HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND VIDEO

The following story is reprinted with the permission of The Concord Monitor

New England, through the lens

Filmmaker explores region's unique scenes

By Kent Fisher, Monitor Staff
Concord Monitor Cover Shot

Andover-Filmmaker Rick Holzer clung to the rocky shore of Cape Neddick Maine, as a fierce winter Nor'easter howled in from the sea, his video camera precariously trained on Nubble Light. While the hardiest of New Englanders had long since shuttered their windows and readied themselves to ride the storm out, Holzer braved the pelting rain and stinging sleet as he filmed for his video project. But as he bent down to untangle a cord, a gust of the near hurrricane force winds blew the camera and its 10-pound tripod off the ledge, smashing both on the rocks below.

Holzer had just begun filming. How his only camera lay in pieces. "I drove into town and had a bowl of chili and a glass of milk and thought about what I was going to do,"he said. "After sitting quietly for a while, I went back to the car and -lo and behold - the camera was running. I put it back together with rubber bands and went back to the rocks." "If you want unusual pictures, don't expect to get them on nice days."

It was that perseverance that carried Holzer through the nearly three-year project-a video journey across New England form the howling Nor'easter at Cape Neddick to the quiet cobblestone lanes of Nantucket.
During the two-and-a-half year years he spent filming, Holzer captured many of the regions icons and idiosyncrasies in lingering images. He chronicled a day in the life of a Maine lobsterman, spent weeks mulling through antique shops in Vermont and Maine, and captured the process of making maple sugar with a Warner family. He traveled endless country roads to find the covered bridges of Vermont and New Hampshire.

New England by The Dolphin's Eye is Holzer's first venture into video. Perviously he had worked exclusively with still photography. "I wanted to take the kinds of images in my stills and put them into something moving that would be valued by people,"he said "But how do you weave all into a tapestry that has some kind of form? That was the challange. It's difficult to categorize. It's not a travel video-it's a combination music, documentary, art and travel video. It requires active watching."

The video opens opens with a journey to West Quoddy Head Light Maine, which is the northeastern-most point in the United States. The light juts glimmering white form the gray scraggly rocks of the shore as gulls squawk and dive amid sea spray. Later ferocious waves hammer the coast as a storm barrels into Maine. Whipping rains and tumutuous seas churn as a crescendo of guitar, bass and oboes crashes along with the waves.

Scenes filmed inside the lens of Boston Light are a kaleidscope of color. The gem-like lens bends and contorts light, turning the New England shoreline into patterned patches of psychedelic images as a flitting flute hums in the background. "I think the scenes inside Boston Light are just magic," Holzer said.

Holzer said he sunk virtually all his resources into making of the video. He cashed in his retirement accounts and took out a home equity loan to get him through the project. He's optimistic aout the video's sale potential-it has already sold out its first run of 500. Holzer is selling the video for $19.95 at stores and shops around the region. He has set up a toll-free telephone for orders, too.

"I feel as if I've created this big drama. The question is if thing is going to crash or not," he said. "There is no happy ending yet."

Complimenting the video's striking images is a soundtrack composed by local musicians. Neil Olmstead, a professor at the Berklee College of Music composed an improvisational piece while watching scenes of the covered bridges. "As we were recording, I was lying on this this couch in the studio looking up at these images, and I remember thinking, "I can't believe it's coming out this good,"Holzer said"He[Olmstead]said he was inspired by the images."

Steve Schuch of Hopkinton and Richard Gardzina of Barnstead also contributed to the score. "I played and watched the images and did some improvisational things," Gardina said. The images I was looking at were these wonderful old antiques and even though I was playing something I had composed for something else, my mood was directed by the images."

Vermont foliage burns brilliant reds and orange as cold mountain streams burble below quiet covered bridges. A slow contemplative guitar strums as raindrops fall on the camera lens, turning a clear shot of a bridge into a melting contorted image. Holzer said he used both the music and images to step away from what typical videos have become. Many of Holzer's panning images linger for minutes not seconds. "I violated all the rules people use when making videos,"he said. "Most videos throw a scene at you every five seconds, assuming you don't have the ability to contemplate. I wanted to give people time"

When Holzer watches the finished video, he said he sees a broader message than simply a series of images. He said it's a way for people to see New England the way it is most of the time-not the way it is often portrayed in the media. "Most of the media makes to world out to be a violent, dangerous place," he said. Yet in this video you have a very tranquill, peaceful place, and I think that's how New England is most of the time."