Choose 3 of the films we watched in class and answer the following questions. Answer all questions for each film to create at least 3 paragraphs.
Le Retour a la Raison
Entr'acte
Le Ballet Mecanique
Un Chien Andalou
Meshes of the Afternoon
What do you notice about the film's presentation of cinematic space? What do you see on screen? For example, lots of landscapes or closeups? Moving or static camera? How does the filmmaker use light and shadow? Discuss what you see and what you think it all means.
Which "special effects" would you possibly use in your own film projects?
If you can't get enough of the avant garde cinema, check out this site: http://www.ubu.com/film/.
If you want to look more into Jonas Mekas, go here: http://jonasmekas.com/diary/
Entr’acte:
ReplyDeleteThe camera is very static in this film, changing locations several times but not really having any sort of actual movement. Because of this, a lot of the action enters and exits the frame without the camera interacting with it. On the screen, there are a lot of separate ideas that are presented at the same time, seemingly without any sort of connection. For example, two men jump towards and load a cannon, two other men play chess, and a ballerina dances across the screen. None of these events are part of a storyline or involve the other shots in any way, as is typical of Dadaism. A lot of the ideas that are shown are very abstract and repetitive as well, most of which play with shapes and contrast. This can be seen with the shots of lights at night (similar to “Le Retour à la Raison”), the ballerina, and Another technique that is experimented with is that of layering several images over the other in order to create something new. An example of this would be the layering of something burning over a shot of a man scratching his head. Another experimentation that was included in the film is the use of slow-motion. The slow motion likely wasn’t a stylistic choice in the sense that the goal was to highlight something by using slow motion, rather it was likely used as an experiment to see how time could be manipulated within a film. “Special effect” ideas from this film that I would like to try would be layering different shots over one another to create a more interesting picture.
Meshes of the Afternoon:
Something that Meshes of the Afternoon does really well is use contrast and shadows to create a captivating story. The opening shot of a hand coming from seemingly nowhere and placing a flower on the sidewalk, and then a woman’s shadow walking towards it and picking it up was very visually interesting. The woman’s face is not shown until later in the film, the camera mostly focusing on her shadow and hands in the beginning. The camera moves, though not as if to draw attention to itself, but there are also shots in which the camera is static as well. The story is much more comprehensible than other avant garde films, likely because it is from 1943, and not part of the earlier avant garde movement. The director experiments a lot with lighting, sometimes creating shots that are full of shadows that border German Expressionism, but also including others that are much brighter and have much a softer contrast. My favorite parts of the film were the stairs scene, the use of the mirrored face in a hood, and the part in which the woman is duplicated at the table. I think that this is a very effective way to represent her inner struggle and conflict with whatever is happening in the film. I’d like to use the idea of a non-linear storyline in my own films, as I think that it is a more creative way to tell a story, if pulled off correctly. Also, I’d like to maybe try a similar technique in which there is a duplicate of the person on screen.
Le Retour à la Raison:
The main focus of this film was the use of contrast and negatives. There wasn’t a story to be told, just experimentation of different forms and how they reacted with light. Just like in Entr’acte, the idea of layering images over others was explored. For example, around the 00:01:45, a mobile is shown spinning on the screen. Layered over this is an image of the mobile spinning much more violently. There are a lot of close ups, though it is difficult to tell what the subject of the shot is. Also, the camera is static, but the shots have objects that move around within and outside of the frame. I’m not sure that I would use any of the ideas presented here specifically, but I will definitely play around with contrast and lighting in future films.
In ‘Le Ballet Mecanique”, traditional film techniques are disregarded for an experimental approach. Contrast appears to be the overall theme of the film. There are close up shots of mechanical parts interwoven with shots of a woman’s face along with shots in which white shapes rapidly flash against a dark background, growing gradually closer to the camera. Clips of a woman carrying a sack up a flight of stairs is repeated and followed by a piece of machinery moving clockwise, suggesting that humans are caught in a repetitive work cycle. Other than the theme of contrast, there isn’t any storytelling and the film appears to have been created solely for experimentation. In the future, I would like to try a similar approach and focus on trying something I haven’t rather than only sticking to techniques within my comfort zone.
