Caligari in the Desert (2018) - full transcript

Basically, I am a desert rat.

Never had a telephone, don't have a computer...

The only modern technological device that
I have and enjoy fully is a DVD player, so I watch DVDs.

Something around 40 people live here as permanent residents.

I'm retired, disabled, living on social security.

I can live within my means here because I
don't spend a lot.

It's just a workshop, a menangerie, combination
historical display and place where I mess around.

Once I got into movies, silent movies, I'd
notice the signage.

Signage that appear in movie scenes.

And, signs I really liked, so I had to make my own
replicas of them or do my own versions of them.

They're hand painted.



So I have these little characters that I make
out of styrofoam and paper and cardboard and

glue and plaster and pingpong balls, just
stick them together.

They take less space than signage, and I'm
running out of spaces to put signs.

Most recent one I'm working on now will be
a little three-dimensional "Dr. Caligari".

He'll have his own little booth, and he'll
be made out of styrofoam.

But there'll also be a Caesar, and he won't be
three-dimensional, he'll just be painted on a panel.

My name is Roger Ball and I've lived in Randsburg
25 years, it'll be 26 years next month.

And I came here originally in '91 to go to
work at the mine, the gold mine up on the hill.

The mine closed down in about 2001 and pulled
up sticks and left, but I am still here.

I worked for Rand Mining, and they did not
like my hard hat because of Mickey Mouse and

Rand Mining sign.

But they don't exist anymore, so they can't
complain.

The interest in movies began with local history
interest.

Now, I thought if silent movies were filmed
in Randsburg, it'd be interesting to find out...



...if they existed, because they'd show something
of what Randsburg looked like in the 1920s

or whenever the movies were filmed.

Randsburg originated in 1895 with the discovery
of gold.

That's why the town exists.

In its heyday, say around 1897, there's been
high and low figures for the population.

But say somewhere between two and three thousand
residents.

Miners, workers, storekeepers, dance halls,
saloons, and a couple of churches even.

Other mining towns, you know, old mining towns,
didn't have churches.

Just lots of saloons.

Nowadays, the gold mining has ceased.

But there are still residents who live in
this town and the population is something

around 40 permanent residents.

But there are other people who have bought
houses here for weekend use.

Now, this is an early day school desk for
lower grades small children.

And it's very significant to this town, because
it came from the Randsburg elementary school

which is no longer standing.

It's on loan to me from a 70-year-old resident.

When she was a student, she marked her initials
on the seat back.

This building which is, currently, my workshop,
it's also my home, I live here.

But its origin was 1896.

It was built as a Miner's Supply Store.

I pay rent on, I don't own this building.

I don't own anything.

When I first took up occupancy, it was in
a rather rough condition, because it had not

been used since the end of the '40s, possibly
the beginning of the '50s.

These are new windows, new doors, the floor
has been rebuilt, the ceiling on that side

has been rebuilt.

This building was originally built as a Miner's
Supply Store and progressively over the years,

it later became a grocery store.

Modern for its time.

It had its own freezing compartment that was
added onto the building, with a very complex

machinery in the cellar to keep the storage
unit above the cellar on the first floor cold.

And the machinery, essentially, is still in
the cellar.

Very rusty, very dust and dirt coated.

That probably hasn't been in operation since
the end of the '40s.

This is not a business.

It's my workshop. Beside that it''s my home.

There's nothing for sale.

What's here was done to decorate the walls
in my home.

The greatest fascination with silent movies is that
it's seeing something that began from nothing.

The very beginning of the movies, when they
were born.

And how they developed from the very beginning.

There's a 1930, about '30 or '31 movie, "Polly
of the Circus".

And so, I made a almost three dimensional
character copy of Marion Davies, just because

she's in the movie.

And it's been my first attempt at making something
that moves.

It's a lot of trial and error.

Among the other photographs, there's a photo
of King Vidor, director.

And he has somewhat bearlike features.

So, this little guy is...

...King Veebear.

Randsburg had a movie theatre, which was called
"Rand Theater".

I'm not sure when it originated.

But I know for sure it was there in 1933,
and it existed until the early '50s, when it closed.

It had seating for 250 people.

Now, the movie theatre is gone, and these
two seats and a few movie tickets from the

Rand Theater are all that exists now.

There's still some bubble gum.

There's a lot of things in life that can be
fascinating.

As far as signage goes, that's a childhood
fascination that I never grew out of.

"If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride."

My mom told me that one, which you tell kids
if they keep asking for stuff all the time,

you know: "I want this, I want that."
I'm not a sign painter, I just paint stuff.

Some of the signs I paint are just made up
thoughts.

I just start a sign and make the thing.

And then, other signs I try to make accurate
replicas of signs that I just happen to like.

And then, other signs are inspired by movies.

And others are combinations inspired by movies,
but not replicated, just adapted.

"Fresh Sauerkraut" is a rendition of a sign
that appeared in a movie that was filmed in Trona.

Trona is a town 35 miles from here.

There isn't much of anything that is not known
to the State of California to cause cancer.

"Cats not so clean. Don't wash face. Wash feet.
Wipe feet on face."

That's a saying I borrowed.

It was read in an old desert magazine.

"Black Bug's Blood"

That was a 1930 movie.

It was kinda like a running theme, just a
little running theme that ran through the movie.

One favourite sign, and it's "Ptomanie Annie's
Coffee Pot".

It appeared in a scene taken in a New York City diner
in a movie that was filmed in 1940 or '41.

There are actually very few people who wander in here.

Now, out of that few, even fewer people find
anything interesting.

It's just once in a while certain people drop in and
like what they see, enjoy, get something

out of what they see here.

I painted a sign "Chop House - Fine Dining",
"Dining" mis-spelled.

It was meant to hang out in front of the building
over the door.

Just for people who wanted to take novelty
photographs of themselves under a sign...

...that didn't make sense.

And I'd hung this "Chop House" sign up over
the door outside just to see what it'd look like.

And a car stops across the street with two
people.

They thought it was a Chop House and they
were really hungry.

And when they came inside and saw that this
was not a diner, they were disappointed.

I was a product of the '60s.

In my 20s, I was very much into motorcycles.

I lived in this little Dodge van, in the back of a van,
in a downtown parking lot in a small city.

One block away from the county court house.

And in this little van, I also stored and
worked on a 1961 Triumph Thunderbird which

I rebuilt in that van and lived with.

So I was pretty dedicated to motorcycles for
all a decade and I'd like to go on solo tours,

mostly the desert, I was always fascinated
with the desert.

1986, 1987 or so, I took a vacation from a lumberyard
that I worked at in Northern California,

and ended up in Mojave desert.

I just stayed here in the desert, living in
the desert, since that time on.

And then got jobs here, my last company job
was actually here in the desert working for

a gold mine as an equipment operator.

That's some years in the past, too.

So, now, here I am.

Life just progressed.

Change being a perpetual thing.

And I find now that I'm not 21 anymore.

Somehow, I got to be 64 and actually survived,
somehow.

Strange.

Having gotten older, I'm no longer able to
do things I used to do.

And carpentry and masonry and all that, welding,
is pretty much over with.

But I still need to work with my hands and
have something to do.

So, I came up with the idea of combining the
things that I enjoy: Working with my hands,

old movies.

Essentially, two things that I enjoy most.

So, I started working on small figures.

With the intention to do something very new
and different, something that I'd never done

before, a challenge.

I want to make my own video.

The little figures that I make, they're actors,
I just don't have to pay them.

My video will be titled:

"Dr. Caligari's Carnival Show".

Which is billed off of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari",
a 1919 German expressionist film.

I got a computer to do editing, and a camcorder,
two things that I never had before.

A whole new world, and consequently, the adventure.

I'm from the age of radioes and televisions
that had vacuum tubes.

I never imagined getting a computer until the idea of
making a video necessitating a computer.

And that's the sole purpose of getting a computer and
learning how to use it is - so I can make a movie.

Computer and video cameras, now, working with
them is totally from scratch.

At the age of 65, this is Neanderthal man meets iMac.

