The Motion Picture Lab, 2023
The Motion Picture Lab is a chronicle of the interior workings of the only working analogue motion picture laboratory found within a post-secondary school in Canada. Using a documentary approach, this black and white series examines the workstations, machinery, and ephemera of this rarified facility. Toronto Metropolitan University’s Motion Picture Lab in the Image Arts Building has had a black and white 16mm production space available to students and faculty for over 50 years and is operated by an experienced technician. Specialist and experimental filmmaker, Mark Loeser, is the current manager of this lab. Loeser is a lab operator and an educator who supports students learning to work with film in either the undergraduate film program or graduate Film Preservation program at TMU. The mechanical anchor of the lab is a 16mm/35mm processor, a 1969 Arri 1000 II, that has come to be maintained with 3D printed parts to replace damaged components that are no longer available. The Motion Picture Lab offers an intimate view into a unique film laboratory that continues to be a place of production, education and inspiration.
The Motion Picture Lab is a chronicle of the interior workings of the only working analogue motion picture laboratory found within a post-secondary school in Canada. Using a documentary approach, this black and white series examines the workstations, machinery, and ephemera of this rarified facility. Toronto Metropolitan University’s Motion Picture Lab in the Image Arts Building has had a black and white 16mm production space available to students and faculty for over 50 years and is operated by an experienced technician. Specialist and experimental filmmaker, Mark Loeser, is the current manager of this lab. Loeser is a lab operator and an educator who supports students learning to work with film in either the undergraduate film program or graduate Film Preservation program at TMU. The mechanical anchor of the lab is a 16mm/35mm processor, a 1969 Arri 1000 II, that has come to be maintained with 3D printed parts to replace damaged components that are no longer available. The Motion Picture Lab offers an intimate view into a unique film laboratory that continues to be a place of production, education and inspiration.