After doing more research and gaining feedback on my last short film i had decided to make another as final to the end of this project. This would be back by my previous film and my research i have undertaken.

Feedback

Tutor – My film was shown in front of the class and as it did i received feedback once it has finished. One of the most important people to give me feedback would have to be my tutor, not only because he marks the work but he has a grand background within the art world. When he reviewed my work he directly mentioned the usage of the camera as a eye. I’m glad that he was able to pick upon that aspect of my work which i was trying to portray. This means that i was successful with my approach of using the camera. He then also went on to ask “who’s eye are we looking through?” which is were i went on to mention that, that aspect is up-to interpretation as its a secret. He briefly mentioned that fact that the audio accompanied suits well and gives more atmosphere to the film, giving it a sense of eeriness and unsettle-ment. I’m glad that he mentioned this also as i did not want to attach any music as i did not want to alter the films authentic feel however he said “it would be nice to see this piece with music”.

Classmate – As a ritual of art students we like to critique others work which is what happened. My classmates mentioned the fact that they liked how the film was in black and white. this was partially intended but with no reasoning to it besides i though it would look cool. They then next went on to mention how they liked the fact that it was in square format. Now same again with this it was not intentional in a sense, yes i wanted to use a old camera as i wanted a vintage feel. I was planning on renting a camera from college but instead decided to use my own resources as i believed it would help my artist profile, project me in the way i am and what i have not what i want. They also mentioned the fact that the camera seems like an eye with the sense of a living being behind it, while also saying that i would be good to see where the story of the camera goes.

Overall i took my feedback in greatly and changed my approach to the film.

Lust

After watching the films from other students in my class one specific person stood out and that was Tori Jenson. Her work is usually based arou d the female form, sexulisation and sexuality. Her film was exactly that. Her film consisted of her in a bath tub within a see through sack being reborn. Now the major aspects of the film was the attention to her form and that’s want a wanted to capture in the second film. I went into filming the second short with the intent to show lust and overpower meant of the female form. Now my set idea was to have a living being behind the camera, as I did in the last. I want the creature to go about its day walking down the street being corrupt of memeries of a female figure.

To show that the creature was being corrupt I needed to show it in a panic as though it was fighting. To do this I used simple audio of me breathing behind the camera in an abnormal way, this managed to capture distress. Now to be able to show the corruption of lust I had layered clips through out the film of a lady in the shower and lying on the bed. I wanted to directly hind at sexualisation so I made the woman naked and captured her curves the Camera, thus capturing lust. I believe I was able to capture these aspects very well but the film seemed plane and needed seasoning. To add more depth I looked back on my reviews of the last film and decided to try to add music to amplify the affect. I ended up chosing an opera piece called the flower duet. The key was in a major E which is a complementary sweet bitterness key. It gave the film a sense of beauty but yet flooded it with sadness and dispare. This worked extrodanory within my favour as its helped to portray the pain of the creature being taken over by lust.

After play the film back with the music layered over I realised that taken in what my tutor suggested the piece came along really well. if I were to re-film this exact film in the future the only thing I would change would be the stability of the camera to emphasis the fragile beauty of the females figure. I know this could be a bad or a good thing as its helps build an artists profile but time can only tell.

Anselm Kiefer is a German artists born in 1945 raised in Nazi Germany. Although A.Kiefer isn’t mainly know for his film work on the scale of the others artists i have looked at his film work still holds major aspects of film. He specialises in painting and sculpture but has done a few short films in his time; nor more than 10 minuets long.

Walhalla White Cube

Now Walhalla is not a film but a collection of work presented at the white cube gallery in London. The piece which i’m looking at the entrance which is a photograph projected onto a wall with a line-ment of beds in-front. now the reason i chose to look at the piece is due to the fact that he project a still image upon a wall, layered it with sound then gave its an atmosphere(the chairs) transforming the image into a film. The ability of making a still image turning into a film by sound, giving it character, narrative and an emotion is truly tremendous. With in the film industry we see a lot of still shots with no movement and the ability to give a still image a story and movement is hard; Yet he does so, so easily.

