Comic Book City, Portland, Oregon USA

Association of American Geographers preview

As mentioned in the previous post, last Wednesday (4/13), I presented a live preview of footage from the documentary in a paper session at the 2011 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA USA. This preview includes interviews with writer/artists Dylan Meconis and Graham Annable, and a segment on race in Portland that includes creators Meconis, Kevin Moore, Sarah Oleksyk, and Sara Ryan, as well as Carl Abbott, professor of urban studies at Portland State University.

 

View on blip.tv.

 

More preview footage forthcoming

I will be presenting a live preview of footage from the documentary in a paper session at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Seattle this coming Weds (4/13). I will make that footage available after returning from the conference.

Work in progress screening

In March, I screened some work in progress footage from the documentary at a Public Library Association preconference on librarians and comics. The video portion of the presentation is posted on blip.tv.

Oregon 150 short

The short doc I made for Oregon 150 is now up at blip.tv. You can also see it on YouTube.


Interim project

As you can see, there haven't been any updates since last fall, mostly because there hasn't been much to report. Reviewing and logging footage from the summer continues in fits and starts, and I hope to move onto additional photography this coming spring.

In the meantime, as part of the Oregon 150 program at Western Oregon University, I am working on a short culled from the footage from last year's 24-Hour Comic Day at Cosmic Monkey. The screening is scheduled for noon on Friday, February 13 in Hamersly Library room 107 on the WOU campus. Look here for additional information as a I complete that project.

Stumptown shoot

Continuing with our accelerated production schedule, Anne-Marie, newly added production intern Alex Kunkle, and I spent the better part of Saturday recording footage of the Stumptown Comics Fest. We focused on the exhibition hall, but also shot segments of one of the festival's many panel presentations (the one we were at focused on the business of comics for independent creators, publishers, and store owners). I was also able to introduce myself to a number of people who I hope will participate in the film. More than anything, I'd like to think that we were able to capture the energy of the event, and will be able to represent the variety of exhibitors and attendees.

From here, I should be able to return to pre-production research, and am particularly looking forward to getting the survey circulated.

I want to thank the Stumptown organizers and volunteers, and especially Kip Manley, for working with us and giving us access to the fest.

Production begins

Anne-Marie and I spent the weekend getting footage of 24-Hour Comic Day at Cosmic Monkey Comics on NE Sandy. In all, we shot close to three hours of tape, including overnight time-lapse footage (1.5 second every 15) of the artists' table.

I was also able to attend an organizing meeting for the Stumptown Comics Fest, which happens at the end of the month, and the main reason that I've begun production this soon - before I have crew and collaborators together and a clearer sense of direction regarding specific themes and subjects. Still, I know that having footage of important community events like 24-Hour Comic Day and Stumptown will be useful, even necessary, and so we've started on the fly.

Read more about 24-Hour Comic Day at Leigh Walton's blog. Leigh works for Top Shelf Productions, co-sponsor of the event. He graciously gave us an interview, as did Andy and Adam, co-owners of Cosmic Monkey and excellent hosts for the weekend. I also want to thank all of the artists who worked through us looking over their shoulders.

UPDATE: I have an extended post on the weekend over at Mediated Worlds.

Note: the link takes you to an archive of my old Vox blog.