Today I had the pleasure of watching a film by Michael Snow. The film is called "Wavelength" and was made in 1966. I have had the privilege, in the past, of seeing one other of his films "So is this" and found this film just as interesting as that one. The film was one combined zoom across a room to a picture on the wall of waves. It was just over 45 minutes, hence waveLENGTH, however the length was not something that got in the way of the films overall meaning. I was not a fan of the soundtrack, however I was able to remedy this slight annoyance by plugging my ears. I was still able to hear everything just perfectly without causing sensorineural hearing loss. I doubt anyone in that class will be able to hear above 140 decibels after today.
Onto content, We were challenged today by Michael Snow to watch a space that was slowly dissipating from many different vantage points. Snow always says that he works in the medium of time. He was showing us today how many things he accomplish in the time it took him to zoom across a room. He uses many different filters and lighting arrangements, also many exposure tests throughout the space in the frame.
I have come up with five areas that really stuck out to me.
1. The master of filmic puns Michael Snow pulled this one out, and it only took 45 minutes to do it. The Siren, which was the soundtrack, is a play on a Siren, the mythical ladies calling to men at sea, that lead the entire audience to take a plunge into the waves of the picture.
2. One object lesson I thought odd was the obvious placement of two chairs in the scene, however when characters entered the scene they sat down but on the window sills, not on the chairs. Why?
3. Another pun I found funny was near the very end when there was a "picture frame" the picture we were seeing was being framed by the same picture we were looking at only in a different time in the film. The picture framed itself.
4. One beautiful use of contrasting light and a deep red filter, was used to light a more intimate frame of the shot and it reminded me immediately of Wong Kar Wai's emotive use of light and color.
5. Lastly I was intrigued and let go immediately as the exposure was set for the outside of the room and we see for a split second the life that goes on outside in proper exposure.
The Michael Snow experience is always a welcome one however I think next time I will need to bring earplugs just in case.
Onto content, We were challenged today by Michael Snow to watch a space that was slowly dissipating from many different vantage points. Snow always says that he works in the medium of time. He was showing us today how many things he accomplish in the time it took him to zoom across a room. He uses many different filters and lighting arrangements, also many exposure tests throughout the space in the frame.
I have come up with five areas that really stuck out to me.
1. The master of filmic puns Michael Snow pulled this one out, and it only took 45 minutes to do it. The Siren, which was the soundtrack, is a play on a Siren, the mythical ladies calling to men at sea, that lead the entire audience to take a plunge into the waves of the picture.
2. One object lesson I thought odd was the obvious placement of two chairs in the scene, however when characters entered the scene they sat down but on the window sills, not on the chairs. Why?
3. Another pun I found funny was near the very end when there was a "picture frame" the picture we were seeing was being framed by the same picture we were looking at only in a different time in the film. The picture framed itself.
4. One beautiful use of contrasting light and a deep red filter, was used to light a more intimate frame of the shot and it reminded me immediately of Wong Kar Wai's emotive use of light and color.
5. Lastly I was intrigued and let go immediately as the exposure was set for the outside of the room and we see for a split second the life that goes on outside in proper exposure.
The Michael Snow experience is always a welcome one however I think next time I will need to bring earplugs just in case.