The image which he project is one of him self walking away towards the sea with his coat blowing in the wind. Now this image alone you would get the sense of wind, sea salt and harsh weather, which is fair. The music/sound project over is a mixture between cries and light laughter of a young girl/boy. The bed and walls are made of lead, the beds are placed in two rows either side of the entrance of the exhibition. What I’m focusing on mainly is the image and the music together. The usage of music over media is well known plus widely spread within the film industry. Now A.kiefer projects the audio onto the picture in such a away that makes you feel like the image is moving and its is telling you a story. Some may argue that a picture can tell a thousand stories but with the audio it can tell you a million.

The Usage oF Audio

With the way that A.Kiefer projected audio over the image it give you a sense of eeriness and unsettle-ment. Now bare in mind that the picture is a man peacefully walking towards the sea with waves crushing into the rocks below. A peaceful seen at the most with some anger within the waves, no sadness or despair. Straight away with just a couple of seconds of audio A.Kiefer manages to give some weight to your shoulders making you feel tied down by the piece and feel responsible. Being able to capture this quick swift in emotion is a grand attribute of an artist. To be able to capture emotion within a piece and then projecting it upon someone else in a matter of seconds is unreal. It is near god like within the art world, being able to re-write someones train of thought by a few noises altering their perspective of the piece. I try to do this with every piece i make wither its a: painting, sketch, sculpture, film or ceramic i want the viewer to feel the emotion which i project into the piece. This is why i look up to A.Kiefer’s work as it does exactly what i intend my pieces to do.

Conclusion (my view)

Before this project i was fully aware of A.Kiefer’s work and what he stands for. I had studied in depth his childhood his pieces of art which tells his upbringing within a Nazi Germany. His work appealed to me within an instant not only just catching my eye but also imagination. His work with material is greatly worshipped, work with painting is greatly studied but i feel like his media work (film/photography) is underappreciated a requires more credit. I find that his media work is inspirational and should be valued just as much as the rest of his work.

Born in 1917 Maya Deren was a russian artist using film as her major platform, she later died in 1961.Maya Deren’s work is very surreal and with in the dream world, we can see this clearly from her short film ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’. This is a short film which she had made in 1943 which just so happens to be the first film which she directed. The film was filmed by her and her husband Alexander Hamid, the film consists of M.Deren coming home in the evening seeing a mysterious figure, entering her home to then slip away into a dream world were there are multiple copies of herself within.

Meshes of the Afternoon

The film stretches along for fourteen minuets following M.Deren within her dream. Now the reasoning why the ‘dream’ is so focused in this is due to the fact that you are completely unaware that she is within her dream or whether it is a dream she is within. As the film goes on it repeats its self over and over with her coming home, seeing a mysterious figure then entering her home; this part never changes. It is only once she is back into her home where the scene differs from the last segment as she then goes around her home doing other things that the last time she was there. This cycles around four times which on the fourth time the person who then comes home is not her but it is her husband Alexander Hamid coming home. It is at this point where you think that the film will change its sequence but its does not. Watching the film it was this point were I though to myself its not a dream but a time-lapse over a couple of days of her coming home from work and the fourth day is when her husband gets home however I was wrong. She was actually in-fact within her own dream and its that concept of not knowing whats going on until the end of the film which caught my eye; plus the dream-world.

The concept of not knowing whats going on and then finding out right at the end is such a good way to tell the story. This is due to while you watch the film you pick up little details that might not mean anything at that moment but once you find out whats happened the view of the movie changes completely. This is due to your brain putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together all at once, this gives your brain a overwhelming sensation making what you have just seen, surreal. To be able to capture this aspect and manage to portray it perfectly is one of the hardest things within story-telling and has been done many times over the many years of film industry.

Celestial Beings

within a lot of M.Deren’s work she like to reference or hint to the celestial world of gods, aliens and astronomy. This is almost like her own motif, the constant referral back to the celestial life brings all of her works together. he works with ‘Meshes of the afternoon’, ‘Ritual in Transfigured Time’ and ‘The very Eye of Night’. The constant flow of one idea/belief helps build her artist profile significantly, the flow of one thing can also make all her work one piece. Other Artists who’s work is like this are:

