No to two ways-

The inspiration behind this piece was fueled by creative curiosity and friendship. The three creators of this piece, Brant Perry, Charlie Desgagne, and Nate Karney, all call the Chicago area their place of origin and home despite all of us relocating to different cities in North America. We found ourselves all back in this familiar place on a November weekend with nothing to do. In retaliation, one of us proposed that we rent a Bolex for the weekend and explore the magic that is celluloid film in a format that was unfamiliar to us, 16mm. Thus, the idea was born, and we were off. We quickly recognized the constraints that we faced, little time, little preparation, and little resources. We knew that our options for this project were few, and we embraced it. We didn’t want to overcomplicate something that didn’t need to be. We simplified the plan to a very basic concept, two characters in a fashion that we felt represented the energy of the Chicago loop, juxtaposed against each other and reflected in the compositions of their respective frames. We spent 1 day in the city, all taking turns exploring the intricacies and functionality of 16mm film and the Bolex H16 Rex 5. All of us took turns in front of the camera as well as behind, making sure to capture things that simply struck a feeling inside of us that we felt reflected the concept. After an eventful day exploring crevices and corners of the city that we hadn’t before noticed, we sent the film off to be developed and eagerly awaited the result, crossing our fingers that we were able to capture something great. When we got the scans back, we were in love with the results, and into the edit, we went. This process was spearheaded by Charlie, and the story began to take shape, making sure not to overcomplicate it again, we pieced together the clips and moments guided by the feeling of what felt right together and what didn’t. Eventually, we were left with the creation that you see before you today. Nothing that strives to challenge the audience or pose questions in a monumental way but simply a piece that has priceless value to those whose hands shaped it into what it became, a memory of an experience shared between the three of us represented by something that we would like to call art and a piece of ourselves.