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End of Semester One Film Project - Concept and Development
Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]
My idea for this film is fairly simplistic, however it amalgamates many items and aspects mentioned in the 'ideas and influences' segment of this project. I plan on filming a meta-drama with a single long take using a modular narrative, or at least an interpretation of modular narrative.
A synopsis of the narrative is as follows: the camera is filming a group of filmmakers creating a film, they use the camera that is currently filming. They are being directed by an overbearing member who is only holding the production process back. He becomes frustrated and storms off, leaving the rest of the team to follow with him, the real camera then detaches from these filmmakers onto the film of its own. It is designed to be voyeuristically viewing this scene, creating verisimilitude and a belief that these filmmakers are genuinely distressed with one another and in the middle of a production.
From the script I believe it is evident that the dialogue is fairly simple and true-to-life in the sense that it feels like the characters are mid-shoot. Each character has a distinct and distinguishable personality in order for the viewer to be less confused by the sudden exposure to three characters in the midst of a energetic situation. Note that none of the characters have names, this is because I didn't feel the need to have them. Each character is written with their own traits and speech patterns, also whilst I wrote this script I already had actors in mind, therefore I wrote their dialogue with consideration to what would fit well with their personalities.
The film being created inside of this film is rather awful, the characters are working towards making something that is not even at the very least memorable or interesting, the female character is mesmerised by ladybirds whilst the 'director' intervenes with more non-interesting chat. It is designed to be the epitome of small-talk in a British fashion whilst also trying to convey the classic overused stereotype of the whimsical girl. The evolving of the characters amongst each other is the most engaging part of the film, by trying to show how the relationships between them are stretched and weakened. I want to use the clapperboard as a means of signalling when the stories in this film begin and end. In the beginning, the clapperboard opens the film, as a classic title screen, albeit strange considering the characters in frame do not seem to be acting, they are readying for a scene instead. The second clapperboard is to show that the inside film has begun, each character takes on their roles as actress, camera op, and 'director'.
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Script for Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101] Semester One Final Film Project - ‘Read the Lines’
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Storyboard for ‘Read the Lines’ final short film.
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End of Semester One Film Project - Ideas and Influences
Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]
As part of this module, a three minute film, including aspects of the aesthetics and technologies we have studied, is to be created. Alongside this, the pre-production and all planning for the film needs to be noted.
Initially, I wanted to respond to this question by creating a film with more visual experimentation, either by utilising different formats of film such as Super 8 or by choosing a very unique visual style that perhaps incorporates use of colour or strange perspectives. Instead, I opted to experiment with the narrative and develop onward from the study on Modular Narratives and Long Takes. My plan is to create a film with multiple narratives or stories within of itself, this and to use a single shot throughout the whole film. It will be a challenge, but I became inspired to create something difficult and creative through the lecture on movements and manifestos, which led me to study the nature of manifestos and how they are designed to be groundbreaking and different. Especially Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg's 'Dogme 95' film-making movement which is especially influential to me as it puts forward some very controversial regulations for it's filmmakers. The rules of the Dogme 95 manifesto are as follows:
1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.
Although I haven't planned to create my film abiding by these rules, it is likely that a lot of it will conform to the rules anyway, due to it being a no-budget production with limited resources. Through the lectures I also found myself intrigued by modular narratives, or, narratives which are usually disjointed from its original chronological order. I may use Modular Narrative as a starting point for the purpose of this film though, as I intend for this project to be one take and use no hidden cuts or the like. Therefore there would be no feasible way to create a flashback/forward of sorts without cuts with the budget I'll have. After our lecture on Modular Narrative, we were asked to explore modular structures within a short film that we were to produce, the film I worked on was quite puzzling to say the least. But it made use of flashbacks and forwards whilst also creating multiple parallels in time. It was created with the expectation to have a jarring effect on the viewer as they view a female going through her daily life, to suddenly killing herself in each of these situations. It wasn't quite so developed plot-wise as it was intended to be an experiment, however the outcome was interesting and gives me motivation to use modular narrative again in the future of the final film production.
