Cartesian Coordinates

Cartesian Coordinates. hi-bandwidth (5 MB Quicktime)
Cartesian Coordinates. lo-bandwidth (1.2 MB Quicktime)
Cartesian Coordinates is four minute film class project I shot and edited in 1997 on 8mm.
But 8mm projectors were as uncommon then as now, so I transferred it to VHS by projecting it onto a translucent screen and taping from behind. I flipped the reversed image in Premiere and sent it out to tape.
When the old tape arrived in the box this week, I recorded it into the DV camera, then captured it to my computer and compressed it. The result is extremely high-contrast and grainy, but still more-or-less watchable. Stay for the credits!
Dan stars as a tired worker putting away one last overhead projector before going home. What happens late at night in the halls of the building?
The weekend we shot this project, friends drove in from out of state and half of my university staff came to help wrangle carts for the animated sections. We didn’t get a lot of sleep, the campus police kept us on our toes (even though I did have permission to be there,) and despite my careful preparations and measurements in the building, we had a few glitches with camera angles.
But in the end the film did well in class though my instructor thought I should have directed Dan to move faster. He didn’t know that wouldn’t have worked; I couldn’t keep up with the camera! I guess now I could speed things up a bit digitally and add some sound…stay tuned.