URCAD Sneak Peek: Kyle Hartford

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 09:15:45 -0400

Kyle is a Linehan Artist Scholar and a Visual Arts major, with a concentration in cinematic arts. He is also the SGA coordinator of photography and videography. His film, "The Last Roadshow" will be presented as part of at Virtual URCAD 2020!

Abstract:

A roadshow was a special presentation of a film used in the golden age of Hollywood. This piece is meant to be a worn-down, deterioration of a roadshow release. The medium of film has changed. People are no longer amazed by a moving image, no matter how beautiful. I searched in the film archives of the Visual Arts department and found a beautiful 16mm print of a documentary about the making of the Lincoln Center in New York. In this footage, we see famous soprano Risë Stevens, who also appeared in many golden age Hollywood films such as Going My Way. I found this footage mesmerizing and tragic. The technicolor took me back to another time. I wanted to give viewers this feeling for the beginning of the piece. Slowly, I start to implement more aggressive visuals. I painted onto 16mm analog film strips and digitized the archive footage as well as the archive footage. In order to view the film reels before a digital transfer, I loaded the reels onto a Steenbeck. With the digitized footage, I faded the archive footage into the painted strips. This is meant to symbolize the death of a more innocent time in cinema.

Mentor: Cathy Cook, Visual Arts, UMBC

Come see Kyle's film and other undergraduate research and creative work, April 22-29th at URCAD.umbc.edu!