Time and space are two things that remain completely constant in everyday life, but when it comes to film, time and space can be easily manipulated and the laws of physics mean squat. Maya Deren was great at this time manipulation, and her short film, Meshes of the Afternoon, showed how you could do these so easily with a camera and film. The scenes where she was crawling obviously stood out when it came to this kind of camerawork. It came to the point where I didn’t know which way was up, where she was in the staircase, or when it was going to end! I eventually ended up being like, okay...okay you can walk up the staircase now!! It was neat nonetheless. What I believe she was trying to say in her essay, which was oddly very literal and pretty matter-of-fact, was that through film, time and space can be manipulated. When you do this and when you slow film down the way she did, you can almost create something that wasn’t there in real time. You can create a whole new narrative, or a drama. You allow an event to become more fluid, rhythmic, and it can take on a sort of pattern. You allow the viewer to interpret this and almost create their own narrative. The physical act of slowing the film can affect almost every physical aspect within the film.
Stan Brakhage’s shorts were extremely fascinating to me. Window Water Baby Moving was extremely beautiful, just the lighting and textures (placenta shot was really neat and reminded me of a pomegranate for some reason) were very aesthetically pleasing. The way he cut from shot to shot really eliminated a narrative or a storyline and forced the viewers to just look. This also eliminated any sense of time. I guess if some watched this and kind of just blocked out most their preconceptions and thoughts or opinions they had about the birthing process, it may have been easier just to see this short film for what it was and not a film with characters or plot but as something purely physical, it may have been a little easier to swallow. I believe that these biology films we discussed were much more offensive to me just because I thought they were presented in the way that it was showing that women were only for baby-making, and this is their role which really, really bothered me. I would have rather been presented this in middle school. What I believe Brakhage is saying in his essay is an extension of Deren’s theories of camera manipulation of time and space. The way he put his short films together really takes the storyline and any context completely out of the picture and forced the viewer to just look and watch closely. Viewing events such as birth without any already known vocabulary or opinions on the matter would really help in an intimate experience of viewing, which I believe Brakhage wanted the viewers to have. He believe that slowing the film down could break down details and create some sort of “magic” in the sense that the camera and physical act of slowing the film can create a whole new physical reality.
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The fact that you found the baby birth aesthetically pleasing is frightening to me. lol I agree that the way it was shot almost forced us to not look away. I do believe that in that film, the rawness of the footage makes us feel the progression of the film and that means that I was in an immense amount of pain by the time it was over. :p
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you handled the Brakhage birth film. I have to admit, seeing it in class was a little shocking and disturbing to me because it was something I had never seen before (and knowing I'll go through that someday is painful to think about, no matter how beautiful an experience it is). After class, I mulled it over a lot and even went on youtube to re-watch most of the video, and now I'm starting to think that it would be better to be exposed to this sort of video at a young age rather than the biology videos we are shown.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you thought the placenta looked like a pomegranate. I totally see where you're coming from. All I could think about at the time was a sack of brains, but your idea is much more beautiful.
Overall, I commend you for being able to handle and discuss Brakhage's film in a way most of the class (including myself, I admit) couldn't.
I totally agree with the fact that you say that maya has a unique way of manipulating time and space, the essay didn't really make much sense to me at the time, but as we talked as a class i got the idea of how each moment could be manipulated to cause the scene to be more dramatic than others. My big thought was to relate the manipulation to sculpture,because sculptors create movement through stillness and these films created stillness through movement. so very nice take on the time and motion.
ReplyDeleteI think what is interesting about film is that no matter what you are manipulating time and space. You can’t help it. When you film, you consciously decide the framing of your shot and are constantly paying attention to the space in the frame. And when you’re done shooting, you’re going to edit your film in a particular way that fits the speed and length that you feel fits what you’re trying to say or do. And this is done in any filmmaking, from experimental to Hollywood narrative. With that being said, what I find so interesting about Deren’s films is that she is completely aware of film’s potential to manipulate time and space and pushing this potential. She’s using these techniques to make her audience feel something. What I love about these works is that I feel like these filmmakers have this knowledge and awareness of film’s potential and that they are constantly looking for ways to create something new. And this something I can’t say about many Hollywood filmmakers today.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really, really good entry, Kyle. Extremely perceptive--especially about the purely visual effects Brakhage is going for, and the ways he asks/forces his audience to experience visually without preconception, as much as possible.
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