Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Who's Afraid of Red Yellow and Blue...The Documentary.

I have been working on this documentary for over a year now. Getting ready to make my second November filming trip to NYC. November 2011 was the first NYC filming trip I made. During that visit, I got to interview Peter Reginato, Karen Wilkin, John Zinsser, and Klaus Kertess. I got to meet Pat Steir (we had to make a raincheck for another day), and Ronnie Landfield (whom I interviewed on the next trip to NYC in April of 2012).

I feel amazing to have gotten this far with the film and am happy to share with you a recent trailer I made to show to some prospective funders. I know that in the future I'll be making a second version of the trailer, but this is with what I have right now.



I hope you enjoy it. As I was working on the trailer, I finally came up with the name for the documentary. If you know me, you know I was thinking of calling it Painters Painting Two....or maybe Too. Kinda cheesy, but hey I couldn't come up with much better. After working on the trailer a bit I was just thinking about it while waiting for sleep. Suddenly I thought of the title 'Birth Of Venus' or maybe Re-Birth...but that sounded more like a sculpture film. I thought the idea of naming it after a famous painting could be a possible good idea. Almost immediately the name flashed in my mind.

WHO'S AFRAID OF RED YELLOW AND BLUE

One of the many great titles for paintings that one of my absolute favorite painters Barnett Newman gave to his work. But it also rang true with what I felt I was trying to accomplish with this film. To give a sense that even 60 years later, people are still (to use the analogy) afraid or abstract modern art. And I hope with this film that it will give people a much needed eye into the world of these people, which will inevitably give people more insight than before into the world of Non-representational painting and sculpture. As I do have Peter Reginato, an amazing sculptor in the film and am in the process of interviewing Forrest 'Frosty' Myers for the film too. I didn't want to give the film an overtly painting type title.

I am about to make another trip for filming next month and have had much help from some amazing people to allow me to make this film. I have a donation button below if you would like to help out. It will allow you to put in any amount of funds you would be willing to donate. And if you are really willing, I am working on a referral plan where if you guide people to the site and they too donate (while giving your name in the comment box). Depending on how much you are able to bring in, I can offer some amazing footage of any or ALL of the participants being sent to you on DVD's after the release of the film. You can learn more about it here.

Thanks for all your help. Remember, you helped make this happen. With all your donations, and all your praise and just getting in touch to let me know you are happy about what I'm working on.

Cheers.
Jeffrey Collins
Director (and all the other stuff too!)




Monday, October 8, 2012

Michael Brennan Interview Clip

A short clip from my interview with painter Michael Brennan where he is speaking of his interest in Josef Albers. There is so much more to this section, but I wanted to keep it unseen until the film is done.