Thursday, 16 February 2012

Experimental film- Seminar

In the seminar with Dom we watched several different experimental films to give us a hint at what kind of project we could look into doing and to inspire any ideas. These are the notes from the session;

Ballet Mecanique- Fernand Leger (1924)

  • Flashing images
  • Music
  • Mirrors/ reflection
  • Female characters mainly shown
  • Light/ shadows
  • Fast cuts
  • Black & white (old)
  • Focus on specific female features (eyes/ lips)
  • Strange objects- viewers imagination
  • Repetition
  • Not afraid to show camera in reflection
  • No narrative
  • Seemingly random images with no link
  • Words on screen (French)
  • Music doesn't link to images
  • Found it a hard watch as i didn't understand the idea behind it. For the era it was made it's brave but very arty- cubism
  • Music is annoying but is used to build pace & feeling for the images it's showing
  • Representative of the industrialisation of society after WW1
Star Guitar- The chemical brothers (2002)
  • Industrialisation explored again but it seems in a more positive way (music)
  • Switch between night & day
  • Cuts between locations shown by a passing train
  • All shot from a moving train
  • Up tempo music makes it easier & more fun to watch
  • No real ending
  • Colour
  • Repetition- train passing
  • Smoother camera work- increase in technology
  • Like this better because there's more of a story to it and it's easier to watch & take in
  • Representation of society's acceptance of industrialisation- switch from train station & wires to a neighbourhood 
An Optical Poem- Oskar Fischinger (1938)
  • Music represents on screen more
  • Repetition
  • Shapes & colours
  • Happy colours- fits music
  • Do quite like it, it just gets a little repetitive and drags on a little too long
  • Different shapes represent different sounds
OM- John Smith
  • Man in foreground- black background, smoke rising up
  • Constant annoying humming of 'OM'
  • Changes sound
  • Add in head being shaved- makes 'OM' fit to the shaver noise
  • Stops when shaver turned off
  • Interesting representations- start by thinking of a Buddha- ending with a Nazi skin head
  • Like the idea just the sound gets annoying
Fisticuffs- Miranda Kennel
  • Repetition of a man entering a bar and causing trouble, ending by him getting punched/ kicked/ headbutted
  • Normal pub sounds/ conversations
  • People walk/ fighting in background/ foreground- other people oblivious
  • Mirrored situation
  • Man gets involved & wins
  • Seems a little pointless
  • Ends with a bell, everyone goes silent & carries on like nothing happened
  • Fighting continues
  • Everyone once again oblivious
  • Bell & man gets K.O
  • Ends with the destruction  caused & closing of pub
  • Nice idea in the filming & the way it was shot
  • Trying to lift violence out of Western TV into everyday British society

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