Project Barbatype (2017)

Documentary Film

(Writer • Director • Cinematographer • Editor)

 

S Y N O P S I S

 

Project Barbatype is a documentary film about facial hair, traditional photographic processes, and how the performance of masculinity intersects with the curious inclusive subculture of beard and moustache competitions.
 
This film is an interdisciplinary collaboration with photographer Scott Hilton, MFA, Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of Texas at Arlington, and his assistant Bryan Wing. The film will document the process as Hilton and Wing gather photographs for a book titled Project Barbatype, which is itself, a photographic documentation of beard and moustache competitions in the United States.
 
Hilton and Wing’s photographs are created by shooting Tintypes, a variety of the Wet Collodion process, which was invented in 1851, and only used for five years before photographic technology improved. Shooting the bearded competitors using these Tintypes (as opposed to current digital technology) takes full advantage of the irony that this historical photographic method was prominent during the last great period of elaborate facial hair. My film (which uses digital technology) hopes to expand on this irony by documenting the archaic photographic process of Tintypes in conjunction with the 21st century performance of masculinity exhibited by people from all walks of life (including women), who can be found participating in this subculture.
 
Original footage shot on Canon 5D Mark II, with found footage.
 
 

E X H I B I T I O N   R E C O R D

 

2016 Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Film Series Kalamazoo, MI
–Recent Work [Work in Progess] (August 11, 2016)
 

C R E D I T S

 

g e n r e / c a t e g o r y :  Documentary

c o l l a b o r a t i o n   b y :  Kelly Wittenberg and Scott Hilton

r e s e a r c h :  Scott Hilton and Kelly Wittenberg

w r i t t e n   a n d   d i r e c t e d   b y :  Kelly Wittenberg

o r i g i n a l l y   s h o t   o n :  Canon 5D Mark II (Digital)

d i r e c t o r   o f   p h o t o g r a p h y :  Kelly Wittenberg

e d i t i n g :  Kelly Wittenberg

t o t a l   r u n n i n g   t i m e :  30 minutes

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