My work is a combination of 16mm film and digital visual effects.  I shoot 16mm film alone in the field, extending the studio practice of the video artist into the world.  I am dedicated to the discipline and economy of working with 16mm film.  The equipment is heavy, the film is expensive, and it requires work to keep the cameras functioning.  While I go about this labor in the field, I consider my internal narrative.  In this way, the labor of shooting film shapes the ideas in my head.  When I turn on the camera, I get only one take, two or three minutes of film, to perform. 

I often save film up to a year before developing.  This delay between shooting and editing has become a part of my filmmaking practice. When I see the film after such a long period of time, I feel a kind of sadness about the passage of time and a pride for having documented it. 

I make digital interventions on the filmed reality of the footage.  These visual effects undermine the sincerity of my narration, add a supernatural element, and give the viewer the opportunity to laugh or disbelieve. 

I ask the viewer to identify with my experience and to engage in the ideas articulated in the films.  This is my way of making a mark, of knowing myself, finding my people, and feeling more a part of the world.

Synopsis

Travel Movie is a series of 28 short films fueled by the solitude of a cross-country drive.  As my public self is eroded by the highway and the métier of 16mm filmmaking, my internal monologue emerges, and some very surprising, perhaps impossible, things occur.

 Travel Movie #2, 1m. 2010

                16mm Color Film, transferred to video      

                Having woken up in a truckstop parking lot, I report that I've found nothing yet.  Behind me, a supernova explodes and fades in the distance.

 Travel Movie #11, 2m30s. 2010

                16mm Color Film, transferred to video      

                I complain about my headache and how stupid my ideas seem as Jesus ascends from the top of Devil's Tower.

 Travel Movie #12, 3m. 2010

                16mm Color Film, transferred to video      

                At a gas station in Chugwater, WY at closing time, I think I've found some talent, worry that I'm not able to innovate on the fly, and consider the spiritual implications of my project.  And, oh yeah, the Ghost Child!

About Darren Douglas Floyd:

Darren Douglas Floyd received his MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA in 2001 and his BA in Women's Studies from The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH in 1994. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions CANADA, New York, NY; JCIA Video, Brooklyn, NY; AIR Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA; and Senko Studio, Viborg, Denmark; and screened in film festivals in the US and Canada.  Darren has participated in several prestigious residencies, including Yaddo, The Millay Colony for the Arts and The Artists' Enclave at I-Park.  He was Artist-In-Residence, Film and Video, at Cornell University for 2009-2010 in Ithaca, NY where he was awarded two Cornell Council for the Arts grants for his work in motion portraiture.  Darren is currently teaching New Media and Animation at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA.