COFFEE & BEER - TO PROCESS YOUR FILM WITH

While working out of my favorite coffee shop, Van Leeuwen, I overheard a customer talking about how they sustainably process film - with coffee and beer! Curious as I am, I inquired further and from that, I managed to organize a private demo in one of our favorite locations, Gowanus Darkroom!Rachel of Gowanus Darkroom was nice enough to accommodate Steve Cossman (founder of Mono No Aware) who hosted a private demo session for me where, Mikhaila Quezada-Freda, a Cooper Union student currently in work-study program with the org would plunge her 16mm footage she shot of her grandmother of 89 years into baths of pure drinkables to develop them into film!

Essential Ingredients:

Contradicting all that I've ever learned about hardcore chemical film developing, this sustainable process was inspired by the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and Dagie Brundert was an early adopter of caffenol processing. Steve was inspired by both their methodologies and has been developing his own process over the last 9 years that Mono No Aware has been working at and will be teaching very soon at Gowanus Darkroom!

Steve explained some interesting properties of both coffee and beer when used in processing:

-Caffenol yields higher contrast results

-Beer provides lower contrast results where all tones take on soft variations of grey

Enjoying the results of both, Steve developed his own processing using BOTH coffee AND beer which you'll find in here in my photo essay!After mixing the natural ingredients (and offering up a six pack of Brooklyn's finest to the film gods), we head into the darkroom!Lights off - magic happens!And the film was successfully processed. Yes, with coffee and beer!Here's a very first edit of the foootage that we processed together or Mikhaila's grandmother!

And here are two special filmmaking workshops coming up -

MONO NO AWARE FILMMAKING WORKSHOPS AT GOWANUS DARKROOM

OCTOBER 17th - SURFACE TECHNIQUES 11-4pm

In this intensive one-day workshop participants will be introduced to modern movements in film/photography/painting/printmaking and the application of adapted techniques to the film surface. After screening and discussion, participants will receive hands-on demonstrations of; how to use brushes with softened emulsion, steel wool, indian ink, reticulation to the point of emulsion dripping over itself and will cover the application/usage of the mordancage solution for motion picture film. This workshop would survey techniques ranging from destructive to constructive, with emulsion being scraped away or reapplied or smeared, and with techniques like drawing and painting on film.

Led by October's Connectivity Through Cinema presenting artist Stephen Broomer.

OCTOBER 25th - LIGHTING INTERIORS FOR B/W FILM 11-5pm
In this intensive one-day workshop, participants will learn lighting techniques for shooting interiors on 16mm B/W film. Hands-on lighting set-ups will demonstrate safe and proper use of light equipment both professional and DIY. The workshop will also focus on the role of the gaffer on set, how to look at light, how to use a light meter, and how to use lighting to influence a narrative. Participants will work in small groups to create various “looks” to be shot on 16mm during the workshop. Test shots will be processed and projected immediately in the darkroom. Final reel will be sent to the lab for processing. All materials & equipment are included. The group reel will be presented after the conclusion of the course at our screening party.
Led by Instructor Daniel April

I urge you to come to the dark side and take some classes!

Gowanus Darkroom Class Schedule

Expose yourself,

xErin

Rachel shot a roll of black and white film and developed it later that day with the same coffee/beer recipe! Check out some of her lovely black and white shots-

Thanks, Rachel for sharing these great shots!

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