Experimental Evaluation

To start off this module we watched two films. The Perfect Human (Leth, 1967) and The Five Obstructions (Leth & Von Trier, 2003). The former is a short film by Jorgen Leth, and the latter was a deconstruction of sorts of the original short film whereby Lars Von Trier told Leth to remake his film five times, each time giving way to a new obstruction that he had to find a way to work around. This was the inspiration for our two pieces, as we too were given obstructions to adhere by such as; no editing, sync sound only etc. The brief for the individual exercise was to have a one minute long take. My initial idea was to have somebody at the bathroom sink performing morning activities; Shaving, washing their face, brushing their teeth. My point was to show something that looked clean and pure (The bathroom sink) turn into something disgusting. Using bits of hair, toothpaste and blood from bleeding gums then to have it all be washed away at the end by something as simple as water. Denoting that everything can be washed away and you can be given a clean slate. Unfortunately due to my actor not showing up I had to improvise, and after experimenting with a few other ideas I decided that I still wanted to focus on the sink, as the gleaming white seemed almost ethereal. The message was still the same but instead by using bubbles and red food colouring I showed how something that starts off beautiful and natural can be tainted, but then be washed clean again. The bubbles and the red looked really artsy on camera as well as the use of shadows and the shapes and movement of the foam created. Overall a weakness is that it was far from the visuals I had in mind but a strength is that the message was the same, also I realised how quickly one minute goes by and in retrospect I doubt if my initial idea would have fit into the time limit because even with what I came up with I had to cut the beginning where you saw the sink getting tainted.

Use of colour, shape and movement

Use of Shadows

My idea for the pair project was to be based off of the theory of The Human Situation/Condition, taken from the Philosophy of Life which states that; The human situation appears to be a struggle between what is (existence) and what ought (essence) to be. Though I had no forthcoming visuals about the end product to begin with, I did have colours and sound in mind. I wanted there to be a clear difference between the visuals of reality and essence, this was intended to be shown through muted colour and overexposure, coming to a happy medium at the end, by having everything look natural when the subject accepted their situation. Because I had no visuals I happily accepted the ones my partner Luke had in mind, it was a good compromise. He wanted to mimic the idea he saw in a video [Flying Lotus Until The Quiet Comes] of a dancer in reverse. This fit in with my idea as the imagery could represent, reverting back into the womb, starting afresh and reliving your life in the way it ought to have been, that and I have always wanted to experiment with dance in film. Another

imagery he had in mind was ink in water, this effect when juxtaposed with the contemporary dancing I could picture. I thought that these two images alone wouldnt be enough to make up the intended five minutes and so I thought about adding a character in rage, destroying everything around him. The theme of everything we were doing was to go in slow motion, and I thought this would really fit in with the other two visuals. Unfortunately only one of these ideas was achieved. The ink in water effect looked stunning, and we were able to create it using a large plastic container and an array of food colouring, sadly the dancing segment couldnt get done. We did all the location scouting and filmed a few test shots, but when it came to the day of filming our dancer came down with tonsillitis. We had to go with another visual based on an idea I had about a person falling in slow motion. A few strengths with this project is how much leg work and scouting and testing we were able to do before the actual filming, and though none of it came to pass, I can also add that we were able to come up with alternatives last minute and keep ploughing on. The one weakness is that the idea was so philosophical that it took a verbal explanation to get the idea understood, whereas the work in some aspects is supposed to speak for itself. The process of making the individual piece was more difficult than expected, as simple as my idea was having to be everything was a lot more complicated than I envisioned. I had to hold the lighting in place, add the food colouring, have the camera rolling and peeking through the viewfinder as well as play with the sink. It sort of gave a small glimpse into what it would be like to try and make a short or even feature length film alone, but with the added pressure of directing actors and having to keep to schedules. It taught me that making a solo film is a lot of work and that you should get help when needed. As well as that initially one minute seems pretty long to have a long take with no camera movement whatsoever, but it went really quickly showing me not to underestimate a long take if there is something visually interesting to keep the audience entertained so that it slides by barely noticed. This is definitely something that I will consider when it comes to making my final project in third year. Working with Luke on the pair project was very useful because he was basically the producer as he had access to various locations and actors and could get things booked and sorted for as soon as the next day. This showed that its good to have a producer who is not only resourceful but well connected. As well as that I learnt that no matter how many back up plans you have in case things fall through, it will never be enough, but it is important to keep pushing forward. Also an effect that I learnt about and turned out to be visually stunning was filming at 50 frames per second. This meant that everything came out a lot slower, and when it came to reviewing the footage in post-production it meant that if we wanted to slow it down any more we didnt have to worry about losing quality image or believability as it flowed really well. [Murray Smith] The avant-garde is an artisanal or personal mode. Avant-garde films tend to be made by individual or very small groups of collaborators. (OPray, Pg.2, 2003) For the individual project I did intend to have somebody help me as an extra set of arms, to hold up lighting, control the tap etc. but in the end though I was originally frustrated at having to do it alone, as previously mentioned its a rare opportunity to work on anything on your own and it gave me an insight to what it would be like to produce my own short film, preparing me for how much harder it is in reality that people dont let on. For the second project because there were initial problems getting hold of my partner, namely when it came to pitching ideas, it was decided that mine would be the one that we would use for the basis of the project. My individual contribution to the project is the idea, but although that was the case, I was still happy to collaborate with Luke and allowed him to come up with the visuals which I then approved/disapproved as to what I thought would best work with the concept of

