It's day two of the Action Hero Artist Lab at Contact, Manchester and we've been creating our own Andy Warhol-style screen tests. The week of workshops with Gemma, one half of the contemporary performance duo, is a fascinating look at creating work from pieces/movements of/from iconic pop culture: the focus this time is the album Transformer by the legendary Lou Reed.
Warhol created nearly 500 screen tests but not all of them were kept. The originals were filmed on Warhol's stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100-foot rolls of film at 24 frames per second. The resulting two-and-a-half-minute film reels were then screened in 'slow motion' at 16 frames per second.
Today the process is a little more simple using the modern-wonder that is the smart phone and an app that recreates vintage film effects.
There's something oddly poetic in creating these screen tests in a world where everyone truly can achieve Warhol's vision of 15 minutes of fame.
I'll get the video clips uploaded soon for y'all to 'LOOK' at us... just like Warhol would have liked. In the meantime, this instagram post of the screen tests is receiving lots of likes... Warhol would be proud :)