1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City? What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming? Cinema 16, The Charles, The Thalia, NewYorker, The Bleecker Street Cinema. The Charles offered a larger variety of movies. Musicals, neorealist films, Silent films, Ukranian films, then experimental on the weekend.
2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”? Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films? Rice, Jacobs, and Smith. He used the term to compare these filmmakers to Baudelaire, being that the characteristics of their films are that they bring a new experience to cinema. They are both terrible and beautiful, good and evil. Something for the social outcasts to love.
3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964? What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City? They didn't get licence's from New York, so legally they couldn't show them for profit. They tried to get away with it by asking for donations. Then the world Fair came, and New York decided to clean up its act, so the police tried to shut down the "obscene" screenings. Scorpio Rising.
4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel? What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl? How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl? One camera setup, quickly and cheaply made, Actors came and went. Vinyl is kind of an adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, but only a bare bones one at that. The film is a single setup, static shot, black and white film. Edie Sedgewick was originally supposed to just balance the composition of the shot, but she ends up "stealing" the scene with her attractive eyes and by flicking her ashes on the boy being tortured.
5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966? What films and venues were associated with the crossover? How were the films received by the mainstream New York press? Chelsea Girls moved to more mainstream theatres, and was exhibited in many cities in the Us. Newsweek called Chelsea Girls "The Illiad of the underground", while the New York Times critic claimed it went to far.
6. Why was Mike Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground? He packaged underground films and sent them to places that hadn't been introduced to this type of cinema before.
7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films? Nudity based pictures that cashed in on Chelsea Girls.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
2/15
1. 14 Yoko Ono—One
I really do enjoy these Fluxus films, and Yoko Ono's one is one that I really like. Anyone with a slow motion camera could make it; I see the debate on whether the inclusion of the slow motion camera kinda runs contrary to their whole premise. The film One, is just fun to watch. To see the match being struck, then watching it die out is just cool. It is like one of those scientific films. I could watch slow motion all day.
2. Look up “Fluxus” and any of the Fluxus artists in the index of Visionary Film. Why are they not there? Are the Fluxfilmscompatible with Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde?
No they aren't. Sitney argues American cinema tries to show the inside the human mind, and the FluxFilms are concerned with democratizing art, and thus can't possibly have a central theme or objective like that to their work.
3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?
Nostalgia for cinema during his childhood, as well as he could relate her essence of being to the drag movement; she was a diva. Her acting is very strange, a bit overacted but at the same time really interesting.
4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]
The NYC art community was a tight knit group of artists. Rent was pretty inexpensive, and there were a lot of resources for a low budget filmmaker to work with.
5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas? The film became synonymous with a movement that Jack Smith did not support. Mekas was made to seem like a saint, to be in a position where he was defending the film but he was really kicking it to death.
6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)? The real show was Jack's filming. It correlates with the idea that the real art is the activity of creating it. That Jack influenced Fellini, and was copied to an extent by Warhol, though he clashed with him.
7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?
He would produce unfinished films so that no one could take them away from him, and use it for their own benefit.
8. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share? What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire? A minimalist, unmoving camera, with no editing. Sleep was heavily edited because the film camera Warhol used could only hold 4 minutes worth of film at a time, but Empire could hold 50 minutes.
9. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?
They were kind of a film guest book, that personalities who came to the factory would sign in with.
10. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films? What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share? He emphasized that the actor was him/herself, as well as themselves performing. So he would throw the actors in situations where they were free to improvise. He worked with Ronald Tavel, and Edie Sedwick. These films could also be called documentaries.
I really do enjoy these Fluxus films, and Yoko Ono's one is one that I really like. Anyone with a slow motion camera could make it; I see the debate on whether the inclusion of the slow motion camera kinda runs contrary to their whole premise. The film One, is just fun to watch. To see the match being struck, then watching it die out is just cool. It is like one of those scientific films. I could watch slow motion all day.
2. Look up “Fluxus” and any of the Fluxus artists in the index of Visionary Film. Why are they not there? Are the Fluxfilmscompatible with Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde?
No they aren't. Sitney argues American cinema tries to show the inside the human mind, and the FluxFilms are concerned with democratizing art, and thus can't possibly have a central theme or objective like that to their work.
3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?
Nostalgia for cinema during his childhood, as well as he could relate her essence of being to the drag movement; she was a diva. Her acting is very strange, a bit overacted but at the same time really interesting.