Going back to movements, it's evident how they have had a larger influence on more modern films. I'm personally very intrigued by the 1920s' Surrealist Movement as it has questioned the very grounds of art and shaped various astonishing films. David Lynch is especially driven by Surrealism, his 2001 surreal film 'Mullholland Drive' has a very backwards dreamlike narrative (one of many interpretations of this film) that takes a modular form, I interpret this film as having two sections, the dream and the reality, however the dream relating to the reality is played prior to viewing the dream onscreen. Having the structure of the film ordered in this way creates disorientation in the viewer as they struggle to comprehend the reality of the film and sudden differences in character. Lynch also creates a commentary on film-making and the industry of Hollywood throughout this film, it's a very harrowing view of Hollywood and its constituents however, it is imperative for the viewing of film to be critical of Hollywood's corrupt culture.
I would love to have a similar commentary on film-making in my own film as it interests me greatly to have work that defines and destroys itself. This kind of self-destructive work is inextricable to interest in the spectator as they are viewing something that should not technically be allowed, the act of defacing the film-making process is not necessarily seen all that often in film unless it is self-funded. In addition to this, it would be nice to see how a simplistic visual style would accompany such a complex meta-narrative and themes. To start the pre-production on this film, I started with a mind-map of ideas and things to consider in filming.
In this mindmap, I had listed some items that I found interesting that I may want to explore or use in this final film, however, there are aspects that I'd rather use in another project as they aren't able to overlap quite so well as the ones I ended up picking out.
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Poetry and (e)Motion
Lecture Series: 'Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]'
Films are inherently a visual medium, therefore it’s easy to get caught up in the ‘prettiness’ of a film rather than it’s content. However, sometimes the visuals are the content of a film and the placement of those images give the film meaning. Films such as ‘Melancholia’ (2011) by Lars Von Trier, ‘A Ghost Story’ (2017) - David Lowery and ‘The Shining’ (1980) - Stanley Kubrick all have visuals that poetically describe characters, emotions, events and actions in beautiful and subtle ways.
Alongside this, many filmmakers may have a certain visual style that is present in films that they work on. For example, Darren Aronofsky seems to have a very distinct visual style, for one he chooses to use 16mm film whenever he can, leading to the gentle grainy image with natural colours. Aronofsky also tends to work alongside Matthew Libatique, a cinematographer who works with lighting in a naturalistic way, therefore the visual connection between the two is prevalent in most of Aronofsky’s films. In ‘mother!’ (2017), Aronofsky utilities visual motifs throughout the film to portray various emotions and invigorate the narrative. Arguably, every single shot of this film makes a brilliant photograph, with aspects of each contributing to the story in some way. Especially the most controversial scene of the baby being carried across the crowd and in an extreme escalation of events, it’s neck is broken and the body devoured. The shots that compromise this scene all give to the enormous emotions of devastation, anguish, hatred, disgust, entrapment and alienation. All in a roughly 5 minute sequence. The dusky film and yellow hues amplify the later shown blood red embellishments to the setting. Libatique’s use of a naturalistic lighting also creates a great amount of stress in the viewer, being placed in the beautiful and yet horrifying diegesis of the film.
Poetics of the visuals enhance viewing in some cases, however visuals should not necessarily take importance over that of the script, sound and actual concept of the film. Therefore what can be seen in a film, usually has differences from what is taken from it. The connotations differ from denotations and the meaning of images must be taken in the context of the film. A filmmaker may struggle with carrying these messages onto the viewer in a creative and personally enriching way, but it’s success (aside from box office success), is as it is with all forms of art, it is ultimately subjective.
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Super 8
Lecture Series: 'Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]'
Super 8 cameras are designed to use super 8mm film, after their development they quickly became popular for home video as they were a highly portable and easy-to-use technology in comparison to other cameras and video tech at that time. These cameras and film made standard 8mm obsolete pretty quickly.
