Drawing Day two: Secret Cinema

Wednesday 25th September

Apologies for being brief, I have a large back log of posts to make following the last couple of weeks. I can't believe the second week of uni is almost over and it's only going quicker.

On the second day of uni we took part in the 'Secret Cinema' project. Being someone that doesn't necessarily watch many films I was excited to see what kinda thing the tutors had in store for us. I had heard previous year rumours of Hitchcock or Kubrick so I was expecting something that would be both challenging and captivating.

The first extract we watched was Zero For Conduct by Jean Virgo (clip can be viewed here)
I was excited to illustrate movements and time progression, although we had the clip shown numerous times and slowed down it was still hard to grasp/ concentrate and compose moving image. It was especially difficult because I am so used to pausing a piece of film drawing happily and restarting it when I feel comfortable with the outcome i've produced, thinking fast and drawing quickly is not my strong point. I really enjoyed the video clip though, the action- pause and focus of the man in the hat - the pillow fight and how it can be illustrated and also the ritual/procession at the end- very beautiful in black n white!

The second clip we watched was Le Testament le' orpheu/ Le testament d'Orphée - (clip can be viewed here 19:40). This film was visually very appealing also, the sense of perspective/ variations of light to dark within the lighthouse clip as well as the obvious fascination of editing and being able to make the David Bowie-esque character reappear from the ocean backwards intact. The visual symbol of the flower that the curious man holds out + the lighting given off by the light house, all very interesting!

The 8 1/2 -Fellini
I have heard a small amount about Fellini - mostly from the bit in ghost world when a man is asking for it in the dvd shop and all the counter assistant can find is crude xxx alternatives. We only got to see the ending which was a little unfortunate as my tutor explained the story and the ending was somewhat spoiler-y but the clip itself was so brilliant and exciting that it didn't matter.(clip can be viewed here)

I really liked using concertina books, they were really effective for progression and moving image, if the image is moving it is interesting in using the book as a progression of this. Also, although my tutors slowed down the films, they never paused them (something i always do) so it was difficult thinking of composition as well as making sure you've got everything on the paper. It is also very hard to fill the entire book!
I'm looking forward to inspiring myself in future with these movies!!