Bolzanol!

I think I mentioned it before … many of the classic and toxic developers end with -ol (Dokumol, Neutol …), and the first eco developer was named Caffenol. I give names to mostly all my new developers … this time me and my students explored the power of … Bolzanol!

A fruity North Italian mix made from local fruit like apples, mandarines and pomegranates … and many more.
I know that all citrus fruits work well as developer, all colourful and aromatic fruits in general. They all contain a lot of phenols.
The result of the film was a bit lower in contrast compared to a Caffenol developed film, softer and more grey tones. Beautiful!
We’ll have the films digitized in December, I will for sure show you some results!

A Flock Of Flickers – An Invitation

Online webinars from January 2025 regularly (if I can manage it) every last Sunday of the month, starting in January 2025.

“We love Super 8 / we are at the very beginning and don’t know much / we are in the middle and are enchanted / we want to know everything about Caffenol and ecological developing, cameras and film stock / we have experience and specific questions … let’s connect!

We meet every last Sunday of the month! On the ZOHO platform, which is similar to ZOOM. I moderate and tell and show tricks and film examples … you have the opportunity to bring in your own topic / problem / question. It’s something like a virtual mini workshop, a webinar in a small group, with personalised advice and assistance.

The entrance fee is 30 € / $ via PayPal, you will be emailed an access code. You can register your topic / problem / special interest in advance.
Time: Europe 19:00, USA around noon, but this can be flexible if someone from other regions of the world wants to participate. The duration will be 1 hour, probably longer. Language: English.

Let’s flicker!”

A Flock Of Flickers #1 will take place on 26 January 2025!

A Bag of Fleas

Another workshop … but: this time my students were very young teens between 12 and 14 years old! Something I never did before …

(my 2 days super 8 filming and eco developing was part of a 4 days advanced training course for film curators who introduce young people to filmmaking, hosted by the Düsseldorf Film Museum!)

A wild bunch! A bag of fleas! Exhausting but also fascinating how the young got into it: watching experimental short films, collecting ideas, writing into their copybooks, learning how to use a super 8 camera, filming their ideas … with the help of us 6 adults of course … and then mixing coffee and fruit juice developer!

Honestly … I prefer students in their twenties, but it was an awesome experience!!!

Im blassen und nassen Hochmoor / Wuthering Heights

Jedes Jahr gibt es an verschiedenen Orten auf der Erde einen Kate-Bush-Flashmob. Leute verkleiden sich wie sie in ihrem Video: rotes Kleid, schwarzer Gürtel, rote Blume. Und tanzen die lustige Choreographie zu “Wuthering Heights”, ihrem ersten Hit, den sie schon mit 16 geschrieben hat und der mich immer wieder von den Socken haut. Ich tanze alleine. Oh Heathcliff! Hat mal eine das Buch (von Emily Brontë) gelesen? Grandios dramatisch! Hooo it gets dark …

Every year there is a Kate Bush flash mob in various places around the world. People dress up like her in her video: red dress, black belt, red flower. And dance the funny choreography to ‘Wuthering Heights’, her first hit, which she wrote when she was 16 and which always knocks my socks off. I dance alone. Oh Heathcliff! Has anyone ever read the book (by Emily Brontë)? It’s terrificly dramatic! Hooo it gets dark …

Filmed with super 8 (expired Agfa Moviechrome)

The link to the film on YouTube

Learning About Film Codes

Some of these very old double 8 films have a code punched directly into the film at the beginning. Makes it easier to detect what it is and to develop it right!
Today I learned that IF is Agfa Isopan F (F stands for fine grain), black & white. From the 60s probably.

KM stands for Kodachrome K40, K II is … Kodachrome K II!

Glass Photos

One of my old film friends inherited a heap of old film and photography material from his deceased professor. Cameras, photo paper, a mountain of film cans full of 16 and 35 mm film of all kinds …

I took some weird photo paper boxes, among them old glass plates from ILFORD! Glass plates with a film emulsion on them, meant for special photo cameras which I don’t own, but who cares, I got an old Brownie which is more or less just a box with a lens … And hooray, the glass plate fits in!
And another hooray: I got an image!
Can you see it?
A window in the upper left corner! And a lantern in the bottom right.

Autumn Soup

… made from rose hips / Hagebutten!
I love the German word Hagebutte! “Entstanden aus den mittelhochdeutschen Begriffen hagen ‚Dornbusch‘ und butte ‚rundlicher Gegenstand‘ / Originating from the Middle High German terms hagen ‘thorn bush’ and butte ‘roundish object” … says Wiki. Dornbuschrundling! 😀
I made juice to develop some positive prints.
That’s all for this week, autumn cold winds blew into my neck and gave me a little cold. I slow down.
Hatschi / Atishoo!

Gesäuse!

And this is what happened in Austria recently:
For days now it has been raining permanently night and day and snowing 100 m higher …
I am here in the wetlands haha part of a small family-like minifestival (called »Enchanted Garden«) giving a workshop. All was supposed to happen outside in the huge natural park called »Gesäuse« but all is now happening inside … feeling sorry for the festival but people are in a good mood (we’re talking about 15 people, not more, it’s really nice and tiny).
How can I translate »Gesäuse«? Something making a whispering sound like the running water of the river, of the falling rain, of the wind in the leaves …
We’re filming in a small group, just 6 people and me, developing in a soup of what nature gives us. Cheers!
You can see some results here on YouTube!