Fields and Frames - Experimenting with Film Workshop

We are beginning a new project which consists of making an experimental film but by taking inspiration from old experimental techniques, mediums and films.

Today was our first workshop and was all about how to use old film camera film and experiment with it in others ways such as scratching into it. We looked at how you can directly affect the film to create short stories and animations. Film has recently come back into fashion within art and therefore there is a high demand for it. The art has reinvented itself and is being used a lot more widely now which is why it is relevant for us to look into this and try it. We started by discussing the history of film and I found out that 16mm film was invented in the 1920's and since its invention people were already beginning to experiment with it past the normal conventions. The 60's was however when film really began to take off for TV purposes and in particular was used for education school films. Now that I have a brief idea of where this 16mm film we are using originated from we then went on to looking at some artist and films where these kind of techniques have been used in the past. Here is a quick summary of what we looked at and what I thought of them:

Len Lye - 'Kaleidoscope', 'a Colour Box' and 'Colour Flight'



I found these films to be very playful with the way the pattern moved and how much colour was involved in this. I felt the abstract pattern were almost dancing for the camera. This is  avery abstract way of creating an experimental film but I found these video very inspiring in how colour and pattern could be used in a basic yet exciting way. He made his mars from mixture of techniques, some freehand and some with stencils. In particular I really liked the dots and stripes at the beginning which moved all round the screen and I am very interested to try something like this myself.

Stan Brackhage - 'Mothlight' 1963



I have seen this film before when looking into experimental film however now having learnt more about the film process itself and where it came from I now understand a lot more about how different and experimental this piece actually is. It is made by actually sticking objects onto the film such as moths etc so that when the light passes through you see the shapes of all these objects. Sticking these objects to the film gives this piece a much more textural fascination to it. Even though the objects pass through so fast the textures and interesting shapes really mesmerise you as you watch. I like the idea of this process however I still feel like I would want to be maybe more pattern based with my own work as I felt that the Len Lye videos which used patterns were a bit more exciting.

Rhodes Lis Dresden Dynamo 1971



This piece again appeals to me because it plays with pattern in a very exciting way. This was made by taking a graphic material and sticking it onto the film to create these strong blue patterns. This piece is interesting because of the sound which comes with it as well. I found out the sound is made by the sprockets on the left and anything that effects this space plays out through the projector speakers as sound. I felt like this added to the piece because it means as well as seeing these patterns you also hear them and that adds another dimension to it. The only problem I had was that I felt like this pattern piece became hard to watch at times just because it is so visually intense with all these flickering patterns however this is part of the excitement with it. I like these patterns but they are so strutted I feel like if it weren't for the sound you would have lost the rawness of the film.

Stan Brakhage - 'Eye Myth' (1967)



I liked this different approach to experimenting with film as this piece was made by taking found footage and reworking into it with scratching etc to make it a much more abstract piece. I like this whole idea of taking lost imagery and reusing it in this way to create a piece. I like the bold and interesting use of the colour which draws me in to the piece. I also like the way that you are trying to work out what is going on with in the images yet you have such a short time to, this almost makes it a challenge. However I still feel like the pattern method strikes me more visually and therefore I might have a go at this kind of film experimenting today.

After watching these films and getting an idea for what I liked within this kind of media I began to experiment with the film myself. I was trying to think of a way I could make some interesting patterns which would be nice visually however not keep it too simple. Then during a discussion about how delicate film can be in terms of dust and fingerprints getting on it I formed an idea and decided to use these 'imperfections' to actually create the art work -

I began with clear film and decided to colour it in as I preferred the films which used colour in a striking way. I then on each frame slowly went through and put my finger prints on each one by one to create this effect:

I then decided once I had created a fair amount of this colour fingerprints that I would try some other colours as well to give it variety. I realised during this experimenting that the best pen to use of the film was permanent marker pen otherwise it rubs off too easily. I had a few colours I had to throw away as they simply weren't staying on the film but here is some other colours I did make:

I then also make a green strip of fingerprints too. I was hoping that the large scale that this would be projected at would make it hard to tell that they were fingerprints and hopefully it would come across as a very spontaneous patten which was what I wanted.

I then thought about how I could maybe add a meaning or more interest to the film rather than just fingerprints. I decided to focus on another part of the body which interest me and thats the eyes. As I obviously could go printing my eye on the film I decided to get some black film to give it contrast and use an etching tool to scratch away the emulsion so that I could draw an eye on the film. I decided to make it pattern based again by doing every other frame with the eye open and every other with the eye shut. I was interested to see how fast this image would change on the projector. Here is me working on it:

I made three lengths of this eye pattern so that I could alternate between my coloured sections of finger prints and the dark sections of eyes. I then learnt how to splice the film together so that I could create a looping film out of all the pieces:

Here is the loop I created:

I am very happy with the skills I learnt during experimenting with this process and I felt like my finished film was well achieved of a first attempt. I really would like to expand on this idea further maybe along the themes of identity etc.

Here is the finished film projected:

This workshop has been very helpful and I have enjoyed playing with film in ways I have never tried before. It has been a very useful and exciting experience and has got me thinking about any work I could produce towards this project based on the ideas I have explored here.