New photos on Flickr...

I realize I may be writing to a lot of laymen in photographic terms, so I'll quickly try to summarize what I've done.

From a bunch of past filmmaking gigs, I've hoarded some leftover and unexposed film that the productions otherwise would have discarded as waste and thrown away. So, instead of just tossing the film in the trash, I decided to take these 100' strips of unexposed film and load them into individual cartridges for taking still photographs.

The film stock I shot on is called Kodak Vision 5279. It has an ISO of 500 (very sensitive to light), and is balanced for tungsten (incandescent studio) lights.

A lot of it was taken during the holiday season in 2008, and some of the more experimental stuff I just snapped off over the past few months for fun.

Now, this type of film you can't just take to your local Walgreen's and have them develop it for you.

First of all, it requires a different set of chemicals called ECN-2 processing.

Second, it has a special black coating on the back of the film to prevent light from passing through the film and bouncing back through. If it didn't have this coating, most films would have a strange halo effect in highlighted points of the frame. Also, this black coating would RUIN the machines at your local Walgreens, and ruin the photos taken by other customers as well.

I tried asking some of the labs that process motion picture film, but they simply won't process rolls as short as 36 frames. So I decided to process the film myself at home.

Now, it's EXTREMELY difficult to get ECN-2 (the required chemicals for this type of film) in small quantities for processing at home. So I decided to experiment even more and just go ahead and do the C-41 process (which is the process used for most consumer brand still photo film).

I bought a small cylindrical tank, got a small $18 C-41 kit from B&H photo, and off I went.

Here are the results: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanbowerbank/sets/72157614573399785/

Let me know what you think!

by Jon

Best of 2008 - Jon's list

Jon's best of 2008. OK, as Mario says, "Let'sa go!"

Best Film - "Dark Knight", hands down.

Honorable Mention - I haven't seen all the end of the year Oscar rush films, but "Milk", "The Duchess" and "Slumdog Millionaire" I really enjoyed. I'm really excited to see "Gran Torino", "The Wrestler" and "...Benjamin Button"


Best Album - Fleet Foxes' self titled debut, it's excellent

Honorable mention - It was a good year for music: Airborne Toxic Event's self titled, Margot and the Nuclear So & So's "Not Animal", Q-Tip's "The Renaissance", The Raconteurs' "Consolers of the Lonely", Ray Lamontagne's "Gossip in the Grain", She & Him "Volume One", Vetiver "A Thing of the Past", Weezer's "Red Album", M83's "Saturdays = Youth"


Best song - "Kim & Jessie" by M83, this song makes me want to go ride my bike in the middle of spring, no hands just staring at the sky...yeah.




Honorable mention - "I Got Mine" by Black Keys, "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. (it's been played out though), "Miss Sweeney" by Weezer, "Maiden Mother & Crone" by The Sword (rocks!), "Sentimental Heart" by She & Him, "Move" by Q-Tip, "Dig Lazarus Dig!!!" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Thank You Too" by My Morning Jacket (awww), "Rattlin' Bones" by Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, "Oliver James" by Fleet Foxes, "Orphans" by Beck, "Gasoline" by Airborne Toxic Event


Best book - "Color and Human Response", it's an old one, but interesting.

I just realized I've only been reading filmmaking theory and technical books non-stop all year. Time to fill my head with something a bit more creative, don'tcha think?


Best new toy - Got a PS3 from my parents...sweeeeet
Honorable mention - Scored a Pentax digital spot meter on eBay, love it.


Best new bff - I met so many great people on film shoots this year. Can't point out anyone new, I'm just thankful to have so many friends.

Best old bff - Gustavo wins again this year. We actually managed to work on a film together! First time since basically right after high school.


Best new restaurant - We discovered the "Golden ______" chain of vegan vietnamese/asian fusion restaurants. There's Golden Era and Golden Buddha here in SF, they're quite good.

Honorable mention - "Suppenkuche", a German restaurant in Hayes Valley, delicious and an experience you should have sometime.


Best holiday - I'm counting election day as a holiday this year, considering the outcome of the presidential vote. I finally have hope, and it feels weird to actually like my president.

Honorable mention - Up until Christmas, the holidays were a little drab. But this Christmas was pretty chill and I just spent some quality time with my parents, which is a rarity in such a large family.


Best Vacation Destination - Joshua Tree, CA. I spent the best 4 days at the Joshua Tree Inn, visiting the national park, meeting the locals, etc. It's so close to LA, I would actually consider moving there if my work took me down that way.

Honorable mention - Pinnacles state park


Best day of the year - I'm counting all the days I spent on the feature film "Chaw", I learned more on that shoot than I ever would have in 4 years of film school. I made a lot of mistakes, but at the same time a lot of progress.

Honorable mention - A day in the Marin headlands on a film shoot. I basically just mounted the camera to the hood of a car, sat in the back of the truck and spent most of the time enjoying the view with the wind in my hair. Good day, good day.


Economically 2009 sucks already, but I can definitely feel somethin' a brewin'. I hope it's a boom of some sort :)

Just got back...

...from Joshua Tree. So much to tell, but some other time. I'll post some of the photos I took as well, once they've been developed.

Also, we're very disappointed that Polyester didn't receive any comments.

"Polyester LIVE!"

This is a video I shot about 10 months ago, but just recently managed to get past some editor's block and finally finish.

Because of scheduling conflicts we shot it with Polyester lipsyncing to Frank Sinatra's version, then recorded Polyester's own version afterwards. So that made editing/sound syncing really difficult. So I gave up on it for a few months. But then after looking at it with fresh eyes last week, I had a breakthrough and was able to whip it up and finish it surprisingly easy. Funny how that happens sometimes.

So, here it is! Let me know what you think and please post comments on the video:



by Jon

Gone, Baby, Gone.

A year ago I had a dream that I was stranded in a town that I had never been to. To my dismay, I had a miscarriage, I didn't even know that I was pregnant. I was looking everywhere for Jon. I couldn't find him. Little did I know that this dream would come true a year later.

By Katie B

Katie's paintings

Now you can all see my paintings. I've only been at it for a year, so don't be too harsh. I hope you like them. Go to www.flickr.com/photos/katiebpaintings/

Proposition 8, the Prop that Shagged Me...

(This was a comment I posted on our friend Jes Beach (Seaman)'s blog, but it was so long, I figured I should also copy/paste it into our blog. So here you go)

We both voted NO. We decided to vote on it, independent of religious thought or influence, recognizing that as a Proposition it was completely unfair and damaging to the citizens of the state as a whole.

Also, and most importantly, it never should have been written AS IS. And since I didn't accept it as a well written or progressive proposition, I decided to vote No on it as a way of saying that it should be thrown out for a better written proposition to take its place in the next election.

My idea, is that two propositions should have been written. The issue at the beginning was in regards to the "definition" of marriage. So, they should have written a Prop 8A to define Hetero or "Traditional" Marriage, and a Prop 8B to define Homosexual Marriage. And as far as the language, they both should have been given identical rights, an included a special clause that neither practice would be taught in schools, just as with prayers and creationism are not allowed in schools. Perhaps then, everyone would have been happy...it's just an idea.

The truth is, something's gotta give. The gay community won't stop fighting, and honestly, religions don't have any reason to "fight" or to not "live and let live" on the issue.

I don't think there's any reason to be angry towards the outcome of the voting. And certainly the violence that happened today is very disappointing. But a BS proposition such as this just never should have been.

I know a lot of our LDS friends might think of this as totally going against our Church leaders. But I personally consider a No vote to simply be a "never should have been" vote, not a vote against Traditional Marriage.



by Jon