enough to land any of our recent grants submissions and were getting close to pulling back on the project's workload in post-production.
This donation has been in the works for some time now and we are extremely excited to finally share our new found supporter's enthusiasm for this immensely needed project. We only hope that this will enable others out there to see our shared vision and the necessity for such a documentary film project on the architectural studio to come to fruition and be viewable by all.
02SEPG2008 - BRYAN BELL OF DESIGN CORPS
We have landed an interview with the Founder and Executive Director of Design Corps , Bryan Bell. Their motto "Design for the other 98% without Architects" is a rallying cry to promote good design that is accessible to all. This interview and his shared experiences with nonprofit design work will provide real-world case studies to support some of the student's socially oriented projects.
We originally met Bryan at this year's Structure's For Inclusion 8 Conference held at Harvard and are excited to finally get the chance to interview him. The interview will take place on-site at a Design Corps' green roofing project which is one piece of their Community Planning work for migrant farmworker's in Newton Grove, NC. New photos will be up when we return in mid-September.
31AUG2008 - PHIL BERNSTEIN PHOTOS
We finally put up new photos from our May trip to Boston to interview Phil Bernstein the Vice President of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction division of Autodesk and a professor at Yale University . We had posted them earlier in our director's blog here back in May. More photos from recent interviews and post-production are on their way. Included will be some amazing photos of David Byrne and his Playing the Building exhibit.
23AUG2008 - JOE RILEY: MAYOR OF CHARLESTON
We are excited to announce that we will be interviewing, Mr. Joe P. Riley Jr ., the nationally reknowned Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina. He is "widely considered one of the most visionary and highly effective governmental leaders in America" and has been extremely influential in the realm of urban revitalization and education of our countries city-level politicians. To name a few of his accomplishments, he founded the Mayor's Institute of City Design, has been elected to nine consecutive terms as Mayor of Charleston, been president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors for 1986-1987, serves on the USCM Executive Committee , and received the Thomas Jefferson Award from the American Institute of Architects for Public Architecture in 1994. We will be interviewing him while we travel south for other interviews and footage during the month of September.
19AUGL2008 - DAVID BYRNE INTERVIEW
We were lucky enough to run into David Byrne , lead singer of the Talking Heads and internationally renowned artist, last weekend while we were at his " Playing the Building " exhibit interviewing Gavin Kroeber from Creative Time . He took the time out of his extremely busy and impactful schedule to sit down with us for a few minutes this past Friday at his installation to discuss this piece, and how we relate to our built environment. We are thinking of editing down a short piece of this soon so that you can see the amazing installation. We will definitely include some of the brilliant responses that David provided on our contemporary artistic and architectural landscapes.
A new photo set will be up later this week from the past couple of months of post-production.
11AUGL2008 - QUIET ON THE FILMMAKING FRONT
Cut and pasting in the Final Cut Timeline is the project's fate right now. Exciting and daunting at the same time. Pierce has been cranking away at the footage down south while David and I have continued to hunt down any hints of potential funding around the globe. If you got a lead, shoot us an email.
We do have a few key interviews coming up. Shot an interview this past weekend with Gavin Kroeber from Creative Time , who is the group responsible for David Byrne's " Playing the Building " exhibit here in New York. While we were shooting the interview, we met David Byrne and look towards an interview with him over the next couple of weeks. His ability to transform space and people's perception of its experience through his visions could be very powerful for the film's audience.
27JUL2008 - UPDATE AND THANKS
We would like to apologize for our recent silence on the news page and blog postings but we have been extremely busy editing the 140+ hours of footage into our 90 min storyline. This is a very time consuming process and has filled all of our waking hours between our paid gigs.
We would also like to take a moment and thank some of our recent supporters. Beth Crawford and Suzi Brenner have been recently added to our supporters page with their generous donations to the project. We continue to hunt for any form of support and urge anyone who visits the site to keep spreading the word of the project. You never know where the break will come.
Hint... a new newsletter is in the making and should be out soon to all you subscribers.
11JUL2008 - STEVEN HOLL SUPPORTS
As we continue to edit, our fundraising efforts are continuously being exhausted. Good moments are sprinkled throughout rough times as we begin to truly endure the reality of our current economic landscape in its relationship to the arts. We continue to charge forward and applaud/showcase graciously anyone who sees the potential in the project such as the office of Steven Holl.
Back to the editing station, freelancing and keeping our fingers crossed.
