From: jennifer fieber (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Oct 17 2005 - 11:00:19 PDT
> Sam Wells wrote:
>
> I think the interesting question here is how much a view of
> "motivation" we have brought to the theater with us, and how much can
> be extracted from "Outer Space" per se.
Well, when you're confronted with a film with such a grandiose scale and
labor intensity, I would hope there would be more of a motivation behind
making it than it looks cool. I shouldn't have written at all about the
original films, because it seems I was looking for a story in Peter's work.
It's funny, when I quickly read the defenses of the film, my first impulse
was that people were agreeing with me and also calling it superficial; their
defenses are my criticisms, so maybe I'm just spinning my heels.
Sam Wells brought up that it exposes the mise-en-scene more powerfully.
Jesse McLean called it "boiled down" or distilled. I would agree the power
of the Tscherkassky is that it is atmospheric. But I really do think the
atmosphere is coming from the deliberate compositions and cinematography of
the original sources, not Tscherkassky's manipulations.
And to James, it was well put when you said some think there is no need for
"such slick formal work"--though you disagree. "A sense of precision"
Jesse offered a good description of when found footage filmmaking goes
wrong--slapdashed or pure kitsch. And for those of you who think I think
found footage films are useless, I'd like to offer some found footage films
that are successes. Yes, I've seen Draschen's film. I liked it. The song
on the soundtrack is so damn good though, I could probably watch it if it
was just black leader.
In the Last Views show, there was a film by Luther Price called Nice
Biscuits #2 which repeated over and over some sections of a faded
educational film of the late 60s which showed an old age home for a mostly
black clientele. The soundtrack (I believe) was also from the original film
and had this eerie, unsteady voice of an elderly woman singing a gospel song
pleading "Lord, Don't pass me over." Luther's 'manipulation' of the
footage was minimal other than selecting the sections, repeating them and
laying down the soundtrack again.
Now it could have been a bit kitschy because it was faded and because of the
dated look of people's outfits, but it was too sad and serious. I offer
this film as a good example of found footage use, though it's effect on me
may be due to a certain personal confluences of chance. This film had a
profound effect on me that day; his other film that followed, did nothing.
Even though it was made before the New Orlean's floods, it appeared after it
and the connections to be drawn between the forgotten, poor and elderly of
real life were impossible to miss. I also became rather depressed thinking
of the loss of activist filmmakers hidden in the lost genre of Educational
films. I don't actually remember seeing any films like this as a
child--just funny sex ed ones--but as a dumpster-diver I'm continually
startled by the politics of educational filmmakers trying to change the
world through wide-angle lenses and didacticism. I'm all for the use of
emotional propaganda, if it's on the side of good. By re-presenting this
faded footage, Luther reminds us of simpler times when progressive change
seemed possible, when people were less cynical, when documentary, compassion
and art were more intertwined.
I'm not saying found footage has to be used to convey some deep social
message, but the original footage is already going to have it's own
connotations which you'll have to respond to. What are going to do with it,
beyond funny juxtapositions or highlighting a mood that is already there
(Outer Space)?
Other found footage films I've liked:
Tentatively A Convenience's Disney Spots uses a series of disney film
trailers with a dizzying pattern of dots overtaking the image. In this case
the original footage is pretty disposable on it's own, and needs the
intervention of a new filmmaker.
Obviously the work of Bruce Connor and more narratively, Craig Baldwin does
not have to be defended. They are truly transforming the found footage.
Greta Snider's Flight also uses Ray-O-gram technique with her probably banal
home movie footage taking on a new nostalgic, personal letter to her
father(?)
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.