As part of our christmas break work, as well as reading over the brief, we were given an article about the experimental film genre to read. I must admit I found it really hard going and it took me several weeks to read it properly.
The main inspiration I take from the article is the point that experimental film really can be anything. I have found it quite hard so far to get my head around this concept, especially because I enjoy good narratives so much; I have been concocting stories in my head ever since I was a small child so the concept of anything without a storyline or plot is mildly mind-boggling. When I was told that experimental film is usually praised for not having a narrative, I pretty much could not understand how it works.
But according to this article, once you take away the narrative, you just replace it with an entirely different set of rules. For example, filmmakers may wish to explore the technicalities of the medium itself; the article mentions using pickling agents on negative film, using shots only a few frames long, or shooting until the camera runs out of film. It also talks of using any kind of images, like old newsreel footage and other found images (very much like "found object" art installations).
As I started this project I was apprehensive about not using a narrative, as that is how I tend to look at film (although I also appreciate some of the aesthetical beauty that can be found in films). However now I have read through this article I have a better understanding of the genre and am far more comfortable with the concept.
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