ReplyDelete“Un Chien Andalou” is an avant-garde film created to unsettle viewers. The set designer, Salvador Dali, stated that he wanted the film to ‘plunge like a dagger into the heart of Paris’. Various aspects of the film are used in order to further drive the concept they desired. Luis Bunuel, the director, gained inspiration from his dreams and in turn, the film contained abstract imagery and intentional inconsistencies such as objects appearing out of thin air. The film shocked viewers due to the opening of the film, which contained an extreme close up shot of an eye being sliced open. For the rest of the film, the shots varied, closing in on a subject when showing an abstract image such as the eye or the ants, and medium to long shots were used when observing a character in or planning an action. Creating a film inspired by a dream sounds like it would be an enjoyable experience, so if I am able to remember something from a dream clearly enough, I would like to experiment with it and other forms of abstract imagery.
“Meshes From The Afternoon” is a short avant garde film created by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. Rather than pursuing a realistic approach and what events look like from the outside, the film focuses on the feeling of a human experience. The film includes abstract imagery with a sense of mystery, as the subjects throughout the film are rarely shown in full. In the place of the cloaked figure’s face is a mirror and in most shots, the female lead’s legs and hands are shown and there are rarely any shots of her face or full body for the first half of the film. It is only when reality begins to ‘break’ that the character is shown, in order to capture emotions through her facial expressions. Unlike other avant garde films, there are more landscapes shown and the camera does not remain static, instead tracking the main character. When the character first approaches the house, only her silhouette is shown, and throughout the rest of the film, the lighting causes a high contrast which highlights the character’s features and the key while making the cloaked figure darker, drawing attention to the mirror. Similar to other avant garde films, not everything necessarily makes sense but the general dream-like feeling is conveyed. It would be nice to create a film and focus on the emotion and experience of the events instead of viewing a situation from a distance.
-Taggart
Un chien andalou
ReplyDeleteThe films presentation of space consists of mostly medium long shots depicting the man who chases the woman and essentially sexually assaults her. This is with the exception of the beginning with a close up of an eye being cut with a razor. The screen is mostly landscapes as most shots are medium but there are few close ups within the film. The camera is static showing the movement of the characters on the screen. The filmmaker uses shadows to represent that fact that the woman is being chased as the man isn't depicted with one as obvious. As a filmmaker, I would use the special effect of the eye with the match cut because for the time, that is extremely impressive and most films now cannot have such a raw depiction of an eyeball being cut.
Meshes of the afternoon
The films presentation of space is medium close ups of objects as well as the mysterious woman and her shadow. The screen consists mostly of close ups, the camera focuses in on every object the woman uses as well as her and the mysterious figure without a face. This is meant to convey the absurdity of her situation as she goes through her day to day routine but everything is off. The filmmaker has heavy usage of shadows in the beginning of the film. They use the shadow as the focus more than the physical being in the film. This may imply the idea of two different thought processes as the film is about the inability to remember what had happened and mass confusion. I would use the special effect of the blocked out face, it was quite ominous and had a large impact on the film for me.
Meshes of the Afternoon is made up mostly of close up and medium shots . The close up shots tend to emphasize symbolic objects , focus on special effects ,and define facial expressions.A common symbol in the film is a key , it appears in the hand of the nameless main character and is always presented in a close up.During the scene where the three clones of the main character deduce the real version by each picking up a magic key the camera alternates close ups of the faces of the clones with their exposed necks and close ups the key.The repetition of these images establishes the relationship between the object of a key and the object of a knife whose correlation would’ve been less clear if this scene were one medium shot.The camera movement in this film is sometimes quite exotic.shots where the camera move are less common but they stand out.When The main character falls out of the bedroom window the camera turns over in a circle slowly not in one continuous shot but consistently throughout a series of shots which all show a frontal close up of the main character.When it stops moving she is in her living room and not outside which in the style of the avant garde is highly ilogical.Camera moments like these emphasize the antireal tone of the film.They also seek to demonstrate the disorientation the main character feels as she experiences these events.