4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]
The NYC art community was a tight knit group of artists. Rent was pretty inexpensive, and there were a lot of resources for a low budget filmmaker to work with.
5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas? The film became synonymous with a movement that Jack Smith did not support. Mekas was made to seem like a saint, to be in a position where he was defending the film but he was really kicking it to death.
6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)? The real show was Jack's filming. It correlates with the idea that the real art is the activity of creating it. That Jack influenced Fellini, and was copied to an extent by Warhol, though he clashed with him.
7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?
He would produce unfinished films so that no one could take them away from him, and use it for their own benefit.
8. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share? What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire? A minimalist, unmoving camera, with no editing. Sleep was heavily edited because the film camera Warhol used could only hold 4 minutes worth of film at a time, but Empire could hold 50 minutes.
9. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?
They were kind of a film guest book, that personalities who came to the factory would sign in with.
10. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films? What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share? He emphasized that the actor was him/herself, as well as themselves performing. So he would throw the actors in situations where they were free to improvise. He worked with Ronald Tavel, and Edie Sedwick. These films could also be called documentaries.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Reading Response 3: Due February 8 @ Noon
1. Post your response to Brakhage's Prelude: Dog Star Man.
I really, almost violently, disliked Prelude: Dog Star Man. Perhaps its because I reject Brakhages mission to find the "untrained eye". I like the supposed "story" of the film, but while seeing the film I couldn't connect any of the dots. I liked the intro with the black screen, then it gradually becomes red reproducing the sunlight shining through your eyelids. In theory I am a big fan of the soft editing too. Which you would think would make the film easier to watch. I just thought it was too long, and way to fast. To keep my head from exploding I had to shut my mind out, and let the visuals work on me. I think its easy to see that Brakhage worked really hard to achieve the look he was going for in this film, but I just do not like it.
Sitney, “Apocalypses and Picaresques”
2. Why does Sitney argue that synechdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine’s The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form? He uses metaphor throughout the film. The images have a direct and indirect relationship to the narrative, similar the film scratching of the blind mans eyes in Brakhages Reflections of the Black.
3. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner? Both Maclaine and Conner use metaphor to create distance from the material, as well as a doom and gloom mood. Howerver, Conner relies on humor, eroticism, and violence to do this.
4. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form? It portrays the absurd, anarchistic, often infantile adventures of an innocent hero.
Bruce Jenkins, “Fluxfilms in Three False Starts.”
5. How and why were the “anti-art” Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. [Hint: Think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada, and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."] "Anti-Art" Fluxfilms relied on humor to attack the hierchies of cinema.
6. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms? That the medium itself was easy and appropriate to replicate, and should be cheap to get copies of the art.
7. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film “fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms”? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?
It shows a black leader, a clear leader, sound and silence, to offer a zen like meditation on film form.
1. Post your response to Brakhage's Prelude: Dog Star Man.
I really, almost violently, disliked Prelude: Dog Star Man. Perhaps its because I reject Brakhages mission to find the "untrained eye". I like the supposed "story" of the film, but while seeing the film I couldn't connect any of the dots. I liked the intro with the black screen, then it gradually becomes red reproducing the sunlight shining through your eyelids. In theory I am a big fan of the soft editing too. Which you would think would make the film easier to watch. I just thought it was too long, and way to fast. To keep my head from exploding I had to shut my mind out, and let the visuals work on me. I think its easy to see that Brakhage worked really hard to achieve the look he was going for in this film, but I just do not like it.
Sitney, “Apocalypses and Picaresques”
2. Why does Sitney argue that synechdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine’s The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form? He uses metaphor throughout the film. The images have a direct and indirect relationship to the narrative, similar the film scratching of the blind mans eyes in Brakhages Reflections of the Black.
3. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner? Both Maclaine and Conner use metaphor to create distance from the material, as well as a doom and gloom mood. Howerver, Conner relies on humor, eroticism, and violence to do this.
4. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form? It portrays the absurd, anarchistic, often infantile adventures of an innocent hero.
Bruce Jenkins, “Fluxfilms in Three False Starts.”
5. How and why were the “anti-art” Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. [Hint: Think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada, and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."] "Anti-Art" Fluxfilms relied on humor to attack the hierchies of cinema.
6. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms? That the medium itself was easy and appropriate to replicate, and should be cheap to get copies of the art.
7. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film “fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms”? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?
