Marc Masters, “The Offenders: No Wave Cinema”
1. Name at least three similarities between the punk music scene and the punk/no-wave filmmaking scene, in terms of technology, style, and community.
Like the punk musicians just picked up a guitar with little experience the no wave filmmakers just picked up a camera and started shooting. They organized everything themselves with the same independent spirit of the musicians. They created a community where each member helped eachother on their projects and rotated roles in the filmmaking process like musicians rotated instruments.
2. In what ways was punk/no-wave filmmaking a reaction to the avant-garde film institutionalization of the 1970s?
They made films that were intentionally melodramatic and non-intellectual. The films were intended as spectacles which an open audience (outside of the art houses) could freely converse (as loud as they wanted) with and of the films as they wish or not.
3. Which filmmakers are cited as influences on Amos Poe, Eric Mitchell, and Vivienne Dick (to the point that they "re-worked" earlier films)?
The nouvelle vague and particularly Jean-Luc Godard was influential to Amos Poe he attempted to mimic Breathless with Unmade Beds. Mitchell and Vivienne Dick were particularly influenced by Andy Warhol. Mitchell's film Kidnapped was inspired by Vinyl and Dick's Guerillere Talks was inspired by Warhol's Screen Tests.
4. What were the exhibition venues for punk/no-wave films such as those by Beth B. and Scott B., and how did the venues affect film content and style?
The Films they made were made in intention to reflect the reality of the lower east side which is where the films were screened.
Michael Zryd, “Found Footage Film as Discursive Metahistory: Craig Baldwin’s Tribulation 99”
5. What does Zryd mean by "double voicing" and what does Baldwin mean by "Fake right, go left"?
This was kind of unclear to me.
6. Explain Paul Arthur's distinction between the "realist" use of found footage and the "figurative" use of found footage. Which becomes important in Tribulation 99 and why?
The "realist" use of found footage tries to bring the literal truth of the image itself to the attention of the viewer. Voice-Over would caption the event taking place montage would only intensify the time and space of the captured action. When used "figuratively", found footage draws attention to the metaphorical nature of the images or adjusts the meaning of the images. In Tribulation 99 the "figurative" use of found footage becomes most important. Most obviousley the Voice-Over does not caption the image it intends to create a new meaning in the corralation of the dialogue and the image.
7. Explain what Baldwin means by "media jujitsu"
Jujitsu as a martial art is intended as a means of using your opponents moves aginst them, so Baldwin's reference to "media jujitsu" could be interpreted as the way that the meaning of found footage can be manipulated to criticize its makers, makings and the original intentions of the film. It is particularly relevent with the iconic image which can be related to a particular culture's archetypes so that these iconic images can be used against the culure itself.
8. What does Zryd argue is the relationship between the use of clips from films such as Chariots of the Gods and Baldwin's critique of American foreign policy?
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Response 7
Sitney, “Structural Film”
1. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics?
The tradition of Daren, Brakhage and Anger was to move towards complexity and a condensation of filmic form. The structural film moves in the opposite direction in which the shape of the whole film is predetermined and simplified, and it is that shape which is the primal impression of the film. The four characteristics of the structural film are its fixed camera position, the flicker effect, loop printing, and rephotography off the screen.
2. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class.
I'm not really sure... it seems like the structural film relies the idea that what is seen is not by the eye but by the mind. The film form moves toward introspection.
3. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?
Warhol already had been ridiculing high-art in his paintings and when he came into the avant-garde he turned his genius for parody and reduction against the American avant garde high-art film-making process. His first film Sleep was an incredible about face from the direction of the mythic, trance, or dream traditions of his contemporaries. Warhol disbounded the predominant beliefs in complexity and high-artist control by simplifying the premise of the film. He also uses three of the four characteristics of the structural film in his first film; the fixed camera position, loop printing, and a freeze frame that appears like off camera rephotography.
4. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:
a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?
