CHOROS

2011 / HDCAM / 13 minutes

In the tradition of Norman McLaren's 1968 film "Pas de Deux," Michael Langan and Terah Maher combine music, dance, and image multiplication to create a film that enhances our perception of motion. "Choros" delivers a visually mesmerizing narrative in three movements, following a dancer's (Maher) experience of discovery, euphoria, and rebirth through this surreal phenomenon. Featuring music from Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians."

After twelve months of production, "Choros" is complete, and slated to premiere at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in late January!

So... why do we still need funding? This film has been funded by its creators from the outset, and we've managed to accomplish amazing things on a shoestring budget. But we've reached the end of that shoestring, and there are some critical expenses left to cover, like music rights, tape transfer costs, and film festival submission fees.

 

In October 2010, we took a big risk: we started making a film set to an already famous piece of music. "Music for 18 Musicians" was composed 35 years ago by legendary composer Steve Reich, and has been blowing the minds of audience members ever since. It also happens to be the perfect sonic complement to the visual technique that we developed for "Choros," and as soon as we began working with this music, we knew our film had to be scored with "Music for 18 Musicians."

 

Negotiations have begun for the synchronization rights, and Mr. Reich has voiced his approval for the project. Bill Ryan, conductor of the 2007 recording we've selected, has likewise approved "Choros" for a master use license. Upon viewing the film for the first time, Mr. Ryan replied:

 

"I'm completely speechless. You have created something monumental here... 

I've never seen such a beautiful thing."

 

We are so excited to share this with everyone, and so close to being able to do so! Please consider helping us to reach our goal so that we can release "Choros" on the film festival circuit, and eventually, the Internet at large. Read on below to learn more about what makes this film worth releasing!

 

Thanks so much in advance,

Michael & Terah

 

About the Filmmakers:

Michael Langan is an American experimental filmmaker. His films have screened at over a hundred film festivals worldwide garnering top awards, including a Student Academy Award nomination for "Doxology." Langan's innovation at the boundary of live action and animation has been praised as "confounding and fascinating" by The New York Times and "inventive" by The Atlantic. In 2010 he was named an "IFC Icon" and featured as one of "10 animators poised to become household names" by Variety.

 

Terah Maher received a Masters of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2006 and her BA in Architecture from Yale University in 1999. Maher's film work, influenced by her years as a modern dancer, explores the structural systems inherent in animation to extend the expressive potential of the human body. She is currently a Visiting Professor on Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University.

About the Technique:

"Choros" is an experimental film steeped in tradition, modernizing a visual echo technique developed for scientific study in the 1880s.

In the late nineteenth century, a photographic technique called "chronophotography" began to develop, whereby multiple photographs would be taken in rapid succession to study the movement of a given subject. Eadweard Muybridge famously filmed a horse in motion in 1878, providing the world with its first taste of motion pictures when the images were displayed on a spinning zoetrope.

 

Several years later, the French physicist Etienne-Jules Marey developed a stunning variation of this technique when he captured multiple poses of a subject over time onto a single frame of film, rendering a kind of visual echo. The nature of this process limited the subject matter to that which could be photographed in a black studio using stark lighting, to prevent overexposure of the background when multiple images are layered over one another.

 

In 1968, just six years before Steve Reich began composing "Music for 18 Musicians," Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren adapted Marey's layering technique to actual motion pictures, in a groundbreaking film entitled "Pas de Deux." The additive nature of multiple exposures in chemically processed photography, however, likewise limited McLaren to the confines of a black box studio with high-contrast side lighting.

 

"Choros" revisits these technical innovations and attempts to contribute original innovations of its own. Using recent advancements in digital compositing, the technique developed for "Choros" introduces color, frees the film from the confines of a black studio, and allows the dancer to linger in one position without risk of overexposure, resulting in a variation of this historical technique that allows a degree of subtlety heretofore prohibited by technical limitations.

FAQ:

Q:  What happens if you don't reach your goal? Will my contribution be refunded?

A:  Every contribution to our film will be used toward funding the film; it's not an all-or-nothing scenario. If we're unable to raise sufficient funds via IndieGogo, we may delay the film's release until we can fund the film through other means.

Q:  Is my contribution tax deductible?

A:  Unfortunately, no; we don't have non-profit status or fiscal sponsorship at this time.

Q:  What happens if you exceed your goal?

A:  We'll celebrate! Over the next few years, we'd love to send "Choros" to as many film festivals as possible. Funds in excess of our $5200 goal will go toward additional submission fees and marketing expenses.

Q:  If the film is done, why aren't there any clips of it on this page?

A:  Believe us, we wish we could upload some! Unfortunately, the music license required to do so is exactly what we're trying to acquire with this fundraising campaign. Trust us: it looks amazing in motion.

Q:  Is there any way I can see the film now?

A:  Possibly; get in touch with us via email and we'll see what we can do.

Q:  What does "Choros" mean?

A:  Choros (χορός) is the Greek root of the English word "chorus," which originally referred to a band of dancers or singers performing in a circle. We also like that it evokes the word "Chronos," as the film dramatically distorts our perception of time.

Other Ways You Can Help

Please spread the word! If you know a film lover who may be interested in bringing this project to life, or just want to shout from the hilltops to hail the coming of "Choros," we have a bunch of sharing tools up at the top of this page, just below the "Choros" field image.

Feel free to ask any questions or post a shout-out using the comments tab at the top of the page. And if you choose to contribute, let us know why you're excited about "Choros!" Commenting helps us raise awareness of our campaign, so don't be shy.