'Experiment' Evaluation

‘Experiment’ Evaluation

Before we broke up for half term we did a workshop on the Dada art movement as part of the 100^th anniversary. I took to this idea a lot more than I anticipated as I looked at their abstract films. I really liked the films of Man Ray and Hans Richter because of their purely experimental and seemingly illogical nature. There didn’t seem to be a narrative as such, just a series of moving images. I liked how creative they were, especially given their time and limited resources in comparison to today. I knew then I wanted to create an experimental film as my final outcome for this project and use this project as a springboard for my Final Major Project.

I spent the first week of this three-week project in New York, which was a hugely creative and stimulating experience. I was hoping I could use material I had captured in the hotel in New York as the basis for this project as I was interested in the language of interiors. However, I wasn’t completely happy with it, and it didn’t reflect my thoughts on the trip.  Instead, I was influenced by the artists I saw at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Museum of Moving Image (MoMI).

The MoMI was really great overview on the history of cinema and moving image as well as showcasing some really great contemporary short films and artworks.

I really liked the artist Marcel Broodthaers who had a retrospective at the MoMA when I visited. I really liked the way he used models as concepts and focuses for his short films. I also like that he was a poet, and I could see his poetic influence in his work. This in part was what inspired me for my Final Major Project Proposal.

Part of this project was to expand on two things you already had experience with and to discover two processes that you’d never experienced. I expanded on my knowledge of Final Cut Pro, using new masking techniques and trying to edit the film to the music. Through workshops I discovered a lot of new processes. I learned about Super 8 film and narratives with Richard; direct animation on 16ml film through the workshop at the Cube cinema, which also allowed me to look at the experiment animators Norman McLaren and Len Lye.

Because the film I wanted to make was disposed to being fragmented it gave me freedom with filming. I could take out the camera when it suited me best and I could review the footage I had and if necessary film and inject more. I filmed in my local forest, Blaise Castle and my Grandmother’s house and I filmed and photographed the teacup and hand model that I made. I also did a little stop-motion at home that I put in, in the manner of Hans Richter.

I am pleased with the outcome of this project. I would have liked to have done some work in the darkroom but I think with the week that I missed in New York, I think I did pretty well to keep up.  I learned quite a bit about abstract films and I got a lot of inspiration for my Final Major project which is what I wanted to get out of it.