• Anselm Kiefer
• Salvador Dali
• Egon Schiele
• Pablo Picasso

Most of the names above you will most likely recognise not just for there groundbreaking pieces of work in the art world but because of there constancy of one idea. Due to there constant work based around one view or hints of a view, there statement starts to become embedded into our minds making that artist stand out from the others. For instance Egon Schiele’s work around sexuality and the naked form is still widely looked to this day even known that its around one-hundred years old. His work always reference sexuality from when he started to when he had died. This not only as his motif but an anchor in the art world making him stuck within the minds of artists yet to come. the same affect goes with P.Picasso work with cubism, A.Kiefer work around the Holocaust and S.Dali work around surrealism. Maya Deren was able to capture this aspect and project her work through an anchor of Celestial beings, this is why i believe that she has been relevent after her death due to her work being aborbed by up and coming artists. Thus making her one of the founders of experimental film.

As part of my project we were asked to make a short film around the length of three minuets. before making the final product I thought it would be a good idea to make a couple of tester films to see how successful they would be.

Home

Before I made the first film we were shown works by Rene Clair, Harold Lloyd and Salvador Dali. after watching there short films I decided to take some aspects of there work to apply into my short film.

Harold Lloyd ‘Safety Last’ 1923

This short is about a young man (Harold Lloyd) climbing the side of a building to be with the one he loves. Now even known that H.Lloyd’s work has a lot of humour and comedic value I decided to take the aspect of suspense from his film to bring over into my film. The sense that something bad is going to happen but not knowing when its going to happen is mesmerising and draws you into the film making you sit on the edge of your seat. To try an capture this aspect decided to switch scenes fast and at random intervals so that the viewer couldn’t see a pattern. So once you think you start figuring out the scene it quickly changes. I also time the changes on certain clips, for instance when the camera zooms into the shower curtain you would expect to see the other side of the curtain but instead it changes scene to another. This helps build the suspense inside making you think about what’s behind the curtain? who’s behind the curtain? will I find out? This adds a lot to the aspect of suspense which H.Lloyd does very well in his work by presenting himself in danger and making him edge more towards being in danger than being safe. This is the ping-pong effect by bouncing between two outcome a good and a bad, this is used in many romcoms and horror films to draw you into the film.

I feel like I was highly successful in building suspense, even when I watched it I felt the suspense build up even known what’s going to happen and when. The next I would try to build suspense I feel like I would implement the usage of music. Music does a lot more than just build suspense but it can make you assume the emotion of a scene just by one note; if this is done right I feel this could add more to my film.

Un Chien Andalou, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali 1929

S.Dali and L.Bunnel randomness within this film in extraordinary, each scene that follows doesn’t fit with the last and the content within the scene cannot be explained. The film follows a man (Pierre Batcheff) falling off his bike and then getting helped by a young woman (Simone Mareuil), the woman then cares for the man giving him clothes and shelter. That is all I can one-hundred percent say what happened; the follow scenes don’t do well to tell the story well. After she helps the man to her home post-bike fall, a scene follows where the man looks at his hand and notices that ants are crawling out of a hole in the centre of his palm. Ants are seen to be one of Salvador Dali’s many motifs as they appear in many of his works. The next scene then shows a woman poking a hand in the middle of the road just outside of the window. Within a couple of moments the woman then gets hit by a car; this scene does not link in with the scene prior nor the one after. The scene which follow the woman is back into the room with the man and young woman, this is where the man starts to grope the young woman.

This is what I wanted to try and capture from their work (L.Bunnuel + Salvador Dali) the random flicker from scene to scene not knowing why its changed or what the significance of the scene is to the last. I feel like I manage to capture this aspect slightly within my short film with the change of scenery and the actions which are happening within the scenes. For instance at the start of my short film the ‘camera’ focuses on a light within the sky from a distance zooming in an out then changes to a scene with a shower. That sudden change of atmosphere and surroundings is exactly what I wished to capture when making this short. The spiritic misunderstanding of “what am I watching and what is happening” make you mesmerised by the scene you are shown making you drawn in to the film. I also believe the camera angles I used that resembled as though you are looking through the eyes of another makes you feel like your the one gazing upon the light, your the one inspecting the shower curtain and your the one watching the lights turn off and on.

