Scratch Film Junkies - Round 2

I have to give mad props to The Scratch Film Junkies. When I first watched their “To the Beat” I thought it looked pretty cool, but I didn’t think it would be too hard to master. I figured the biggest challenge, if any, would be animating certain shapes or images. Throughout the last couple of weeks of cameraless filmmaking I have learned a lot of different techniques that I didn’t even know were possible.
After watching “St. Louise“, I have a new appreciation for the Scratch Film Junkies. I can only imagine all the time and energy that went into their films and definitely into the pre-production. At first I thought it was a bunch of scribbles and scratches, but I now can see that there is always a method and “picture” behind what they are creating. I found it immensely hard to create an animation and when I did it wasn’t as detailed as I would like it and once it went through the projector, my 100 frames would be done in a blink of an eye. How depressing. Everything Olivia and I did had a certain planed theme to it, even though it might have not shown on screen. Every scratch and bleach stain was purposely placed.
This time around while watching the masterful work of the Scratch Film Junkies I was able to pick out the techniques that they used that I would have not noticed or even known before. Just like the previous one we watched in class, I loved how the Scratch Film Junkies would scratch everything but the face of a person on found footage. I thought that was interesting and it definitely drew your attention to that face. One of my favorite parts of this film was when the black arrow was turning and then all of a sudden it would change into another object or turn into another color. I also loved, like before, the like colors from the same color family that were either inked or painted on with harsh black lines or scratches over it. For some reason that appealed to me and I wanted to see more. I did notice this time around that they used several techniques within each frame. I think we limited ourselves, keeping it safe, but every so many frames we would do one technique and move onto the next. I wish now that we mixed a couple more together to see how it would have turned out. I am still impressed that their soundtrack works so well with their images. That still baffles me because I’m sure when it comes to our group adding a soundtrack, we are going to struggle trying to keep a beat that corresponds visually.
Today, I was excited to see how mine and Olivia’s “Element” Project would turn out. While it was running through the projector we hit a snag in that we had our single sprocket film on the wrong side so it couldn’t go through the projector properly. It set us back because I had re-slice and re-tape a majority of our reel. But hey, you live you learn. It’s all about your failures and learning through them. The most visual appealing part of our reel would have to be the rayograms. It looked AWESOME! I really liked that we toned them too, giving the film more life.

Thank you Captain *cough* Obvious *cough* Chion

Honestly, I was surprised when I first started reading this journal article. Here it’s supposed to be a scholarly journal, perhaps something we would use in a research paper, but yet it felt so elementary. I almost feel that a non film major would even come up with and understand the concept that by adding sound you can change the meaning of the film. Despite his kindergarten approach, I do agree that sound plays a major role in films today, whether it is in narrative, documentary or in experimental.

Chion talks about empathetic music, in which is the ability to feel the feelings of others. Music/sound can make us feel like we are part of the action. For example, it’s a given that when watching a horror movie and all of sudden there is dead silence while the main girl actress creeps around a corner with a knife in hand, we all know what’s going to happen next. The killer is going to jump out of somewhere. It’s something we have become immune to without even knowing. Or look at a film with a sad ending. If you didn’t have the sappy music to go along with it I don’t think you would get the same reaction from your viewers as you intended. I’ve even walked out of movies where I was like “I need to buy the soundtrack/film score when it comes out!” I believe sound/music/etc. can drastically change a movie for better or worse. I believe without a music score track the movie would drag and it wouldn’t flow as well.

I remember a couple years ago for 201 Berliner showed our class the stabbing shower scene from PHYSCO, once with sound and once without. I couldn’t believe the difference! The time he showed us it without sound I was bored out of my mind. The edits were so simplistic and I could care less about blood going down the drain for 10 seconds straight. When adding the sound of the girl screaming back into the film, it gave a more emotional effect and the blood going down the drain became important.

One thing that stood out to me in the article was when Chion discussed that when we hear someone speak we put all our concentration on them, trying to figure out who is speaking and what they are talking about. After we have established this we get more distracted by other noises that go on around us because we are now comfortable with the situation. This makes complete sense. I know I could be listening to music while doing homework and if someone calls my name from down the hall all my attention goes to them. Once I acknowledged who is speaking and what they are talking about I noticed myself getting back to my homework and possibly singing along to my music while I’m still engaged in conver with that person. It’s like you become a multi-tasker once you know what’s going on. I found that quite interesting.

Response to Wells Article

I agree with Wells article on linear animation versus experimental animation. Ever since a young tender age we have been trained to watch animations (linear) solely for its narrative story/context and when we are given something other than that it confuses us and leads us to dislike it. We don’t accept the color and design choice behind experimental filmmaking, but instead try to find or make a story out of it. Ever since I was younger I would feed off the Disney Empire and its hit animations like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, 101 Dalmatians, Mulan, etc. I have to admit I’m one of those people that always look for a story in something, whether it’s a film or something like a painting. It’s just what we have been taught since a young age. I believe the reason narrative animation is more popular is because everyone gets the same emotion and reaction from it and you almost become involved with the story line, wondering what is going to happen next. Experimental animation on the other hand is so open to interpretation and it can easily loose ones attention because it’s not guiding them to a clear conclusion. The thing I love about experimental animation is there are no rules; anything goes. You can make up your own rules along the way and you don’t have to defend why you did certain things, whereas linear animation is based on story-telling and about building characters. One can relate experimental filmmaking to abstract art. The thing I love about abstract paintings is it leaves the audience open to interpretation. I love knowing a piece of work can mean one thing to one person and something else to another. That’s exactly how experimental films are too. Anyone can create a meaning from it.

Kamurlisssss Philmmaking

Cameraless filmmaking is AWESOME. I wasn’t too sure if I was going to like it or not when I first signed up for the class, but now I see how much fun it is. I love that cameraless filmmaking is so open and you can let your creativity run wild, no restrictions. I’m a very creative person and knowing that I can experiment with different mediums in order to achieve an image on the film strip is exciting, but at times difficult.
The artist inside me loves details. When I paint/draw I try to include every little detail into a picture and that’s exactly what I found myself doing, trying to paint/draw every little detail on a little 16mm film strip, yeah, not happening. So far I have really enjoyed working with different materials, like ink application, film scratching, magazine transfers, frame animation, and rayograms contact printing. My favorite so far is the magazine transfer technique, but maybe that’s because I’m a big fan of abstract art and LOTS of colors. I do have to say that I’m more of a fan of a film that has direct meaning that anyone can read into, whereas with the cameraless filmmaking we have done so far it’s more of a blur of color/text/images/shapes. I feel like I can’t appreciate the film or take it all in because in a matter of seconds it’s over and I have nothing to interpret. But maybe that’s just it. Maybe I shouldn’t be interpreting it, but more sitting back and enjoying the show of color. I feel as the class progresses I will try to put meaning behind my work as well as maybe hidden messages, even though the viewer may not understand or see it, I’ll know it’s there and I think that will comfort me. The Rayograms contact printing was fun, though difficult to see. I was so pumped to put my objects onto the film strip then flash the lights. I did learn that the heavier the objects, the more clearly it would show up when we exposed the film. Yeah rice was a no go. I think my film strip came out great J I’m really excited about the random shapes that resulted from this process. I love how we were able to see our results immediately after and be part of the end processes. I always have a new appreciation for things when I aid in the process from start to finish. It makes me feel like I put my all into the project.