film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part two: survey

Filmmaking today is being overtaken by motives concerning mainstream profiting and less concerning artistic expression.

Film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part two: journal article

This article, titled "Auteurism and commerce in contemporary Spanish cinema: directors mediaticos", concerns the transitional stage cinema is currently facing, such as diminishing theater audiences due to online film viewing, a increasing number of product placements, as well as the overall mainstreaming of cinema, and how certain groups and individual filmmakers are reacting to this. The first topic covered in the article is the growing amount of product placements in cinema due to a more prevalent need for such advertising to compete with the advent and popularity of the internet and television. The article sites Spanish cinema specifically and curtails its scarce market for such advertising - "Nowadays cinema means publicity and that does not come cheap...and there is no money in Spanish cinema for those activities - advertising, publicity and marketing." An online magazine called ClubCultura was formed in recognition of the changes occurring in cinema and offers a way for Spanish filmmaking to gain the advertising necessary for its survival. The website contains detailed information regarding famous auteurs like Pedro Almodovar and Alejandro Amenabar and offers forums allowing for discussion of many cinema related topics. A paradoxical view of this database is explored when the article states, "in promoting filmmakers as auteurs they undermine the usual romantic view of authorship by presenting it as a marketing device." While debate on this topic continues plans are being made to allow films to be viewed on the website in the near future. In the meantime web browser's may enjoy postings by filmmakers who chronicle their current production through an online diary. This kind of networking has created a new relationship between the filmmaker and the viewer - "The filmmaker's webpages make it easy to create and perpetuate a cult of personality around individual auteurs." This website, and others like it, have certainly caught on to the public and may or may not prove to remedy the holes in the Spanish cinema market in the long run. Many filmmakers, like Isabel Coixet, use the Internet as a form of self-promotion allowing for her to distinguish herself from other filmmakers and further her already established status as an auteur. The article concludes with a traditional view of auteurism by saying, "auteurism is, if anything, adaptable, and wherever films are marketed auteurism will surely follow."

For me this article reinforced my notion of cinema’s slow transition to the Internet and the possibilities it may open to the trade as well as complications. The website mainly focused on in this article, ClubCultura.com, puts an emphasis on mainstream cinema and famous auteurs but I would like to see these kinds of online resources used to aid in the promotion of independent cinema as well. With all this attention geared toward mainstream cinema regarding profits and other finances there should be a more prevalent recognition of indie cult followings throughout the web. I am surprised at this and believe much good could come from its promotion throughout cinema. I have always placed films in these two categories – mainstream and independent – and strongly believe that both are necessary to the survival of cinema. It seems too much strain is being put on the mainstream.

Film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part one: "Deeparture"

This piece seemed to work as an ironic displacement between the animals and their natural habitat and between image and sound. I say "ironic" because we generally associate the natural habitat belonging to these animals with tranquility and flowing sounds, sometimes even silence. The deer in particular is an animal that is almost completely silent in nature yet its sound, along with everything else in the piece, is extracted. When first viewing this piece what becomes immediately apparent is the animal's placement out of context in a white room that reflects the silence. What follows is your realization of the lack of sound. In my opinion this film would be nothing if it was presented with sound because then we would only be seeing animals in a white room. The exclusion of sound offers an extra dimension into a realm connecting these animals with their natural habitat. Our common perception of nature as being a quiet and tranquil place is essential to the concept of this piece. Mircea Cantor’s driving force behind "Deeparture" surely came from her own perception of nature and may be related to what Aaron Ximm says in one of his essays, "I ignore and elide over equally natural ways of working with sound (or in sound art) outside of my own experience."

Film 202 - Field Report 3 - Part one: "Three Songs"

Nathaniel Dorsky's silent piece, "Three Songs", harnesses the exclusion of sound to create a memory bank of vivid images that we may relate to our own process of remembering. The films present an array of seemingly non-related images in such a way that allows you to take them for yourself without any forced notion of meaning or greater significance posed by the filmmaker. The tight framing of the visuals assists in lending them to a more abstract basis eliminating the demand for an aural medium. Aaron Ximm believed that returning to a sound recording does not offer an adequate representation of the event, which may never truly be experienced again, but establishes a basis for the collective viewers to “collaborate on”. Dorsky’s “Three Songs” is a good example of this theory offering much for viewers to ponder throughout its silent beauty.