The texture of super 8mm film stock is very unique and identifiable, the frantic movement of super 8mm film during projection is also a trait of its aesthetic. Many filmmakers may use super 8mm film over digital methods as there are nostalgic connotations and the unmistakable texture of film that digital film cannot quite recreate.
In my own study, I've used a Super 8 camera to film the 'Architecture and Space' project. By using film to shoot instead of digital, the texture and grain of the film adds a whole dimension of life to the images being presented of architecture. Whilst also creating new meaning about the frames of the windows and the voyeuristic view of the world from this perspective.
When using this camera, I found it difficult to understand how the scene I was filming would look most efficient in the finished processed film. However this tends to be for the better as it prevents the filmmaker from becoming obsessed with the image and instead to focus on the content and audio present in the film.
The unedited processed Super 8 film: https://youtu.be/tZZI8HG8ZEY
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The Flim Manifesto
Lecture Series: ‘Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]’
As part of the Movements and Technologies lecture, we designed a manifesto that is to appear simple and create films with a child-minded-likeness. Our manifesto is as follows:
The purpose of this manifesto is to encourage creativity through limitations, since the inclusion or removal of certain ideologies among filmmakers will encourage them to manipulate the rules to their advantage and think outside the box.
The limitations that have been put in place have been done so with the purpose of capturing the essence of the narrow mindedness of children, by reducing film to its core concepts. This aids in ease of viewing and maintaining viewers interest.
FLIM laws:
A visual and audio cut must be made within 5 seconds. No single clip may be longer than 5 seconds on the editing timeline.
Within every shot there must be an inherent focus on a primary colour (red, blue, yellow).
Must feature the use of dialogue in the sense of a poems methodology (limerick, ballad, haiku, etc). And / featuring a rhyme scheme.
The finished film must be rendered and expressly shot for a 1:1 aspect ratio.
Through this manifesto we created a short film, shot mostly in York. Which utilises the rules present here. Upon finishing this film, we felt that it helped us create something quite different and experimental. Whilst also having a deep, emotional poetic vein.
A Flim in Subsequence of York: https://youtu.be/l5GnpJgp1x8
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Movements and Technologies
Lecture Series: 'Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]'
In collective art history, there have been many art movements designed to recreate the rules of traditional art. Many artists find themselves interested in new ways to express themselves through these new notions and meanings in specific movements as the develop. Manifestos are the physical 'manifest' of the rules a movement may put forward, or sometimes, not of a movement but for documentation of certain rules put forward for the sake of the artist.
One great example of a movement that was designed to change the ideals of the 'current' art society was French New Wave / Nouvelle Vague, in which french filmmakers disregarded the traditional norm of french film which consisted of boring adaptations from 'safe' stories that François Truffaut coined as 'la cinéma de papa' in his essay 'Une certaine tendance du cinéma francais'. The notion of french new wave was developed in the magazine 'Cahiers du cinéma' co-founded by André Bazin. Bazin and Henri Langlois as the father figures of The French New Wave both thought highly of the author in the filmmaking process, they believed that the director creates a signature within their films. Andrew Sarris (an American film critic) called this 'auteur theory'.
The French New Wave is very much involved with experimentation in the narrative, editing and style of the film. Much of the time filmmakers would touch upon subjects that were currently affecting the society in France at the time. To put forward the style in a filmic sense, filmmakers used more lightweight and mobile filming equipment which incorporated film stock with sound and less need for light. Because of the documentary-esque filming, many of the films created were a combination of have a film with no 'end' and realism.
