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Title
Ping: Film documentation: Rectangles of color intercut for emphasis in the film acompanying the Ping performance
Creator
Reynolds, Roger, 1934-
Date Created and/or Issued
1968
Contributing Institution
UC San Diego, The UC San Diego Library
Collection
Roger Reynolds Ping Collection
Rights Information
Under copyright
Constraint(s) on Use: This work is protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use of this work beyond that allowed by "fair use" requires written permission of the UC Regents. Responsibility for obtaining permissions and any use and distribution of this work rests exclusively with the user and not the UC San Diego Library. Inquiries can be made to the UC San Diego Library program having custody of the work.
Use: This work is available from the UC San Diego Library. This digital copy of the work is intended to support research, teaching, and private study.
Rights Holder and Contact
Reynolds, Roger, 1934-
Description
Performing Arts (including Performance Art)
Film, Audio, Video and Digital Art
When I determined to proceed with the creation of a multi-media work on Beckett's short story, Ping, it immediately became clear that the perplexing entity in the story (Ping, himself) needed to be represented somehow. I was meeting frequently with composer Toru Takemitsu, and we often talked about films, a common passion. He was a frequent composer for film projects in Japan, so when I decided to try to make my own film (I had no prior experience in this regard.), I talked with Takemitsu. He introduced me to one of Kurosawa's cameramen. Somehow, I also made contact with a then young Butoh dancer, Maro Sekiji [Japanese name order]. He agreed to be the Ping figure. It was necessary, then, to find a small studio, to secure very powerful lighting (that would allow for the "white-out" effect I wanted), and to build the box in which Ping was to be situated. All of this was accomplished in Japanese, and, surprisingly everything happened without serious problems. I planned a very detailed scenario, a script that showed one minute on each page, and described what was to happen and at exactly what moment each new event would occur. The film was, of course, silent, as accompanying sound was to be produced by live musicians and electro-acoustic modifications. The film primarily involved the full-length portrayal of the nearly naked dancer, then utilized shifting focus, pans, zooms, intercut images (related to Beckett's text), color field rectangles, contorted shots of the dancer, and, occasionally, very rapid intercuiting of poses or color fields. The film was shot, I believe, over two days in the Winter of 1968, and was cut together in accord with my detailed script.
UC San Diego Library, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0175 (https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/contact)
Based on: Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989. Ping
Type
image
Form/Genre
Transparencies
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Multimedia works
Experimental films
Transparencies

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