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Adam Cooley (director)

"[Adam Cooley's films] are an abstraction so far from the original idea of 'underground cinema' that it's like light from a dead star. Throw away all preconcieved notions of the idea of film [...] Mr. Cooley is a true no-budget auteur in every sense of the word [...] Brilliant." - Josh Smith, zine writer

"...whacked! LOVE the sounds..." - Giuseppe Andrews, actor/director

"Artistically challenging [...] provocative [...] interesting [...] Cooley is film-producer that deserves and needs to further continue and refine his heightened visions." - Terrance Aldridge, critic

"Incredible [...] mindblowing [...] genius." - J.M. Liebenau, director/label owner

"A filmmaker well worth following." - Russell Hedges, University of East London


Add me on vimeo, add me on youtube, add me on myspace, download my stuff on archive.org!

Hello. This is the page for me, the "underground" "no-budget" "director" Adam Cooley. I make concoctions that introduce the concept of formless paradigm shifts while dabbling largely in phallocentrism and represesed dogmatic schemata. My films have been screened at a few film festivals, to positive reviews. On this page you will find downloads and information for my films. Feel free to copy my stuff and distribute in any way you see fit; put on your site, put on torrents, burn for friends, have screenings for, etc.


NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS:

THE NO TRILOGY will be out on DVD by Placenta Records soon. CLICK HERE for a trailer for it!... MAN OF THE GRAVEYARD MAN is on DVD by Strange Vistas! Just finished BLAZE (SERIES 1). Will have a screening for my films in Bloomington probably in March 2010, to coincide with the release of the No Trilogy DVD. I will have my artwork on sell there as well as DVD's. Will soon be starting working on my 4th film, ME MYSELF AND MY THIRD EYE. More news soon.


BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

I write, direct, produce, animate, edit, shoot, score, light, and act in all my work so far (with a few occasional collaborators). I started making films in May of 2009, first with a lo-fi animated series and continuing to work with lo-fi with absolutely $0 in the budget on my first film, CAN'T OR WON'T NOT, which was filmed in 5 days and has been screened at a few film festivals. I work extremely quickly and don't stop to really edit myself. My work is made using every technique imagineable, from datamoshing to stop-motion animation, and everything in between. I use extremely primitive tools. Almost everything is edited with MSPaint and with Windows Movie Maker to put everything together. I also mostly edit sounds in Sound Recorder. The digital camera I'm using to film with is a $24 Jazz DV151, a primitive and crappy kid's camera. Most sound is recorded with the camera mic; overdubs are done with a 10-year-old computer mic. Final editing is done in VirtualDub, a 1mb freeware program not usually used for film editing. So far, I have not spent a single dollar on making anything I have made, unless you count the electricity I'm using to edit this stuff on a computer. Almost everything that would require money has been borrowed. If I can't borrow it, I just don't use it. Also, there are mistakes galore (sounds not syncing up correctly, scenes cutting off at the wrong time and then starting later), but I usually don't stop to fix them or think about them really. There is quite a bit of animation in my work. I am constantly trying to experiment, and trying to be as non-pretentious as possible about it. I realize that not all experiments will be "successful" but there's no such thing as a failed experiment if we learn something from the experiment. By viewing my films, you will see someone who is constantly trying new things in an age where everything has been done. That's important, I guess. As for the appeal of my work, I dunno. Some say it's philisophical, some love its lo-fi trappings, some like its fast pace, most people just like the weird droney sounds. Whatever -- there's something for all! As for my influences? Takeshi Kitano, Giuseppe Andrews, Damon Packard, Shuji Terayama, Shozin Fukui, Sogo Ishii, Shinya Tsukamoto, Jean-Luc Godard, James Fotopolous, Toshio Matsumoto, and David Lynch.






DIRECTED BY ADAM COOLEY:

animated>>>>>>>>>>>

:
- MAN OF THE GRAVEYARD MAN (2009, 10 episodes, 36:13)
This was my "animated" series about a guy who was a former folk singer who retreated to the graveyard in his mind. Most of the animation is just still drawings of me or people I know, and there's a few live-action (done with a webcam) segments as well. Very off-the-cuff stuff, very weird, with no thought put into it, but I tried not to make anything about it cliché. That was the big thing... throw out anything that was too obvious. I mean, it's easy to throw random weirdness at the screen, you know? But it's difficult to make any of it make "sense". I guess I wanted this to make sense. Does it? I dunno. I did the entire series in 3 weeks, usually spending about an hour or two per episode. One episode is a bonafide hit, but only because it has a cat playing keyboard. That episode in particular was a joke, called filler, that was about HOW the episode was going to be popular because there was a cat playing keyboard. And, sure enough, it was. The lesson to be learned is that you can easily be popular as long as you are obvious and safe. Which is sorta an obvious and safe point to make.