ReplyDeleteLe Retour de Raison is comprised only of close up shots which are shot with a camera that is static.The perspective that the film shows on all of its subjects in the same.The perspective is small and it does not move in order to reveal more of the subject.The resulting effect is that off screen space is a mystery and the subjects can cinematically transfigure as there in minimal visual information.There is a shot which looks like TV static but because of the confined space it’s certainly not clear what is being shown , It’s even difficult to tell if the camera is facing down or forward.A bright light which appears in a shot graphically matches an earlier animation of a sundial which appears to face the camera from the front of the camera.If this is the bright light that it looks like it would face the camera from above like a ceiling lamp or the moon.The shot of the sundial however would lead one to believe that this light is shot from the front.It can be seen later on that this light is part of a carousel.The film maker also uses an inversion of light and shadow in the first few shots and in the very last shot. the first three shots,staic,a sundial , and nail are 2 dimensional projections which are black and white only so it’s difficult to distinguish weather the repetition of these three shots as they appear the second in black and white inversion were the original projections or if the three shots as they initially appeared in the film were the original animations.Like the light which is revealed as part of the carousel the inversion of balck and white when it happens in the shot of a naked woman next to a window is very obvious to notice.With a natural figure such as that of a woman is altered with black and white inversion the resulting image is intuitively incorrect whereas the inversion of a simple projection has a resulting image which could be the original.
Un Chien Andalou has a variety of shot sizes.The size of the shot is used in a traditional fashion which is to manipulate the stature of the subject. The shot where the girl who holds a box gets hit by a car Is a long shot from the perspective of a third floor apartment window , it is meant to communicate that she is in helpless danger as she stands in the middle of the street and as the man in the window cheers her on in anticipation for the inevitable.The shot where the same man tries to pull two grand pianos with dead cows in them to the corner of a room is a long shot at a high angle just like the previous.It is meant to represent his infantile state as he accomplishes this absurd task to get to the afraid woman at the corner of the room.
Le Retour a la Raison
ReplyDeleteThis film’s presentation of cinematic space is mainly two-dimensional and very chaotic. Ray uses moving imagery of abstract shapes and lines in stark contrast of black and white throughout the film. The camera is mostly static, focusing on the movement of the subject instead of the movement of the camera, emphasizing the kinetic and dynamic qualities of the abstractions on screen. Ray use of light and shadow can be seen in the carousel scene, when the lights on the edges of the carousel are the only illuminated subject as they circle around and around. Light and shadow is also significant in the final scenes of the film, as Ray films an abstract sculpture twirling in circles, and the body of a woman turning from side to side. Light illuminates the sculpture as it turns, creating an interesting and dynamic shadow on the wall behind it, almost an inversion of the sculpture. Light shines through vertically striped curtains onto the woman’s body, so that as she turns, the lines shift and bend creating a moving and dynamic pattern on her body. Overall, I think the general meaning of this film is a rejection of the chaotic, frenzied, and disorganized imagery seemingly devoid of any meaning, and a return to reason, which comes in the form of a woman’s naked torso as light shines on.
Un Chien Andalou
The presentation of cinematic space in this film is more conventional, with the subject usually framed clearly in the shot with the occasional close up to emphasize a certain subject or object. (For example, the man’s palm with a hole in it and the ants crawling out) There are also several landscape shots at the end of the film when the couple visit the beach. The camera is mostly static but with many cuts so the action is broken up and not in long takes. It also occasionally tends to follow the woman’s actions, for example, as she stands up or moves across the room, the camera’s focus on her establishes her importance and significance in the film. Light and shadow are utilized throughout the film to illuminate the character’s faces, and to create harsh shadows behind them, suggesting unseen darkness and violence behind lighter exteriors. This film is a deeply confusing, bizarre, and at times, grotesque, work of surrealist imagery. There are many themes established throughout the film, including violence, sexuality, femininity, masculinity, the objectification of the female body, and surrealism.
Meshes of the Afternoon
The cinematic space of this film includes a lot of closeups and dynamic shots that follow Maya’s movement throughout the film. Cutting on action is also used as she runs towards the door and the camera spins to show the room she enters.The camera is dynamic to match the subjects; if Maya is moving, the camera usually moves with her, but if she is stationary, the camera stays motionless with her and occasionally switches to a close up to emphasize her lack of movement/her stationary moment in time. The cinematic space is also interestingly manipulated later in the film as the stairwell starts to twist and turn and Maya is thrown against the walls. The camera swings from side to side, making it appear as the stairwell is swinging and Maya’s reality is manipulated. Light and shadow are also very important in this film as shadows of Maya are starkly contrasted with the white walls of the house in the beginning. Her shadow appears on the wall, and for certain portions of the film, the camera follows the shadow of her side profile on the walls rather than her.