I'm going about making a video using methods
that were used by the early cameramen before

they became "cinematographers".

There is acts, like vaudville acts, that you
can see on a stage, just non-connected with

the others, that they're just entertainers.

I am very partial to surrealism, having been
a product of the '60s.

A favorite artist is Salvador Dalì, a favorite
photographer Man Ray.

So, my video will be built on surrealism and expressionism.

Very little money is spent on the actual
characters and props.

My performers, the characters, the sets and
props, are pretty much just scraps, bits and

pieces of discarded materials.

These little benches are my own rendition
of props that appeared in a 1926 movie titled

"Made for Love".

The eyes open and close.

This one turns the head.

This one bows.

These two operate the arms.

And these two operate the legs.

The story behind "Maxine the Maidmer" in the video.

The idea for her was directly influenced
by one of many, many favourite movies.

The 1960 film titled "Night Tide", about a girl who
does a fake mermaid underwater performance...

...in a carinval there on the pier.

When I was a kid, early teens, there was
this one woman who I didn't like.

And her name was Maxine. She was an older woman,
kind of snippy.

Well, I didn't like Maxine, but I liked the name.

So, I made the name likable by naming a character
that's likable to me - I made her myself.

So, I made a nice character for the
nice name "Maxine".

When she is behind the curtain
and the curtain starts to rise...

...two feet would be visible standing on the floor.

And then they would life out of visual range,
and then the curtain would continue to rise...

...to show her leg where it is now.

Since this leg only moves at the knee.

This is Maxine's half double stand-in.

Another part of Maxine. And this was
made as a copy...

...so that she could put her head through the curtain,
before the opening of the curtain.

So her head would appear and then
her eye would move back and forth.

This will be parts to the audience that
are viewing Maxine on the stage.

So, only their upper bodies
will be in the video.

Here will be cameraman Sam, and he
will be filming Maxine on the stage.

There'll be these five characters on this side
of the cameraman...

...and then five other characters on this side.

And then, behind these five...

...there'll be four behind these to
make it look like a full house.

The eye sockets are empty because
each one will have two sets of eyes.

One will be small, and another will be larger.

Their eyes will pop out for a certain scene
in Maxine's video.

And this is a version of Buster Keaton.

And this is a version of Dorothy Burgess.

And this one is kind of like a all-purpose leopard.

And the sailor could be any sailor.

Cardboard, styrofoam, wood, plaster,
paint, some are made with wires.

OK, this was printed to practice
on a laptop computer.

Just for fun as an addition to the title boards
in Maxine's video. Maxine the Maidmer.

It was just kinda like "bait" to reel her in.
To be a part of Dr. Caligari's carnival show.

The only part that was meant to be legible was just
the word "CONTRACT".

And then words that didn't need
to be legible underneath it.

Just to have an appearance as an actual contract.
And just for fun I typed in all the rules...

...and regulations that an imaginary company
demanded of the actress in a contract.

When I first discovered silent movies, the earliest
movies I began watching were D. W. Griffith movies.

The early ones when he was working
for "American Biograph".

In those early days, American Biograph used
their initials placed in their films...

...as kind of a symbol for copyright.
And so, somewhere in the sets, the indoor sets,...

...there'd be their American Biograph "AB" symbol.

Instead of "AB" for "American Biograph",
which was theirs...

...this one is a reversed "R" for Roger, that's my
first name, and "B" for Ball, my second name.

I think this is something that will consume
my years ahead.

Movies that I like I watch many times.

Just trying to figure out what the cameraman
is doing and how.

And appreciating some techniques, and getting
an idea maybe they could have done it better

a different way if they weren't on time,
schedule or budget.

I watch movies over again, just to concentrate on what's
going on in the background, back scenery.

I like in the old movies that there is the
hand painted sets.

And, once again.

Trying to make focus, getting an idea of just what the
director is doing, and how he's doing it.

But then, at the same time, I figure out the
editing, too.

You know, editing, how it's done.

And even movies that I don't like initially
I'll watch again just to get a second opinion.

But favorite movies I watch over and over and over again.