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EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA
This short documentary from 1951 gives a revealing glimpse into the process and techniques that Norman McLaren used to create sound for his films by drawing directly onto the sound strip of the film. I’m looking forward to experimenting with these techniques to create sound on the film stock I have purchased to create my experimental media piece with. I think the kind of sounds that this will produce will work well accompanying the images of the deep-sea life as they increase in pace and give them a strong sense of cutting in from the back of the Diver’s psyche. Having watched this, I’m now wondering if Pierre Hebert used a similar technique of creating sound directly on the film strip for the harsh percussive rhythms in his film Op Hop Hop Op. This 1966 hand-made scratch film, created by Canadian animator Pierre Herbert, is made from 24 black and white geometrical shapes rapidly rearranging and combining, often creating new abstract patterns as they overlap in the space of a single frame. The music that accompanies the images is an abstract form of clicking and popping percussion that is rigid and sharp in its rasping precision. It matches the breakneck flow and pace of the images perfectly and creates an interdependence between image and sound that plays with the viewer’s perception of shape and rhythm as well as negative and positive space. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from this film as it watched. It is a complete assault on the senses and highly arresting in its uncompromising and stark presentation. With my own film, I would like to show images of the twisted deep sea life for single frames to give them a subliminal quality then, as the Diver sinks ever deeper, show them for an increasing number of frames to signify that he is starting to accept his place among them. Compiled and published by Canadian experimental film maker Helen Hill, Recipes For Disaster is a guide to working with hand crafted and camera less film. The booklets 95 pages include contributions from thirty seven artists and film makers who share their personal techniques for creating animation directly on film stock. This has been a fascinating read that has taught me the basics of camera less film such as what tools to use to scratch film and apply colours with as well as how household items such as bleach, salt and vegetable oil can create interesting textures and patterns when applied to film. I’m sure I will be referring to this treasure trove of inspiration and knowledge a lot during the course of creating my own camera less film. This is one of Spanish film maker Joaquim Puigvert’s early experiments with a technique called Camera less film that involves scratching and drawing images directly onto film. I really connected with the sense of fluid motion and raw physicality that this short experiment communicates, a sense of motion that could transfer very well to my diver’s free fall into the depths. This week I will purchase some film stock and experiment with various different shapes, motions and colours in order to give the viewer of my instillation an immersive feeling of sinking ever deeper into the sea.
On Tuesday the 17th of March, me and my class attended a workshop on camera less cinema at the Cube cinema in Bristol where we created a short film by drawing and scratching 16mm film stock.
I very much enjoyed this method of working with film. I haven’t done much drawing in recent years but this workshop has rekindled my love for a more raw and hands on approach to creativity. I defiantly intend to expand upon this method for my experimental media project and for a short poetry film I will soon be creating for a friend of mine based on the theme of suicide. Cube Workshop1 from Richard Edkins on Vimeo. Batou: “So… What’s it like to swim in the sea?” Kusanagi: “I feel fear, anxiety, isolation and darkness. Sometimes I even feel hope” Batou: “Hope? In those deep, dark waters?” This is one of favourite scenes from Mamoru Oshii’s philosophically inclined cyberpunk animation Ghost in the Shell and is a very expressive example of a character losing themselves amongst a void of darkness. Major Motoko Kusanagi takes both a literal and metaphysical dive in the dark ocean and her Ghost (a term created by the United Nations to signify the difference between the human soul and the soul of a cyborg) This scene starts of in the deep sea as Motoko losses herself in the depths of the existential crisis that her character faces. As the ballast tanks pull her out of her freefall into the darkness, she floats back to the surface towards a warm, embroyonic vibrant reflection of herself that disappears as she touches the surface, an image that represents the person Kusanagi wishes to evolve to become but cannot due to being confined by her work as a part of Section 9. This scene strikes a very serene, calm and reflective tone that is the polar opposite of the tone I wish to achieve with my experimental media project. This video instillation, created in 2000, by seasoned American artist Bill Viola really caught my eye because of its use of water to express a deeper more human, spiritual meaning. This piece is quite terrifying yet serene and at the same time. This comes as no surprise to me after learning that Viola almost drowned when he was a child, an experience that has clearly imprinted itself deep into his psyche and reflected thematically in his work, a large amount of which involves water in some way. The man’s arms, outstretched to resemble a cross as he plunges into a dark abyss of water, bring to mind the ascension that the video is named after when he starts to rise towards the surface then sinks deeper into the dark below. Once he has sunk beneath the frame, shafts of blue light penetrate the surface as it is slowly engulfed by the darkness. This ending has really inspired me and captures a similar feeling of sinking and being engulfed by the void that I wish to communicate through my own instillation. |
AuthorMy name is Clay Sandford and I am currently studying an FDA in Film and Media Production at University Centre Weston. I have a keen interest in directing, cinematography and camera operating. Archives
April 2017
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