The Railrodder - Buster Keaton's Canada

The Railrodder - NFB, Gerald Potterton, 1965, 24min 47s

Keaton knitting (a toque?) in a bison coat

The Railrodder (http://www.nfb.ca/film/railrodder/) was one of Buster Keaton's very last projects, filmed one year before his death in 1965 by the NFB, it captures him in his element and doing what he loved and is known for - mechanical tragic comedy. Although the film's intent is not so much entertainment, but a travelogue produced by the government showcasing the Canadian landscape for tourism and industry purposes. The premise is of an English man having grand visions of Canada and thus embarking on an adventure to the other side of the pond. The expedition begins with Keaton walking out of the Atlantic, with his classic stone faced expression, and immediately coming across a railway speeder. Which, of course, he liberates and begins heading west on a cross-country rail tour.

Keaton arrives, entering Montreal, the West

Along the way Keaton engages in all sorts of physical gags, confined to the speeder, while passing through the recognizable regions and cities of the land. The end of the film sees Buster standing on the western shore to admire the view. As he does so, (with an uncommonly balanced perspective for the times) a Japanese man dressed alike walks out of the Pacific and hops on the speeder heading off east.

arriving in Vancouver, Keaton's mirror-man, going East

Railways and trains are some of Keaton's favorite technologies to be at humanized odds with and have featured prominently in other films of his, such as The General (1926). The NFB was also producing another film of Keaton while shooting The Railrodder, it was a behind the scenes documentary about the production and Keaton. Called Buster Keaton Rides Again (NFB, 1965, John Spotton, 55min 25s) it shows the interactions, professional and social, of the film crew with Buster. They deal with the land, comic timing, actors, public relations, and usual daily life from the luxury of the private railcar Keaton and co were provided with. This is the only known behind the scenes footage of ol' Stone Face (http://www.nfb.ca/film/buster_keaton_rides_again/).

Color Study - Fluorescents

Common Fluorescents

Luminous paints have been played with since the late 1800's by the few and in limited applications on such things as fishing lures and control panels. It wasn't until the 1930's that the colors became known and available to the masses. This was due to Bob Switzer, and his brother, in Berkeley California who made a concerted effort to find naturally luminescent compounds and experimented with mixing them in wood varnish. This would be the start of the term and company Day-Glo. Shortly after, the Second World War started and there were practical applications for these new pigments within the armed forces who were finding that they sometimes needed to be highly visible to each other for safety reasons.

Book about the Switzers

The alarming colors work by using a larger amount of the visible spectrum and lower wavelengths compared to conventional colors. They not only absorb light and convert light energy of the dominant wavelength but also the wavelengths of ultraviolet rays and other colors lower in the visible spectrum. As a result, your eyes perceive a far more vivid color. And why a black light (ultraviolet) illuminates them to such intensity.

Alameda Theater (San Antonio, TX) 1948 mural done in luminescent paint (L-in tungsten light, R-in ultraviolet light)

This effect found post war popularity in the entertainment industry where the novelty and vibrancy lent itself to fantasy. In the 60's and 70's it became synonymous with the psychedelic movement in the form of posters (the famous black light posters) and decorations. As well, pop artists, like Warhol, of the time reflected on this and applied the pigments to their works. Of course there were many other more utilitarian applications for these loud colors, most notably for safety gear and signs. Of course the 80's and 90's saw neon fashions and accents everywhere. Contemporary artists are continuing to explore fluorescents, mainly in the street and pop scenes, and the commercial realms still seem to be finding applications for the colors.

Late 60's black light poster (in tungsten light)

Contemporary artist working in blacklight

Color Study - Celeste

Celeste

Bianchi Bicycles, besides being the world's oldest bike manufacturer (est.1885), is partially famous for its signature color, a turquoise known as Celeste. It is also known as Tiffany Blue, not to be mistaken with Tiffany & Co who have had their own turquoise color since 1837. Coincidence? Legend has it that Edoardo Bianchi developed his color because it was the same as Italian Queen Tiffany's eyes and akin to the hue of Milan's sky. The company's eagle crest logo is also attributed to Queen Tiffany. It is also claimed that Bianchi came up with the color by mixing military surplus paints together. In any case, Celeste has more yellow in it than Tiffany & Co's blue.
What both companies do follow is the royal and heraldic traditions of branding with custom color playing an equal to custom logo to better identify allies and opponents. The connection of Bianchi to Italy's royalty also seems in keeping with much of design and manufacturing innovation at that time being tied to state. In turn there is now a passion and loyalty to company by many who own a Bianchi.

