There’s a tendency, after watching experimental films, or viewing a modern art exhibit to say, “That’s not art, a kindergartener could do that.” Even though I’m ashamed to admit it, I’ve said that before even after watching films by Brakhage (gasps!).
Knowing what I know now, after completing the “elements” project, I have so much more respect for the art of manipulating film. Nothing I did on the project came out as I thought it would. I tried to make a plan for scratching and painting, but when it came to actually manipulating the film my plans seemed to fly out the window. There’s so much to think about, but all I could manage was to wonder how the colors were going to show up when projected.
When we watched the Scratch Film Junkies last class, I was able to follow along with some of the techniques they used. Which was fun, because the first couple weeks of class I was pretty baffled at how they did anything. Five weeks later, I'm still baffled at their work, but now it's because of how organized their films are. It takes so much more work than I could have ever thought to make a film as cool as one by the Scratch Film Junkies. I had enough trouble getting results that were predictable, I can't even imagine trying to add sound to the film, or even creating it according a sound track.
I guess what I'd like to see now, to further understand the process, would maybe be a storyboard of one of their films. Or see how they plan the whole thing out, that must be crazy detailed.
I could also be wrong in my musings about controlling the process, they may just be painting haphazardly, but I doubt it.
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