| Re: Season of the Severed Head, resumed |
de mortuis nil nisi bonu .. |
| elag (elag@cloud9.net) |
2003/07/18 23:29 |
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From: elag <elag@cloud9.net>
Newsgroups: alt.surrealism
Subject: Re: Season of the Severed Head, resumed
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 01:29:45 -0400
Organization: de mortuis nil nisi bonum
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Parry wrote:
>
> elag <elag@cloud9.net> wrote in message news:<3F0A3C4D.8AC42312@cloud9.net>...
> > Parry wrote:
> > >
> > > elag <elag@cloud9.net> wrote in message news:<3F066371.15889405@cloud9.net>...
> > > [snips]
> > > > Parry wrote:
> > > > > Anyway, attempting a survey of all the decapitations in
> > > > > movies and literature would be quite an undertaking. Alas, I have
> > > > > other utterly pointless projects to attend to first.
> > > >
> > > > The good thing about being a Filmmaker is that every project has a point
> > > > if you just attach it to some future film springboard. Currently I'm
> > > > watching as many silent films as possible; the point of which only I can see.
> > > >
> > > > Any suggestions?
> > >
> > > I've seen only maybe three dozen silent features, and many shorts, but
> > > have found most of them very affecting,
> >
> > If I may, I'll suggest a few favorite gems which represent the pinnacle
> > of the silent era...
> >
> > Sunrise (1927) F.W. Murnau, Pandora's Box (1928) G.W. Pabst, The Crowd
> > (1928) King Vidor, The Lodger (1926) Hitchcock.
> >
> > I've purposely restricted these to more available titles, and I've
> > avoided comedies because the list would be 100 films long.
>
> Available in some places, but I'd probably have to go to Moosomin to
> find titles like those. Sadly, I haven't seen any of those films. But
> as I said most of the ones I have been able to see left a great
> impression on me. Particularly Stroheim's "Greed" and "Foolish Wives,"
> most anything by Keaton, "Haxan." And "Nosferatu," "Phantom of the
> Opera," "Hunchback of Notre Dame." Also "Napoleon," Eisenstein, a
> couple of Fritz Lang. Not to forget the shorts -- comedies, Melies,
> "Un Chien Andalou." The titles you mentioned are on my wish-list,
> along with Feuillade serials and some Tod Browning. A fellow in
> England reported seeing "Unholy Three" with live accompaniment
> provided by John Cale. Yikes.
There are no decent video stores, library collections, repertory/art
houses, museum film societies in your area? I guess you could buy a few
of the best ones if you can spare the cotter.
I kind of like the John Cale idea. I can't imagine what it might sound
like. I'm looking at stills from the film right now and I still can't
imagine it. I wonder if it will be as hated as the version of
Metropolis w/ pop songs? I saw that one and at the time it didn't
bother me and I did like the tinting. I wonder what I'd think if I saw
it now.
>
> > > as if their lack of colour and
> > > noises give their imagery a more direct and intimate impact, like
> > > being visited by ghosts.
> >
> > I do find that the mental mechanics of watching silents is very
> > different. The imagination must work on a different level when dialogue
> > is banished, Eventhe titles seem to be processed through the visual filters.
> >
> > In the age of mobile phoning when we're all assaulted by an increasing
> > barrage ofbabbling inanities I've gained an increasing appreciation for
> > the world of silence.
> >
> > > In a respect, the increasing verisimilitude
> > > of films -- via colour, dialogue, sound effects -- takes them further
> > > from dreams, and the current enthusiasm for special effects seems to
> > > me to distance them from all human concern.
> >
> > I agree with the above sentiment. Much of the current cinema seems fit
> > only for heavy gamers or perhaps to entertain the machines themselves.
> >
> > > It's also a lost art, for a film done like that now would seem very
> > > self-consciously stylized.
> >
> > That's true to a large degree, but I won't let that stop me. If a
> > film's funny it doesn't really matter what style is used to cobble it together.
> >
> > > There's a Canadian director named Guy
> > > Maddin who tries, using iris shots and stilted action, but I've never
> > > been able to sit through more than twenty minutes of one of his
> > > movies. Tati's films were low on dialogue, which gave them a
> > > deceptively "silent" feel.
