Experimental Film Analysis
The Subtle Knife from Daniel Crooks on Vimeo.
The Subtle Knife (2016) is a contemporary experimental film produced by Daniel Crooks. The gallery and magazine website of Ocula describe Crooks as "a sculptor, photographer and time based artist. His work creates slippages between visual perception and temporal experience." In his film, Crooks lets us look through a camera lens moving smoothly backwards over empty train tracks. The camera continually moves through rectangular portals bringing you into different urban environments all the while moving smoothly over uniform railroad tracks.
The Subtle Knife (2016) is a contemporary experimental film produced by Daniel Crooks. The gallery and magazine website of Ocula describe Crooks as "a sculptor, photographer and time based artist. His work creates slippages between visual perception and temporal experience." In his film, Crooks lets us look through a camera lens moving smoothly backwards over empty train tracks. The camera continually moves through rectangular portals bringing you into different urban environments all the while moving smoothly over uniform railroad tracks.
Screenshots from The Subtle Knife
Crooks seems to be manipulating time and space through his video as he compresses space into a three dimensional journey through windows of time.
As we are viewing these hypnotic images there is an engaging soundscape layered over the top that complement the picture's intriguing manipulation of reality. The sound was designed by Byron Scullin, a sound artist and designer from Melbourne. Scullin adds a mix of environmental, industrial and digital sounds to the piece as well as recordings of a viola played by Erkki Veltheim. Scullin appears to have carefully picked layers of sound to fit each environment the camera travels through and changes each time we pass through a portal.
It is clear that this work is an abstract piece through its focus on sound and shape while showing signs of structuralism and formalism through the limitations of its constant speed and direction. It could also fall into the category of Expanded Cinema as we view the window into the past space as if it was a gallery installation.
We took inspiration from this piece for our 1-2 minute experimental exercise. In the first 35 seconds of our piece we use similar ideas for integrating the sound with the shots of the laser. Each time the shots change we changed the audio to match the specific footage. Just as Byron Scullin is doing in The Subtle Knife. Scullin appears to be trying to incorporate sounds that relate to the image. For instance, when the camera's rolling through a warehouse containing machinery or trains he uses industrial sounds but when the camera's rolling through open country he uses more environmental sounds such as the sound of wind or birdsong.
In our short experimental exercise we decided to film and edit the most of the film before adding sound. This meant I could view the shots and use them to illuminate what kind of sounds I think would fit certain colours and shapes and movements. It was the idea that we would let the images speak for themselves and dictate the kind of atmosphere I should try and reveal with the soundscape. I imagine it was a similar procedure with The Subtle Knife. It looks to me as if Daniel Crooks has created the images and then handed it over to Byron Scullin to add the relevant soundscape over the video in a way that would enhance and fit the feel of the film.
Intel Experiments from FutureDeluxe on Vimeo.
Intel Experiments (2017) is a short film from the experimental production company Future Deluxe. They produce a range of films, specialising CGI and design. They have produced media for brands such as Adidas, Disney, Nike and Sony.
Although they are normally known for creating their moving images on a computer they shot this piece all on a camera. It says in the video description that they used "a series of procedural animations, physical light & projection based experiments". I also found, on one of their Instagram posts (below), that it was shot over three days and in one studio.
Intel Experiments (2017) is a short film from the experimental production company Future Deluxe. They produce a range of films, specialising CGI and design. They have produced media for brands such as Adidas, Disney, Nike and Sony.
Although they are normally known for creating their moving images on a computer they shot this piece all on a camera. It says in the video description that they used "a series of procedural animations, physical light & projection based experiments". I also found, on one of their Instagram posts (below), that it was shot over three days and in one studio.
I think this piece of work is definitely in the abstract genre of experimental film as it uses a visual language of colour and shape with a visual independence from reality.
Our short experimental exercise shares similarities with Intel Experiments as they're both displaying a series of abstract images with sound interacting with them. Our piece was also all shot on camera with no computer generated designs. For our piece we used a variety of light sources and slightly manipulated them in post production.
Intel Experiments is a very short piece with a length 1 minute & 12 seconds. I don't think it would have been very suitable to make a much longer video of the same content as it lacks purpose and any kind of in-depth theme. Much like our short exercise which has only a slightly longer length of 1 minute & 53 seconds. Intel Experiments seems to purely be an exercise to see what kind of visual effects you can pull off with a camera and the absence of computer generated effects.
Our 5-10 minute piece called Ta Kymata is also a similar type of exercise in some respects. We are trying to find out what kind of effects we can create using a camera's unique way of capturing motion picture. Instead of creating something amazing to place a camera in front of and capture interesting images we are using the camera's frame rate to capture, what might seem mundane through the human eye. For example, the scene where water is coming out of a tube in a perfectly still spiral. To our eyes it just looks like water flowing out of a tube but when viewed through a camera as 25 images a second it reveals so much more.
The two pieces relate as we are both trying to create interesting visuals that are independent to what we actually see in reality, therefore creating abstract, almost illusions, that can catch the eye and maintain interest, almost in a sort of "how did they do that?" kind of way.
My short experimental exercise:
Waves from Peter Simison on Vimeo.
My 5-10 minute experimental film:
TA KYMATA (Cymatics experiments) from Peter Simison on Vimeo.
Our short experimental exercise shares similarities with Intel Experiments as they're both displaying a series of abstract images with sound interacting with them. Our piece was also all shot on camera with no computer generated designs. For our piece we used a variety of light sources and slightly manipulated them in post production.
Intel Experiments is a very short piece with a length 1 minute & 12 seconds. I don't think it would have been very suitable to make a much longer video of the same content as it lacks purpose and any kind of in-depth theme. Much like our short exercise which has only a slightly longer length of 1 minute & 53 seconds. Intel Experiments seems to purely be an exercise to see what kind of visual effects you can pull off with a camera and the absence of computer generated effects.
Our 5-10 minute piece called Ta Kymata is also a similar type of exercise in some respects. We are trying to find out what kind of effects we can create using a camera's unique way of capturing motion picture. Instead of creating something amazing to place a camera in front of and capture interesting images we are using the camera's frame rate to capture, what might seem mundane through the human eye. For example, the scene where water is coming out of a tube in a perfectly still spiral. To our eyes it just looks like water flowing out of a tube but when viewed through a camera as 25 images a second it reveals so much more.
The two pieces relate as we are both trying to create interesting visuals that are independent to what we actually see in reality, therefore creating abstract, almost illusions, that can catch the eye and maintain interest, almost in a sort of "how did they do that?" kind of way.
My short experimental exercise:
Waves from Peter Simison on Vimeo.
My 5-10 minute experimental film:
TA KYMATA (Cymatics experiments) from Peter Simison on Vimeo.
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