Community: TV director’s short honored at film festival

A curiosity of how early filmmakers went about honing their craft inspired Mark Kirkland to create his second film festival movie, “The Moving Picture Co. 1914.” It’s a silent film that tells the story of a 1914 film company making silent films.

The Burbank resident took two years to write, shoot and edit the film, working around his full-time gig as a director on the animated TV series “The Simpsons.” He’s been on the show for 25 years, has directed more episodes than anyone else — 77 — and has won three Emmys.

The 22-minute short will be screened during the sixth annual Burbank International Film Festival, which will be held Sept. 3 to 7 at the AMC Theatres and other local venues. For tickets, visit BurbankFilmFest.org.

Kirkland’s “1914” is scheduled between 8 and 9 p.m. on Sept. 5.

“This is the Los Angeles premiere and I’m happy that it’s in Burbank because this is where we made it,” he said.

Burbank businesses contributing to the film’s production were FotoKem, a post-production facility; Copy Central, which processed promotional materials; and Base Construction, which designed and built the set in Kirkland’s backyard.

Some of the footage was shot with antique cameras and 100-year-old lenses, he said. FotoKem transferred the film into digital media. The rest of the movie was photographed with digital cameras because film was too expensive, he said.

“The Simpsons” editor Don Barrozo and Kirkland did the editing and cinematographer Roberto E. Lepe added layers of film grain, blending camera sources and de-stressed images, to look like period film footage.

Greg Kellogg composed and recorded the score, while Kirkland played vintage clarinets, saxophones and slide whistles.

The film has received the Burbank festival’s President’s Innovation Award, which was created for a film or filmmaker whose vision is outside the box or nontraditional, said Jeff Rector, president of the festival.

“He actually used cameras from the era to photograph the movie, and I think that’s pretty innovative, that’s exciting and that’s pretty cool,” he said. “It’s the technical process that he used to make his movie that we are honoring and that he’s a terrific filmmaker in his own right.”

Kirkland is a curator for the American Society of Cinematographers’ antique-camera collection and helps other industry leaders build camera collections.

“I started reading about the history of hand-cranked cameras — who made them and how they were used,” he said.

Producing short films based on his own ideas is a change of pace from working on other people’s projects and it’s a hobby he shares with wife, Letty.

He wrote a six-page story and was going to shoot it with a hand-cranked camera, but Letty encouraged him to create more of a story, especially if they were going to put their own money into the project. It took Kirkland a year to complete the final script.

Special appearances are made in the film by “Weird Al” Yankovic and Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

Kirkland’s dad, Douglas, a professional photographer, made his acting debut in the film. The senior Kirkland worked for Look magazine and photographed silent film stars Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford in the 1960s.

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JOYCE RUDOLPH can be contacted at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.