Suspicious Circumstances 1984 / 12 minutes / 16mm Film / Live- action based photo-cut out Animation
Called "a detective story ala Salvador Dali and Betty Crocker" this animated film chronicles a midnight visit to the home of Herbert and Lenore by a pair of flying hands bent on mischief, destruction, and what appears to be a bit of a wine tasting. Herbert will have none of it. Writer, Director, Art Director, Animator, Editor Official U.S. entry in many international festivals.
Read more about Suspicious Circumstances or buy the DVD here.
Called "a detective story ala Salvador Dali and Betty Crocker" this animated film chronicles a midnight visit to the home of Herbert and Lenore by a pair of flying hands bent on mischief, destruction, and what appears to be a bit of a wine tasting. Herbert will have none of it. Writer, Director, Art Director, Animator, Editor Official U.S. entry in many international festivals.
Read more about Suspicious Circumstances or buy the DVD here.
The Mid-Torso of Inez 1978 / 28 minutes / 16mm Film / Live Action
In this surreal comedy masquerading as a detective story, Grandfather tells Lois Ann an oblique and possibly unreliable tale about some events in his life that he would apparently rather not remember. A sheep, some mysterious photographs and an industrialist named Magpie figure in. Writer, Director, Art Director.
In this surreal comedy masquerading as a detective story, Grandfather tells Lois Ann an oblique and possibly unreliable tale about some events in his life that he would apparently rather not remember. A sheep, some mysterious photographs and an industrialist named Magpie figure in. Writer, Director, Art Director.
Quest for Volume 2000 / 3 minutes / Video, Digital Media / Animation, Live-action
A non-verbal history of the electric guitar from parlour to the stage through the hands of various 19th and 20th Century basement tinkerers. Writer, Director, Art Director Commissioned by the Experience Music Project
Rodent Boy 2000/ 2 minutes / Digital Media, Video/ Animation
A sociopathic rat plans to build an airport on 5 year old Veronica's bathroom counter. Writer, Director, Art Director
Rena and David 1995 / 10 minutes / Video / Live-action
Dark comedy about an odd couple who fear losing the house they have just inherited unless they can learn to "act normal". Writer, Director, Editor
A non-verbal history of the electric guitar from parlour to the stage through the hands of various 19th and 20th Century basement tinkerers. Writer, Director, Art Director Commissioned by the Experience Music Project
Rodent Boy 2000/ 2 minutes / Digital Media, Video/ Animation
A sociopathic rat plans to build an airport on 5 year old Veronica's bathroom counter. Writer, Director, Art Director
Rena and David 1995 / 10 minutes / Video / Live-action
Dark comedy about an odd couple who fear losing the house they have just inherited unless they can learn to "act normal". Writer, Director, Editor
The Lone Ranger 2002 / 7 1/2 minutes / Digital Media/ Live Action, Animation / 70 foot LED screen
This interpretation of the Bill Frisell composition The Lone Ranger (from the album "Before We Were Born") creates a graphic and emotional landscape that is by turns comforting and unsettling. The images-- clearly of this world but not immediately identifiable— merge with the sound to create a sometimes tumultuous dreamlike state that seems to hover in space between the preconscious and the conscious. Writer, Director, Editor Screens repeatedly throughout each day at Seattle's Experience Music Project. Commissioned by EMP.
Fragmentovision 2002 / 6 minutes / Video, Digital Media / Live Action
Includes the 3 short films “The Levitation Sleeve", “Wheat Germ— Go Ahead”, and “Barbarians at Versace’s Gate”. Experiments in fragmentation, repetition, rhythm, patterning and “audio-visual scratching.” Writer, Director, Editor
The Tasseled Loafers 2001 / 11 minutes / Film, Digital Media, Video / Animated, Live-action
The Oregon Symphony and Northwest Film Center commissioned original films by Jim Blashfield, Gus Van Sant, Joan Gratz and Chel White. Each film is an interpretation of an orchestral work, with the scores played in concert by the symphony during the screening of the four films. Blashfield's film "The Tasseled Loafers", is ostensibly a tale about a handyman who, compelled to watch 4 hours of industrial test footage while waiting for his pipe sealant to dry, becomes fascinated with the tasseled loafers of a dead man found in a nearby restroom stall. The film is accompanied by Berlioz' "Dream of a Witch's Sabbath". Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor Produced by the Northwest Film Center.
Read more about The Tasseled Loafers or buy the DVD here.
This interpretation of the Bill Frisell composition The Lone Ranger (from the album "Before We Were Born") creates a graphic and emotional landscape that is by turns comforting and unsettling. The images-- clearly of this world but not immediately identifiable— merge with the sound to create a sometimes tumultuous dreamlike state that seems to hover in space between the preconscious and the conscious. Writer, Director, Editor Screens repeatedly throughout each day at Seattle's Experience Music Project. Commissioned by EMP.
Fragmentovision 2002 / 6 minutes / Video, Digital Media / Live Action
Includes the 3 short films “The Levitation Sleeve", “Wheat Germ— Go Ahead”, and “Barbarians at Versace’s Gate”. Experiments in fragmentation, repetition, rhythm, patterning and “audio-visual scratching.” Writer, Director, Editor
The Tasseled Loafers 2001 / 11 minutes / Film, Digital Media, Video / Animated, Live-action
The Oregon Symphony and Northwest Film Center commissioned original films by Jim Blashfield, Gus Van Sant, Joan Gratz and Chel White. Each film is an interpretation of an orchestral work, with the scores played in concert by the symphony during the screening of the four films. Blashfield's film "The Tasseled Loafers", is ostensibly a tale about a handyman who, compelled to watch 4 hours of industrial test footage while waiting for his pipe sealant to dry, becomes fascinated with the tasseled loafers of a dead man found in a nearby restroom stall. The film is accompanied by Berlioz' "Dream of a Witch's Sabbath". Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor Produced by the Northwest Film Center.
