Art acknowledge was a course that seemed to correspond very closely to situations I was going through personally with my own work. From the very first class I attended, I realised I could easily tie up work for this course with ideas I'd been having lately, and this was the most exciting thought initially. I saw ways to explore concepts and also use this course as motivation to explore these concepts further.
Initially we were told to work on an artwork from any field we could choose. I first chose writing, as I consider it my primary field - but on realising that I could do simply anything, and there were no limitations, my interest in writing for this faded. I needed direction; I couldn't find direction if there was endless possibility.
I chose film instead, and decided to work on an experimental film. Although I couldn't complete it in the duration of this course, I have many ideas jotted down that I intend to work on later myself.
The most interesting part of this task was the research involved. I was told to spend time before I move onto the actual filmmaking process to look at work done by others in the field of experimental filmmaking. I spent two entire days watching an array of experimental and abstract films and reading about filmmakers that were part of various artistic movements such as Dadaism and the Fluxus group of artists.
Some of the films I watched and enjoyed most was Rene Claire's En'tracte, films by Hans Richter and Germaine Dulac. I watched collage films and of course, Un Chien Andalou, which was one the films that prompted some of my ideas in the first place. I observed these films carefully, trying my best to pay attention to art direction and cinematography, camera angles, trying to identity each frame and the work put into it.
I made many notes on these things, and some of the points I observed were:
- The audience is to be treated as a decisive perspective at all times. In every frame I decided to take into account the factor of, who is the viewer in this scenario? Is he the protagonist, the background, or outside of the frame? In each frame, I realised that this is a factor that is deeply taken into account. I had never noticed this before, and it was very interesting to me.
- Perfectly straight angle views are used to show absurdity very often in experimental film. It shows a disconnect from the characters on the screen, a sardonic sort of objectivity which is what creates the "strangeness" in the frame.
- I noticed many interesting scenes were videos were superimposed on top of one another. For instance, a video of a paper boat floating over waves of water superimposed over a cityscape to create the illusion of the city being like an ocean. This was a technique I greatly loved, especially considering the time at which most of these films were made, and how such ideas were so rare back then.
- As most of these films were made in black and white, the grayscapes are very interesting. The protagonist is often either surrounded with either stark contrasts of black and white with grey tones in the background - OR, alternatively, surrounded with softer grey shades with stark contrasts in the background. This creates an aura around the actors that makes a surprisingly deep impression on the viewer.
- One of the things I noticed the most - and which lead partly to my work later on - is the use of motifs to create atmosphere and meaning in experimental film. There are certain decisive images, such as clips of clocks ticking, footsteps, ribbons, etc - simple symbolic objects that make an impact on a viewer regardless of their literal meaning. This got me thinking about symbols and simple objects creating meaning for themselves, regardless of the artist and the context.
I shot almost all the footage I needed for the film but I did not get time to edit it. I was soon sucked into the project we did immediately after this one in the course, and have not finished the film yet. Yet, I somehow found a way to tie my hopes for the film to the text installation I attempted later in the course, and this was satisfying. I intend to finish the film over the summer regardless.
Initially we were told to work on an artwork from any field we could choose. I first chose writing, as I consider it my primary field - but on realising that I could do simply anything, and there were no limitations, my interest in writing for this faded. I needed direction; I couldn't find direction if there was endless possibility.
I chose film instead, and decided to work on an experimental film. Although I couldn't complete it in the duration of this course, I have many ideas jotted down that I intend to work on later myself.
The most interesting part of this task was the research involved. I was told to spend time before I move onto the actual filmmaking process to look at work done by others in the field of experimental filmmaking. I spent two entire days watching an array of experimental and abstract films and reading about filmmakers that were part of various artistic movements such as Dadaism and the Fluxus group of artists.
Some of the films I watched and enjoyed most was Rene Claire's En'tracte, films by Hans Richter and Germaine Dulac. I watched collage films and of course, Un Chien Andalou, which was one the films that prompted some of my ideas in the first place. I observed these films carefully, trying my best to pay attention to art direction and cinematography, camera angles, trying to identity each frame and the work put into it.
I made many notes on these things, and some of the points I observed were:
- The audience is to be treated as a decisive perspective at all times. In every frame I decided to take into account the factor of, who is the viewer in this scenario? Is he the protagonist, the background, or outside of the frame? In each frame, I realised that this is a factor that is deeply taken into account. I had never noticed this before, and it was very interesting to me.
- Perfectly straight angle views are used to show absurdity very often in experimental film. It shows a disconnect from the characters on the screen, a sardonic sort of objectivity which is what creates the "strangeness" in the frame.
- I noticed many interesting scenes were videos were superimposed on top of one another. For instance, a video of a paper boat floating over waves of water superimposed over a cityscape to create the illusion of the city being like an ocean. This was a technique I greatly loved, especially considering the time at which most of these films were made, and how such ideas were so rare back then.
- As most of these films were made in black and white, the grayscapes are very interesting. The protagonist is often either surrounded with either stark contrasts of black and white with grey tones in the background - OR, alternatively, surrounded with softer grey shades with stark contrasts in the background. This creates an aura around the actors that makes a surprisingly deep impression on the viewer.
- One of the things I noticed the most - and which lead partly to my work later on - is the use of motifs to create atmosphere and meaning in experimental film. There are certain decisive images, such as clips of clocks ticking, footsteps, ribbons, etc - simple symbolic objects that make an impact on a viewer regardless of their literal meaning. This got me thinking about symbols and simple objects creating meaning for themselves, regardless of the artist and the context.
I shot almost all the footage I needed for the film but I did not get time to edit it. I was soon sucked into the project we did immediately after this one in the course, and have not finished the film yet. Yet, I somehow found a way to tie my hopes for the film to the text installation I attempted later in the course, and this was satisfying. I intend to finish the film over the summer regardless.
No comments:
Post a Comment