96 Years Ago
I love perusing older National Geographic magazines. On my first pass, I skip the articles and study the advertisements. I can’t quite explain my fascination, but I think it’s a combination of the artwork, fonts and language used to illustrate whatever product or service one is selling. Together they give me a small glimpse into a bygone era and leave an impression of something that is no more. I came across this ad scanned from the March 1914 issue of National Geographic for Hy-Tex Brick, a product of the Hydraulic Press Brick Company, Largest Manufacturers of Brick Face in...
read moreThe title: “Brick by Chance and Fortune”
“No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.” — Plutarch This was the quote that jumped out at me when I was looking for inspiration for a title for this film. Of course I’ve excerpted it and taken it out of context for my own purposes. But the phrase “brick by chance and fortune” actually has resonance with this project in many ways. So now we have a title. Now on to finish the film! (Oh and the blog design is still a work in...
read moreThe title: "Brick by Chance and Fortune"
“No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune.” — Plutarch This was the quote that jumped out at me when I was looking for inspiration for a title for this film. Of course I’ve excerpted it and taken it out of context for my own purposes. But the phrase “brick by chance and fortune” actually has resonance with this project in many ways. So now we have a title. Now on to finish the film! (Oh and the blog design is still a work in...
read moreThe Plan …
I’m just a little behind on getting this post up, but fortunately thats not a reflection on the pace of the production. The production seems to be moving along well. I’m happy with our pace so far. And I’m exceptionally pleased with the crew that’s assembled around this project. I say it’s assembled, rather than saying something like “I’ve put together” or “I’ve found” because I didn’t really find these people. They came to the project by volunteering. They found me, I only had to have the good sense to take advantage of...
read moreHello world! The Brick Film Starts Here!
This is the first post in the documentation of a journey that will end (hopefully) with a film that everyone involved … that St. Louis can be proud of. This blog will serve as a clearing house of miscellaneous information and production notes as we work towards a finished film. The project? An, as yet, untitled film about brick in St. Louis. A topic that should make sense to many, but others may not see it as an obvious topic. As we are discovering–more than we already knew before starting this project — brick is a big subject, especially in St. Louis which was once the...
read moreAbout Brick By Chance and Fortune
St. Louis is a city with a rich heritage of brick architecture. Home to some of the largest and most innovative clay working companies of the nineteenth century, you can still see some of the finest examples of brick work ever produced all over the city and region. Today the city's brick heritage is under threat by neglect, brick theft and urban renewal.
