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Instructor: Joel Schlemowitz
e-mail: schlemoj@newschool.edu
Class meets:
Thursdays, 06:30pm - 09:30pm
66 Fifth Avenue, Room 402
New School Film Production Office: (212) 229-5899
Course Description
This course explores the 16mm Bolex camera’s wide-ranging image-making possibilities. Using techniques that date back as far as the trick-films of Georges Melies and the birth of cinema, emphasis is placed on creating in-camera effects and "ready-made" finished projects straight from the camera and onto the screen.
Assignments alternate between the technical and thematic. In-class shooting explores "techniques" (i.e. double exposure, matte shots, optical distortion, single frame and time exposure, hand-developing) while students create short projects outside of class based on "themes" (i.e. cine-portrait, "camera roll," image/sound interaction). A significant commitment of time outside of class hours is required.
Historic background is provided with screenings of films by Georges Melies, Hans Richter, Marie Menken, Rose Lowder, Bruce Bailey, Jim Hubbard and Rosalind Schneider.
Necessary camera and editing equipment is provided; students incur personal costs for film stock, developing, and supplies. Expect to spend less than is typically incurred in more traditional types of filmmaking. Our goal is for each student to yield three completed projects, one of which is selected for an end-of-semester screening. No previous film experience required.
Equipment for out-of-class use
Bolex; tripod; backwind crank; pistol grip; cable release; matte box; Rex-o-fader; Lowel/Tota/to-go lighting kit; DAT/Sony cassette; Steenbeck; Title stand
Services provided by the New School Film Office: Mag transfer; video transfer.
Please be advised, Bolex cameras available for out-of-class assignments weeks 4 through 11 only.
Supplies
For in-class shoots film stock and processing are provided. Additional supplies, including film, processing, expendables, and other production materials are your responsibility. Expect to purchase three to four 100 foot rolls of film (black & white or color). A limited amount of editing supplies, including splicing tape and leader, will be available through the class.
Field trip(s) / Screenings
Recommended screenings (outside of class hours) will include shows at Millennium Film Workshop, Collective Unconscious, Ocularis, Rooftop Films, Anthology Film Archives.
Required Reading
Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions - Michael O'Pray
The Innovative Camera course packet
Bolex study guide
The New School Film Production Handbook
Suggested Reading
Film at Wit's End: Eight Avant-garde Filmmakers, Stan Brakhage
Essential Brakhage: Selected Writings on Filmmaking, Stan Brakhage
Seeing the Light, James Broughton
Recipes for Disaster, A Handcrafted Film Cookbooklet, Helen Hill (ed.)
A Critical Cinema, Interviews with Independent Filmmakers, (series of 5) Scott MacDonald
Movie Journal, Jonas Mekas
Film Culture Reader, P. Adams Sitney (ed.)
Visionary Film, P. Adams Sitney
Canyon Cinema Catalogue
The Film-Makers' Cooperative Catalogue
Millennium Film Journal
Suggested Viewing
By Brakhage: An Anthology, Criterion Collection
Maya Deren, Experimental Films, Mystic Fire Video
Avant-Garde, films from the Raymond Rohauer collection, Kino Video
Man With a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov
Where to find avant-garde films on Video/DVD
www.peripheralproduce.com
www.microcinema.com
www.film-makerscoop.com
www.re-voir.com
Written assignments
All students must write a contribution to the end of the screening program.
Credit students are expected to attend at least one recommended screening and write a short paper (2 - 3 pages) about the event, due by session 12, but which may be submitted any time earlier in the semester.
Course requirements and other information
Attendance is mandatory. Assignments are expected on time. Frequent absences will affect grade. If you feel you are not doing well in this class it is your responsibility to request an extra credit assignment.
Extra Credit
Helping on other students shoots. Helping with our end of the semester screening.
Web resource
A webpage for this class, including links to filmmakers' websites, can be found at:
http://cepa.newschool.edu/~schlemoj/experimentalfilm
The instructor's Bolex and Sekonic webpages are also recommended to help familiarize yourself with the equipment:
http://cepa.newschool.edu/~schlemoj/bolex.html
http://cepa.newschool.edu/~schlemoj/sekonic.html
Where to purchase film
Kodak Cash and Carry
360 West 31st Street, 2nd Floor
(between 8th and 9th Ave.)
1-800-621-FILM
Where to have film developed
Colorlab
27 West 20th Street, 3rd Floor
(between 5th and 6th Ave.)
212-633-8172
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Course overview
September 7 - Session 1
Introduction. Survey of experimental cinema (slide lecture).
Getting to know the techniques: The Bolex; loading the camera; running the camera; single frame; I/T switch; color filters; filming without a lens (pure color frames and strobe effects).
