Documentation of a process developed by Roger Beebe and Kristin Reeves using a flatbed laser cutter/rasterizer as a filmmaker’s tool.

Roger Beebe “Last Light of a Dying Star” (left) Kristin Reeves “D.I.D” film still (right)

More about Roger Here: http://www.rogerbeebe.com/

Spring 2010: I was using a flatbed laser cutter to produce simple paper animations as a part of my video production process. Roger Beebe was familiar with this work and asked if I could help him apply the process to his 16mm film “De Rerum Natura.” Together we made a film carrier, formatted a digital animation template, and created steps to cut out (or melt out) text, shapes, and wipes.

Spring 2011: For my 3-projector film installation “Mechanoreceptors 1-3,” I cut shapes out of 16mm film frames that were large enough to hold their form so pieces of each of the 3 films could be transplanted into one another.

Roger Beebe “The Congress of Beauty” in collaboration with the band Holopaw

Roger Beebe “Last Light of a Dying Star”

My piece “Mechanoreceptors 1-3.”

Technical Guidelines:

We used illustrator to create a guild that is cut into plexi.

Template Grid 16mm film: For the frame height use 7.52mm or 7.62mm depending on the age of the film

Examples of my work using this technique.