Upon looking into the French New Wave, films such as 'Man Bites Dog' (1992 - Rémy Belvaux) and 'La Haine' (1995 - Mathieu Kassovitz), 'Night and Fog' / 'Nuit et Brouillard' (1955 - Alain Resnais) intrigued me a lot. Although some may not be the epitome of French New Wave, they're astonishing developments from the movement and each are inspiring for their style and portrayal of the events at play. For example, Night and Fog follows a poetic rhythm and visual style with Michel Bouquet narrating true events and recounts of the holocaust and the Nazi Regime. It is all presented in beautifully grotesque and macabre fashion as horrific images of a mountain of women's hair and a bucket of severed heads lay at the viewer's disposition. Images that will be retained for centuries.
Surrealism developed from Dadaism in the early 1920s’, André Breton wrote two manifestos that were issued and drafted another, Yvan Goll wrote the third manifesto (which caused backlash and argumentation between Goll and Breton). Breton is thought to be the father of surrealism as he was also involved in the Dadaist movement, he put forward the definition of surrealism as:
Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.
Surrealist artists relied heavily on the unconscious and automatism for material and the structure of Surrealism. Automatism meaning the artists could create without have to actively have a subject of sorts or to have reasoning behind their work. Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and René Magritte have created many pieces of work that represent Surrealist ideals at their most potent.
Examples:
‘The Son of Man’ (1964) - René Magritte
‘The Persistence of Memory’ (1931) - Salvador Dalí
‘The Eye of Silence’ (1943-1944) - Max Ernst
Alongside art, Surrealists utilised film to create stunning pieces of work that could articulate differences, changes and dreams more effectively. Essentially, film is one of the more favored options of medium as surrealism is so difficult to portray in still images or texts, due to its complexity and nature of being past time and space in dreamlike worlds with unconscious reasoning.
The French New Wave and Surrealism contributed an astonishing amount of material to both the art and film world, also to society in general. Any artists who want to break the boundaries of their traditional rules and guidelines can create their own manifestos and produce extraordinary pieces of work that bend what is expected of them.
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Classical Narratives in Cinema (Alternate Perspectives)
Lecture Series: ‘Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]’
The narrative of a film, is how the plot / story of a film is being presented to the audience, it is the way and order it has been processed to create certain audience reactions.
Narrated Time : how long it takes to tell the story / length of the film.
Narrative Time : time present within the film diegesis / story.
There are many theorists and writers who point out patterns in narratives, Tzvetan Todorov being one of them who developed the Equilibrium theory.
Todorov idealized a structure by which many films seemed to follow, his narrative theory, expects that a film starts with Equilibrium (where the world is at a state of normality), then a Disruption occurs, followed by the Recognition of this disruption, then their is an attempt at Restoration, followed by the New Equilibrium.
Claude Levi-Strauss developed the Binary Opposites theory from his studies into tribal culture myths, and general society, he found that narratives thrive on the conflict between two opposites. For example: Good vs Evil, Man vs Nature, Democracy vs Dictatorship and so on.
Vladimir Propp studied many Russian fairytales in the 1920s’, finding that many characters could usually be classified by the roles they take and their function in the narrative, these character archetypes were apparently quite repetitive. Propp believed the narrative was driven by characters.
Roland Barthes had yet another theory for understanding semiotics in literature and narratives. He devised 5 codes by which narrative is structured.
Action Codes (proairetic) : refers to events that imply something else is to happen, builds tension.
Enigma Codes (hermaneutic) : unanswered questions designed to intrigue the audience.
Symbolic Codes : understood through connotations or more abstract concepts.
Cultural Codes (referential) : something understood due to recognition in a specific culture.
Semantic Codes : like symbolic, is dependent on the connotations, but also includes the context of the film.
Cinema in the 1930s’ and 40′s had established a hegemonic ideal of film, it’s narratives were designed to create a diegesis for the viewer to become infatuated with and to fully believe. Filmmakers focused on create verisimilitude for the audience. Because of this, cause and effect was prevalent. Later on, films used certain motifs to impose a hierarchy within the narrative, through music, titles, star ‘vehicles’ and mise-en-scène.
Genres are developments from this, with specific motifs that divide certain films from another. Genre is useful for the audience expectation and to drive consumption.
