Making Faces: Prague premier night

By Ryan

Kegler and Blazek getting ready to start the film.

Last week Richard Kegler was in Prague to show his new film “Making faces”. It chronicles the process of making metal type. This craft would be considered by many to be already dead, as there are very very few people still making new metal type, and those that do are using computerized methods to do so. Not Jim Rimmer. After a long career as a printer and commercial artist, he decided to teach himself how to make metal type.

The film does an amazing job of showing the painstaking process of first drawing, refining, then manually cutting the letter forms into type metal. Long takes at macro range give glorious detail. You would almost expect the grime under Jim’s nails to leave the screen greasy and black. I personally really appreciated the long un-cut shots of the actual process. In this day of high-speed editing, and reliance on slickness to sell a film, it’s a raw gem.

If you are even remotely a typophile, or even if you are just amazed by the technical processes that once made the world go around, you can’t miss this film. It’s a glance at a past that was long gone, by the time your parents were born. It’s also a wonderful ode to the wonderful man who was Jim Rimmer. Jim passed on shortly after the film was shot.

Check out Richard’s film blog, and order a copy of the film. You won’t regret it.

We bought a copy after the film. It’s letterpressed with the type that Jim designed during the film. Great stuff!!!