What’s on your mind?
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009A mash-up video of how a person appears via body language may not be coherent with what’s on their mind.
Chantal Ackerman & Me
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
Chantal Ackerman was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1950, but now lives in Paris. Ackerman’s first film, “Saute Ma Ville” (1968), pictured a domestic scene and was her debut as a feminist film maker. Ackerman is aware of the viewpoint of the spectator and the passage of time. She uses time to create a sense of monotony and routine. She uses the camera angle to manipulate the way in which a viewer sees a scene.
Ackerman’s film “Hotel Monterey” (1972) particularly intrigues me. “Hôtel Monterey – is the idea that something is about to happen, or is happening just out of sight…Back and forth the camera goes, a silent walker, a leading character in a movie without a plot.” Ackerman uses the camera to create the motion of the viewer. She moves one through the space of her film — through doorways, hallways, and into rooms to observe. The film is silent. There is no plot, but rather a focus on observation of both people and the architecture and arrangement of objects in a space. Also, an acknowledgement of what cannot be observed–that which is behind the closed doors.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/jul/15/art.film)
Ackerman Photo: http://www.deutsches-filminstitut.de/f_films/fotos/fp3602_06.jpg
Hotel Monterey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2F9T7IdfiM
Ackerman’s filming techniques are relevant to my own work. Her use of the camera as the main character is reminiscent of my use of the camera. Motion is key in both of our films. I also admire her composition and hope to emulate it more in future films. “Wake Up Swing” is an expansion of my film “Swing”. In this film, my concept is similar to that of Ackerman’s Hotel Monterey: I want to lead the spectator through the park as if the camera is their person, physically moving through the scene. However, my film has more plot than Ackerman’s. I seek to show the life given to inanimate objects by motion–the life of motion. My film also uses many short cuts in opposition to Ackerman’s use of a fewer, longer cuts.
Kurt Kren
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Kurt Kren – born 1929, Vienna, Austria.
courtesy of www.canyoncinema.com
Kurt Kren began filming by shooting short experimental 8mm films in the early 1950s, before switching to 16mm in 1957.
Kurt Kren’s films have been noted for their rhythmic, structural, serial and mathematical qualities that transform the material into an abstract, yet documentary-like quality. He has been noted for the innovative use of a multitude of techniques including alternating between positive and negative film, complex cutting rhythms derived from formulated mathematical diagrams and extreme multiple exposure. Kurt is noted for recording slivers of reality and edit it in such a way becomes unrecognizable to the viewer. To appreciate and admire his films is not just interpreting the meaning of the film, but to sense the films as real and physical.
© FIPRESCI 2006
In his film Selbstverstummelung or self-mutilation, Kurt Kren portrays self-infliction of harm in a surrealistic drama that I found haunting and sickly captivating. Blades, scissors and other sharp instruments are slowly inserted into the actor (Brus) in what seems like a ritualistic self-operation. This visual shock effect is punctuated by the slow, torturous pace of the actors covered in white plaster and the creepy, yet calming soundtrack.
In my concept, I choose to concentrate on the mash-up. In a similar vein of Kurt Kren’s films, I would want the viewer to not just recognize the techniques used (such as rhythmic cutting of film) or perceive what the message behind the film is; but rather perceive the film as real. My idea for the film is a juxtaposition of 2 differing sets of video to make a coherent film where what the body language of a person belies what really goes on in his head.
Sources cited: http://www.canyoncinema.com/K/Kren.html
http://www.hi-beam.net/mkr/kk/kk-bio.html
billow
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Maya Deren, Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Publication excerpt
The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999
Meshes of the Afternoon is one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. A non-narrative work, it has been identified as a key example of the “trance film,” in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus. The central figure in Meshes of the Afternoon, played by Deren, is attuned to her unconscious mind and caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality. Symbolic objects, such as a key and a knife, recur throughout the film; events are open-ended and interrupted. Deren explained that she wanted “to put on film the feeling which a human being experiences about an incident, rather than to record the incident accurately.”
Made by Deren with her husband, cinematographer Alexander Hammid, Meshes of the Afternoon established the independent avant-garde movement in film in the United States, which is known as the New American Cinema. It directly inspired early works by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and other major experimental filmmakers. Beautifully shot by Hammid, a leading documentary filmmaker and cameraman in Europe (where he used the surname Hackenschmied) before he moved to New York, the film makes new and startling use of such standard cinematic devices as montage editing and matte shots. Through her extensive writings, lectures, and films, Deren became the preeminent voice of avant-garde cinema in the 1940s and the early 1950s.
via MoMA.org | The Collection | Maya Deren. Meshes of the Afternoon. 1943.
yellow
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Yellow is a color with many personalities. Some of the yellow I captured was calming, easy going with a rhythmic flow, but other fragments of yellow were jolting with hard lines crisply defining the pigment. And so this short film is dedicated to the color yellow.
Assignment #4 – fast, slow and random Time
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Easy Does It
In my concept of time passing slowly, it goes by especially agonizingly slow when you’re asking someone out. The tension is palpable and the awkwardness of the moment is nigh impossible to bear.
F-fast foward
My idea of time passing quickly is over the event of meals. Be it with loved ones, friends and family, I find it can never be long enough if the company is great. Most of the moments zip past us without us noticing but a few fleeting moments are captured by our memories. Like an endearing song, we forget most of the lyrics, but no one forgets the chorus.
Sound Dub
For the last video I wanted to play around with the concept of mash-ups, where existing material is taken and reshaped to form entirely new pieces. Mash-up is predominantly found in music, where 2 or more existing songs are remixed to form a reworked, unique beat. This video takes speech from the footage that I have to form new, wacky, sometimes inappropriate dialogue.
slow
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Wind Series 2 of 2
The subtle movements created by a light breeze give an impression of tranquility and serenity. These muted movements mixed with elements of a city and cringing audio allows for an interesting juxtaposition.
A Slow Walk
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009This piece conveys motion and the slow rhythm of foot steps.
hair
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Wind Series 1 of 2
In a particularly calm mood while searching for video footage to complete this assignment, I explored an area walking-distance from campus. My mood was relaxed but, do to the gusting wind, my hair was not. And this became my inspiration. Every which way I turned my hair would not settle, would not slow down. The waving, shaking, slashing movements, therefore, creates a sense of unease and hurry.