Some additions/modifications may occur to the below, as Otis’s filmography is a sometimes wily creature in modest flux. But the below represents the most accurate and complete thus far, with information and emendation from Jim himself. Some of Jim’s notes here derive from his initial responses to my archival/practical questions, which may explain their anecdotal and explanatory nature.
SHORT FILMS FÜR DIE ENGELMÄNNER (1975)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 12.5m total
Comprising:
-Dandy Lion König
-Tabletop
-House Holes
-Objects
-Chomsky
This title was bestowed upon this grouping of early films by Jim at my suggestion in 2021, upon the occasion of their digitization.
EIN BAUM FÜR DIE ENGELMÄNNER (1976)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 18fps, 2m
Blown up to 16mm in 1992, and dated 1992 at that time, due to the filmmaker’s feeling at that time that a blowup was a significant enough change of the work to warrant a re-dating. He has since decided against this idea, and so the 1976 date is correct. This film was originally part of the “Short Films für die Engelmänner” reel.
ACTIVITY’S RESIDUE (1976)
Super 8, color, 24fps w/ sound on tape, 3.5m
Soundtrack on tape consisted of a recording of the piece “Continuum” by Ligeti, and the tape is currently missing (although the recording used is apparently this one).
STRAFKOLONIE (1978)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 2.5m
“Shot in 1975 or 1976, edited in 1978. Shot in the fallow garden of the abandoned apartment house where I lived, nearly squatted.” (J.O.)
BELLS (1978)
16mm, bw, sound, 6m
“‘Bells’ could safely be tossed as a student experiment. I was new to 16mm. But, oh well, there it is.” (J.O.)
A TRUE KENNING (1980)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 2.5m
DRILLED LETTER COLOR CONE (1980)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 7m
FRIENDS OF THE FORM (1980)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent, 30sec
“I’ll get elements to you eventually. It’s the first of the “binary branching” computer films, predating ‘GRIDROSE’. Brief, simple but rich. I’d grown to think it slight, but now pivotal. Ken Jacobs once attempted a Nervous System piece with 2 prints of it. (It highlights a curious effect available to the recording technology: a 35mm camera pointed at a small vector screen whereupon I programmed a moving point of light to draw lines. Commands: OPEN SHUTTER, POSITION POINT (of light), MOVE POINT (resulting in a line drawn on the frame), POSITION POINT, MOVE POINT (resulting in another line), etc, CLOSE SHUTTER, NEW FRAME). Note that 2 crossed lines expose the point of their intersection twice. ‘Friends of the Form’ coalesced 1024 (?) lines into one point, resulting in gross blow out over exposed glowing blob. This cannot be done with modern, conventional, fastidious raster systems.)” (J.O.)
TRIPTYCH (1980)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 22m
Comprising:
-Foregone Conclusion
-Edit Sync
-Concluding Cone
THREE STUDIES (1980)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 1.5m
“If I remember rightly ‘Three Studies’ comprises three of my attempts to harness (pseudo)randomness. I’d made 5 such, chosen 2 to use in ‘Calypso’s Cloak’, and bundled the remaining 3 as ‘Three Studies’.” (J.O.)
“Three Studies is black and white, but was reduced to 16mm color negative only because (if I remember rightly) the lab could no longer get the particular b/w stock I had been using. The technician felt this color neg could produce the dense blacks I required. It’s b/w.” (J.O.)
BAGATELLE (1981)
16mm, bw, sound, 1.5m
MEMORIED RANDOM WALK (1981)
35mm, bw, silent 24fps, 1.5m
The filmmaker’s first discrete/complete computer generated film, although it was never reduced to 16mm or screened.
“‘Memoried Random Walk’ was the first computer-generated film I made. The concepts behind it were more interesting than the visuals.” (J.O.)
GRIDROSE (1981)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 2m
JACOBS’ LADDER (1981)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 4m
TOROIDAL FOREST (1981)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 4m
WATER TREE (1981)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 2m
ON YOUR OWN (1981)
16mm, bw, sound, 2.5m
The year given on the film is 1984, but the filmmaker has confirmed from his own files that it is definitively 1981, and the year appearing on the film was guessed at and added casually some years later.