Stream the entire series:
here!?!

Download the entire series:
here? or here!



- BLAZE THE POT SMOKING DEER [SERIES 1] (2009, 21:55)
This series was made with my friend Sea Monster, who supplied most of the art and some of the story ideas. We set up a youtube account for it here and a myspace page for it here. This is a fun animated series, completely different than the last few things I've done, and it shouldn't be taken too seriously. Usual doses of absurdity, surrealism, and more. You know the deal. The show is primarily about a pot-smoking superhero deer but it's not a pro-drug show (or an anti-drug show, for that matter), the show is about existentialism, politics, surfing, and being ridiculous. This is the most fun I've ever had working on a project, and it breaks the 4th wall every few seconds. A bit more fun than the stuff I usually do, but with a quiet and subtle darkness underneath as usual. Will probably continue this in the future.

Stream the series:
Episode 0
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6


Download:
127mb Avi


video>>>>>>>>>>>

The No Trilogy

The No Trilogy is a series of films I did in the Summer of 2009 to the Fall of 2009. They are intensely personal films and are meant to be viewed one after the other, if possible. They deal with disconnection, disintegration, disorder -- in that order. Here is a trailer for the entire trilogy.

- NO TRILOGY PART 1: CAN'T OR WON'T NOT (2009, 42:03)
This film was filmed in 7 days. It was inspired by Godard's "Pierrot Le Fou", which is why the colors are so sickeningly vibrant and saturated. I took some pictures the first two days of "shooting" that I found interesting, and incorporated some people I work with in videos from the 2-minute-video capturing part of a crappy borrowed camera. I then made a "story" around the pictures I took and videos I shot, and I spent the next 5 days doing some stop-motion and shooting stuff with a webcam, and each day represents a 'part' in the film. I've been told that this is one psychotic work. I do know that I've personally watched it myself a few times and I still see things I don't remember filming. This film is very rough around the edges, as I had no idea what I was doing (I still don't). It has an energy to it that is unexplainable and very appealing. A very lonely quality is present in this film, probably because I was housewatching by myself and working on this film just to pass the time. Probably should be in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the cheapest film to ever screen at film festivals (including Tromadance Indiana 2009 -- where it was voted as one of the top 3 films of the festival -- and at the Westside Welding and Machine in Vancouver, WA and will be screening in some other places soon, supposedly). Features a Charlie Chaplin cameo.

Stream the film, in 5 parts:
pt1
pt2
pt3
pt4
pt5

Download the film:
270mb avi!

- NO TRILOGY PART 2: NOTHING IS MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN NOTHING (2009, 48:46)
Shortly after finishing Can't or Won't Not, my girlfriend of 7 years told me she was moving away. The move may be for a while, or may be for a short time; regardless, it was a big change, and to cope with it I immediately went to work on my next film. I shot many scenes with her, but the bulk of the film is a large bunch of shorts I posted on youtube. The shorts aren't really connected, except I worked on them all from the time knowing she was going to be leaving to the day she actually left. The idea is that there might not be continuity between the shorts, but there is quite a lot of the same themes and ideas explored in all of them. This has been submitted to Tromadance. Features Michael Jackson and Alfred Hitchcock cameos.

Stream the film, in 6 parts:
pt1
pt2
pt3
pt4
pt5
pt6

Download the film:
326mb avi!

- NO TRILOGY PART 3: NO REASON TO EXIST (2009, 45:45)
This film is about the struggle to love yourself, even after you realize that there's really no reason to exist. The title of the film is a play on words -- it's me saying, "hey! There's no reason for this film to exist, either!" I mean, does the world really need another grainy, black and white, no-budget, experimental film? Maybe not. I gurantee you've never seen anything like this, though. It has been my most well-recieved work. I actually designed my own video game specifically for a 10 second dream sequence in this film. Features a cameo from John Wayne.

