Christopher Chapman Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Christopher Chapman
Directing
Biography
Christopher Chapman CM RCA (January 24, 1927 – October 24, 2015) was a Canadian film writer, director, editor and cinematographer. Best known for his award-winning 1967 short film A Place to Stand, he also pioneered the multi-dynamic image technique used in films and television shows. Over his career, Chapman made approximately 40 films for television, the National Film Board of Canada, theatrical release, tourism organizations, science centres, and international expositions. Chapman's first film, The Seasons, won the Canadian Film Award (CFA) for Film of the Year in 1954. In 1965 Christopher and Francis Chapman jointly won the Canadian Film Award for Best Colour Cinematography at the 17th Canadian Film Awards for Expedition Bluenose. Another of his films to win the CFA Film of Year was his 1967 short, A Place to Stand, which also received two Academy Award nominations in 1968, winning the one for Best Live-Action Short. The film, commissioned by the Government of Ontario, featured Chapman's innovative multi-dynamic image technique (or 'the Brady Bunch effect'), wherein moving panes of moving images are used within the single context of the screen. Over a year of filming, Chapman shot 70 kilometres (43 miles) of film, which he then edited into 18 minutes, though the images moving across the screen were the equivalent of an hour and three-quarters of film. The process exhausted Chapman and he was still unsure of using it until its first screening occurred: "There were a couple of stenographers, who were eating their lunch watching the screening, and they were agog," Chapman said. "But I wanted to run. I was exhausted and thought it was a failure, but a chap grabbed me as I was going out the door. He'd been standing at the back of the screening room and said he was blown away by it. It was Steve McQueen." In 1968, McQueen starred in The Thomas Crown Affair, directed by Norman Jewison, a film that used Chapman's split-screen technique. Jewison added the multiple-image sequences into the film after seeing A Place to Stand. Over the years since, many films and television series have used the technique, with the most recent known to be the American series 24, which, by using the technique, documented the simultaneous actions of its characters. In 1970, Chapman directed a film for the Hudson’s Bay Company, called Impressions, as part of HBC's 300th anniversary celebrations. Impressions, another film of Chapman’s to use his multiple-dynamic technique, follows the HBC's 300-year history using both historic and modern images: iconic images of the fur trade are paired with modern department stores; scenes of farming are shown with oil production are seen, and so on. In 1984, Francis and Christopher Chapman collaborated on a three-dimensional nature film for the nascent Science North.
Filmography Movies
Production
Kelly
Thirteen-year-old Kelly travels from Los Angeles to Alaska to visit her father after her parents divorce.
The Persistent Seed
A film by Christopher Chapman, known for his lyrical films of countryside and wilderness. He turns his colour camera on the growing city and there finds cheering proof that despite concrete and bulldozer, the persistent seed prevails. The film is without commentary and the camera work is a constant delight, for Chapman has the gift of catching life smiling wherever he may look. Film without words.
The Persistent Seed
A film by Christopher Chapman, known for his lyrical films of countryside and wilderness. He turns his colour camera on the growing city and there finds cheering proof that despite concrete and bulldozer, the persistent seed prevails. The film is without commentary and the camera work is a constant delight, for Chapman has the gift of catching life smiling wherever he may look. Film without words.
A Place to Stand
An Academy Award winning multi-image large-format film showcasing life in Ontario without narration or dialogue but accompanied by the classic song "A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow (Ontari-ari-ari-o!)" Produced for the Ontario Department of Economics and Development, it premiered at the Ontario Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal.
The Annanacks
This short documentary depicts the formation in 1959 of the first successful co-operative in an Inuit community in Northern Québec. The film describes how, with other Inuit of the George River community, the Annanacks formed a joint venture that included a sawmill, a fish-freezing plant and a small boat-building industry.
Volcano
A moving record of a natural disaster, Volcano documents the effect of a sudden volcanic eruption on the tiny island of Haimaey, off the coast of Iceland. Blasts of flame, clouds of black smoke and showers of rock erupt from the screen in a poignant portrait of a stricken town.
Volcano
A moving record of a natural disaster, Volcano documents the effect of a sudden volcanic eruption on the tiny island of Haimaey, off the coast of Iceland. Blasts of flame, clouds of black smoke and showers of rock erupt from the screen in a poignant portrait of a stricken town.
Volcano
A moving record of a natural disaster, Volcano documents the effect of a sudden volcanic eruption on the tiny island of Haimaey, off the coast of Iceland. Blasts of flame, clouds of black smoke and showers of rock erupt from the screen in a poignant portrait of a stricken town.
Magic Molecule
A film showing the new world created by the techniques and processes of the plastics industry. Transmuted from coal, oil or wood, synthetic substances can make thousands of new products, from silk threads to furniture. With a light and lively treatment, this film explores the colorful, versatile world of these synthetic materials.
Magic Molecule
A film showing the new world created by the techniques and processes of the plastics industry. Transmuted from coal, oil or wood, synthetic substances can make thousands of new products, from silk threads to furniture. With a light and lively treatment, this film explores the colorful, versatile world of these synthetic materials.