Le Sang d’un Poète / Blood of a Poet, Jean Cocteau, 1930

Towards the end of the last paragraph I go on to mention how the usage of the camera angles makes it seems as though you are gazing through another eyes’. I got this idea from Jean Cocteau ‘Blood of a Poet’ some people may believe this film is most notable for its mirror scene turning into a vortex of water. However the one thing which I picked up on was the usage of the keyholes, the aspect of gazing into another’s world. This segment last for around ten minuets from the eleven minuet mark showing many doors and the Poet (Enrique Rivero) gazing through the key hole. I wont go into depth with what is behind each door as there are several but im going to focus on the aspect the keyhole being an eye. Now if you think about the fact that everyone on this planet has there own eyes and mind and we can never truly see something as another sees. we can only imagine what they see with the restriction of our own mind at hand. I seen the keyhole as an eye once you looked through you were no longer watching from within your own mind but you were watching from another. That concept of gazing thro another’s eyes is widely used within film but I wanted to build from that by making its so you don’t know who’s eye you are looking through. That aspect of mystery of who’s mind are you in adds more eeriness to the piece, am I looking through the eyes of a child? a man? a monster? a insect?

I feel like I managed to achieve this exactly how I intended it to be as many of my fellow class mates were cautious of who was behind the camera and who’s eyes we were gazing through. I feel like the audio complimented this exceptionally, as within the audio you can hear faint breathing and chattering (this was fully intended). this makes you realise that your not just watching a camera but a living creature. What creature?

Moving forward in time from 1902 to 1972 when K.Anger filmed “lucifer Anger” and media blow up. Kenneth Anger wasn’t just known for his absurd and surreal films but most notably for his tattoo across his chest. Now you may be thinking ‘okay people walk around with their faces covered in tattoos all the time’ but back in the 70’s tattoo’s weren’t that popular and due to the size of the tattoo and the fact that it was the word “lucifer” brought him some attention.

Kenneth Anger started off young in the film industry being a child actor, this benefited him greatly when later in his life he move on to becoming a director and actor in his own films.

Lucifer Rising

As well as his absurd and peculiar tattoo Kenneth Anger released a short film in 1972 called ‘Lucifer Rising’. Over time this film got more and more strange due to the actors in the film being found guilty of murder/manslaughter. The film consists of (Kenneth Anger) Lucifer going about his day from his morning routine walking up and getting dressed and just living. The film has zero speech and is just backed with an eerie soundtrack complimented with suggestive lighting. K.Anger using dark red lighting for the majority of the film, this is easily linked to Lucifer/the Devil due to colour association.

the film is very inspired by Ancient Egypt, with Pharos and Egypt Hieroglyphics carved into the stone. The clothes/costumes which the actors wear are that of an Ancient Egyptian royal. the main thing in the short film to me is the repetition of a woman lighting and lower a small staff into the air towards the sun and then away. this short clip is constantly played through-out the entire film, being filmed in different locations or the same but different angles. This woman is ‘Isis’ (played by Myriam Gibril’, her name means ‘Queen of the Throne’ and was the Goddess of life and magic. Knowing this makes you understand that she was not just some random woman but that she is the Goddess giving life to Lucifer which links back to the title of ‘Lucifer Rising’.

K.Anger using a lot of background knowledge to portray his film, with-out this background knowledge and subliminal messaging this film would be unexplainable of be pure curiosity.This aspect of using hidin meanings and imagery adds a very significant characterisation to the short film. It adds to the surrealism aspect and the aspect of the dream-world.

Background Knowledge

Surrealism (surreal) – surrealism is a way of rejecting the normality’s of life by making something absurd, outrageous and not possible within the laws of physics. many artists have used surrealism; such as:

• Salvador Dali
• Frida Carlo
• Francis Bacon
• Pablo Picasso

Dream-World – the dream world is as it sounds, it is where the piece of art is presented inside of a dream. Many artists use the dream world and it is most common to be found in films than paintings. Artists such as:

• René Clair
• Luis Bunuel
• Salvador Dali
• Jean Cocteau

The usage of hiding imagery is widely used through-out the film industry and is by far one of the best ways to get your point/meaning across to the audience. It gives the viewer a sense of imagination by making them look for the meaning and getting them to interoperate their own meaning of the piece thus making them apart of the art.

