Let the Memories Unwind

We're back! After some false starts, we take off...and let the memories unwind. We enjoyed the hiatus and now we need to get back into this. Without the constant tug to create these Instant Videos our lives are, honestly, less rewarding. We re-charged ourselves and thought about the project (a lot). During the break, we also wrote some proposals to get funding for the latter half of the Instant Video project (from #51 to #100) where it will transform into something else again... We are so excited to have fun with these, so we hope you stick with us as we build this online video sculpture performance poem over the next couple of years...

Try to Fly
by Tammy Lin Foreman

let's decide to be good friends
i know that we can make it
fit around each other, in between
anyway we choose to take it
fill those white colourless days
just crash into each other's minds
talk about the simple, the bizarre,
let all the memories unwind

i would rather try
than ask "why?"
i would rather try
than say goodbye
try to fly

we could gallop through the city
stopping just to graze and drink
flare our nostrils laughing
as we trot by garbage cans that stink
chase each other 'round the park
or nuzzle when we're lazy
toss our manes triumphantly
when nasty people tell us we're crazy

i would rather try
than ask "why?"
i would rather try
than say goodbye
try to fly

then we could get cozy and
rub noses when the north winds blow
catch the flakes with open mouths
in January when it snows

sleep together under furs
we wouldn't have to wear no clothes
hold each other as we dream
of one day eating vegetables

i would rather try
than ask "why?"
i would rather try
than say goodbye
try to fly

let's decide to be good friends
I know that we can make it.



GRANT PROPOSAL (excerpt)

The Instant Video project is myself, Lester Alfonso (filmmaker) and partner Tammy Lin Foreman (singer / songwriter) in our attempt to answer a creative challenge: to produce a brand new “instant” music video every week until we make 100 videos (or more.)

We started the project on September 30, 2008 with Instant Video #1 and we consistently uploaded a new episode to YouTube every week despite coughs, off-days and holidays, etc. Each week was a challenge to get up and do better. And it kept us alive through the winter.

It was a six-month non-stop schedule that culminated with a 25th installment to the series on March 26, 2009. Then, we told the 253 members of our message group that we needed a break. We needed to reassess the project, write some grants and develop some ways to take it to the next level.

We decided to take April 2009 off to plan the next 75 Instant Videos on our way to completing one hundred Instant Videos in the next couple of years.

I am in charge of the camera as it tries to "capture" the moment of creation. The variations in video design are often decided just moments before the camera starts rolling.

The challenge for me is how to make an "event document" appealing to the cinematic senses. A live performance has to be kept intact from beginning to end somehow. Variations can come from post-production visual effects, practical effects, situational performances, costumes, etc.

It becomes less of a production and more of a "happening." The time constraint keeps our creative juices flowing. The creative brain is forced to come up with solutions only when it is up against stiff rules.

Like one of our rules: each video has to have a heart.

Sitting down to watch the first 25 videos is awe-inspiring at a total running time of 90 minutes.

When we hit 100, we could host a screening that will show the entire 9 hours of material and in seeing them all in a chronological order, one after another, perhaps one can glimpse something there that was never planned, never thought of, was heretofore unspoken or undocumented.

We are about to embark on the next 25 Instant Videos that will take us to the end of October 2009. We are planning the next 25 to all be completely lit by available light. We are now aiming to collaborate with artists within our arts community and seek sponsorship for "hour long residencies" to film in various locations around town.

The project in scope is unlike anything I’ve seen or heard of. Our desire to make this into form probably stems from being exposed to music videos as our only way to receive alternative music as teenagers. We have grown up not wanting to make records or to perform live onstage but just want to make “music videos.”