film
Scintillation – Xavier Chassaing (2009)
“This is an experimental film made up of over 35,000 photographs. It combines an innovative mix of stop motion and live projection mapping techniques.”
Stan Brakhage – Water for Maya (2000)
Water for Maya is a hand-painted work which came into being during a film interview with Martina Kudlacek about Maya Deren. There was a sudden recognition of Maya’s intrinsic love of water and thus of all Mayan liquidity in magic conjunction, reflection, etc.
see also: Comingled Containers and Mothlight
Norman McLaren: Pen Point Percussion
Norman McLaren explains how he makes synthetic sound on film. With an oscilloscope he first demonstrates what familiar sounds look like on the screen; next, how sound shapes up on a film’s sound track; and then what synthetic sounds sound like when drawn directly on film. This technique is also demonstrated in Dots and Loops.
Happy Birthday Mr. Lynch
image via
Yesterday, as well as being New President Day, it was the birthday of illustrious film maker David Lynch.
I recently finished reading his book “Catching the Big Fish“, a very personal account of his approach to creativity, and the role that meditation plays in it.
I have often felt that techniques like meditation may result in bland art, due to lack of “pain”, a deluded idea partly inspired by Captain Kirk (I’ll explain another time). Mr Lynch is a very good example of how this is not the case.
In the book he writes:
“Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a a story, but they’re like poison for the film maker or artist. They’re like a vice grip on creativity. If you’re in that grip you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas.”
Here is a little seen, very short film by Mr Lynch:
movie via Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat
Belated birthday greetings to you, Mr Lynch.
Judex (1963)
“The French fictional character Judex is a mysterious avenger who dresses in black and wears a slouch hat and cloak, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède. Originally conceived as a heroic version of the criminal character Fantômas, Judex appears to have been an inspiration for the American pulp hero The Shadow, who was himself an inspiration for Batman.”
How To Write a Movie
1. Write a play instead
2. Do the title first
3. Read it to people
4. Forget the three-act structure
6. Don’t write excuse notes
7. Avoid the German funk trap
8. Do a favourite bit
9. Cast it in your head
10. Learn to love rewrites
11. Don’t wait for inspiration
12. Celebrate your invisibility
13. Read, read, read, read, read
“And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.”
(mildly NSFW)
“Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives.”
Stan Brakhage – Comingled Containers (1996)
“Comingled Containers is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage. “This ‘return to photography’ (after several years of only painting film) was made on the eve of cancer surgery – a kind of ‘last testament,’ if you will… an envisionment of the fleeting complexity of worldly phenomenon.””
“Commingled Containers is often interpreted in light of Brakhage’s health problems at the time, and is considered to represent the director’s own spiritual quest. Scott MacDonald describes the film as “a talisman that expresses Brakhage’s determination to continue his spiritual quest and to offer viewers something of Light, despite his fear of mortality, for as long as it was given to him to remain in the flow of life.” R. Bruce Elder wrote that Commingled Containers, unlike most of Brakhage’s work, “remains a nearly organic (or biomorphic) abstraction across its entire length.””
Paul Greer 