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melissa shook

Six Short Videos

When I started working on “Fight,” I knew something about videotaping because I’d become fascinated by the medium when I was teaching at MIT. Ricky Leacock was teaching there and I heard many of his lectures and used that heavy Portopack equipment for several projects, none of which ever got edited. I did finish a short sound super8 about Krissy that included a bit of animation, but that’s all I accomplished.

Basically I’d never edited video and needed to learn Final Cut Pro. It was really inconvenient when I started working on “Fight” with Ann Torke that I couldn’t help with the physical aspects of the rough cut editing.

Eventually I decided to work on small discreet personal projects on my own. That forced me to learn the technical part of editing. Damian Dibona, a fine painter who works in the video lab in the art department at UMass/Boston, graciously taught me, little-by-little, how to maneuver my way around the computer editing program. Gradually I became capable of editing some of these shorts on my own.

  1. Drawing Upon a Family Trade (13:43)
  2. Krissy and Her Grandparents (13:24)
  3. Nathan and New York (6:50)
  4. The Porcelain Boxes (3:04)
  5. Homage to Sid Caesar (2:55)
  6. Bedrock (6:30)

Drawing Upon a Family Trade (13:43)

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Krissy and Her Grandparents (13:24)

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Nathan and New York (6:50)

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The Porcelain Boxes (3:04)

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Homage to Sid Caesar (2:55)

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Bedrock (6:30)

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