Ken Middleham appreciation thread

And you didn't tell me?! I'm appalled! The music in that movie was v good iirc. Crazy connection too!!

robh - Oh wow, that's great! I love the black widow film so much. I've dreamt of projecting it on a wall while making music of some kind, but this thread is as far as I've gotten with that. His work was definitely ahead of its time. One of the reasons I think it's appealing is that we have seen his footage in so many different places -- in the cinema, in the classroom, on tv -- and it's familiar but difficult to place. And no one seems to know the name of Ken Middleham, so it really does please me that someone (you) must have googled and found this thread! If you can get your hands on any of the educational films that I couldn't find, I would love to see them!!

I've never made a wikipedia entry for anyone successfully (tried to make one for a published author/filmmaker and was rejected!) but I agree that he deserves his own entry. As for this Do you know if there were other time lapse cinematographers at that time, or was his work there also new? I have no idea -- I think I started this thread after seeing Phase IV and was like WHO IS THIS GUY and pursued it for as long as I could before it got in the way of other things I had to do. If there are others, I'd sure like to know about them!

Your book sounds great too! Is this something you're doing for work or art or ?

that's how out of touch I've been-- I told you it was bad!

have made amends just now -- check yr inbox...

haha, ok :)

LL - book: preparing it in my own time and will probably self publish, though it will be a year or 2 yet.
Sent an email to The Nature Box who host the widow film to ask if they can access some of the KM's other nature films at Library of congress,
will post if anything new turns up.

Is this insect metamorphosis footage from an old filmstrip? I wonder if it's KM's?!
http://www.dnatube.com/video/6099/All-About-Insect-Metamorphosis

my google alert for KM produced fruit today, but this was it :(

It looks like we don't have any Biography for Ken Middleham yet.

Be the first to contribute! Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide .

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0585453/bio?ref_=nmbio_ql_1

Goddammit. I want my toad action

google alert has produced fruit

:-/

http://parallax-view.org/2014/09/28/review-bug/

The insect sequences are the work of Ken Middleham, since The Hellstrom Chronicle the dean of insect cinematography; but Bug does not do him proud. In fact, Bug is about the only film I can recall seeing that was not redeemed by a single interesting shot, cut, line, or idea.[

WE LIVE

I thought it was cool when the cockroaches spelled out Parmiter. Some credit for that pls!

heard an interview with Steven Kutcher, "Hollywood bug wrangler" and there was no mention of Ken Middleham or his work :(
they even talked about ants

GOOGLE ALERT NEWS:

Ken Middleham's grandkid has been going through his stuff! And s/he found a bunch of cooooooool old movie posters!!
http://imgur.com/a/G09FV
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/3dfp4v/my_grandfather_ken_middleham_was_a/

Wow. I'm wondering what else is in Ken Middleham's old stuff.

http://i.imgur.com/TD47DRg.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/M59Y0O1.jpg

1. Check your car
2. Check your neck
3. Check your hair
4. Check your bed

Is that damnation alley? Cool!

Btw, LaLaLand let it slip that they will be releasing a CD of the Phase IV film score. I was bummed that the reissue from waxworks was vinyl only so yay

Yeah i forgot to label them
there was one for Phase IV too but it was the same one i think i already posted

Time lapse nature photography and/or mycology enthusiasts should definitely seek out The Creeping Garden, a documentary about the artistic, scientific, computing, and social sides of slime mo(u)ld. I saw it last night and it was GREEEEAT

trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyQqRBJngkY

soundtrack by Jim O'Rourke!

That looks neato but the soundtrack would make me claw my ears off.

So much creepy tension! So much that I would be unbearably agitated. Cool topic though!

Oh man I loooooooved it
The whole experience was extremely soothing

Some people hate cilantro, to each her own :)

The idea of biological computational intelligence--SO FAR OUT, SO NOT THAT FAR AWAY!!! We are living in the science fiction and I want to know more!

So ancient. The cinematography was exceptional as well.

OMG I want to see this NAOW!!!

yeah you will enjoy it. i haven't tried to track down the soundtrack yet but it's at least as effective as A Field in England (although the movie is more traditional in structure)

the people they interview are fascinating, and i also enjoyed the healthy respect for amateur scientists of today and yesterday.

look up the work of heather barnett if you want the art side, and check out the fungarium if you like hidden corners of archives etc http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/collections/fungarium
i also learned about the films of percy smith but there doesn't seem to be much of his stuff online and his end was tragic like david munrow :( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Percy_Smith

in the meantime, the acrobatic fly! (from 1910!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hlocZhNc0M

I got one Christmas present and it was a Hellstrom Chronicle dvd!

Cool!

Awesome avant garde score by lalo schifrin on that.

Bugs they plot to destroy us all

Black Widow is on youtube now!
THE BLACK WIDOW IS A MENACE ON FIVE CONTINENTS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3RE04R2ks

https://youtu.be/TmqGXTl2fzQ

oops apparently this is 10 sec of volvoxes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmqGXTl2fzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThtggIPomoQ

thymol crystals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYTVR9owuAk

BHT crystals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9aI3goikr4

will conclude with this one, obviously the best. snow melts and mushrooms grow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrQKm9uH7hQ

still no wikipedia entry for him in english afaict
this thread continues to pop up as a top search result :-/

Am in zing so cannot see all YouTube titles yet-- is mr toad one of the above???

nope, sorry :(

aw that's ok i will watch all these

most are super short, like 10 sec

i recently went on a trip to visit behind the scenes at the field museum. one of the places i got to see was the room where zillions of beetles clean the bones of birds whose skeletons are getting prepped to be sorted and go into the collection. it was amazing and reminded me of ken middleham.

i don't see that he has gotten any more well known since last i checked but someday i hope to 1) track down his educational films before it is too late if it is not already too late and 2) get some video art assistance and perform some music in front of projections of ken middleham imagery. <--- there it is, if you can help me make it happen lmk! manifest your dreams!

also 4 years ago ilx user "robh" was writing a book -- any updates on that, robh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDElLm1hfSQ

never give up

that's right, never give up!

It finally happened! A band used the black widow film for their own music video. In this case, a band with an extensive backstory named Toiling Midgets. This news courtesy of my Ken Middleham google alert.

https://www.straight.com/music/1331056/toiling-midgets-more-local-you-ever-knew