"Keep The Home Fires Burning" - Film (2008, 8 mins)
RESTORED!! --- A short 16mm experimental film about my family's war history, created on an optical printer with original stereo soundtrack (remixed & remastered).
“Keep the Home Fires Burning”(Director's Cut, 2008) | 8-Minute Short Film | 16mm Stereo RESTORED!
Synopsis:
'Keep the Home Fires Burning' is a short film about duty and loss as seen in the home movies of a military family. Focusing on fathers and sons, the filmmaker mixes the voices and imagery of three generations, illuminating the effects of war on veterans and their children.
Director’s Statement
Keep the Home Fires Burning" (2008) is a short film about my family, particularly fathers and sons. It explores duty and loss through the generations of a military family. While recording a family history through interviews, I discovered a pattern of silence surrounding our war history, especially regarding my grandfather, who was a flight surgeon assigned to a squadron of B-29s in the South Pacific during WWII. When he came home, he rarely discussed his experiences and made an effort to minimize his wartime history.
This silence didn’t seem unusual to me until I viewed home movies with this 'silence' in mind. I began to see this 'un-spokenness' in every frame. I was too young to know him well—he died when I was eight years old—but through interviews with my dad and uncles, I discovered more about him and noticed many similarities in myself.
For me, this film represents a journey inward, toward family and identity. Although it might seem preoccupied with loss, with its pensive piano playing and its questions about PTSD, it is ultimately a song of hope—a wish for the future.
Festivals Screenings
Official Selection of the following film festivals
Mill Valley Film Festival - 2009
Atlanta Film Festival - 2009
Frozen Film Festival - 2009 "Winner Best Filmstock Film"
Seveth Short Film Festival - Balchik
IMDB Ryan O'Toole (official film credits)
Technical Notes
Before Ryan O'Toole, got back into making music, he was filmmaking, full time. His optically printed experimental documentary about generational PTSD, 'Keep the Home Fires Burning', played the festival circuit for 2 years, with notable appearances at Atlanta Film Festival & Mill Valley Film Festival.
Technique: The advancement of video resolution makes 2008 seems like 100's of years ago 😂. The best one could do in 2008 was 1920x1080 HD and film was still superior for projection. This work of art is composed of meticulously photographed and re-photographed Super-8mm home movies on a 16mm Optical Printer (later blown up to 35mm) in, 4:3 Academy Aspect, with stereo soundtrack. There are many experimental elements at play, including re-photography, animation of broken glass flashed onto 35mm film, bi-packing, and an insane A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H layer contact print (in collaboration with film-colorist Chris Hughes at BB Optics (formerly Colorlab). Ryan also scored the film.
Film Print Close ups
About the Filmmaker
Filmmaker Bio: Ryan O'Toole has a degree in film production from University of Colorado at Boulder (CU, 1998) and a Master's Degree in Film Editing from the American Film Institute (AFI, 2004). Ryan, also known as “Ryno”, was accepted to the San Francisco Art Institute based on his high school photography, but chose to attend CU. UC at Boulder is well known as the film school beginning of Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park fame, but for filmmakers, it undoubtedly holds the keys to the legacy of Stan Brakhage (RIP) and his contribution to the experimental cinema. Ryno was lucky enough to study under the tutelage of Phil Solomon (RIP) and Brakhage, as well as absorb film history from Professor Melinda Barlow. It was during this time Ryno was introduced to the Oxberry Animation Stand, traditional 16mm film techniques, as well as experimental.
Following his passion for film, Ryno, and 13 others, were selected to pursue a Masters Degree program at the American Film Institute. At the time, AFI was the only institution offering a masters degree specifically for Film Editing. AFI was (and is) known to have film editors with ridiculous film credits working as professors. Fellows were required to learn how to deal with 35mm & digital intermediate workflows. Ryno’s mentors included: Howard E. Smith (The Abyss, Point Break, Near Dark, Snakes On A Plane), Stan Salfas (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes), Danford B Greene (RIP) (MASH, Blazing Saddles, Rocky II), Donn Cambern (Easy Rider, The Bodyguard, Twins), and Phillip Linson (Tombstone, Hot Shots!, The Indian Runner). Ryan moonlighted as an assistant editor on a couple AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards programs - Meryl Streep (2004) & Robert De Niro (2003). Ryno was the editor on Franklin Jin Rho's thesis film, A Distant Shore (2005).
Professional Work to Date: Following AFI, Ryno was lucky enough to land a job working in Television for the BBC in London. He worked as an assistant editor on the show [spooks] (MI-5 in the USA), A for Andromeda (2006), and a few other credits. He served as Patrick Moore's (RIP) right hand man in the editorial room for 3 years. Patrick (IMDB) worked on David Lynch's Elephant Man and was a great friend. He was assistant to editor Anne V. Coates, RIP (Lawrence of Arabia, Erin Brockovich, Chaplin) for many years. Ryno was in London for the July 7th, 2005 bombings, actually working on an episode of [spooks] that had a mirror image plot-line! Needless to say, that show's air-date become wildly important.
These days, Ryan makes songs and continues to work in film and post-production. He now spends his time between Seoul, South Korea and Long Island City, NY. He has worked as a skilled editor, sound designer, and production sound recordist. Ryan's film 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' (2008) combined his experimental filmmaking skills from CU with his AFI and BBC experiences. 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' played in several film festivals, including the Atlanta Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Mill Valley Film Festival. O'Toole was a part of the post production of HBO's "Back on Board: Greg Louganis" 2014 documentary. Ryno is also writes songs for Pretty City Lights—a new music project based in Seoul, South Korea. His songs have been described as, "alternative rock for people dying of middle age". Formerly associated with the band, Amateur Blonde, his songs have been featured in television and film - notably, CBS Extant (2014), FOX Minority Report (2015), and AMC The Walking Dead (2021, S10 Ep21). Ryno is the author of Behind The Lights a freemium substack publication, documenting the Pretty City Lights song & album creation process with the slogan, “watch me make music”.