Screen early experimental films: Melies trick-films, Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, Edwin S. Porter; Ghosts Before Breakfast, Hans Richter
Reading:
Bolex study guide.
September 14 - Session 2
Getting to know the techniques: The light meter; lenses; exposure; filmstocks; optical distortion: anamorphic lenses and prisms; the tripod.
Screen VISION/TIME examples: Eyemusic in Red Major, Marie Menken; Les Tournesols Rose Lowder
To do:
Bolex self-test before next week.
Prepare for next week, in-class shoot #1.
September 21 - Session 3
In-class shoot #1: VISION - Distortion. Out-of-focus. Filters. TIME - Single frame shooting. Strobe effects. Time exposure.
To do:
Purchase 100ft roll of film for project #1.
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 1 - the avant-garde film: definitions
September 28 - Session 4
Bolex Test
View footage from in-class shoot #1.
Screen FILM-PORTRAIT examples: Glimpse in the Garden, Marie Menken; Aviary Rudy Burckhardt / Joseph Cornell; Castro Street, Bruce Bailey
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 2 - the 1920s: the european avant-garde
Outside of class time:
project #1: Film-portrait (person, place, object, etc.)
(due in three weeks)
October 5 - Session 5
Getting to know the techniques: The Backwind crank; double exposure with the Bolex; the Rex-o-fader; the matte box; alternative matte techniques; exposure compensation for multiple exposure; positive vs. negative space for double exposure
Screen MATTE SHOT/DOUBLE EXPOSURE examples: Black and White Study, Peter Cramer; On, Rosalind Schneider; Birth of Eros, Schlemowitz
To do:
Prepare for next week, in-class shoot #2.
Purchase 100ft roll of film for project #2.
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 3 - the 1920s: the soviet experiments
October 12 - Session 6
Screen CAMERA ROLL FILM examples: Morning, Ernie Gehr; 31/75 Asyl, Kurt Kren
In-class shoot #2: Matte shots and Double exposure.
To do:
Project #1 back from the lab by next class.
Reading (optional):
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 4 - the 1920s and 1930s: british avant-garde film
Outside of class time:
project #2: 100ft as "the canvas." The in-camera film.
(due in three weeks)
October 19 - Session 7
View footage from in-class shoot #2, and project #1.
To do:
Purchase 100ft roll of film for project #3.
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 5 - the 1940s: american mythology
October 26 - Session 8
Getting to know the techniques: sound recording, low-tech sound techniques.
Screen SOUND AND IMAGE examples: Kino Da! Henry Hills; Girls daydream about Hollywood, Jennifer Reeves; Notes After a Long Silence, Saul Levine; Typeoclavecin Film, Schlemowitz
To do:
Prepare for next week, in-class shoot #3.
Project #2 back from the lab by next class.
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 6 - the 1950s: the aesthetics of the frame
Outside of class time:
project #3: Sound and Image.
(due in three weeks)
November 2 - Session 9
In-class shoot #3: Hand-developing.
View project 2.
Screen HAND-DEVELOPING examples: Two Marches, Jim Hubbard; Incantation Documentation, Schlemowitz
View footage from in-class shoot #3.
Reading (optional):
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 7 - the 1960s: the new wave
November 9 - Session 10
Getting to know the techniques: filmmaking on-the-cheap; reversal vs. negative; shortends; expired film; high-contrast film and optical track stock; hand-developing; the 1-to-1 shooting ratio
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 8 - the 1960s: sex, drugs and structure
To do:
Project #3 back from the lab by next class.
November 16 - Session 11
View project #3
Getting to know the techniques: the editing room; cutting; mag transfer; titles
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 9 - the 1960s and 1970s: form degree zero
To do:
Prepare for title shoot next class.
November 23 - Thanksgiving break
November 30 - Session 12
Paper due. (Credit students are expected to attend at least one recommended screening and write a short paper, 2 - 3 pages, about the event, due by session 12, but which may be submitted any time earlier in the semester.)
In class shoot: Titles
Prepare for final screening of work: Selection of work. Flyers and cards.
Reading:
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 10 - the 1980s: the ghost in the machine
December 7 - Session 13
Getting to know the techniques: low tech-sound mix; optical track; negative cutting; do-it-yourself negative cutting; single strand vs. A&B roll; answer print; video transfers
To do:
Reading (optional)
Avant-Garde Film, chapter 11 - the 1990s: the young british artists
December 14 - Session 14
Prepare for final screening of work: program notes, etc.
Discussion of film festivals, venues, and other screening opportunities for the experimental filmmaker.
December 21 - Session 15
End of the semester screening!
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