Sunday, September 27, 2009

Scratch Film Junkies, 2

Watching the second film scratch junkies movie was a little different from my initial experience. I knew that this sort of work takes time, but I didn't realize how much effort goes into creating something that lasts for such a short period of time. I created 30 seconds of film and it took me hours and hours of time to do so. Because of this i felt that I could appreciate St. Lewis more than the fist film we watched by this group. Their techniques in film manipulation are very well developed. I only hope I'll be able to get that good over time. The first thing I noticed while watching the short film was a sort of panning effects. It looked like the camera was panning over a single frame. I'm intrigued by how this was done. Was this look created by very careful frame by frame animation, or another technique that I'm not familiar with? Another similar type of effect i noticed was when the images on screen were moving in and out of frame. That i imagine, had to be done by animating each frame, and now that i've had the experience of doing this myself, I can understand exactly how much work was done to create this. I also saw a few examples of multilayered manipulation, where several film strips were placed on top of each other, or at least thats my guess on how it was done. It looked like they took stock black and white footage, and then layered bleached exposed film stock on top of it. I would like to try this at some point, I guess all one would have to do is make the two separate strips and layer them, maybe adding some lite adhesive to make them stay together. As with the first film i saw by this group, I was fascinated with the way they managed to sync their images to music. Towards the end, the music and intensity of the images increased together. I really want to learn how to do this, its probably just simple math, especially if you could edit the sound track into the film with non linear editing technology, as opposed to creating it directly on the film strip (which i have no clue how to do). In retrospect I think the biggest problem I had with the film manipulation project was comprehending just how quickly the film would play. I took too much time painting/ scratching each frame with as much variety as possible and didn’t think of the larger picture as much as I will the next time I make something like this. There were a few animations, for example, that I wish I would have continued for a longer time then I did in the project. They were really pretty but lasted only ten frames at the most, I feel they would have had a greater effect if they were longer. I also wished I had tried to layer my work a little more. I did end up painting the exposed film we did in class, and it turned out very well. I think it would have been cool to go over some of the stuff I painted and scratch in some out lines. Also, I had made some rips in my magazine transfer stuff that I wanted to later outline with paint or a sharpie, but unfortunately forgot to do. Alas, this was not my only opportunity to make something like this, so I will probably refer back to these blogs the next time I’m working with 16mm.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Sound

I first would like to point out that this article was difficult to read and stay focused on. Although the topic was interesting, the language was jack full of complicated vocabulary that kept taking me out of the piece because I had to keep rereading sentences to try and figure out exactly what the writer was talking about. That aside I agree with most of the arguments in this paper. Sound, to me, is what creates the magic of the film world. In the silent era, I feel that movies were somewhat of a spectacle. They were fun to watch, especially since this technology was unprecedented, but I do not believe these films had the ability to take viewers away into another world as do films that are created with sound. I did learn something from reading this, I was not aware that sound was the reason that a standard projection rate came into existence. One thing he talked about that I never thought of before was the example of the news reporter and the air show. What the reporter said, here we have three small planes, was what the viewers, undoubtedly focused their attention on. This concept could be useful for me if I ever make anything film with narration. This blatant technique of focusing the audience’s attention on what ever it is that you want them to see would be great to use along side shots that are full of many visually stimulating images. The film Playtime by Jack Tati comes to my mind here. The news reporter example also made me think of how easily the opinions and attention of the general public are swayed just by the things modern news reporters speak about everyday. The writer’s concept of empathetic vs. anempathetic music is something I feel as if I had always been aware of, but never thought about specifically. We are all used to the whirlwind of happy instruments that accompany, for example, a reunion scene is many films. Most of the time this music is nondiegetic, and although it does greatly aid the mood of such an even, for me, it usually takes away from the realness of the story. Realness is not always a goal in a film, but I think that when it is anempathetic music works much better. Like the writer points out, it creates a sort of blank slate for the action to occur. This in turn, makes the viewer more involved with the film itself, because rather then being cued on what he or she is supposed to feel, they have to figure it out for themselves, reasoning from the action taking place. Then again I’m really into films that inspire active viewing. For this purpose anempathetic music works really well, but then again, if the film maker is trying to make something soley for entertainment this might not work as well. I was a little confused about what the article said about sound and temporalization of images. I understand how the randomness of sound, as well as the tempo of the moving images can animate or create a sort of pace of a film, but I’m not sure that the conditions written here are always true. A low irritating hum, in my opinion, can create just as much tension in a scene as a bunch of crazy high pitched string instruments. The examples of the sounds in various horror movies creating a vivid picture without actually showing the violence is actually one of my favorite film technique. For this reason I usually prefer older horror films to the new gory ones that have come out over the last five years. I strongly believe a viewers imagination, prompted by extreme sounds and some sort of storyline, is much more vivid then any blood and gore filmmakers can create on screen. I’m not saying cut all of the stuff out of every film, but I think it would be great if sometimes modern horror films would leave some of this stuff to our imaginations.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Experimental vs. Orthodox