Read more about The Tasseled Loafers or buy the DVD here.
Selected Films
J I M B L A S H F I E L D
These beings are
barely conscious a individuals, but they
are part of an organism which, like a termite colony, seems to have its own principles of organization-- and perhaps some similarities to the
world we know.
barely conscious a individuals, but they
are part of an organism which, like a termite colony, seems to have its own principles of organization-- and perhaps some similarities to the
world we know.
BUNNYHEADS
The completion of Bunnyheads marks the end of a long-- and frequently interrupted-- production process which began in 1996 when Blashfield saw a show of sculptures by artist Christine Bourdette.
"I was immediately attracted, intrigued and touched," says Blashfield. "I thought: These are refugees from another world. What is that world? What happens there?"
To begin answering those questions, Blashfield and co-producer Lourri Hammack enlisted a talented crew of artists and animators-- Aaron Brown, Joe Mello, Tracy Prescott, Sally England, Edward Gustamante, Sarah Hall, Doug Cohen, Daniel Riddle and others-- who began the laborious process of creating the world that became Bunnyheads.
To begin answering those questions, Blashfield and co-producer Lourri Hammack enlisted a talented crew of artists and animators-- Aaron Brown, Joe Mello, Tracy Prescott, Sally England, Edward Gustamante, Sarah Hall, Doug Cohen, Daniel Riddle and others-- who began the laborious process of creating the world that became Bunnyheads.
Bunnyheads 2007 / 5 minutes / 35mm / Animated
A film about a strange hive of archetypal beings who inhabit a netherworld reminiscent of both Fritz Lang's Metropolis and some mysterious place under someone's basement stairs Writer, Director, Editor. Collaboration with sculptor Christine Bourdette
SuctionMaster: Triumph of Science 2006
4 minutes / Digital Video / Live Action
This film involving a steaming vessel, two men who seem to be trying to control it and some cowboys pursued by a dematerializing Chevrolet suggests both the Frankenstein story and the biblical story of the burning bush while retaining its own odd agenda.Director,Editor, Sound Designer. Images from the Prelinger Archives.
St. Helens Road 2004 / 11 minutes / Digital Video / Live Action
In this survey of a mile long stretch of downtrodden commercial development, a century of modest business undertakings overlap and abut one another, leaving droll evidence of attempted, achieved and abandoned aspirations. The music, which morphs from abstract to rhythmic and raunchy, links with the images to uncover pathos imbedded in cinderblock, relentless joy in sunburned grass and chainlink fence. Music by the Land Camera Micro Orchestra. Director, Photographer, Editor
Like a combination anthropological study and industrial documentary, BUNNYHEADS opens a window into a damp and mysterious underground world, both unnervingly familiar and absolutely strange. Here we explore the fate of the hapless and inexpressive "bunnies" and their tutu-clad fetal compatriots, the "ballerinas", as they are processed through their life cycles.
Director of photography Mark Eifert created the lighting design that defined the watery subterranean look of the hive's many chambers.
Bjorn Lynn provided the music for the film. High definition post production was provided by Mike Quinn at Mission control, with the sound mix by Lance Limbocker of Downstream. Downstream's Jake Buff did the telecine.
Additonal production funding was provided through a media arts fellowship from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
Bjorn Lynn provided the music for the film. High definition post production was provided by Mike Quinn at Mission control, with the sound mix by Lance Limbocker of Downstream. Downstream's Jake Buff did the telecine.
Additonal production funding was provided through a media arts fellowship from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
From BADGER 5
Badger 5 Live Action / Work-in-Progress
Writing instruments frustrate Blaine when they continually fall through the floor, but that problem can easily be addressed with a little ill humor, a few bogus magic tricks and a regimen of good grooming. Meanwhile, in his overstuffed basement apartment, Carl Bollinger is pleased to receive a long awaited rotational appliance which, when successfully activated, authorizes him to announce the selection of a new pope. Writer, Director, Editor
Writing instruments frustrate Blaine when they continually fall through the floor, but that problem can easily be addressed with a little ill humor, a few bogus magic tricks and a regimen of good grooming. Meanwhile, in his overstuffed basement apartment, Carl Bollinger is pleased to receive a long awaited rotational appliance which, when successfully activated, authorizes him to announce the selection of a new pope. Writer, Director, Editor
Vanity 2010 / 2 1/2 minutes / Digital Video / Live Action
A 1950s film promoting "better living through chemistry" is transformed into a funny, provocative, and rather creepy meditation on... the pursuit of beauty?... dueling aspects of a guilt infested self?
... yoga for the genetically modified? Director, Editor. Sacrificial footage obtained from Prelinger Archives.
A 1950s film promoting "better living through chemistry" is transformed into a funny, provocative, and rather creepy meditation on... the pursuit of beauty?... dueling aspects of a guilt infested self?
... yoga for the genetically modified? Director, Editor. Sacrificial footage obtained from Prelinger Archives.