It shows a black leader, a clear leader, sound and silence, to offer a zen like meditation on film form.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Sitney, “The Lyrical Film”
1. While Brakhage’s Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?
The film uses techniques and materials that reflect on filmimaking as a form.
2. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
Filmmaker behind the camera; as the 1st person protaganist. The film consists of movement that is percieved to be the visions of the filmmaker. Brings to light the limitations of the screen.
3. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage’s move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?
Marie Menken for her emphasis on rhythmic camera movements, as well as her direct influence on the image.
4. What does Sitney mean by "hard" and "soft" montage? What examples of each does he give from Anticipation of the Night? {Tricky question; read the entire passage very carefully.]
hard is a collision of shots; soft is a “preview” shot cut with camera movement or a drift in colors.
5. What are the characteristics of vision according to Brakhage’s revival of the Romantic dialectics of sight and imagination? [I’m not asking here about film style, I’m asking about Brakhage’s views about vision.] We’ve been taught to see things a certain way, but that’s not actually how we see them. The Romantic dialects were all about focusing on the argument of which is truer reality, or our perception of reality.
Sitney, “Major Mythopoeia”
6. Why does Sitney argue, “It was Brakhage, of all the major American avant-garde filmmakers, who first embraced the formal directives and verbal aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism.”
7. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?
Divided Titan, Blake, Romantic
Sitney, "The Potted Psalm"
[This is an addition to the syllabus. After reading the introductory paragraphs, focus on the discussions of The Cage and Entr'acte (p. 47-54 and The Lead Shoes (p. 68-70).]
8. According to Sitney, what stylistic techniques are used to mark perspective and subjectivity in The Cage, and why is this an important development in the American avant-garde film?
Use of Radical lens techniques as metaphors for perception and consciousness that led to future cinematic ideas regarding perspective.
9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?
They both use camera distortion, and slapstick comedy but Entr’acte has more emphasis with snubbing their nose at the beourgoius(In the Dada tradition), while The Cage seems to be focusing more on the Artform.
10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?
Carried the editing principle into conception of the film.
11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.
Their responses seem to be focused on the themes of the piece, where as mine was on a different level. I didn’t try to figure the story out, rather I just focused on how the shots were juxtaposed. I guess I assumed that the meanings behind the juxtaposition were convenient, and the real meat of the film is its sampling of what editing can offer.
1. While Brakhage’s Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?
The film uses techniques and materials that reflect on filmimaking as a form.
2. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
Filmmaker behind the camera; as the 1st person protaganist. The film consists of movement that is percieved to be the visions of the filmmaker. Brings to light the limitations of the screen.
3. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage’s move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?
Marie Menken for her emphasis on rhythmic camera movements, as well as her direct influence on the image.
4. What does Sitney mean by "hard" and "soft" montage? What examples of each does he give from Anticipation of the Night? {Tricky question; read the entire passage very carefully.]
hard is a collision of shots; soft is a “preview” shot cut with camera movement or a drift in colors.
5. What are the characteristics of vision according to Brakhage’s revival of the Romantic dialectics of sight and imagination? [I’m not asking here about film style, I’m asking about Brakhage’s views about vision.] We’ve been taught to see things a certain way, but that’s not actually how we see them. The Romantic dialects were all about focusing on the argument of which is truer reality, or our perception of reality.
Sitney, “Major Mythopoeia”
6. Why does Sitney argue, “It was Brakhage, of all the major American avant-garde filmmakers, who first embraced the formal directives and verbal aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism.”
7. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?
Divided Titan, Blake, Romantic
Sitney, "The Potted Psalm"
[This is an addition to the syllabus. After reading the introductory paragraphs, focus on the discussions of The Cage and Entr'acte (p. 47-54 and The Lead Shoes (p. 68-70).]
8. According to Sitney, what stylistic techniques are used to mark perspective and subjectivity in The Cage, and why is this an important development in the American avant-garde film?
Use of Radical lens techniques as metaphors for perception and consciousness that led to future cinematic ideas regarding perspective.
9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?
They both use camera distortion, and slapstick comedy but Entr’acte has more emphasis with snubbing their nose at the beourgoius(In the Dada tradition), while The Cage seems to be focusing more on the Artform.
10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?
Carried the editing principle into conception of the film.
11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.
Their responses seem to be focused on the themes of the piece, where as mine was on a different level. I didn’t try to figure the story out, rather I just focused on how the shots were juxtaposed. I guess I assumed that the meanings behind the juxtaposition were convenient, and the real meat of the film is its sampling of what editing can offer.
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