J (1981)
Super 8, color, silent 18fps, 1m
This film was possibly entitled “subauspice” initially, per labeling of original box, though the filmmaker does not remember this title.
HEXES (1982)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 3m
HE LIVES THERE (1982)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 2.5m
NO ART OF MEMORY (1982)
16mm, color, sound, 3m
THE AGONBITE OF INWIT (1983)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 8m
HEXES 2 (1984)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 3m
DEPOSIT OF FAITH (1984)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 11m
Comprising:
-Good Faith
-Bad Faith
-Justification by Faith
FROM THE FAMILY OF EGGS (1984)
35mm/16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 8m
EASTER BLUES (1986)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 4m
OMINOUS PYRAMID (1986)
16mm, bw, silent 24fps, loop
BOOSHKA (1987)
16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 30 second loop
FOR MOGRA DEV (1987)
16mm, bw, silent 24fps, 7.5m
CALYPSO’S CLOAK (1987)
16mm, color, sound, 2.5m
OBSERVATIONS IN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY (1990)
16mm, color, silent 24fps, 2m
MESSENGER 48 (1990)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 3m
ROT LIGH (1990)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 1m
MT. SOPRIS AND THE CATTLE CREEK ANTICLINE (1992)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 7.5m
CARTER JACKSON’S COTTONWOOD (1992)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 5m
ASH AND APPLE (1994)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 2m
HE WAITED FOR DAYS (1994)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 3m
O PLACES, O TREES! (1995)
Super 8, color, silent 24fps, 12.5m
VERVIELFÄLTIGUNG (1996)
16mm, bw, sound, 4m
UPPER BLUE LAKE (1996)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 12m
FAMILY DINNERS (1997)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps/various soundtracks, 7.5m
ENGLEWOOD/COTTONWOOD (1998)
Super 8/16mm, color, silent 24fps, 4m
(the daily compromise of) MY ENMESHMENT (1999)
16mm, bw & color, sound, 7m
COMMON KNOWLEDGE (1999)
16mm, color, sound, 2m
WE AND I (2001)
16mm, bw, silent 18fps, 8m
“I do not recall exactly how the original roll for We and I came to me. I worked at CU’s Film Studies, long before it became an academic department. [It was part of the NAMAC network and also one of the sites for receiving programs of weirdo art films (run out of Pittsburg?).] So many films passed through my hands.
“(BTW, I do recall that once, having ordered clear 16mm leader, the supplier included an odd old film for public schools on getting a job. I saw promise in it, so bought it from Film Studies at the clear leader rate and distilled On Your Own.)
“But I do remember noting that the home movie was taken in Boulder. The football team is the CU Buffs, the parade was on Pearl Street in front of the Boulder county courthouse seemingly as part of Pow Wow Days (When Pow Wow Rodeo Ruled the Roost in Boulder – GetBoulder.com ). I contacted the Boulder Historical Society thinking they’d be the most appropriate repository, but they showed no interest. So rather more to save this artifact than to pad my oeuvre, I claimed, titled, signed and printed it. The title reflects the conflation of the personal and the public so evident in the footage.” (J.O.)
THE LAST BITE (2003)
16mm, bw, sound, 2.5m
MISCELLANEOUS/UNCERTAIN/UNFINISHED/TBD
BAGATELLE 2 (1981)
16mm, bw, sound
This exists only as raw material, and was intended for editing by the filmmaker, who never did so. So it is unfinished and unreleased.
“It consists, I believe, of three prints of the same graphic imagery each with the optical sound offset by a different amount. My intent was to intercut the 3 versions. So until I’m inspired to revisit this and request it back, let it be provisionally ‘Bagatelle 2, in progress’ or if that be unreasonably hopeful, ‘Bagatelle 2, unfinished’. Its boring title is indication of its unfinished, unreleased status.” (J.O.)
SNIPPETS
WYOMING
INDANCE
“Wyoming and Indance are 16mm, color, computer-generated, ~1987”
LEAF
Filmed on Super 8, the material labeled as “Leaf” may or may not be an actual discrete film, but it comprises material used at least in part for HEXES 2.
LIGHTSTRUCK 