Film 202 - Journal Report 1 - article 2

The second article I read, titled "The viewers have...taken over the airwaves'? Participation, reality TV an approaching the audience-in-the-text" by Su Holmes, comments on how contemporary media evokes a new kind of relationship between the viewer's activeness in watching programs like reality TV and the characters on-screen. This form of media is said to bring about a degree of 'self-consciousness" in the viewer since reality TV shows depict actual people in real situations. Devices like mobile phones, the Internet, text messaging, and digital TV all contribute to the interactivity of media and its globalization. The article also explores the validity of one's image on a reality TV show and how rather than depicting an individual as they are the "television frame" acts as a "form of distorted mirror" that "assigns status" to a character. The viewer is also stressed as an active participant in reshaping the media by how it is perceived. It is not only television that is experiencing changes due its manner of being viewed but other forms of mass media as well. The "text" conveyed by the all powerful cathode ray is under constant scrutiny by its audience either consciously or subconsciously which has led to continual change.

Film 202 - Journal Report 1 - article 1

The first article I read, titled "Grizzly ghost: Herzog, Bazin and the cinematic animal" by Seung-Hoon Jeong and Dudley Andrew, primarily analyses Werner Herzog's 2005 documentary "Grizzly Man" and its meta-realistic perspective of death. "Grizzly Man" is a documentary of Timothy Treadwell, a loyal "protector" of an endangered species of bear in Alaska, and the 100 hours of footage he took of his life among the bears until his ironic death, as well as his girlfriend's, from being eaten by the animal he swore to protect. Unique philosophies are explored in the article regarding death - how we cannot actually depict death in cinema because no one alive has experienced it - and that Herzog, opposed to Treadwell, was the real "adventurer" of this film since it was he who returned to the site of danger. The article comments on how Treadwells presence (or "voice") in the film lends itself to what Andre Bazin calls the "Mummy Complex" - "Herzog's cinema of risk aims to embalm not life but death". Herzog, one of the most daring filmmakers of all time, was able to reincarnate Timothy Treadwell with "Grizzly Man" and bring the audience as close as possible to the most unknown stage of life - death. This article on contemporary cinema was quite an interesting read since it dealt not only with the technical aspects of Herzog's films but was also very analytical of his work from multiple perspectives.

Film 202 - Field Report 2

The two works I would like to discuss are the "Infinity Chamber" and the piece consisting of an interactive light boundaries projected onto the floor (I do not recall the name of this work). The "Infinity Chamber" is a work that, unlike most of the other interactive pieces that encourage social interaction, can be experienced independently or accompanied by two other people. I found the most effective approach to the chamber when I examined its inner walls very closely - almost touching the glass with my nose. As I stared into the infinite bits of light I felt completely immersed in cube’s vastness which may be considered illusion or enlightenment depending on the participant. As I scanned my eyes up and down the endless chasms of light the work seemed to attempt sparking my senses with disorientation between abstraction and material persuading critical thought as to how closely they may be related. For those willing to lend themselves to the piece it may test their imagination as it simultaneously isolates the participant while opening the eye to a perception, or misperception, of endless space. The "Infinity Chamber" really gives you the vision to gaze into the potential of your ordinary surroundings in three dimensions. It is like you are peering into a dream. Dreams give us the illusion we are going places while isolated within our minds. The "Infinity Chamber" strives for the same kind of vision encouraging thought outside the box.

The interactive piece involving the formation and deformation of beams of light between active subjects within a large square on the floor (I do not recall the name) may have been my favorite. To me its simplicity and consistency drew me to it and the definite socialization it provokes since its function is based on a given number of people within the space. Again, this piece encourages a new perspective not only of how we view the space surrounding us but also interact with it. I found myself doing things I wouldn't normally do like taking off my jacket and laying it down to create a non-living participant that became boxed in by the light beams. In this environment your creativity is provoked through interactive boundaries.

It seems these are the works of art for the new generation. Works on canvas may be just as interactive depending on how you perceive it visually as an art but these new electronic pieces try associating themselves with an era accustomed to innovatively creative mediums like the Internet and computer games. Though the "Infinity Chamber" is an older work than the other it still has an immersive quality that attracts generations young and old through its uniqueness apart from complex electronics. The other work possesses a similar quality but has been created by a later generation running on an interactive computer program.

