In 1964 Warhol’s filmmaking became centralised at his silver painted and foil covered studio, the Factory. The Factory became a site of constant activity attracting the lowlife friends of Billy Name, and also artists, writers, students, and celebrities. Extending the multiple-image “portraiture” of his celebrity silkscreens and the technique of his motionless films, Warhol documented the Factory scene in some five hundred 100-foot silent portrait films (shot between 1964 and 1966) known as the Screen Tests. Warhol had become a regular at the Film-makers’ Co-op and the individual Screen Tests – 4-minute close-up shots of motionless subjects facing a stationary camera (such as Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick) – were shown there weekly under the title Andy Warhol Serial. The Screen Tests typified Warhol’s “industrial” or serial mode of production.
The influence of these 'silent portrait films', or Screen Tests, can be seen in this music video for New Order's 'Round & Round' from 1989.
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