Shot in the waters just off the Port of Vancouver where large cargo ships wait at anchor for their turn to dock. Sometimes, in clearer weather, the ships dominate the landscape. At other times, when the fog moves in, the landscape dominates the ships. On some days they assume a monumental, sculptural presence, testimony to the technological domination of the environment. At other times they are no more than grey, ghostly shapes, only half-seen in the swirling fog.The overall feel of the film is sombre and mysterious; a study of winter light falling on the surface of water, metal and cloud. The dominant colour is grey; grey infused with a multitude of ocean blues and greens. There is little land in this film and very few landmarks from which to navigate from one space to the next. The picture plane is in continuous motion like the ocean, which on the surface at least, is the subject of this film.
On one level Drift is a film about the ocean, about winter light and about ships at anchor in a sheltered bay. However, it is also a metaphor, an essentially filmic metaphor, about time and space, about being and perception, a metaphor for the act of looking, looking at film and looking at the world through the frame of a camera.

Drift (Chris Welsby 1994).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	16 min 32 s
Size: 	248 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	714x576 ~> 768x576
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 900 kb/s
BPP: 	0.185
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Stereo)

https://nitro.download/view/2937D4D81CFD48E/Drift_(Chris_Welsby_1994).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Chris Welsby – Drift (1994) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The camera was pointed at right angles across a busy park pathway connecting one part of the city to another. On the other side of the path are many trees receding into the distance. Many people move through the picture, both on and off the pathway. One frame was taken each time a person on the pathway moved into the picture and one frame was taken again as they moved out. The procedure was repeated over a period of three days with filming beginning at dawn and ending at dusk. Two of the days were sunny and the other was very stormy. The speed at which people, clouds and shadows move in the film is directly related to the flow of people through the park.This is not so much a film about a park, or a record of the people passing through the park. Here the camera is not a passive observer, nor is it used as a surveillance device. Rather, in Park Film, the camera, like the passers by who trigger its shutter, is an active participant in the interaction between a park and the city, which surrounds it. The film is the result of that interaction.

Park Film (Chris Welsby 1973).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	7 min 16 s
Size: 	109 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	714x576 ~> 768x576
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 900 kb/s
BPP: 	0.185
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Stereo)

https://nitro.download/view/2685A9791504F9D/Park_Film_(Chris_Welsby_1973).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Chris Welsby – Park Film (2006) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This film is made in three sections, each leading towards the final abstraction, and each resembling a search for meaning and order amidst a plethora of electronic, chemical and mechanistic information. In sky light the layers of imagery are gradually stripped away: Rivers, trees, snow covered rocks and clouds gradually give way to an ominous cobalt blue sky and the rotating blades of the camera shutter. In the final sequence the layers of the photographic emulsion are gradually striped away until only dust and the light of the film projector remains.

Sky Light (Chris Welsby).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	23 min 38 s
Size: 	354 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	714x576 ~> 768x576
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 900 kb/s
BPP: 	0.185
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Stereo)

https://nitro.download/view/E5E1C4D00CFBFE1/Sky_Light_(Chris_Welsby).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Chris Welsby – Sky Light (1988) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

One frame was taken every ten seconds throughout the hours of daylight. The camera was mounted on an equatorial stand, which is a piece of equipment used by astronomers to track the stars. In order to remain stationary in relation to the star field, the mounting is aligned with the Earth’s axis and rotates about its own axis once every 24 hours. Rotating at the same speed as the Earth, the camera is always pointing at the either its own shadow or the sun. Selection of image, (sky or Earth; sun or shadow), was controlled by the extent of cloud coverage, i.e. whether the sun was in or out. If the sun was out, the camera was turned towards its own shadow; if it was in, the camera was turned towards the sun. A directional microphone was used to sample sound every two hours. These samples were later cut to correspond, both in space and time, with the image on the screen.

In Seven Days the in camera-editing is governed by the passing clouds and the shape of the film is therefore, not imposed on nature but emerges spontaneously from the collaboration between the film-maker, the rotation of the planet and seven days worth of stormy, unpredictable weather.

Seven Days (Chris Welsby).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	17 min 37 s
Size: 	264 MiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	714x576 ~> 768x576
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 900 kb/s
BPP: 	0.185
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Stereo)

https://nitro.download/view/8AB4B2F40D404B4/Seven_Days_(Chris_Welsby).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Chris Welsby – Seven Days (1974) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

“Unlike the landscape painters and photographers of the nineteenth century, I have avoided the objective view point implicit in panoramic vistas or depictions of homogeneous pictorial space. I have instead concentrated on ‘close up’ detail and the more transient aspects of the landscape, using the flickering, luminous characteristics of the film and video mediums, and their respective technologies, to suggest both the beauty and fragility of the natural world.”

Born in Exeter in 1948, Chris Welsby studied at Chelsea School of Art and The Slade School of Art, and was an early member of the London Filmmakers’ Co-operative. His films and film/video installations have been exhibited internationally at major galleries such as the Tate and Hayward galleries (London, UK), the Stedelijkmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) the Musée du Louvre and Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), the Museum of Modern Art (New York,USA), the Carnegie Institute, (Pittsburgh,USA), the Western Front, (Vancouver,Canada) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto,Canada).

Welsby’s work is characterised by a rigorous and experimental exploration of the relationship between natural systems inherent in the landscape, such as weather patterns and tidal flow, and the systematic methods and apparatus of filmmaking used to represent them. He has been working primarily with digital media since 1993, and is currently developing and exhibiting interactive video installations with collaborators in the fields of computational poetics and interactive audio environments, most recently dance, with the project Heaven’s Breath. He lives on a small island in British Columbia and he is Professor of Fine Art Film And Video, at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.

Founded in 1966, the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative started life at Better Books, a counter-culture bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where a group led by poet Bob Cobbing and filmmakers Stephen Dwoskin and Jeff Keen met to screen films. Initially inspired by the activities of the New American Cinema Group in New York, the London Co-op grew into a pioneering organisation that incorporated a film workshop, cinema space and distribution office. During its four-decade history, the Co-op played a crucial role in establishing film as an art form in the UK and participated in a vibrant international film scene. This BFI Player collection brings together new scans of films distributed by and/or produced at the London Co-op.

https://nitro.download/view/FC6796664F3F352/Chris.Welsby.-.Collected.HD.Works.1973-1979.720p.BFI.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-Cinefeel.rar

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Chris Welsby – Collected HD Works (1973-1979) first appeared on Cinema of the World.