Vanda Schmockel

Splice Magazine
Winter/Autumn 2008 issue

Coming soon...

Gregory Beatty
Subvert The Set
Site-specific performance plays off Hollywood Illusions
Prairie Dog, Regina, August 14-27, 2008, p.15
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Mark Claxton
Video performance meets movie-making
The Leader-Post, Regina
Published: Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Extras

It's an increasingly common sight on the streets of Regina -- a cordoned-off area populated by movie cameras, lights, bustling crew members and cross-currents of barked orders as the actors and extras await their summons.
Passers-by outside of City Hall this Saturday evening, however, will be able to witness a film shoot of a different kind; this time, the making of the movie is the movie.
"People will be walking by going, 'Is this for real?' " said Michele Sereda, artistic director of Curtain Razors. "Yes. Yes it is."
The Extras is indeed for real, in that real "extras" will be given real instructions, and their responses will be captured on video, edited on the spot with added sound, and projected on a larger-than-life screen for all to see. The result, roughly 45 minutes of filming, will be a so-called "performance/installation" -- a blurring of the line between visual art and video performance and an exploration of filmmaking for those whose curiosity about this medium has been whetted by its recent upsurge in the province. "There's no narrative," Sereda said. "The (film) shoot is the project. You're not going to have a beginning, middle and end."
Whatever "story" emerges from The Extras, it will be rooted in images and themes specific to Saskatchewan and Regina. Sereda's collaborators, multimedia artists Susanne Clausen and Pavlo Keresty, have completed similar projects throughout Europe and North America and base their installations on what they discover about the locale in which they're working.
As for the extras themselves, they have all been invited by Sereda to participate in the performance, and they include actors (such as North of 60 star Erroll Kinistino) and non-actors (such as Nik Burton, managing editor of the Regina publishing company Coteau Books).
"I've been producing work for more than 20 years, so I know a lot of people," Sereda said with a smile.
Including those who will be performing as extras, more than 50 people will be working to put together Saturday's performance. Among them will be sound engineer Jeff Morgan, who returned to Regina just weeks ago after completing a master's degree in musical composition at the University of Victoria.
"I work with art galleries and artists to create the kind of media situations they're working in -- video screens, speaker systems, microphones," Morgan said. "That's primarily my role here."
Although Morgan's role is a technical one, he and the rest of The Extra's "crew" will, in fact, be cast members as well; their efforts to translate the actors' work into a multimedia presentation will serve as part of the live performance.
Susanne Clausen, who partnered with Pavlo Keresty to form the artistic collective Szuper Gallery 10 years ago in London, England, has found her visit to Western Canada enlightening and educational.
"It's really fascinating. We didn't know what to expect," the German-born Clausen said. "A lot of the images we had, they were really through films. You have pictures in your head, and then to see it in real life ...
"This landscape is great for us," she said. "When you're from Europe, you're used to smaller spaces, it's so dense."
The Extras will be performed for one night only, beginning at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is pay-what-you-will at the site outside City Hall.
If the weather is inclement, the organizers have an alternate site planned and will lead performers and spectators to it.
"(The show) will provide curiosity, provocativeness, and levity," Sereda said. "It's not all serious." "Because it's only art," added Pavlo Keresty. "It's not dangerous."