Film 202 - Part Two: Surveying Art Journals

I have selected the art journal "Screen" which encompasses studies on academic film and television. I have chosen this journal because it focuses on many artists I am already familiar with, such as Werner Herzog who is featured in one of the first articles, but also reveals concepts behind their work I was unaware of as well as new artists all together. The journal also covers a lot of ground with regards to television which is another area of interest for me.

Film 202 - Part One: Field Report

After attending the “Traces of the Wild” showcase, featuring multiple works by Robert Schaller, it was quite easy for me to identity similarities between his work and the films shown in class the prior Monday. The comparison of the works from both sessions is found mainly in their imagery, concepts, technical creativity, and viewing experience.
All the films experimented with the creation of unique imagery through rather unorthodox manipulation of the film itself and even its projection. This unusual manipulation of the medium is the aspect I found most intriguing and constant throughout the works shown both in and outside of class.
The 2008 film Suspension shown in class not only experimented with changing the identity of the film through unconventional processing techniques but also involved the modification of the projection. Superimposing two separate films over one another through dual projection seemed to add a whole new layer of depth to the already densely manipulated footage. The projecting of the two images over each other, rather than adjacently which is what most people think of when they imagine a multi-projection film, came as a surprise to me. Though the change was rather subtle, most likely since the layered images were identical with the exception of one being in color and the other in black and white, it created an almost dimensional viewing experience. It certainly would not have been as effective with only one projection. However, I will be honest in saying that had I not been informed of Suspension’s dual projection characteristic I probably wouldn’t have noticed it. I do not think this is bad, in fact being presented with the knowledge of the projection before the viewing made me question just how closely I really watch films.
Robert Schaller also used a multi-projection system in the presentation of one of his films, of which I unfortunately do not recall the name, with three projectors placed horizontally instead of vertically. The deviation from the typical single-projection technique was more apparent in Schaller’s film since he positioned the images next to each other, not over, but created a change in the frame itself. The 4:3 aspect ratio turned 90 degrees made for another multi-dimensional experience. The three frames conveyed black and white images of a lone female dancer performing movements within a dark space accompanied by rough distorted imagery that offered a seedy contrast to the elegance of the dancing. I felt the exploratory nature of Schaller’s tri-projection work more accessible because of its variety. The placement of these three images next to each other gave way to a more optional viewing experience by giving us a choice between three moving images rather than just two duplicate images layered over each other to add more concentration to the single screen like Suspension.
Schaller did experiment with some multi-layering by double exposing his film which is a step closer to the effect of Suspension. However, Schaller’s use of multi-layering was a bit different not only in that he used a single projection but also because he superimposed completely different images over each other while adding a zoom to oppose each shot – while one image would zoom out the other would zoom in. This technique was very effective and allowed me to draw a comparison between this film and Suspension. All the works, in their abstractness and vividly sporadic imagery, allow you to create your own conclusion from their high concentration of ideas and labor. This was surely a consistent attribute present in every film.


-Quinn Hester

week 13

In closing the semester I would just like to say that Film 201 was one of the most intriguing art classes I have ever taken. The artistic concepts and films presented in the class were easy for me to relate to. Both the table-top video and intervention paper came to me as a great opportunity for critical thought and creative expansion. Especially, the intervention assignment because I believe it is a fascinating topic that I will continue to explore in filmmaking and in my daily life. I also greatly appreciate all of the screening recommendations that were given in class, particularly James Benning’s One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later which is one of the most beautiful and eye-opening films I have ever and probably will ever see. The class discussions proved to be another attractive facet to me as an artist. It was simply a great feeling to be surrounded by intelligent people who were incredibly insightful and open-minded. I would finally like to thank Sarah Buccheri and Carl Bogner for your knowledge and wonderful insight you have shared throughout the semester.

week 12

"Duck Soup" and "The Way Things Go" are similar because they both, to one degree or another, intervene on what we are familiar with by putting a new spin on it. In the case of "Duck Soup" the various comedic skits acted out draw our attention away from the all important narrative and sometimes intervene with the plot directly. These frequent bursts of comedic value delightfully interfere with the motives of the characters. However, it is fair to say that they major strength of "Duck Soup" lies in its eccentric humor which greatly distances itself from its cohesive narrative. Though hilarious and very enjoyable to watch "Duck Soup" does not offer much beyond the realm of comedy.

