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
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.
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
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.
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
A sociopathic rat plans to build an airport on 5 year old Veronica's bathroom counter. Writer, Director, Art Director
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.
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
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.
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
Fragmentovision 2002 / 6 minutes / Video, Digital Media / Live Action
Includes the 3 short films “The Levation 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 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 Commissioned by the Oregon Symphony, Northwest Film Center
Read more about The Tasseled Loafers or buy the DVD here.
Includes the 3 short films “The Levation 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 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 Commissioned by the Oregon Symphony, Northwest Film Center
Read more about The Tasseled Loafers or buy the DVD here.
SuctionMaster 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. Images from the Prelinger Archive. Director,Editor, Sound Designer.
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. Images from the Prelinger Archive. Director,Editor, Sound Designer.
Selected Films
J I M B L A S H F I E L D
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
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
From BUNNYHEADS
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.
The film is now in the midst of its sojourn to international film festivals under the guidance of Pamela Richardson.
BUNNYHEADS had its U.S. premiere at the first Platform International Animation Festival in June '07 and last fall was screened in competition at the LA Short Film Festival, the Ottawa International Animation Festival and at Portland, Oregon's Museum of Contemporary Craft in a month-long animation installation. November saw the thought provoking short showing up in competition at the Braunschweig International Film Festival. In February '08 it was screened at Cinequest, then at the Florida Film Festival in late March and the Atlanta and Athens film festivals in April.
In June BUNNYHEADS shows at Animafest Zagreb. Then in July it's Anima Mundi in Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Thanks, Pamela!
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.
The film is now in the midst of its sojourn to international film festivals under the guidance of Pamela Richardson.
BUNNYHEADS had its U.S. premiere at the first Platform International Animation Festival in June '07 and last fall was screened in competition at the LA Short Film Festival, the Ottawa International Animation Festival and at Portland, Oregon's Museum of Contemporary Craft in a month-long animation installation. November saw the thought provoking short showing up in competition at the Braunschweig International Film Festival. In February '08 it was screened at Cinequest, then at the Florida Film Festival in late March and the Atlanta and Athens film festivals in April.
In June BUNNYHEADS shows at Animafest Zagreb. Then in July it's Anima Mundi in Rio and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Thanks, Pamela!
