LOONEY LENS SERIES

by Al BRICK
1924-1927 / 35mm / tinted b&w / sound / 1S / 10' 10




Anamorphic People 1927, 2:20 minutes
Pas de deux 1924, 4:24 minutes
Split Skyscrapers / Tenth Avenue, NYC 1924, 3:23 minutes
Anamorphic People 1927, 2:20 minutes

These never before screened camera rolls photographed by Fox News cameraman Al Brick offer a lovely interlude of pure cinema experimentation. The fascination with anamorphic images dates back centuries to mirrors, lenses, and other optical toys employed to warp images for artistic and scientific purposes.

Pas de deux 1924, 4:24 minutes

An oddity to be sure, the camera original has survived intact as shot by cameraman Al Brick. Two men interact before a distorted-spherical mirror, and the ensuing play between the two has all the trappings of an avant-garde pas de deux in the purest sense.

Split Skyscrapers / Tenth Avenue, NYC 1924, 3:23 minutes

Fox’s “Looney Lens” series was launched to humorously highlight special effects camerawork. The split images of skyscrapers and automobiles are uncannily close to those used in Dziga Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera. The warping lens used to photograph Tenth Avenue, however, seems to puzzle the filmmakers.



No print in distribution