In the case of "The Way Things Go" spectacle plays a key role in its overall value as a film. It works with a continuous narrative that never ceases to hold our attention for a second - the viewer is always anticipating what will happen next. The massive chain reaction is easy to marvel but the film offers more than just spectacle. It gives a new perspective on the potential of household items beyond their intended use. In this sense alone "The Way Things Go" could be considered an intervention by using items out of context not for their intended use and, in terms of how narrative is effected, expresses the conventional "cause and effect" plot, usually involving a protagonist and antagonist played out through characters, through objects which are often thought of only as insignificant or necessary tools for serving an intended purpose.

week 11

I would just like to comment on the film we watched in our discussion sections this week about the invasion of privacy harbored by the common presence of security cameras in America. Since the film presents a rather elaborate skit played out by several characters through a public security monitor a student claimed this type of conveyance defeats the purpose of the artistic statement. Speculatively the statement could just be giving us an opportunity to look back at those watching us. I did not voice my opinion in class so I will give it now and disagree with that student. It does not really matter that this single monitor is accessible to the public because who knows how many hundreds of cameras are out there invisible to us. Even so, the monitors could be visible or they could be hidden, either way this film urges us to commentate on the factual and general presence of security camera in any case. It allows us to question the moral and ethical necessities of such an abundance of "security" and where the line should be drawn between safety and invasion of privacy.

week 10

Andy Warhol is most well known for his pop art with which he became very successful early in his career as a commercial artist working for companies such as Vogue magazine in New York.  In addition to his main emphasis on the art of painting and graphic design, one of his most famous works being Campbell’s Soup Cans, Warhol experimented with 16mm film creating Empire which is an eight hour long static shot of the Empire State Building as dusk turns to night.  At the peak of his career Warhol began to commentate in the repetitious and product-nature of pop art.  His painting Marilyn Monroe, consisting of a portrait of the actress replicated four times each with different color schemes, identifies with Warhol’s view on what he believed pop art was becoming.  I’ve included a YouTube video in this blog of a 1964 interview with Andy Warhol about the debut of his new design for Brillo.  The video offers a somewhat humorous look at Warhol’s behavior on camera but also succinctly affirms his conviction of the repetition of pop art.

week 8

By listening to Benning's math lecture I was able to make a few plausible connections to his film "One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later".  The mathematic equations and proofs he drew for us all seemed to share the common theme of uncertainty and beauty.  The first equation he wrote for us was solved correctly yet proved false at the same time with an answer of "1 = 2".  Another mathematical uncertainty he pointed out had to do with probability; if you flip a coin half the time it will be heads and the other half it will be tails.  Such applies to a purely mathematical world.  However, if you were to flip a coin 1 million times the outcome of either heads or tails would not be evenly split.  The outcome of this problem grows with uncertainty as the number of trials increases.  Also, Benning had a unique stance on prime numbers by calling them "beautiful" since they are in a mathematical  sense void of purpose.  

Aside from obeying a very mathematically driven guideline of one shot per minute for 60 minutes, I believe "One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later" is much like the first algebra problem Benning solved.  Having shot 60 locations (with beautiful cinematography) twice but 27 years apart lends itself to the false answer in Benning's first problem - "1" does not equal "2" yet they are products of the same equation.   A red truck would stop in frot of a warehouse in the first film and in the second film we would only hear the truck pull up in front of the still existing yet aged warehouse.  The two shots capture the same location...but do they really? Seeing the locations in different time periods consecutively was a surreal experience especially when using the audio from the first film in the second.          

Week 7

Upon construction of the Spiral Jetty I noticed a prevalent aspect of the film editing that remained consistent throughout its erection.  There was a noticeable juxtaposition of sound in between edits during the construction which involved cutting between shots of the calm and steady sound of rippling water and atrociously loud shots of the construction vehicles moving the earth.  I took this pattern to evoke some kind of gap between the quiet past and the loud future.  It is the scene in the dinosaur exhibit that persuades me to form this connection to past and present.  The framing of the equipment also seemed to make a comparison between the extinct dinosaurs of the past and the equally large machines of the present, perhaps a modern day version of a dinosaur.  There was a particular shot of the front-end-loader in which only the shovel was seen loading a dump truck from afar as if it was a dinosaurs head surveying the land. For a reason I am not sure of the shot of the dump truck unloading the massive boulders into position was always played at slow motion (appeared to be about 36 frames per second).  This was also a consistent aspect of the sequence but void of any significance to my knowledge. However, it is clear to me the comparison of old and new between the dinosaurs, extinct yet still existing in their mummified state, and the machines of today which never were alive but perhaps are considered to be more so than the dinosaurs.  The Spiral Jetty is itself a physical representation of a large whirlpool which threatened the passage of a schooner in 1870.         

