Table of Contents
RE MI is a European cooperation project run by Mire (Nantes, FR), WORM.Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam, NL) and LaborBerlin (Berlin, DE) from 2015 to 2017. It is focused on the creation, preservation and circulation of technical knowledge of analogue film in order to support its use as a creative medium.
This wiki gather technical outputs of each sub-project. It is a public space aimed at discussing and sharing documentation and knowledge all along the different actions of RE MI.
The different sub-projects lead as part of RE MI are organised in three fields of action :
Re-Engineering the Industry
Notes, reports and other outputs from three programs dedicated to the exploration of three specific equipments discarded by the film industry…
- Debrie contact printer : restoration of this french-made machine from the 60's capable of copying B&W 35mm film to 16mm and 16mm to 16mm, with the help Franco Bosco and Rafael Marques, from ANIM, the laboratory of Cinemateca Portugesa (Lisbon, Pt). Followed by a residency by Els van Riel and several workshops.
- Crass animation stand : setting up a fully functioning animation table with the option of shooting on either 16, super 16 or 35mm, plus the possibility of using rear projection on 16mm, plus the making of an optical printing bench that allows 16mm optical printing and blow ups from 16mm to 35mm. All this with the help of Lutz Garmsen. Report from the pilot residency by Andrew Kim, who used the Crass animation stand to extend previous experiments with interference patterns, or the “Moiré effect”.
- Oxberry optical printer : installation and exploration of this film printers used in the cinema industry to create special effects on 16m and 35mm film.
Re-Exploring Unexplored Paths
Outputs from the several actions dedicated to the continuation of early cinema photo-chemical experiments to create unique handmade emulsion & primitive colour.
- Handmade Emulsion Seminar : one week of practical research in the lab of WORM Filmwerkplaats in Rotterdam.
- Handmade Emulsion Symposium : one day of talks and presentations centred on the scientific and artistic research of the forgotten, abandoned and unexplored areas of the photochemical processes used in early colour films.
- Alternative emulsions workshop by Esther Urlus : notes and recipes from experiments with Cyanotype and Van Dyke brown emulsions, made at Mire's lab.
Expanding Film Communities
Two major events bringing together film enthusiasts and new audiences, plus a practical guide collecting film makers special tips.
- Bains Argentiques ~ Nantes's Film labs meeting : recordings, notes, pictures of the discussions, workshops and other activities done during the film labs meeting.
- Film In The Present Tense - Berlin international symposium: documentation made during the symposium hosted by LaborBerlin as the last event of RE MI.
- REMI! Issue #1 - The artist-run film lab makers manual! : about 48 full-colour pages that qua style fits somewhere between a TV-guide and a fanzine.
Internal topics : Private part of the wiki for the administrative follow-up and internal discussions
2021 Poll : Questionnaire Expanded Cinema