Human expectations and the semiotics of our lives are dependent of our culture, our experiences and so on. Film usually reflects this, by creating worlds that we are to expect what is to happen and what is right, wrong. Other filmmakers decided to turn this on it’s head, as is the case for filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. For example: ‘Le Fantôme de la liberté’ (1974) - Luis Buñuel and ‘Un Chien Andalou’ (1929) - Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.
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Architecture and Space
Lecture Series: 'Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]'
As part of understanding space and area within cinema, both the psychological and physical aspects of constructing a space in a frame need to be understood.
One of the first examples of the subversion of space in art is seen within Diego Velasquez's 'Las Meninas', an astounding painting that will continue to be mentioned due to the way that Velasquez initiates contact between the viewer and the art. The viewer actively becomes one with the piece and takes a view of the scene from the point of view of the King and Queen of Spain, as seen in the mirror image in the background.
Michael Haneke's 'Caché' (2005) creates an imagined space through it's opening scene, the architecture frames the scene and creates blind spots for the spectator, leading to elevated ideas about what this space is like and what the people walking through the scene are walking towards.
Juhani Pallasmaa detailed the effect of architecture and cinema and how they both articulate a lived space. Alongside this, both mediate comprehensive images of life. He details how Alfred Hitchcock uses architecture within his films, especially Rear Window, which encapsulates the viewer in a singular room with L. B. Jefferies. Yet still manages to create an articulated feeling of somber and understanding of the characters in every other apartment. Andrei Tarkovsky is more artistic and aesthetically aware by using the golden ratio and Fibonacci spiral in his compositions for the most part.
In order to create a response to this theme, I looked at the stage design of classic German expressionist films, such like Robert Wiene's 'Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari' (1920) which utilities harsh lines and perspectives in it's stages, enhancing the effect of distortion and chaos in the brooding sharp-edged shadows and chiaroscuro-like effect. An effect which later on influenced the look of Film Noir. Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau were also influenced by German expressionism, so films such as 'Metropolis' (1927) and 'Nosferatu' (1922) were useful in seeing how architecture can be constructed within film.
Architecture and Space film: https://youtu.be/hp92RrbrVFY
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Modular Narratives
Lecture Series: 'Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]'
Modular narrative opposes the conventional classic chronological narrative that Hollywood typically asked for in its mainstream films prior to the 1990s'. Modular narrative works by articulating segments of a film in a complex way. Less so than by simply using flash-backs or flash-forwards, instead, a modular or 'database' narrative is structured in an intricate fashion, yet is connected and edited in such a way that makes it a simple unconventional way of telling a story. Because of these fairly complicated designs, modular narrative films are also known as 'Puzzle Films' (Warren Buckland - Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema [2009]). A few examples of films with this kind of complex structure of storytelling are Christopher Nolan's 'Memento' (2000), Michel Gondry's 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (2004) and Shane Carruth's 'Primer' (2005). Memento has an operational narrative and is referenced many times in Buckland's book. The book has an overall notion that modular films are in fact very separate to classical Hollywood narratives, both in their devices and in the way they are watched in comparison to their more mainstream counterpart. Memento is especially renown as being a strong example of Modular film as it places the audience at the reception of Leonard Shelby's lost memories, meaning that the spectator is almost always ahead of Leonard knowledge-wise, that is until it comes to a plot twist, which creates a crack in the relationship between what the spectator has been led to believe and what is actual, similarly to what Leonard has with 'Sammy Jankis'.
