 Tran Scan
DVD Widescreen, 8 Mins., 2004
16:9 (1.78:1) Anamorphic Enhanced
An intense meditation on the landscape of North America. NO NARRATION.
"A swift, elegant and mysterious time-lapse drive across Canada during which the point of view magically remains constant to the horizon." —Northwest Film/Video Festival
"You'd be hard-pressed to learn more about the lay of this country's land in 480 seconds."—The National Post
"Stephen
Arthur's new film is a good example of films that help us re-see the
world." —Holly Willis, Res Magazine, 2000
Order for museums
and institutions.
Read reviews.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Tran
Scan uses a new technique of telescopic*,
traveling time-lapse, from the point of view of the traveler,
fixed on the landscape ahead. A new form of "virtual cinematography" allows us to
be zoomed-in while racing ahead at 5,700
km/h (3,500 mph) yet remain smoothly viewable throughout. This achievement was
made possible only by hand-made, frame-by-frame stabilization, which took
a full year to complete. (*What you're
seeing in the foreground is actually 10-20 kilometers ahead of you.)
Reframing and
re-timing—changing the scales of things in space and time—these can help
reveal something deeper. Here an unprecedented experience has been created by a
well-conceived "reframing" of the old, ineffective cross-country
time-lapse technique, a technique that until now remained undeveloped. Perhaps
the most important thing to appreciate is how radically the bulk of each frame
changes in a regular, wide-angle, cross-country time-lapse road film. There is
no trackable reference point for viewing, and most of the frame surrounding the
zigzagging vanishing point becomes visual garbage. The crucial work of Tran
Scan was the animated stabilization of radically squashed perspective, which
turns the frenetic imagery into a smoothly viewable experience.
This
simple yet novel technique creates an expression, and an abstraction, of the
differing land regions, conveyed entirely through the unique relative motion
produced from each region's interplay between camera and land.
"Arthur
has developed a unique method of investigating his surroundings and exploring
movement. I have never seen anything like it. It is an exceptional piece of
avant-garde film making."
-- Robert Creighton
FESTIVALS 2004-2005
'Silver Remi' Award
for Cinematography:
37th
WorldFest-Huston Int'l Independent Film Festival,
USA
Jury
Award (Experimental):
Yorkton Short Film
and Video Festival (Canada's
Golden Sheaf Awards)
world
premier: Tampere
34th International Short Film Festival,
Finland
Hot
Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Toronto
Worldwide
Short Film Festival, Toronto
Cinema Tout Ecran,
International Film & Television Festival, Geneva:
XIII International Short Film Selection
Switzerland
Rencontres
internationales Paris/Berlin
The
42nd
Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan, USA
49th
Cork Film Festival, Ireland
24th
Atlantic Film Festival, Halifax, Canada
Vancouver
International Digital Festival, Canada
Moving
Pictures '04: Canadian Films on Tour
(noncompetitive)
Edmonton
International Film Festival, Alberta, Canada
31th
Northwest Film & Video Festival, Portland, OR, USA
7th
Annual Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth,
Vancouver ('05)
Festival
de cinéma des 3 Amériques, Quebec City ('05)
Detroit
Docs International Film Festival, USA ('05)
MUSEUM
EXHIBITIONS 2005
'Sense
of Place' - Nickle Arts Museum, U. Calgary
GEOGRAPHY
 (screen
shot of DVD chapters menu)
Interactive
map allows playing by Province or by topographic region. This
short film provides intimate knowledge of the distinct physical regions across
the continent, in a tangible form, as if you have driven it yourself. The trip is in
true sequence; each region is proportional to its true length.
Copyright
© 2003 Stephen X.
Arthur. All rights reserved.
We acknowledge the support of
the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $12.5 million in media arts throughout Canada.
Nous
remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 12,5
millions de dollars l'an dernier dans les arts médiatiques à travers le
Canada.
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:
Stephen Arthur
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
E-mail:
sxarthurATshaw.com
604-926-9787
For
broadcast license, classroom license, or group rental, contact the Canadian Filmmakers'
Distribution Centre, 401 Richmond St. W., Suite 119, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 3A8.
TEL (416) 588-0725. For broadcast and museum sales and information: director@cfmdc.org.
For educational sales and services: edu@cfmdc.org.
For film rental, bookings, rental prices, and preview DVDs: bookings@cfmdc.org.
European
distributor:
roARaTorio - 51 rue Montorgueil - 75002 Paris tel:
33 1 40 18 00 20
CRTC
Certification No. C22990
(logging category 07G, points 5/5, time credit 100%)
www.transcanfilm.com
common
misspellings of this title: trans scan, trans can, transcan
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