I took a history of animation course last semester and this reading reminded me of a lot of the concepts we had studied in that class. It seems to me that realistic representations of human like characters was a logical starting point for the art of animation to develop from. Just like with most other visual art forms, animators started out creating the familiar. Not till awhile later do we see abstract experimental creations. The same was true of filmmaking in the very beginning. Until the works of George Melies, there were not any major filmmakers who attempted to do anything more than film the action in front of them. Although innovative, Meliese chose to follow a linear story line. Not until many years later did experimental film make its first début, but as with filmmaking, painting, and sculpture, animators eventually did take the same leap into the abstract. The diagram in the Wells article makes it seem as though experimental animators chose to go against the orthodox methods of animation in any way they could find how. Although this is a valid point, I do not personally think that these decisions were consciously made. I feel as if these artists chose to represent their thoughts and ideas in a different way from the norm, and then later scholars and writers decided to classify these ways as the opposite of the conventional. Some of these differences can be accounted for just by taking a look at the mode of production each type of animation was created in. Your typical cell animations have many people working on them from start to finish. It is difficult for a presence of any one particular artist to remain in a work touched by so many. It is also difficult to imagine collaborating such a large group of people to work on any abstract, but unified concept. I think with this mode of production, simple linear story lines and gags were the only way to go.
Experimental animators usually have a small budget to work with and only a few people who are involved in the artistic process. Because of this they have to come up with new, cost effective ways to accomplish their goals. The existence of the artist is strongly present in their work for both of these reasons. One’s artistic style is much more prevalent in a work they did by themselves then in a work they did with a hundred others. I do believe that experimental animation is more thought provoking and draws attention to the tools used to create it, as is true for experimental film as well. This type of work is tailored to a different audience then conventional cartoons, or sometimes not tailored to any audience at all. Cartoons (in the Disney, Warner Bros sense) are created for the purpose of entertainment and to make money. Experimental animations are created, among other things, for the love the medium and the visually stimulating. Whos to say a red dot traveling across a screen isn’t a character in itself? I’m very excited that I get to work with animation in this environment. We get to play around with the medium and bring out aspects that interest us, not for the goal of revenue or even being liked, but for the experience in itself. That I believe is the major difference between the two types of animations discussed in this article. Orthodox animation, to me, seems more like a job, while experimental animation is pretty much whatever you want it to be.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Camerless Filmmaking