Sitney refers to Warhol as anti-romantic because the simplicity of his films released the film from the complexity of the romantic tradition. Warhol came into the form of film to free it from the control of the artist. Warhol completely liberated the art film from the exagerated role of the artist. His films didn't have any intense connection to emotion or picturesque qualities typical of the romantic form. Warhol roots the beauty of art not in the "Elswhere" but in the here and now. As much as I understand how warhol is anti-romantic I do not really understand Koch's argument against such.
b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?
Warhol became eventually became so compelled by the content of his films that he abandoned fixed camera position for his own version of in the camera editing. Filmmakers such as Micheal Snow or ernie Gehr took the fixed camera position toward a more precise contemplation of a specific space.
c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?
This one's kind of tough. I think the phrase is meant to describe how Koch saw the early Warhol films were basically studies of conciousness and perception. It relates to
d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?
Some lyrical film-makers,such as Brakhage or Ken Jacobs, had made extremely long films that were intended to be long soas to make a specific point. Warhol's films had an intention with duration to outlast the veiwers attention span. So that the veiwer would wander from the film itself. Later structural film films used this tactic as well as well as other spatial strategies not to allow the perception of the veiwer to wander freely, but to guide the wandering attention of the veiwer. Creating an orchestrated experience which stems from the lyrical tradition. At least I think so... This question might be good to clarify in class
5. What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?
6. What role does the materials of film play in the work of Michael Snow and Paul Sharits?
7. Summarize in your own words Sitney’s description of the structure and process of Hollis Framption’s Zorns Lemma
1. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics?
The tradition of Daren, Brakhage and Anger was to move towards complexity and a condensation of filmic form. The structural film moves in the opposite direction in which the shape of the whole film is predetermined and simplified, and it is that shape which is the primal impression of the film. The four characteristics of the structural film are its fixed camera position, the flicker effect, loop printing, and rephotography off the screen.
2. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class.
I'm not really sure... it seems like the structural film relies the idea that what is seen is not by the eye but by the mind. The film form moves toward introspection.
3. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?
Warhol already had been ridiculing high-art in his paintings and when he came into the avant-garde he turned his genius for parody and reduction against the American avant garde high-art film-making process. His first film Sleep was an incredible about face from the direction of the mythic, trance, or dream traditions of his contemporaries. Warhol disbounded the predominant beliefs in complexity and high-artist control by simplifying the premise of the film. He also uses three of the four characteristics of the structural film in his first film; the fixed camera position, loop printing, and a freeze frame that appears like off camera rephotography.
4. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:
a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?
Sitney refers to Warhol as anti-romantic because the simplicity of his films released the film from the complexity of the romantic tradition. Warhol came into the form of film to free it from the control of the artist. Warhol completely liberated the art film from the exagerated role of the artist. His films didn't have any intense connection to emotion or picturesque qualities typical of the romantic form. Warhol roots the beauty of art not in the "Elswhere" but in the here and now. As much as I understand how warhol is anti-romantic I do not really understand Koch's argument against such.
b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?
Warhol became eventually became so compelled by the content of his films that he abandoned fixed camera position for his own version of in the camera editing. Filmmakers such as Micheal Snow or ernie Gehr took the fixed camera position toward a more precise contemplation of a specific space.
c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?
This one's kind of tough. I think the phrase is meant to describe how Koch saw the early Warhol films were basically studies of conciousness and perception. It relates to
d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?
Some lyrical film-makers,such as Brakhage or Ken Jacobs, had made extremely long films that were intended to be long soas to make a specific point. Warhol's films had an intention with duration to outlast the veiwers attention span. So that the veiwer would wander from the film itself. Later structural film films used this tactic as well as well as other spatial strategies not to allow the perception of the veiwer to wander freely, but to guide the wandering attention of the veiwer. Creating an orchestrated experience which stems from the lyrical tradition. At least I think so... This question might be good to clarify in class
5. What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?
6. What role does the materials of film play in the work of Michael Snow and Paul Sharits?
7. Summarize in your own words Sitney’s description of the structure and process of Hollis Framption’s Zorns Lemma
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
