FM3 - The Creative Project

‘Paintworks’ Evaluation

I have produced a low budget experimental, art film titled ‘Paintworks’. Throughout the production of the film I tried to incorporate as many techniques from my influences as possible. This is in order to ensue that my piece would be appropriate for my target audience. This would include art lovers/students and is likely to be shown in galleries.

One of my main influences for this piece would be artist, sculptor and experimental filmmaker Len Lye. After having viewed an exhibition of his, at the Ikon art gallery, I was able to see how a moving image piece worked in its own environment. I tried to incorporate his ideas of experimenting with colour and movement into my work. In particular, his 1935 film, ‘A Colour Box’ was very influential with its use of abstract paintings of patterns. Lye painted these abstract images directly onto the film itself, which is a technique I could have tried for my own film. I, however, chose not to adopt this technique as I took influence from Albert Irvin for my painting idea.

Albert Irvin is an expressionist painter, whose work is often described as having a ‘restless energy’. I tried to imitate this energy in my film by using similar techniques, such as using bright colours and adding occasional brush strokes. Another influential aspect of his work is his use of layering (screen prints). I took this idea of over-laying images into account when editing my film; I mimicked this layering technique in the editing process of my film. I used several over-lays throughout my film, which actually distorted much of the lighting of the image. This did in fact have a negative effect on some of the film by making them seem somewhat faded. This, in particular, happened more than once towards the end of the film. However, despite some of the problems this caused, in parts, it worked very well. For example, with the slowed down clips, it does create quite a hypnotic feel to the film. Despite the obvious differences in layering film and screen prints, the principle idea does remain the same and creates a good effect. A further reason for taking on board the work of Albert Irvin would be to add appeal for my target audience. Had I only used the influence of filmmakers I may have missed may target audience of artists.

It is in this artist research that the planning for my production began. As I had chosen to film, what essentially became a series of paintings, I planned what it was I actually wanted to present. The final painting or the process of the painting? I feel that the decision to create a film that showed the process of the painting ended successfully as it gave me a lot more footage to work with. It also added more opportunity for the audience to add their own meaning to the film. Finally, it enabled me to experiment with more techniques typical of an art film, due to there being many different shots to look at.

This experimentation with colour used by Irvin, is also a technique used by filmmaker Stan Brakhage. My use of movement and light was also something that came from viewing Brakhage’s work. His work is often described as being ‘moving, visual, thinking’. I liked the idea this idea of creating s very aesthetic film. After further research of Brakhage’s work I found that the way in which his films are formed can often be quite hypnotic. I tried to recreate this effect in my own film by adopting some of his techniques, such as a small amount of hand-held camera work and also fast paced editing.

Using the technique of hand-held camera work not only referenced Stan Brakhage in my film, but also added to the hypnotic feel I wanted to take from looking at his work. I feel this is definitely a technique I could have used much more throughout my film, as the majority was shot with the use of a tripod. Although, this enabled me to focus on what was being filmed, making the extreme close-ups work well, I feel the hand-held pieces added much more to the strange atmosphere of the film. Especially with the combination of over-laying and altering the speed of the original film. By experimenting with these techniques, I feel that I achieved a fairly atmospheric piece.

I also adopted Brakhage’s experimentation with light by using a mixture of lighting techniques. I found that the most successful was the use of the torchlight. I shone the torch onto the paintings that were being filmed to help add to the atmospheric mood I was trying to create. The light seemed to add more depth, making it more appropriate for its target audience. The selection of non-diegetic sound adds to this extra dimension, creating a stronger feeling of intensity.

This use of atmospheric music can be linked to the works of Derek Jarman. This experimental filmmaker has been described as ‘A master of evocative sound and music’. In particular, his film ‘Sebastine’ has a score that creates an intense mood. I chose to adopt this style in order to add to the hypnotic feel I was aiming to achieve. Once again, this technique helps to ensure that my film meets the appropriate, more high brow, audience. By cutting and editing my film to the music chosen, it creates a smooth finish to my film. I chose to edit it in this way, as opposed to fitting the track around the film, simply because I felt the piece of music had the perfect mood that I wanted my film to have. Therefore, I did not want to alter the track so that this mood was not disrupted.

After filming the process of one painting, I began the editing process but soon found that this did not provide enough footage to create a 5-minute film, despite having shot over an hour of footage. This was one major thing that I took from this production, it is essential to ensure that more than enough footage is shot in order to allow plenty of film when it comes to editing. I then proceeded to go and film a further amount of footage, which gave me plenty to work and experiment with whilst editing for the finished product.