The Human Situation. As it was Lukes camera he did the bulk of the filming with me taking over when we ended up having to use him as the main subject. My approach to group work is always very open, allowing ideas to flow and picking the best ones based on what I believe would work well in the long run. Working as a pair is both a blessing and curse as it is nice having just two of you especially once you come out of working in group of five or six. There are less distractions on set and in the edit as there is only the two of you, on the other hand when it comes to a point where a choice needs to be made and you are both on opposite sides theres no one to break the tie. Nothing can ever run smoothly on an equally collaborative project unless you are both in 100% agreeance to begin with, and even that still leaves a small room for disagreement. Overall I would work with Luke again; he has good ideas and great camera and editing skills as well as being an incredible producer. The theoretical framework that my individual project fell into is the Abstract Form of Experimental Filmmaking. I say this because the article that we were given in one of our first session states when talking about the various forms of Experimental Films; It is possible to organise an entire film around colours, shapes, sizes and movements in the images (Bordewell & Thompson, Pg.356, 2010). This matches my technique, and because it was only a minute long it wasnt possible to grasp a full understanding of the concept without a brief synopsis, but had I attempted to make it on a much larger scale and kept to those dimensions then the theme of cleanliness/wiping the slate clean would have been apparent to audience members without me uttering a word. The section on Abstract Form goes on to say; [In reference to Railroad Tunbridge by sculptor Richard Serra] A narrative film might have used the bridge for an exciting chase or fight but Serra invites us to contemplate the bridge as a geometrical sculpture, all the grids and angles, in relation to the curves and sweeps of nature beyond (Bordwell & Thompson Pg.356, 2010). After I had shown the film I noticed that people had liked and or noticed different aspects to the person next to them. This quote helps to put an understanding to the notion. As there was nothing leading up to the piece or anything for it to follow it allowed the audience to appreciate its form with no other expectations surrounding it to distort meaning. Another framework that I wanted my film to reside in was that of shock, initially influenced by The Big Shave (Scorsese, 1967) making the audience physically uncomfortable by such a simple and natural action. I wasnt able to achieve such an effect as the colouring of the water didnt look at all like blood, and finally the general simplicity of my idea stemmed from a short film we watched in a session. We watched a glass sink fill up with water and then drain out once the plug was pulled. In some ways I managed to combine this new simpler idea with the original idea of wiping the slate clean which I was pleased about. The pair projects I believe falls into more than one theoretical framework of experimental filmmaking. At first I wanted to put it in a box with the other Abstract Films due to the style and effect of the ink in water. The effect correlates to the colour, shape and movement specification that was regarded to my individual piece that classed it as Abstract. It also has similarities with Ballet Mecanique: It remains a highly enjoyable avant-garde film and a classic example of how mundane objects can be transformed when their abstract qualities are used as the basis for a films form (Bordwell & Thompson, Pg.358, 2010). This is a perfect explanation of what we created, food colouring is something that is regarded as an art form in baking and other culinary uses but when it was stripped down to its basic form of coloured liquid of a certain density, and added to the overlooked potential of water we created something visibly enjoyable. The piece also has a physical aspect to it which, although can be seen in Abstract Experimental Films isnt all that common. With that in mind I would regard the film

comparatively to Maya Derens Meshes Of The Afternoon (1943) this being because the film has what is described as a circular narrative, where certain images and actions are repeated in various forms. The physical imagery is seen falling multiple times in various positions. Persons are often said to have certain style, understood as a characteristic way of behaving that can be identified as pleasing, off putting, charming or engaging (Hjort, Pg16, 2008). By using a physical form we had to be careful to try and keep all feeling out of it as they are supposed to be a neutral symbol for The Human Situation therefore every audience member needs to connect with them in a disconnected way.

Reference
Books Bordwell, D & Thompson, K 2010 Film Art: An Introduction Ninth Edition USA McGraw-Hill Companies Chapter 10: Documentary, Experimental and Animated Film Page 355370 Hjort, M 2008 Dekalog On The Five Obstructions USA Columbia University Press OPray, M 2003 Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions USA Columbia University Press

Films Meshes Of The Afternoon Ballet Mecanique The Big Shave The Perfect Human The Five Obstructions D: Maya Deren 1943 1924

D: Dudley Murphy & Fernard Leger D: Martin Scorsese D: Jorgen Leth 1967 1967

D: Jorgen Leth & Lars von Trier

2003