Bianchi Milano


Team Jersey

Color Study - Mountbatten Pink

Mountbatten/Plymouth Pink

The early to mid 1900's saw military interest in the new theories and applications of camouflage that left a few humorous-in-hind-sight attempts. Though they did achieve some limited successes in camouflage's main purpose, that being to disrupt the visual surface and form of an object. The Razzle Dazzle, and similar, patterns of World War One naval vessels in particular seem loud and contradictory in intent to us now; especially that such patterns became very popular for their vibrancy and play with form in the post-war fashions of the 1920's. A return, of sorts, to their creative and expressive origins born out of collaboration with government armed forces and artists who were exploring perception and representation at the time. For example, Picasso worked with the French army on such projects prior to the First World War. These explorations covered all sorts of visual theories, such as motion and color.

Razzle Dazzle (,baby)

In the late 1930's Lord Mountbatten had the fleet of British destroyers under his command painted a mauve that became known as Mountbatten Pink, or Plymouth Pink. It was a mixture of medium gray and venetian red. A great color for camouflage at night or dusk/dawn because it turns near invisible under such low light conditions. Which is fine if you only operate at such times; during most of the day it is screaming out your location. This is a source of humor in the 1959 World War Two movie Operation Petticoat that finds a crew manning a garish pink submarine. By the beginning of the war the British Navy soon had all their ships painted to the ubiquous battleship-gray that works well enough during all times of day. Obviously the invention of radar made ships visible no matter the measures of painted camouflage, what it did do was to make an object harder to visually track and thus to hit.

Operation Petticoat (1959)

Where Mountbatten pink found its fans was in the desert with the British Royal Marines and other desert troops; still today with the SAS. These covert desert troops operate almost exclusively at night and dusk/dawn, and hole-up during the day. However, even in the day at distance the color is effective in the sand, but not ideal. Again, technology gains like infra-red can render camo useless and thus most go with the now standard digital environmental patterns. What we are left with is an awesome color that has found itself popular in men's fashions over the subsequent decades. A manly pink, if you will.

Desert Rover

Bitmap Wooden Type

(post drafted in June'o9 - published June'11)

5x7 bitmap font

Out of interest of all things media arts related this project marries new technology with old technology in the form of a bitmap wooden font set. Being the mass communication granddaddy to our current digital media, both based on a grid matrix, it was inevitable they should hook-up. The type set will be used to print a series of broadsides and sample sheets, with the wooden blocks making interesting objects themselves. General tech info and photos should help reveal the methods and materials used, updates to follow. Note that the key equipment being used is a CNC router. Not something anyone really just haves in the garage. Sorry.

plank and cut block

First step was to create an illustrator file of a bitmap font, this one being 5x7 (.5" square) which means the type blocks will be 2.5"x3.5". The wood of oak is traditional here in the States, so it was chosen. It is also cost effective. Traditionally the wood preferred for type is end grain maple or oak - this is not cost effective. Most hardwoods are apparently fine, and in a pinch you can use some pines and even particle boards. Of course the stability of the material is dependent on your application(s) or point of view. So, a few planks of oak were milled down neatly to square and a precision 15/16th" letterpress bed height. These were admired and then their undersides were layered in heavy double stick tape to be stuck down to the router's bed. The router then went to work hogging and cutting out the letter blocks.

hogging with a 1/8th bit @ 18000 rpm


varathaned set

The second phase is the printing, which requires a press. I am using a Vandercook model 4 and have enlisted the help of print master Shanna Mahan. Restricted by the press bed being 14" x 17" we have to print the font set in two parts, the dimension of which works out to be 14" x 29.5". The first series has the characters butted up against each other, with 1/32" of kerning and letting occuring naturally, using black rubber ink on 80lb eggshell Mohawk paper. Subsequent prints will be 3 or 4 colours exploring both the RGB and CMYK systems and likely on a brilliant white paper stock of some sort.

Shanna locking down the Vandercook


first half of first edition