Avant-garde and experimental cinema

another type of film practice

• artisanal rather than industrial

• individual or small groups; sometimes amateur crew and improvised equipment; nowadays, artists’ film and video (tracy emin, derek jarman, douglas gordon)

• free exploration, experimentation, investigation of the world, the self, and/or the medium itself — rather than concern with commercialization and profit

• smaller and alternative venues: museums and galleries, film clubs (ICA or Tate Modern (in london), the Anthology FIlm Archive and the MOMA (in New York, the French Cinématèque in Paris)

• usually this is the director exploring how the camera works and can be used to answer questions such as thoughts, finding themselves, etc

film forms

• forms: the overall design of the film

• it is usually abstract, associative, experimental narrative, and/or rhetorical

• can be explored in fictional narrative, documentary and animation

abstract and associative forms

• rhythm (‘ballet’)

• medium (mechanical, cameras, machines, industry)

• abstract forms and shapes (kaleidoscope)

• self reflexivity (filmmakers’ image distorted on globe)

• inspired by paintings

man with a movie camera

• associative, rhetorical

• associations in order to make a point

Lemon — things to consider

• tension stillness/motion (movement)

• pictorial effects of shifiting light

• photography (writing with light) v cinematography (writing with movement)