10/27

Sitney, “Structural Film”
Visionary Film, Chapter 12

1.Structural film is less complex than the Deren/Brakhage/Anger approach and is identified by a fixed camera position, the "flicker" effect, loop printing, and re-photography off the screen. All of these things may not be in a single film and some may be modified. Apperceptive strategies is the same as a "self conscious" strategy, meaning the medium is "aware" of itself.   

2.American Avant Garde attempts to recreate what occurs in the human mind. Structural cinema is based on not being an illusion. It still deals with the same concept yet it reveals more  of what is going on behind the scenes by pointing to the medium.

3.Because it is minimal and he "advertised his indifference to direction, photography and lighting" probably because he started fresh as a filmmaker coming from the medium of painting. The roots of the four structural characters are found in his early works such as Sleep. They were long takes that used his fixed tripod technique instead of any movement which was described as obviously aggressive or ironic. Since the camera is so incredibly still it calls attention to the fact that it is indeed a film, throughout the entirety of the viewing experience. 

4. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:

a. Warhol is pop art which Sitney defines as an obvious refusal, "fierce indifference" or reaction to the Romantic theory of Abstract Expressionism.

b.  Sitney says that in the work of Michael Snow and Ernie Gehr that the camera is suspended in an obscure or mysterious space. He says that because each of these styles are polar opposite perspectives that there is no bridge to connect them. Snow and Gehr used the fixed camera for an artistic purpose in relation to the content while Warhol used it "because he could," (which is also an artistic purpose, just seen as rebellious I guess).

c.Ontology is defined as a branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of "being." This relates to Warhol's films because his works are minimal and open ended, very self conscious. Like Warhols, the shape of the structural films themselves were very important while the content was not really as important. As Warhol said, his films were better talked about than seen.

d.Sitney claims that structural films were a response to Warhol's incredibly long stationary takes that had no specific outline. He relates them to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition because they both replace the mediator with a longer presence of the camera. It also allows the viewer to see the filmmaker's vision and how he/she reveals it with the camera and montage. Sitney also points out that Deren's Meshes is also an example of the beginnings of consciousness in film. 

5.   Wavelength is supposed to have less of a paradox and less drama. It is supposed to be more "concrete" and more objective or sculptural. It is metaphorical because it is a "demonstration" of perception and concepts of orders/rules. The term metaphysics has shown up a lot so the concept seems to deal with this transcendental idea.

James Peterson, “Rounding Up the Usual Suspects”
6. Phenomenological schema was a term coined in criticism of Annette Michelson. It relates to a different way of interpreting a film, by the film’s presentation and how it is perceived by the viewer. For example, the way time is presented in One Second in Montreal (1969). Instead of elliptical editing there will be long periods of time without dramatic action, meaning, time is passing.

7. Art process schema is a film like Mothlight that requires a different type of viewing. It is not conventional narrative form or even metaphorical. It takes the viewer away from the screen and captivates them through the images and objects actually inside of the projector. It is an intuitive type of filmmaking.

8.  Anti Illusion Schema is suggestive of a flat image. It counteracts the mainstream and does not try to deceive the viewer by showing deep space as in a commercial narrative cinema. This relates to the aesthetics of Clement Greenberg or Minimalism and “Post-Painterly Abstraction.”

10/13

At first I didn’t pay attention to the fact that she wasn’t blinking. It was almost just like a still photo. When I saw the tears dripping from her face I wanted to reach out and wipe them off! It is natural reaction to want to wipe away the tears and I’m sure she had a difficult time resisting the temptation to blink or rub her eyes. It was uncomfortable because I know I would never volunteer to attempt that. This film is similar to the fluxus films because it is very minimal. Not much is occurring and you have to pay close attention to very specific details in order to see the moment unfold onscreen.


J. Hoberman, Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Underground

1. Some venues associated with the early underground film movement in NYC include Fashion Industries Auditorium, the Thalia, the New Yorker, and the Bleecker Street Cinema. The Charles Theater was a seven hundred seat movie house on Avenue B. It showed  an eclectic variety of different movies  such as Astaire Rogers musicals as well as Italian Neorealist ones. Work of directors such as Edgar Ulmer, the Marx Brothers, and Orson Wells appeared.

2. Baudelairean Cinema included Jack Smith, Ken Jacobs, and Ron Rice. They were dramatic and risqué pictures that received mixed reviews from audiences. They were characterized by themes of beauty and evil. The name comes from Ken Jacob’s 1963 film called Baud’larian Capers.
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?

The Gramercy Arts and the Pocket theater were shut down by the police due to the obscene content. The film Scorpio Rising was being shown on the same day of Meka’s second arrest. The reason that there were charges against Scorpio Rising was due to a Halloween party sequence that contained a brief moment of “male frontal nudity.”

4. Tavel wrote scripts for Warhol. It seems that the subjects only loosely followed these scripts during the very long takes. Vinyl was one of these long takes of just a group of actors sitting in a room and saying their lines, probably not word for word I assume. It is unique because it is in a space that seems so boring, yet there is actually a lot of movement going on within the space. One minute someone is sitting, and the next minute they are walking off screen. Edie grabs the attention of the audience because she is the only girl. She sits and looks pretty as she smokes her cigarette and sips her drink or dances and does other normal things. I was wondering how she was so quiet and nonchalant while all the craziness was happening. It was interesting.

5. Underground films started getting more attention through articles in popular magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post to Playboy and the Museum of Modern Art. In addition to this more venues such as Film-Makers’ Cinematheque, two East Village venues, the Bridge, and the Gate were regularly screening underground films. The New York Times writer and critic Bosley Crowther pointed fingers at Warhol and his friends saying that they were “pushing a reckless thing too far.” He was not excited that they were growing in popularity because he didn’t think adults should encourage them to fame.

