Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles)

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles)

2023 · 23 min

This is the third variation of the on-going 16mm film projector performance piece, "Six Seventy-Two Variations," for which I produce images and sound as a live performance. I use a wood carving knife to scratch off the photographic emulsion of the looped film as a live performance. Scratched patterns, which would be mostly horizontal lines, will appear as an abstract animation on the screen and produce noises, as the area of the filmstrip reserved for the optical soundtrack will be also scratched. Due to the distance between the gate of the projector and the position of the photocell to read the visual information for sound, the noise from a scratched pattern will be produced about a second later after it appears on the screen.

Directed by Tomonari Nishikawa

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Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 3 (For Charles)

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke

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"It shows my interest in materials, medium, and apparatus of cinema. The sound will be produced from the visual on the optical soundtrack – for some parts, I used a 35mm still camera to expose the soundtrack area, and I scratched off the film emulsion directly for other parts. This is my senior thesis project at Binghamton University, and Julie Murray was my advisor." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

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Sketch Film #2

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"The second film in the series, showing my study especially in apparent shapes – a shape that cannot be seen in a single frame but only through a series of consecutive frames when projected. It was edited in camera and hand-processed afterwards." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

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Into the Mass · 2007

"The visual was originally captured through two Super 8 cameras, which were attached on the pedals of a bicycle, through my ride from Marin County to San Francisco. The time-lapse footage was optically printed onto 16mm film afterwards, and the double projection would show a new landscape of the photogenic city. The ride ended after joining Critical Mass, an event occurs the last Friday of every month in San Francisco." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke · 2023

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"Fireworks were shot at a summer festival in Japan with a Super 16 format camera in order to obtain images on the optical soundtrack area on the filmstrip. The position of the photocell to read the visual information on the optical soundtrack area in a 16mm film projector is 26 frames in advance of the position of the gate to project the image. Each footage from 2 rolls of 16mm film were cut into shots of 26 frames each, and the shots were alternated from one roll to another, which would further separate the sound and visual, while producing a distinct rhythm throughout the film." (Tomonari Nishikawa)

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Manhattan One Two Three Four · 2013

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Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 1

Six Seventy-Two Variations, Variation 1 · 2021

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In this live projection performance for 16mm film, Tomonari Nishikawa explores the material specificity of the cinematic apparatus through a real-time manipulation of its physical elements. Scratching directly onto the emulsion of a looping filmstrip in the midst of projection, Nishikawa creates animated abstractions in a pattern of horizontal lines, and also generates the film’s score, a percussive throbbing of noise.

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