'Arc of a Bird (clip)' frame-by-frame analysis + theroization
Uploaded by Black cat film
(description) 'Arc of a Bird (clip)Uploaded on Dec 2, 2014 at 9:14 pm' “(Narrative Short) A documentary film crew pieces together details of an artist's disappearance through interviews and archival footage. Director: Hugh Schulze Editor: Sharon Zurek Executive Producer: Elizabeth Donius Producer: Stacey Evenson”
Key: – = description of scene/whats on screen / = character description > = notes on whats being talked about/theroizeation ( ) = specialization
–opens on same art studio that can be seen in “Ed Hinkley, photo © Peter Kiar. From “Arc of a Bird” – a film by Hugh Schultz.” & that will be seen at towards the end of the clip, it is most likely Joshua’s art studio. The studio is dimly lit, the art we can see are all oil paintings, (although I can’t find specific credit for the big pieces here, I suspect that they are all done by Hinkley, as they appear to be similar to his style). There is a hallway to the right with low light coming from it –draining music in background –camera zooms into a watercolor painting that we do not see in the studio (it may be from here?) /Len Wdelka, detective, district 13 - Chicago, played by ???.(unknow) –he narrates over a shot of blood, in the corner you barely see some text, it may be some kind of box or album or poster, It is hard to tell. From what i can make out it reads “8ki: the damned” –In the reflection of the blood can be seen what might be the leg of a table? Hard to tell. –most notably, the blood is on a wood floor, so not in the art studio, which has concrete floors. –behind him, he’s on the other side of the street to the ‘Chicago police department’ >he says that because of the utter ton of blood, that this is ”more than a missing persons investigation” >he calls whoever spilled the blood a ”subject”, someone somewhere between a witness and a target, (run away, suicide, murder?) worked hard and well to cover his past
/Garrison James, Atelier owner, played by James Vincent Meredith –Behind him, to my best observation he’s either in front of a museum, a library, or possibly the Atelier (which is a private workshop/studio of some fancy artists) that he owns, I am not knowledgeable in any of that, so I am not sure. Although There is an image of a bird to the left behind him >doesn't (ie someone does) believe the subject was killed that night, or that he attempted to kill himself >thinks he's out there painting, “because that's what he wanted to do” /Cynda Langford, Langford art gallery, owner, played by Cynthia Von Orthal –Behind her, you can see the intersection of a brick wall & a dry wall, both with art hanging on them. Most likely the art gallery she owns. The lights appear to be off. >possibly knew the subject, "behind all that humiliate, I always sensed someone who was cunning and calculating” >believes the subject is dead >believes someone calculated his death, comparing them to a string of stories of “miracles”^1 –cuts to someone (subject/joshua/in real life,Hinkley) painting something blue with watercolor –somber music plays /Carrie Garfiled, video artist, played by Rachel Sondag –In her background, you can see a bulletin board filled with photos, most likely ones that she took that are memories. She is sitting at a desk, to its side is a side table. The desk is cluttered with cassette tapes, pencil holders, a small statue of a bird, some kind of odd box, a coffee mug with a symbol on it, and a few other things. She has two monitors with 7 windows pulled up on a basic Windows background. On 4/7 of them are images of birds in the city’s sky, flying along telephone wires. 2 of them appear to be blank, 1 of them appears to be plain black, and most notably, she has an image of a ‘Infant of Prague’ statue, a famous depiction of child Jesus. (Joshua also drew & recreated in Cass) >lived with Joshua Whitmore for a year in Chicago, supposedly lived with him during his disappearance, revealing that one Joshua Whitmore is the subject >she interestingly gives her full name and description as opposed to just saying facts&opinions, (showing a different relationship to the documentary crew, possibly out of skittishness) >he suspects he would hate her for doing “this” (most likely the interview/documentary) –cuts to more painting of the same piece >says that she was documenting^2 his work >at first he was okay with his work being documented >notes that she observed the world fall away as he painted >He didn’t like to talk about his work, it was just something that he loved to do >Joshua is painting with the same color we’ve seen, possibly the same piece. He looks to be explaining what he was painting to whomever is recording the handheld footage. only voiceover audio. –Joshua is painting in his studio, hunched over. You can see the same large paintings on splattered colors, one creating an almost natural image, one looking more muddied. The studio is fairly chaotic, but to his right you can see spewed about art supplies; spare&used canvas on walls, another desk with another striking blue painting laying on top of it, pens,brushes, and pencils in cups. Beside him is a low table with a cup of blue paint water. >she says after time, he got more and more annoyed with being filmed /Joshua Whitmore, played by David Dastmaslchian. no interview description given. –He is painting the blue bird we’ve seen, it looks to be watercolor and colored pencil on paper, a chunk of the bird’s right wing in unfinished –”Once upon a time, there was a man who, everything touched turned to blue” is the only line Joshua speaks in the 1:24, as the final image of the blue bird, paint still wet, is shown.
1- “Arc of a Bird, a film by Hugh Schulze. An artist disappears under mysterious circumstances, after one of his paintings is reported to be connected to a series of three miracles. Original artwork created by Ed Hinkley.”Ed Hinkley
2-subpodily the aforementioned documentary “crew”, mentioned in “A documentary film crew pieces together details of an artist's disappearance through interviews and archival footage.” imdb