22JUN2008 - GRANT FINALIST
We have just found out from an old friend of ours, Carole Dean, that we have made it to the final stage of the Roy W. Dean New York Video Grant selection. We still have to make the final cut but have our fingers crossed in hopes of being awarded the $20,000 package of support.
05JUN2008 - ARCHICULTURE IN CINCINNATI
If you are in Cincinnati, OH this coming Friday, come see a sneak preview presentation of the documentary at Baba Budan"s. The event will be directed by a few former classmates and friends of mine from Cincinnati's Architecture program, Mark Thomson and Ian McCain, who have graciously taken it upon themselves to organize the event. A portion of the proceeds from the happy hour drinks, coffees and beverages will go towards the project. There will also be a raffle for Archiculture Tshirts, and Buttons between showings of the film's trailer and a few sneak preview clips.
So if you are in the area come out this Friday evening to Clifton after work or school and help support the film. Also, please be sure to notify any one you know who may be interested in the film and in the city.
02JUN2008 - ARCHICAST4 UP
We let a couple of the students take over on this one to give them a little flavor of the other side of the camera. This one has a different feel due to the added dynamic of their questioning, introduction and conclusion. Give it a look over on our films page.
May Newsletter06
01JUN2008 - GOOD BYE PRATT
Archiculture is moving its base. That's right folks, rent is paid and our spot is reserved. Arbuckle Industries, David, Ian, Archiculture, et al are relocating to our new home in Bushwick. Check out our latest blog for a little more info. More details and some photos will be posted once we start moving in this Tuesday. Also, be sure to check out this visual blog of our 17 hour journey to capture Phil Bernstein from this past Tuesday.
For now, David and I continue to hunt for means of making an income via part time jobs and freelance work while keeping Archiculture evolving and fed. We have spent a large amount of time reviewing and logging the 140+ hours of footage shot over the semester and scheduling office presentation and interviews. Pierce, after relocating to South Carolina, has begun working on the film's rough cut, continues to tweak Archicast4 and is editing another video surprise... check out the last few photos from the Move Out set to get a clue.
24MAY2008 - BACK TO BROOKLYN
We arrived back last night from DC on our chariot ride via Bolt Bus which was written about in our latest blog posting on its free wifi network. We are so enamored with their service we have already bought tickets on the coach to Boston this Tuesday to interview Phil Bernstein who is the Vice President of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction division of Autodesk and a professor at Yale University. Autodesk is better known to the architectural community as AutoCAD and Revit. We hope to discuss with Phil the impact technology is having upon today's architecture and the studio setting. For now check out our latest round of photos from DC to see all the amazing people we were able meet with while we were in town. A new Archicast should be up in the next couple weeks.
19MAY2008 - ARCHICULTURE GOES TO DC
We leave this morning on a bus to DC for four days of meetings, presentations and interviews. On the agenda is Jess Wendover, Director of The Mayors" Insitute on City Design (MICD) , Michael Geary, Andrew Caruso, and Tony Vanky of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) , Jessyca Schwarzkopf the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) Sustainability Resource Architect, Anica Landreneau the Sustainability Knowledge Manager at Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) DC, and Michael Monti the Executive Director for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) . Hopefully we come back with some new supporters and some amazing footage. We will let you know how it goes and will post a few blogs while we are away. We continue the Archiculture Campaign Trail to DC!
16MAY2008 - ARCHICULTURE GOES TO SOM NYC
The campaign trail has begun! The folks at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) were gracious enough to permit David and I time to present the project to their New York office yesterday evening. The response was very positive to the trailer and sneak preview clips which spawned an interesting Q&A session following. We will begin doing these types of promotional/fundraising presentations at every office or event which will permit us. We figured the last place we can turn to raise funds and awareness for this project is directly to our core audience. If interested let us know and we will make time for you. For now back to the trail planning.
11MAY2008 - ZAHA HADID CAPTURED
After a missed opportunity on Thursday after Zaha arrived from London for her lecture, we were able to land twenty minutes with one of the most prominent architects in the world following graduation. It took us five different times to set up for the interview before we were able to pull her away from her booked schedule of lecturing, meeting, speaking and accepting an honorary degree from Pratt. It was good training on our end for rapid fire 3 point lighting techniques and testing our abilities with extremely limited settings. A few months ago we would have been unable to deal with such circumstances but now we have become pros. Zaha was very animated and energetic to our questions which will prove invaluable to the film's content. What took 10 hours of work from two people and 20 minutes of Zaha's time will boil down into 15 - 30 seconds of film time. It was all worth it.
Take a look at our latest set of photos from the interview and of graduation to see the production.
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