Lesson: Presentation

Experimental Presentation by

My ideas can come at any time and come from nowhere in particular, in fact thinking back I cant quite remember how this idea was generated. But once I think of my idea I then comb through the interweb looking for similar work that I can then use to further develop my idea if it isn't already fully formed.
In this case I stumbled on to Paradigm by BS Johnson. Where by the character is shown in different stages of life talking about the existence in an unknown language.

From the presentation you can see that the idea is still lacking a clear visual and definitive direction, as though I was coming up with the idea, my partner had one already in mind so I had no problem going with his idea, most likely adding my own flavour and zest to it as we went along so it would be a more collaborative piece than a one sided one. Alas when my partner didn't show up to pitch his idea it meant that we were going to automatically go with mine. I don't mind this but I still feel like I would rather the piece by collaborative than all mine, and as afore mentioned the idea still has a number of gaps to be filled which Luke can help with, or even maybe there might be a way to mould our two ideas.

In the meantime however as I haven't heard from him I will be filling the holes in my current Idea ready for the treatment hand in date towards the end of the semester.

Lesson: Tutorial

The ideas that I had come up with during the week for the final assessment project were as followed

-Smashing glass objects in an outside space, until the character gets injured and potential drowns in his own blood.
-A person playing catch with multiple duplications of themselves. One of them drops the ball and is ostracised by the group.

The ideas are very vague, which is how the stem of my generating process begins. Both the ideas have their faults and I still have a week before I have to present an idea to the group.

Lesson: The Long Take in 60 seconds

In anticipation for our first major project which will be a one minute sync sound one take piece of work, we analysed various forms of experimental filmmaking that was either a minute long in length or had a section that showed a long take. 

We watched the following sing take films
The Kiss by John Smith and Ian Bourn
The Way Things Go by Fischli and Weiss
TV Interruptions by David Hall
Who Killed Brown Owl by Desperate Optimist
Nostalgia by Hollis Frampton

The one that I favourited amongst the rest was Who Killed Brown Owl by Desperate Optimist and this because I felt they were able to tell a story and show a range of characters during that one long take. Something that must have been difficult to orchestrate but had an amazing effect not only because of the never faltering movement of the camera but also the brightness of the day showed some kind of harsh juxtaposition between the images of the dead bodies. Though the brief says to try and keep the camera locked off in one position during the entire one minute take I thought that this example was good at ominous story telling which is something I feel like I could achieve.

Watching these films gave me a range of ideas on how to find and or use loop holes with the project specifications. This includes slow motion, Time lapse, Flashing a black card in front of the camera to assimilate a "Cut" or a blink depending on the style of the piece.

We also watched a range of other films which includes the following to name but a few...
Redshift - Emily Richardson

Continental Drift - William Raban

Worse Case Scenario - John Smith
2000 Fantoms - Jean Gabriel Periot

On The Main Square Of The Forest Edge - Sofie Thorsen

The Slippery Mountain - Prov Myza

2 Into 1 by Gillian Wearing

Two Or Three Things I Know About Her - Jean Luc Godard.

Fence by Matthew Murdoch. This looked at the gaze of the Protagonist

The Brief.

Taking inspiration from The Five Obstructions by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth the main project pairs project for the semester has some obstructions that we must adhere to which are as follows.

- 5 to 10 minutes in length
- 1 person or 1 object should be featured within your piece
- A real location must be used (No sets)
- No linear narrative should be used
- No found sound used - you must record and manipulate sound
- No use of sound purely as an explanation of screen action
- You must include at least one aspect in your production that reference the mechanics of filmmaking.

No with the obstructions in place I can think about what I want to achieve for the piece, and having the brief so early means that we have plenty of time to brainstorm and find location/objects/actor/anything the film needs, whilst still having enough time to edit.

Lesson: Different Approaches

In session we looked at a range of Different Approaches to experimental filmmaking which is in a way a sub category to the previous sub categories mentioned in my previous post.

Non Linear
Copy Shop by Widrich Virgil
The Straight and Narrow by Mathias Goklap

Personal View
Measures of Distance by Mona Hatoum

Abstract/Non Objective
Without You by Tal Rosner

Cameraless Film
A Colour Box by Len lye

Structural
Intervals - Peter Greenway

Found Footage/ Collage Film
Blue Monday by The Duvet Brothers
Alone Life Wastes Andy Hardy by Martin Arnold

Video Art
Video Film by Nam Paik

Of all the various styles I think that I prefer the ones taken from Non linear this is because it allows you more freedom to play around with the images whilst still having some form of narrative structural form. I particularly enjoyed Copy Shop because the ending was non conclusive or at least open to interpretation or guess work, which is one of my favourite affiliations with experimental film.



I did also like the Duvet Brothers Blue Monday, as collages do give a nice effect and allow you to play around with texture, imagery and colour especially as it is using archive footage, meaning that you don't always have a say of picture quality for example when you need to use a specific image.
I can't really pinpoint a specific form that I particularly disliked as though some may not have been to my taste each had a unique element that worked to its favour.

Analysing The Experimental

The short experimental film that I have chosen to analyse is Pencil Face by Christian Simmons.
I enjoyed it because of the ever present feeling of something going wrong, despite the positive outcomes that the girl had in mind. The music was very effective in helping to but you on edge and that and the picture itself more than made up for the non use of dialogue.

I also looked at a few other Experimental videos Including

The Solipsist by Andrew Huang

What stood out to me the most in this piece was the use of colour as well as the way that you were transitioned from one element to another.

Hurricane by Bartholomew Cubbins


Thirty Seconds To Mars - Hurricane (Uncensored Version) HD from Pedro Pestana on Vimeo.

This music video by 30 Second To Mars is one of my favourite because it manages to explore a whole abstract narrative form whilst still maintaining the key music video elements. The picture and the break up of the actual some allow you to be pulled into the story world as you follow each of the three protagonists and latch on to their various unconnected story lines. The poetry element and use of another language help to tie up the piece which I felt helped to give it that elemental touch.

Thoughts on the Article

The definition of Experimental Film taken from the article suggestions that it is willfully nonconformist, and with that notion in mind sets out to challenge orthodox notions of what can and cannot be shown in film. Experimental filmmakers have a message that they want to tell, and they get the message across in eccentric ways forcing the audience to make their own interpretations, making them think about what they have seen as opposed to having it spoon fed to them such as is the role of mainstream media.

Maya Deren is one of the key influences of the Avant Garde movement and is well known in the Experimental Film circuit, namely her film Meshes of the afternoon which is a good example of Experimental Filmmaking. It allows the audience to make their own conclusion of the happening.



For me this film is a dream sequence in which a woman in in turmoil, battling with herself, which can be denoted by the mirror faced haunting figure. Her delusions of what is real and what is fantasy also cants out perspective where we are left to conclude for ourselves whether what we are seeing is true.

Experimental Films can also be sub-catagorized.

Abstract
The main example the article uses, and one that I have come across in many occasions is Ballet Mécanique, by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger where the use of shapes and glimpses of imagery are used to almost sedate the audience. For me watching this piece makes me feel like I am being brainwashed, as the images move so quickly.



The last two forms of experimental filmmaking the article mention are; Associational and Animated, the former using poetry and or images that link in a rhythmic way to get a message to the audience, whilst the latter can employ abstract or associational techniques but giving a new form of view by its ability to distort or simply design what we see.