Artistic Statement

With my tabletop video I hope to express the concept of time measurement and how dependent our lives are on them.  However, I am also trying to convey the idea that calendars and clocks are only used to make sense of the passage of time and do not really constitute any kind of exact order in our lives.  These devices are nothing more than material possessions.  

The presentation of this piece will be quite simple.  It will consist of a computer generated calendar spread out over 14 pages.  Each page will be shown for about 11 seconds until all the pages have been shown.    

Result:

The showing went exactly according to schedule.  However, I am unsure of the artistic impact it will have on the viewer.  As I look back I realize more I could have added to the project to perhaps make it a more effective experience for the viewer as well as convey the message more succinctly.    

Week 6

      Though not much dialogue is spoken during this video clip it is similar to Bag's work mainly in that it is a subtle commentary on consumerism.  The beginning of the film clearly depicts Andy Warhol taking a hamburger out from a paper Burger King bag which is of course an icon of one of the most powerful food chains in the world.  It should also be noted that the hamburger is accompanied by a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup, another very recognizable food icon.  Among piles of wrinkled paper Warhol engages in the most basic act of consumption for the remaining three minutes of the film.  Popular consumerism is how Bag's and Warhol's work are similar.  If not as a direct representation of consumerism Bag often used consumer products in her work to act out skits, one of which even included a Ronald Mcdonald plush figure as a way to symbolize Mcdonald's insensitive caricature.  Warhol took a different approach but still incorporated fast food into his deadpan commentary.  In either case it's all about consumerism.  

   

Week 5

In the case of the film "Tree" I would say the author or artist of the piece only had as much control over the work inasmuch as the breeze allowed them.  By this I mean to suggest the most significant aspect of the film being the camera's fluid swaying movement amidst a field of tall grass and trees.  The camera's physical attachment to the tree limb melded tree and lens into one and completely detached the author from the work.  This total isolation of work and author is what makes this film so unique from the others we watched in class Monday.  As Tony said during discussion, "Tree" is a very "abstract" and "organic film" in that it is completely void of any human touch.  This detachment not only allows the camera to take on the life of the tree but also incorporates it into its natural surroundings.  In a way the camera becomes one with the tree and every other organic subject in the swaying frame which is filled with nothing but tall waving grass and rustling leaves.  These organic and noiseless images almost do a better job of conveying the feeling of wind than would images accompanied by audio.  The author gives the camera free rein over the film and in doing so creates a truly natural work of art.              

Week 3

It is amazing to me how much thought and interpretation can spawn from minimalist works of art.  The connection between the white canvas and John Cage's 4"33" is a fascinating example of how the total absence of material within a work of art can alter the perspective of the viewer and, in the case of these two works, reverse the role the audience has in perceiving it.  

The Lemon was also an intriguing piece to me because it focuses all of its strength into one cinematic aspect: lighting.  The slow movement and variation of the light over the lemon created a morphing effect giving it much character.  To me what's most appealing about this film is the camera's back seat in its admirability.  I was entranced as the lemon transformed slowly by means of light only. 

The final film we viewed had the largest impact on me personally most likely since it incorporated emotion.  The artist's decision to film the introduction against a white wall and with no spoken dialogue was designed, I believe, to put emphasis on how he feels out of place and unable to speak in the world due to his race.  This is of course further emphasized when his work of art is shown to us placing him behind a white shield with nothing but two holes to look out of.  It was fascinating how he was able to convey an idea so simply and affectively simultaneously but I found his social predicament to be greatly unfortunate.        

201: Week 2

Out of the films we watched Monday what intrigued me the most was "At Land".  The trick cutting that was used to transition from beach to dinner table to forest seemed much like what you could find in particular sequences from films like "Being John Malkovich" and "Eternal Sunshine" which involve rather disorienting cuts between different scenes while the subject continues to carry out the same action.  It seems to me this film may have been a source of influence for those films. 

What interested me in Peterson's article was the definition of laughter as "the sneeze of the intellect".  I began thinking about this over the past few days and realized how true it really is.  I find that "experimental films" are rarely a source of humor for audiences because they cannot grasp or are repulsed by their often times surreal and disturbing nature.  If an audience member had not already left the theater they would most likely be too busy trying to decipher the film rather than appreciate the humor.