scratch film junkies 2

St Louise - Watching this after working on our own cameraless piece I had a greater appreciation for the amount of time and intent that goes these films. I found myself trying to figure out what technique they had used during the sequences, especially the way their animation seemed to move horizontally, I had only dealt with it in a vertical fashion. I also like the use of stock footage, something I wish I used more in the 1st project. The rhythm of the film impressed me, I found this to be a challenge in the piece I did. For some reason I wrote crazy pig man but I do not remember why, I think it had something to do with the use of actually footage and opposed to purely hand manipulation. Although I do not foresee doing this type of film, I think elements of manipulation can be used to enhance narrative film form. I again use the example of tests, using different techniques and experimentation can lead to further creativity and expansion in the art of film.

Chion reading

Sound plays a huge role in influencing your interpretation of image. I am often impressed by the manipulation of sound in film. Chion's explanation of how sound affects the temporal and image the spatial I believe is very accurate way of articulating this phenomenon. His point on vectorization of sound I found especially interesting, although I understood this conceptually, I never really found the words to express this idea. One can look at an image, such as a painting for as long as the like to appreciate the aesthetics, but film is moving images and without sound giving you that added value of temporal rhythm it is easy to lose yourself in the images and construct your own temporal context.

Wells reading

Wells has some interesting points about animation. Growing up on mostly Saturday morning cartoons- big Wanner Bros. fan not so much Disney- I equate his notion of orthodox animation as a character based structural form and unorthodox as focusing on abstract form and rhythm in much the same way I respond to avant-garde vs narrative film. I respect the form as far as creativity and experimentation is concerned, but I still see them as "tests". I believe that our minds are either hardwired or conditioned to create connections through images and sound that create a story. When emphasis is on the media itself without attempting to create a narrative structure it is difficult for me to see it as a complete form, it is an element which can be appreciated in itself but falls short of constituting something for the mind to create concrete associations. Cell animation is extremely laborious and time consuming, before computer animation took over, traditional animation almost did not make it because of the vast amount time and resources it takes. So I do appreciate the creative effort involved with experimental animation, and I believe experimentation is essential to progression and creativity in structutral forms.