16mm Filmstrip Project:

17/09/14

Direct Animation refers to techniques that are applied directly to the film itself, by scratching, painting, drawing etc. Much of this type of work is abstract in its nature (Brakhage), although there are examples that use figurative elements (McClaren) and that follow tenable narratives Woloshen).

Examples of "Direct Animation":

Stan Brakhage - 'Acid Mothers Temple' Film strip animation :




This animation is very lively and full of colour. It shows an abstract array of coloured creations that change and murphy creating a beautiful enthralling contrast of colour and dark space used in each frame. Although this piece is an abstract creation and would seemingly have no narrative behind it, i think that some thought has gone into the connection between the visual effects and the effects on the audience and the over all theme and feeling created for the piece. As the sound added to this creation is echoey and some of the sound effects sound like that of the noises associated with aliens and space. This combined with the phsycadellic visuals i think is trying to create the sense of an other worldly, possibly spiritual or alien narrative to it. Especially seeing as towards the end of the narrative the colours and shapes start to change and morph into symmetrical and phsycodelic shapes that move and show lots of inter acute detail in them to create this effect and so the creator has purposefully added these and spent time creating them.

Norman McClaren- "begone Dull Care" Films Strip Animation:



This animation again shows an absract animation however similar to breakage, the animator has added in more thought out techniques to the animation as it goes on. For example the shapes start to move in time with the music and start to move like they are dancing. This shows how the animator has spent time on each individual frame to create this effect and used metaphorical shapes to represent people (as people dance and shapes do not).

The Task:

I will be provided with lengths 16mm exposed film for this task and i will start by testing different types of marks across the length of the film strip. I will work exploitively, testing out the effects of different techniques, exploring the potential of using different instruments and materials to affect the surface of the film.

I used a special photographic ink to paint directly onto my film strip to add colour. This ink works best on the film strip as it sticks better onto the strip and has a very vivid colour, meaning the ink wont just run off the film strip (as it is laminate and therefore will make any liquid just roll off it). I would paint onto the film strip in various ways, ocasionally painting only small dots of marks and then painting a full frame. After the ink i had drided i also tryed scratching parts of the ink out to create space inside the colour and tehre fore marks in the colour. I noticed that the ink when placed onto the film strip, due to its waterproof shiney top coat, did not look as bold when on paper and that my marks would sometimes morph or blob after i had made them. and so a lot of the time when making the marks it was just getting used to how to create various marks considering how the ink reacts to the film strip.

Before i continued with my experimentation of the film strips i decided to create a digital version of my film strip by using istop on a computer connected to a camera over a microscope which i then slid each frame of my film underneath and snap shotted each frame. Also beneath the film strip and camera was a light box so that the colours and patterns etc of my film strip would show up clearly. This also meant however that various bits of dust and small scratches on the film would show up also however i think this added to the charm of the animation creating an old projection style to the appearence of the animation and making it seem less perfect, which is what gives it, its charm. the imperfections and experimental qualities are what this task is about and so the scratches and bits of dust simply add to the abstract creation.

The results of the technique are shown below:

The marks i made for this animation are very abstract and i have painted directly onto the filmstrip and scratched into the paint and strip itself to create these marks. I found that when digitising this the effect i thought it was going to have and the visual appearance was different to what i expected as they were much larger inside the frame which is emphasised when enlarged but also that it was not quite as colourful as i expected it would be, i found that areas of the strip that had no paint on them were not as effective as when they had paint on them because the filmstrip was tinted grey slightly and so had a rather dull appearance to it, where as they painted areas made it brighter and where emphasised by the light underneath the strip. I think it would be interesting to try re painting onto my filmstrip and seeing the change in effects when i digitise it again. Also it would be interesting to see the differences in my digitised filmstrip and what it looks like through the projector.

This was a very experimental project as i was unsure of what the final results would look like when blown up and it was rather tricky working on such a small space in each frame. My video shows some similar qualities to that of my artist research in that there is a lot of movement and fast changes of elements on the screen. also the processes in which i did to create the marks on my film strip are similar to both artists with technique being shown often in Mclarens work of the scratched in shapes and movement of lines. And my work has a similar colourful blotched paint effect in parts to Brakhage's work.