In Modular Narratives, the clothing, composition, mise-en-scene and editing become the signifiers of change or temporalities. 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' does just this, as the fragmented plot structure of reality and memory is tied together through labelling Joel and Clementine with the clothes they wear, the colours they sport and the environments in which they thrive. These colours stay pretty much identical throughout each temporal plane and scene in order for the spectator to gather information about these two characters in a more latent and covert sense. Repetition is another important device to creating an effective modular narrative. Especially on considering Hebb's Law when paraphrased states 'neurons that fire together, wire together' suggesting that repetition initiates association. As is the case for both Memento and Primer, However, in Memento, almost all ends are tied up on second viewing. With a film such as Primer, there seems to be no end to its enigmas, therefore leading to a viewing far more tiring and draining, alongside this, the repetitiveness gives no means to an end. These are just personal observations, there are viewers who enjoy the exercise of watching Primer, but due to it's obvious issues there is a great divide between those who love and hate it.
In response to this lecture, I helped create a short film that includes aspects of a modular narrative, it isn't the ideal representation of a modular narrative as there is no real audience association with the character at hand, the film is made to represent two temporal spaces of an identical situation. One being normal and expected, one being dark and unsettling as we watch the character twice through in similar circumstances.
For this film, we had chosen to use black and white visuals in order for a viewer to concentrate on the sound design and to nullify the colour differences between the two versions of the same event. The last shot is one without a matched 'healthy' version of itself. I carefully decided the composition and contrasting within each frame in order to make sure each shot was interesting enough to remember for the next time is it seen.
In hindsight, there should've have been any music in the film, the addition of the high pitched drone in the latter quarter of the film was useful and aids the intensity of the scenes but it seems strange in coordination with the somber music playing at the beginning. However it would've been nice to leave the suffocation scene in complete uncomfortable silence to keep utter focus on the scene. I feel that the composition was very effective within this piece, although sometimes it was rather amateurish, one shot in particular that I disliked after having finished this was the pills / mints as it just felt ridiculous and closer to funny than serious. On the other hand I was very happy with the last shot as the wall leaves a lot of negative space, constricting the view in a similar fashion to the way the character is suffocated. For the shot to be held onto for so long also amplifies the anxiety of it. This piece was interesting to create and all-in-all was nice to experiment with a more complicated narrative structure, however it isn't extremely successful as an attempt of this.
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Modular Narrative Film
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Ideas and Processes
Lecture Series: 'Aesthetics and Technologies [FILM101]'
Since the early days of cinema and filmmaking, artists have aspired to experiment with the film medium as much as humanly possible, 'experimental' film is itself a separate entity that defies the conventions of traditional processes in cinema and desires to innovate on the already established mechanisms and techniques already present in the filmmaking world.
Many artists described themselves as being 'avant-garde' as they'd favour the experimental ideas and methods that branched from various art-movements (surrealism / dadaism). Underground film, broadly, is a counter-culture of film against the commercialised versions of 'independent' and 'experimental' film. It disregarded use of censorship and has a transient history of what it found to be important in filmmaking.
As part of this lecture, we were introduced to the 'direct film' method of creating which relies on working directly onto the film material. We were given options between 8mm black leader film, 8mm clear film and used 8mm film that had already been exposed. Instead of having to think about what to shoot or what the idea behind the film would be, this method allowed for some more pure form of experimentalism as we focused on the movement that our marks would take on, rather than what story they could portray.
Zoetrope: small slits in the zoetrope wall give a view to the images printed on the other side of the zoetrope wall opposite. In spinning this object, the image appears to move.
Praxinoscope: much like the zoetrope, however a mirror in the middle of the contraption reflects the images on the inside of the wall instead of viewing through the slits.
Zoopraxinoscope: the predecessor of the movie projector.
In learning a quick history of how films are projected we had a look at James Stuart Blackton's 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906)', which is regarded as being the first ever animated film. This film included Blackton's hands and uses chalkboard and cutouts for it's animation. Advances in artists ideas and techniques could only really occur after technical advances were made, for example, free movement of the camera could only be achieved once cameras became much lighter and more portable. Thus the invention of the classic camera pan and the Point-of-view shot were implemented once camera became much more portable.
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Working on film stock - Direct Film experiments, linked to next post with edited video of digitized film.
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Direct Film Experimental Editing
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