Ever since I saw Andre's presentation about 6 x 1 in my movie makers and scholars class I've been extremely excited about taking this course. I've always wanted to work directly with film and have been interested in alternative ways of creating movies. My experience with cameraless filmmaking so far has been really great. i was surprised just how tiny the actual 16 mm film strip is when i first laid hands on it. It is much harder to work with such a small amount of space creating the images i see in my mind then i had previously imagined. But its a challenge that had inspired me to think about this art in new ways. There are so many possibilities to manipulate film and i'm psyched to try as many out as i can. I want to see what happens when i apply fire directly to the film strip, as well as different types of inks and paints, i've also thought about soaking the film in acidic or basic solutions and applying other chemicals/ dyes to it. I liked doing this stuff so much that i'm going to invest in my own 16mm projector in the next few months so i can continue this work on my own. Learning about magazine transfers was really great and a technique that I had never previously thought of doing. Now its something that ill be able to include in my work as long as i want. I haven’t had the chance to work with the animation part of the elements assignment yet, but am looking forward to doing that as well. Puncturing and scratching the film was a lot of fun too. Even with this technique alone there are so many more possibilities to play with. I have yet to use a razor or needle to try and make very detailed tiny images, but plan to attempt this when I get together with my partner this weekend. Exposing the film in the dark room was also a great experience that played against my preconceived notions. I brought in many various objects to lie on the unexposed film, and had a pretty clear concept of what the end result would look like. Once again I was greatly surprised with what actually happened. For some reason I thought that semi opaque objects like glass beads would end up creating many sharply contrasting shades on the film after it was developed. This was not the case; however, it still looked fantastic. It’s cool to actually get to do these things with my own hands, versus reading about them in text books; now I will know what to expect the next time I attempt to work with unexposed film. I interested to learn how to manipulate sounds tracks with using a camera or post production programs. I’m not sure that this is something we will address in class or something I will need to experiment with on my own, but I’m excited to do it either way. Music is such a great part of my life and I would love to include it in these and future projects. Overall so far, film manipulation has been a blast! I have learned things that I would have never thought of on my own, and I believe I’ve discovered a new long term passion.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

synesthesia

Artwork that is representative of the experiences of people with various types of synesthesia has existed for many centuries. The concepts of seeing music and hearing sounds was studied by Greek philosophers back before anyone had any notions of specific brain functions. Even before this phenomenon was studied or thought of as a concept, painters and musicians put forth an effort to cross the visual and auditory sensations. Kandinsky, among many others, painted music and many of "colored organs" were created to show this same relationship. The film medium is the next logical step. Direct film manipulation is a great way for people to be able to show music as sound, or numbers with personality, because there are so many different ways to manipulate the medium and there are no rules to what one can create. I wonder if synesthesia had any relation to some of the films i have seen in the past. I remember seeing numbers in many experimental films, and they are always colored. If a film maker is a grapheme - color synesthete they might show the letter four colored in red, or they might color it something else to trick people. For me direct film manipulation would be a really neat way to represent music visually. I would work on doing this if i knew how to sync a sound track to the actual film strip to where I was able to hear the music while I was making the movie and know which frame was associated with each measure. Transforming, moving, color changing shapes could be created to show the different feelings certain melodies and instruments inspire. One could also represent the rhythms in music through the movement of such shapes. Another way to think about it is like the photographer in the arts in synesthesia article who takes photographs when she has synesthetic experiences. Just sort go with your guts, do art for the sake of it without putting much conscious thought into it and see what the end result is. I think the next time I’m working on such a project I will listen to music and randomly paint and or scratch to film without any sort of plan. An interesting experiment would be to put multiple people in a room with the same set of materials to manipulate a film strip, play music, and see if there are any common trends in what they come up with. Come to think of it, most experimental films I have seen have made me think of the artists’ efforts to visually show music, at least the ones involving direct film manipulation and animations. Its interesting how when I watch a silent work I usually form my own rhythm and or music in my head to accompany what I’m seeing on the screen. I’m also interested in reading Isaac Newton’s study on the relation of sounds and colors, to see if I could make a film based on his theory to see if it’s something that I will like to watch and what effect it would have on other viewers. In the articles it said that maybe one in twenty something people has some sort of synesthesia, perhaps there are many individuals out there that are unaware that their perceptions are any different from that of most others. Maybe the people sitting with me in class watching experimental films are having totally different experiences from me, like when we watched that silent film on the second day of class and people said they were imagining different instruments that should be playing.