Megan and Murray McMillan

Director of photography Kieran Delaney and his assistant John create some quick lighting tests.

This is moment we’ve been working towards: releasing the supports and seeing how the room hangs and moves. We were delighted to find out that it was surprisingly stiff and moved better than expected.

Our assistant JR Uretsky and RWU research assistant Chris Capozzi prepare to install the custom built rotating mechanism, which features 3 plates of quarter inch steel and 16 ball transfer units. It took us about 8 hours to drill the 12 inch and a half holes through it.

The guide wheels are being placed to determine measurements. Whenever possible, we prefer to take measurements off of real materials and objects over trusting theoretical math–too often we forget something when it’s on paper only.

This is the room that will be “flying”, er, asymetrically rotating suspended from a truss. The room is 700 lbs by itself, and 1300 lbs with performers and finished interior. The completed room/truss/counterweight is 2500 lbs, or 1.25 tons.

How do you safely suspend 1.25 tons? With a 2 ton gantry:

This is our first day on location. We’re filming at the Wurks, a cross-disciplinary fabrication shop directed by Will Reeves (at left). Before we get started, we need to move the Gantry to the right location. Problem: the gantry motor is missing. Solution: Mr Reeves has a pickup, a long chain and some gantry-pulling driving experience.

Project location (Rumsford, RI)

Project model

Project illustration

We’ve started a new project that we’ll refer to as “The Flying Room” until it’s titled. We just designed it while attending the I-Park Residency. I-Park is a new residency in Connecticut that hosted 15 collaborating artists for three weeks to make works and meditate on working collaboratively. With our blueprints and choreography mapped, we’re now fabricating the set this August and will shoot it September 3 and 4. As usual, we’ll blog our process.

We’re constructing a room that is asymmetrically ceiling mounted, and able to rotate (see the model and drawings above). Things happen in rooms that move.

So many great films. I’ve been keeping a list of my favorite films for a number of years. Here is the current top five:

1. Trois couleurs: Bleu, Rouge, Bialy, Krzysztof Kieslowski (1993-94)

2. Wings of Desire, Wim Wenders (1987)

3. Sayat Nova (The Color of Pomegranates), Sergei Parajanov (1968)

4. The Perfect Human, Jørgen Leth (1967)

5. Annie Hall, Woody Allen (1977)