On September 26th Roger Beebe gave a screening using Multiple projectors at the Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL). The films were often edited in camera with some shots only being 8 frames in duration. One film tracked companies that put A in front of their name in order to get good placement in phone book directories. Pages of phone books were chemically transferred directly to film giving a chaotic, hectic visual. Projectors ran simultaneously projecting on multiple screens.
The experimental films have shown around the globe from Sundance to the Museum of Modern Art and from McMurdo Station in Antarctica to the CBS Jumbotron in Times Square. In these films Beebe
explores the possibilities of using multiple projectors—running as many
as 8 projectors simultaneously—not for a free-form VJ-type experience,
but for the creation of discrete works of expanded cinema.The show
builds from the relatively straightforward two-projector films “The
Strip Mall Trilogy” and “TB TX DANCE” to the more elaborate
three-projector studies “Money Changes Everything” and “AAAAA Motion
Picture” on finally to the eight-projector meditation on the mysteries
of space, “Last Light of a Dying Star.”
Some screens flashed repeated abstract planetary textures , setting the beat like a metronome while other screens showed animated clips of futuristic families. Beebe filmed one gas station using tight shots to create bold abstractions of industrial forms. He returned to the same station to film again, but something had changed, a pole had been removed giving the environment a completely new feel. His work documents suburban and urban sprawl by showcasing the repetitions of form and color that we tend to ignore when we wander the streets. One quick paces sequence showcased everything red, from cars and lights to signs and fire hydrants. Circular red objects pulsed on screen in quick succession.