On" Cameraless" Techniques
When the camera is removed from the process of making a film, a filmmaker has the potential to channel inspiration more immediately. A camera-shot film requires at least two stages: shooting and editing. Even if one were simply to pick up a camera, shoot "in the moment" and develop this exact strip of film, the apparatus of the camera itself constitutes a sort of divide between creator and creation.
The first two films I made were more analogous to automatic writing I might do than to premeditated, edited writing; I loved the process of making these. My next project, a collage film, is more structured; it sort of feels too rigid right now. But thinking back to the films we have viewed in class, it seems possible to project spontaneity with one's methodology.
"Linear Dreams"-- the most strikingly psychedelic piece I think I've ever seen, by the way-- was obviously a labor-intensive film to make, to the point that its creator could not have been automatic scratching/painting. Yet, something in how its frame-by-frame and soundtrack rhythms juxtaposed against its imagery lent it almost a sentient quality.
The half-hour's worth of found footage collage that we watched on Thursday last week was, in a word, hypnotic. Although this piece was tightly structured, I think it was, again, its dynamic between frame rhythm and actual frame content that made it so engaging.
When I produce work that I feel I've overcomposed, I tend to feel like it's lost its nuance, an intuitive "flow."
I know that visual rhythm on film is ultimately so many fps, so our perception of frame rhythm is linked directly to each image each on frame. But in distinguishing between frame rhythm and frame imagery I am distinguishing between what I feel are two distinct and contrapuntal sorts of patterns at play in the succession of images. The former functions more systematically; the latter more contextually... kind of like the difference between the ink words are printed with, and the words this ink forms.
Both of these works seemed like they were structured cohesively, but with room for contrast. For some reason, "rhythm," which I've not always given all that much consideration to when I view films, seemed to provide for cohesion and contrast.
... I guess I've got some experimenting to do.