In our first session of alternative film and video practice we began by watching three short films one being Fog Line (Larry Gottheim) and . First and foremost I believed this film and the other ones in today session was a good introduction to alternative film.
The camera work from some of these films used slow and basic tracking shots of images of a dessert. The first thing that I had noticed was the use of the vibrant colours and the high saturation that was used on the mountains in the film. The film was also accompanied by an engaging dramatic soundtrack. My first thoughts and impressions of alternative film is that the cinematography is kept very simple but creates a sense of rhythm to the audience allowing them to attach themselves into a flow and cycle which hooks the audience to the films.
We had also looked at the style of ‘Avant- Garde’ which was a term first used to describe french paintings in the early decades of the nineteenth century (1960's). The term brought a whole different style and meaning to artistic creation and the style was used as a political attack on traditional art and it’s values. The style focused on the artistic control in creation of pieces. It offered the deeper and more analytical questions when viewing art influenced by ‘avant garde’. For example ‘what can the colours do and create?’ , ‘What can the brush patterns create?’ . Therefore, I found this very interesting as this new style of art created a new wave for artist to have more control over their work rather following commercial piece art.
Relating this style to film, traditional mainstream films would typically have an expensive production budget but the creative control would also be influenced by producers from film companies. This ‘Avant-Garde’ style featured films with sometimes no budget, have a personal touch from the film makers rather than following a popular mainstream story, ways of distribution of the film would be different too. Therefore this new style can be used by all types of audience no matter the lack of budget or numbers in the production team. The style was a reaction to realism in film and is a political statement.
Looking at a ‘avant Garde’ infleuncedd film such as Eraserhead by David Lynch, the tension and camera style is very much in the audiences face and grips the audience through the different constructions of reality that the film tries to show to it’s audience. It experiments with the soundtrack as the sound changes keys constantly, almost as if the soundtrack has it’s own narrative. This experimental style I believe works very well with this film as the film is a horror/sci-fi film which is creates compatibility with experimental techniques of avant Garde. Avant Garde is transitioned in to todays modern society through fashion culture, pop culture and can be seen in art galleries as a wave that emerged to shape but challenge art.
