Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is the “borrower” for this entry because he is the main actor in the film. I chose Poe from among all the possible author action figures because of his connection to Richmond, my connection to Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts, and because of the raven on his shoulder. At one point I rigged the raven to fly over Poe’s head, but, unfortunately, the scene landed on the cutting room floor and no outtakes are available.

I made the film as the first big project in the MATX Production Lab. The process for making it was rather elaborate. Once I had the general idea for the story (Poe breaks into a library in an attempt to enter a new story), I had to edit my complex storyboard to fit the mandated 30-second time limit. I gave up Poe traveling by city bus and the on location shots of the Poe Museum. I filmed in the VCU library and the University of Richmond Library, and spent a great deal of time rigging things with fishing line and tacky putty. As my first effort with a video camera and video editing software, I am fairly pleased with the result. Of course, the film owes much of its charm to the score, created by Nathan Altice – a fellow MATX student.

A Quaint and Curious Volume
2008
iMovie
5'' hard plastic action figure, sound
:30

A Quaint and Curious Volume
(if play bar is not visible, move mouse over screen)