6. Mike Getz of the Cinema Theater in LA was important because he packaged underground films and distributed them to a group of movie venues that his uncle owned. These shows proved to be very successful and many of the shows were sold out. They introduced underground films to many Americans.

7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films? 

Warhol’s films of 1967 and after were characterized as “nudity filled features” or “flesh films.”

Robert Pike, “Pros and Cons of Theatrical Bookings”
[in folder:  notes_from_the_creative_film_society_pros_and_cons_of_theatrical_booking]

8.  Advantages include: the filmmaker can be reimbursed by making money and that the filmmaker can be in the limelight. Disadvantages include: wear and tear on the prints, and a lack of respect by exhibiters or projectionists who may not handle the films with care.


9.  Non-exclusive distribution can obtain loyal customers, allowing many distributers access to films. Exclusive distributers can acquire higher film rates for the benefits of the filmmakers and the films are exclusive to them.
10.  They ran into problems with a chain of Rivoli Theaters because they noticed that titles rented from them by the uptown theater were ran in ads by the Rivoli theater. They were told that they were not really playing the advertised titles, but they were actually false advertising. Now they are investigating these theaters.

10/6

1.      On one hand, because of the content and length, it can be seen as very boring because it is just a close up of a mouth. After learning more about the background of flux films, the function of the film makes a lot more sense. What seemed to be a simple long take of a mouth smiling transformed completely from the initial image because the smile faded incredibly slowly. I was amazed at how I did not even notice the change in the mouth (though I tried) until the film was almost over, therefore the duration was appropriate.

a.  In the true form of fluxus art-amusement, this piece was not incredibly profound or rare, it was simple and incredibly ordinary…anyone could do it! Therefore it conceptualized the idea of the “democratization” of art.

b.  This 11 min clip is not a piece of art or material object that would be bought or sold for lots of money, because that was obviously not what the filmmaker had in mind. If this were the case the artwork would have been more extravagant. It was made for the fun or involvement of it. It could make the audience feel involved because well, everyone has a mouth, and the viewer is slowly watching this subtle moment unfold.

2.  The central argument of Sitney is that American Avant Garde filmmakers aspire to represent the human mind. The poet’s inspiration comes from within. It seems to me that flux film is more of an outward reaction to the specific art films. The flux films in particular are parodies that blend a variety of traditional methods. It is technically not a type of art because flux art is not supposed to be pretentious.

Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

3. Smith felt a connection with Maria Montez. She was a Dominican woman who rose above oppression and came to America in the 1940’s, becoming a superstar of the screen. When he saw her on Saturdays at the movies with his sister, he was incredibly moved to the point of crying. As a young gay male the idea of her success was inspiring to him. Her performances seemed sultry, fantastical, and glamorous, due to her clothing and attitude. As Smith said, you can tell when an actor is genuine because you “cannot tear your eyes away.”

4. New York in the 60’s was a community of artists escaping conformity and social conventions. This was a shift or reaction of the propaganda of the time. The community believed in real invention, provoking an awakening and new sense of freedom. People could live together in large populations and rent was incredibly cheap. It was the “city of opportunity.” In the trash dumps were mannequins, costumes, and “junk” that could be used in theatrical productions for free. It was like recreating a live movie without the budget.

5. Zorn says that Normal love, the amage to Marie Montez went “haywire.” The décor, crew, and audience followed an arrangement by Smith. The actual “show” was the event that unfolded before everyone’s eyes. This is in the true spirit of the time because the performance and act of creating art was more important than the final outcome.

Smith was incredibly influential to filmmakers and especially Warhol. There was a competition it seemed. Warhol was a person that was easily famous but Smith had more of a cult following because of his eccentric character and bizarre antics. Basically Warhol documented Smith to use as a subject and popularized his way of thinking. Jack Smith’s idea of having complete control over the set was a concept that influenced others of the time. He was so deeply involved in his work that he was the work itself, while Warhol remained more detached. Warhol’s “hyperbole photo studio” and famous parties with the “superstars of cinema” were both concepts that Smith invented (example: his obsession with actors such as Maria Montez).  The documentary even showed a quote of Warhol’s that said Smith was the only person he would ever try to copy.

6. What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?

An object can be “seized, captured, or banned” but a live performance happens and is talked about… it is an experience that cannot be taken away from the director, actors, or audience. To Smith, the “object” was always evolving and changing. It was not an item to be idolized. Art was not a business to Smith like it was to Warhol, it was a lifestyle.

Callie Angell, “Andy Warhol, Filmmaker”
[This can be found in the Kreul Articles folder from your flash drive]

7. His early career is characterized by incredibly long takes, a lack of action, and a huge budget that no one else would have been able to afford. He referenced the world of avant garde by showing an influence from other filmmaker. Examples included Sleep, Kiss, Eat and Haircut which all have to do with long unedited shots of repetitive routines in the everyday world.  Sleep is a montage of a human subject sleeping. Warhol faced difficulties of being limited by the equipment he had, which was a silent 16mm Bolex. In Empire, he used a subject that was inanimate. It was also a long take with no editing.

8. There were 500 of them in a time period of 2 years (1964-1966) and they were like a guest book for the people involved with the Factory. Instead of signing, there were portraits of various celebrities and workers filmed on the spot. It is a documentation that has been kept to show the NY arts scene of the 60’s. The screen tests sometimes led to someone (an actor) getting a role in one of Warhol’s films, such as Mario Montez and his banana.

9. 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?

When he got his sound camera, he began to make films that were described as a kind of “delineated performance space” where there was basic structure and setting, but the events were mostly improvised and always unique. Dialogue and lines were said but sometimes forgotten or mixed up. Basically they were in the true tradition of avant garde because whatever was recorded would be the final film.