San Diego State University (SDSU) - location: San Diego, CA.

Professor Greg Durbin wins Eastman Faculty Scholarship

Hanging on the wall of Greg Durbin's office at San Diego State University (SDSU) is a poster-sized print of the famed photograph, "American Girl in Italy," by American photographer, Ruth Orkin. The image depicts a young woman hurrying past an assembly of leering men on a street corner in Florence, Italy. The photograph has become Orkin's classic signature image, and is known throughout the world; it is also an image the professor and filmmaker has admired since he was a film student years ago.

Greg Durbin

Durbin was recently named as one of two Eastman Faculty Scholar Winners and awarded a grant for his film, Passing Through, which was inspired by Orkin's photograph. Passing Through is the second short narrative film in a trilogy that began with the film, Boundaries, which garnered Durbin 17 top national and international festival prizes, including the 2001 Slamdance Grand Jury Prize. Passing Through is not a sequel per se but a continuation of the events in the lives of a handful of imagined characters.

"Whenever I looked at Orkin's photograph it made me think about all the stories you could write based on this image," Durbin explains. "Just imagine how this girl felt about the situation she found herself in, where she was going, and what was behind the look of controlled panic on her face as she ran past the men who were all laser-focused on her."

For Durbin the photograph still offers limitless story possibilities. Although Ruth Orkin never offered a straight answer as to whether or not the 1952 photograph was a set up or captured by chance, either way "American Girl in Italy" remains a powerful image more than fifty years later. The entrancing nature of Orkin's photograph and the reason for its fame is based in large part on the ambiguity of the scene.

Durbin's film reveals a woman driven to the point of delusion by her growing anxiety over a group of men who express a prurient interest in her. Ultimately, the woman finds release from the tension she feels in a memento given to her by a blind photographer. Orkin's photograph could have been shot in Spain, Greece, Turkey, or any of the many cultures in which machista - the exaggerated expression of masculinity and dominance over women - is openly expressed.

Orkin's timeless image was shot at the Piazza del Repubblica in Florence, Italy. Durbin did an extensive search to find a location in the U.S. for as close a match as possible. "I looked forever to find a street corner that looked like that," he says. Durbin's scouting ultimately led him to Tijuana, Mexico, where he found a colonnade in a park that fit his interpretation of the story.

Durbin tried to parallel the situation in Orkin's photo with the situation in Tijuana, not just because Tijuana is geographically close to the filmmaker but because "in Tijuana both machista and an unabashed attitude of chivalry toward women can be observed on the streets," he says. "I wanted to tell the story from the subjective perspective of the 'girl,' whose perceptions become more distorted as her discomfort with the men intensifies."

Ultimately, Passing Through is not about machista but about ambivalence, or the inability to act when action seems called for. This is a theme that has always fascinated Durbin as an artist, and is also obvious in his film Boundaries. In Passing Through it is not until she recognizes her ambivalence that she is able leave her tormentors behind. This moment is marked by mariachis serenading her-literally-into the setting sun, a display of traditional Mexican chivalry, perhaps the flip side of the machista coin.

Using a super35mm camera, nearly all of the exterior shots in Passing Through were shot on a Steadicam by cinematographer Eric Green. Most of the shots involved 23 actors, which presented the filmmaker with considerable continuity, timing, and spatial coordination challenges. In addition, less than ideal sound conditions forced the filmmaker to do ADR for all 23 voices. Durbin's film students were invited to work alongside the professional crew during production in San Diego and Mexico.

Initially, the film was edited in Final Cut Pro from a standard definition telecine transfer. After seeing the price of high-definition services drop, Durbin was inspired to go back and do a digital internegative (D.I.) data file. Durbin took all of his negative selects to a negative cutter and made four selects rolls. The selects were then transferred on a Spirit Data Cine onto an HDCam-SR tape. This footage was then imported back into Final Cut Pro HD and the film was re-built in a high-end, high definition (HD) environment.

Durbin worked with former student and editor, Chris Peterson, and Peterson's partner, Dan Wilken, from RED Editorial, a software and effects company based in Los Angeles, to rebuild the film in the 4:4:4 10-bit color space. The New Post Group of Los Angeles did the transfer and first color pass. Due to the expensive nature of the color correction process Durbin handled the final color correction himself. Pleased with the film's final look, he says, "I really enjoyed the ease of use of doing color correction with Final Cut." Additionally, Shake and After Effects were used for speed change-ups and other special effects. The Kodak grant allowed Durbin to fund a large portion of the D.I. process, the transfers from the 35mm negative, in addition to the sound design.

At an early age Durbin spent time drawing and painting, and always imagined a life as an artist. Surrealist artists like Oskar Kokoshka and Rene Magritte led him to filmmaker Luis Buñuel, specifically his film Un Chien Andalou. But Durbin's greatest influence as a filmmaker came while an undergraduate student at the University of San Diego, California (USCD). Noted painter Manny Farber, whom Peter Bogdonovich tagged as "the father of American film criticism," became Durbin's mentor, and introduced him to a world of American and international cinema that left an indelible mark on Durbin as a student. Some of Durbin's favorite filmmakers include Arturo Ripstein, Andrei Tarkovosky, the Coen Brothers, and Alexander Payne. The toughest challenge about filmmaking is also the thing that brings Durbin the most joy as a filmmaker. He says, "My hope is to generate truly original work that penetrates the human psyche."

At the moment Durbin isn't quite sure what his next film project will be. As the graduate advisor of the TV, Film and New Media program at San Diego State University, his plate is very full. With a hearty and already well-known undergraduate film program working, along with an established masters program, Durbin is spearheading a new 60-credit MFA program with an expected start date in the fall of 2008.

Durbin has taught at SDSU since 1987, and he believes that teaching has enabled him to become a better filmmaker. "Students, especially beginning ones, generally have not yet been defeated by the outrageous demands and expense of production; they are not limited by fear of the process or fear of failure, so they simply invent, often in a playful way," he explains. "While the results can be a little crude technically, the ideas tend to be remarkably fresh and energetic. This is an attitude we as teachers can profit from in our own creative endeavors."

Durbin is proud of the students that graduate from the undergraduate and graduate film programs at SDSU. "We have an excellent craft program, especially for the undergraduates." The success of the programs is validated from requests he receives from working professionals. "We've had producers call down to the school to ask for more production assistant contacts because the work ethic from SDSU students is ferocious," Durbin explains. "The education our students receive at SDSU is based on a system of crossover training; we give our students the opportunity to learn by doing - this means every aspect of filmmaking from script to screen."

Durbin's other films have been broadcast nationally and have been exhibited in museums and festivals in the U.S. and Europe. They have won numerous awards and are in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and the International Council on Archives. His work has also been broadcast internationally on PBS, The Sundance Channel, HBO, and the Canadian Broadcast System.