Stream the film, in 6 parts:
pt1
pt2
pt3
pt4
pt5
pt6

Download the film:
304mb avi direct link
archive.org page


CURRENTLY IN POST-PRODUCTION!!!!!!! - ME, MYSELF, AND MY THIRD EYE (2010)
This will be half-animation/half-live action and will focus on 6 unrelated stories, involving skeleton mask rape, alcoholic vomit alcohol, classic rock riffs done acapella style, having sex with electrical wall sockets, and more fun stuff. Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!
Will begin filming soon!!

Other Works/Collaborations:
- Fracture [this film was directed by Kyle Willey, and I helped out with directing a few scenes, with some story ideas, helped with the soundtrack, and was the main actor in this film; this film exists in various different versions but the most widely seen version is available from Small Doses for ordering] (55:13)
- "Found in Trash" [short film for Strange Vistas VHS compilation] (00:59)
- Old Masters "Jesus Shook My Hand" music video (01:58)
- "Orange Woman 1" [short film for Strange Vistas VHS compilation] (00:40)
- "Orange Woman 2" [unreleased/destroyed] (01:50)
- Singularity Session [this film was directed by J.M. Liebenau, and I contributed a few visual effects; contact Strange Vistas for a copy!] (09:00)



PRESS


>>>>>on the topic of CAN'T OR WON'T NOT:
[note: this text is written after a wrap-up of Terrence's favorite films screened at Tromadance] Columbus-native Adam Cooley�s �Can�t or Won�t Not� was entirely produced, conceived and executed as a visual, computer-generated and modified experiment by the 23-year-old self-taught director. It was, perhaps the most artistically challenging and provocative film shown during TromaDance. [note: this text is written as the first thoughts on Can't or Won't Not] However, it was the next film, �Can�t or Won�t Not,� which proved itself to be a surprisingly, experimental gem of a film. This digital, computer art themed film was created by a 23-year-old Columbus, Indiana native, Adam Cooley. This, his first movie, was a visually promising , color-filled work that played upon a fusion of pop-culture and computer-generated effects. It was a challenging and interesting exploration of virtual and real life that sadly needed tighter dialogue and a little more variation. All-in-all, Cooley is film-producer that deserves and needs to further continue and refine his heightened visions. - Terrence Aldridge

>>>>>on the topic of NOTHING IS MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN NOTHING:
Adam Cooley's collage film Nothing is More Beautiful than Nothing (2009) possesses a style and energy similar to those made by the likes of Stan Vanderbeek and Jeff Keen in the 1960s. Crucially though, that energy has been translated into something which is ultimately unique to Cooley himself. So while Nothing ... is effective in forging a valuable link with its ancestors, it certainly can't be reduced to them. It remains to be seen where Cooley takes his vision: how he focuses it; what he uses it to 'say'. However, viewed as a sketch or a work in progress or a suggestion, Nothing... indicates the arrival of a filmmaker well worth following in order to find out. - Russell Hedges, University of East London

>>>>>on the topic of NO REASON TO EXIST:
"The most watchable and well-made no-budget film I've probably ever seen, No Reason to Exist by Adam Cooley was conceived with literally $0 but the grainy black and white high-contrasted visuals look like a million bucks in this context. This whole film is mostly a one man show and is very loose and bizarre but has a unique and interesting energy that makes the entire production feel fresh and compelling. Cooley seems to enjoy playing around with genre conventions and cliches and I smelled a Godard reference or two in here (aside from the film actually being dedicated to Mr. French New Wave himself). A compelling, fresh, easy-to-watch film with a perfect length (just under 46 minutes). Cooley is truely gifted and a true original, something most filmmakers can't easily claim, it will be interesting to see what else he does in the future. - Josh Smith, Ink and Dagger zine



CONTACT/OTHER CRAP:



For right now, if you want an actual copy of any of my work for whatever reason, shoot me an email to mradamcooley@hotmail.com and we'll work out something. It will be very cheap.

Also, please check out Strange Vistas, who I contribute videos for.

This page will look better, maybe, eventually.

I also make music fulltime with my band Scissor Shock. If you'd like a CD of that stuff, email me.

FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE MY WORK IN ANY WAY YOU SEE FIT. YOU CAN PAYPAL ME DONATIONS TO THE SAME ADDRESS AS I GIVE ABOVE IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HELP, WHICH WOULD BE APPRECIATED BUT I HIGHLY DOUBT ANYONE CARES THAT MUCH. THANKS FOR LOOKING AT THIS PAGE, AND THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT.

This isn't the bottom of the page.