Conclusion (my view)

Kenneth Anger’s work over the years has reached their peak in the medias eyes and have been said to be some of the greatest pieces in art history. I myself can fully support this from his work from “Lucifer Rising” too his many works in”42 One Dream Rush” project.

with-in the art world most artists works tend to get watered down over time due to fame and money however K.Anger was not like that. K.Anger’s work has stayed humble to be just as good and well thought through as when he first started in 1941 with his first film “who has been rocking my rowboat” (a short film based of schoolchildren just before pearl harbour).

K.Anger has also showed over the many years that he does not care for others opinion on himself or his work, we can see this by his infamous Lucifer tattoo. He has not only stayed true to himself but he has stayed true to his art and this within the modern day is a rare thing to find now. You tend to find that artists work may be similar if this is inspired or just straight up stolen however K.Anger is nothing like that and has his own art style developed over the years.

I can say from watching his many films that his work with the unknown and the hidden meaning will influence my work significantly in the future. I know right now that my work can be quite abstract but I feel like he has shown me how to hide then meaning in the background and the character.

within the past 100 years film has played a major role in society and within the art world. ‘A Trip To The Moon’ by George Melies (1902) is recorded to be one of the worlds first ever feature film’s made as well as the parent of all science-fiction films.

A Trip To The Moon

A trip to the moon is a very memorable film within history due to its construction and some of its most obscene scene’s. The film is a total of (12) twelve minuets long, black and white and complimented by a dramatic soundtrack. This film had many props ranging from costumes, backdrops, items and text. each scene is accompanied by a backdrop which was made by the artists in the short film

Key Scenes

‘a trip to the moon’ starts out with a room filling with wizards were they discuss a plan to take a trip to the moon. During the plan making there seems to be some controversy build up and the room breaks out into an up roar.

This scene is filmed straight on into the set facing all the characters. This scene is filmed with the camera mounted on a stand (as well as all other scenes are filmed straight on and still) this gives it a very direct and open atmosphere. I feel like this is because all characters in the film face the camera and no one faces away from the camera. The next couple of scenes are the creation of the rocket to take the men to the moon.

After the scenes of the rocket being made the men arrive on the moon, everything seems fine and ordinary, the men then set up the sleeping bags and sleep for the night. In the morning when the men wake they decide to go adventure and find themselves a cave which they then venture into its depths. Up until this point in the film it just seems ordinary its just a trip to the moon but the following scenes change the atmosphere of the film completely. this is due to when they venture deeper into the cave its starts to transverse into a mystic fairy tale garden with giant mushrooms and moving plants.

At this point in the film it takes a turn from being science-fiction to pure surrealism in a matter of seconds. In the modern day we know what the moon looks like and we know what the surface of the moon is made up of. So to us in now this is the scene where it changes to being surreal however though, when the film was made in 1902 its the very first scene where it starts to become surreal.

this is where the film starts to build character and shape the future of feature films by bring an antagonist into the works.

Protagonist’s and Antagonist’s

Protagonists and antagonists play a vital part in modern day film and media. you cannot have a god without a devil or a sin without virtue. Within the film a Antagonist is introduced as a from of lobster/crab like being standing on two legs with two arms. G.Méliès introduces them as a sentinel being on the moon ruling it. He portrays them as intellectual being. This is clearly portrayed with the usage of a hierarchy system with guard’s and a lobster/crab king on the moon. Now the film does not say anything about a king or guard but due to the way that it had been film and the sets where made we can see a society to form; giving them to title of being intelligent. Many modern and vintage films use this subtle hint with the usage of costumes to portray main characters even without stating they are main characters. we can see this in modern day films such as: Star Wars, Terminator, Back to the Future, Avengers and many more. classical films also used to doe this such as, back to the future, mad max, Planet of the Apes and its predecessor A space Odyssey. Films have always used the usage of sets and outfits to highlight main characters and this is inspired by G.Méliès.

Conclusion (my view)

“A Trip to the Moon” is not only one of the oldest films to ever be made but it created and give the stepping stone of sci-fi to directors such as Christopher Nolan, Kenneth Anger, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Not only did he change the world when he had released the film but yet he the shaped the world of Sci-fi film for the next hundred years. His work is still captivating even till this day and that is one of the most within the art world and that is what makes G.Méliès works one of the most influential and captivating with the last century and is by far up there as one of the greats.