> >
> > Yes, I really love his films. It shows that even w/in the context of
> > color/sound film it's possible to make essentially silent/monochrome
> > work in the spirit of the best of the silent era. His films give me
> > hope that I can realize similar goals.
> >
> > > Sometimes the influence of silents burble
> > > up in interesting ways. Coppola's Dracula relied on old-fashioned
> > > in-camera effects, which I really liked.
> >
> > There's a great silent robbery sequence in Pierre Melville's "Cercle
> > Rouge" (Red Circle) that you'd likely appreciate.
> >
> > > What I feel are James
> > > Cameron's best movies are structured like the chase films one finds in
> > > silents (I've suggested this unpopular theory here previously).
> >
> > An interesting observation... I wonder if the influence was direct or
> > once removed via more recent film history. Do you think Cameron makes
> > time for the silents?
>
> I can't say, but in interviews he's said he never really studied film
> history, and that his knowledge of the action genre comes more from
> looking at a car-chase movie from Corman, for whom he worked. I
> suspect the resemblance to old chase movies is accidental -- a style
> that evolved into "Aliens," after which with "Terminator 2" and
> "Titanic" he may just have been imitating himself. "Titanic" also
> seems atavistic for its "poetic" symbolism and melodramatic scenes
> (like when the villain has the hero handcuffed to a pipe in a chamber
> that fills with water).
That's what I thought... Keystone Kops via "Bulitt" via "Speed". I
guess that the middle brow audience will just forever eat up treacly melodrama.
>
> > > I once made a 16mm film that had sound/dialogue but also intertitles
> > > that looked like silent film cards. I wasn't trying to be retro or
> > > anything, it just seemed like an appropriate device.
> >
> > Personally, I feel that every existing film technique should always open
> > for consideration. I don't mind a touch of whimsy and I experience film
> > history as more or less simultaneous... "retro" styles can always be
> > renewed. I don't
> > think there's anything inherently "dated" in any technique. Of course
> > the audience may disagree.
> >
> > > The cards would
> > > comment on or confuse the action, and were good for making abrupt
> > > transitions. When a scene was stopped by a title card, the action
> > > could resume anywhere. I was probably taking after "O Lucky Man,"
> > > which had title cards. Another time I crudely re-edited an 8mm copy of
> > > a silent film and made a soundtrack for it from a Popeye the Sailor
> > > album. It was almost watchable.
> >
> > I'd be willing to watch it.
>
> I wonder what ever became of it. It's sort of a lost... um, whatever
> the opposite of "treasure" is.
Perhaps the lost object has a power far beyond the actual object. The
memory of the object influences future objects in a positive way that
confrontation with the actual objects flaws could not.
>
> > > What sort of approaches do you think you could take? Perhaps just
> > > filming with the intention of projecting the final result without
> > > sound? Or are there other aspects of silents which appeal to you?
> >
> > Well, what I'm thinking of right now is making a silent cartoon w/
> > synchronized music roughly in the style of 20's cartoon's, which I've
> > lately been researching. It's really just a convenient peg upon which
> > to hang a loosely structured series of visual gags, while borrowing the
> > more absurd and dreamlike ideas from throughout the history of the early toons.
>
> McLaren was influenced by Emile Cohl. One never knows where a squiggly
> line may end up.
Yeah, I guess all animators are at least indirectly influenced by that
early stuff. I just dubbed a library copy of a collection of early
animation, and I'll say that it is valuable to occasionally go back to
the source. For all their flaws they do have a certain charm.
>
> > I like the idea of working in a simple and graphic style and borrowing
> > some of my favorite themes from the Jazz age like Rum Runners, Hobos &
> > Flappers. It doesn't have to literally seem like a lost film from the
> > era but that's the general idea visually. Thematically, the story board
> > is looking increasingly like early Fleischer Bros. stuff.
>
> Lots of metamorphosing?
It is hard to describe as I'm still developing the ideas. I do want to
hold to the basic concept that "everything in the drawn world is of the
same stuff".
I don't want to return to the "Out Of The Inkwell" literality, but I do
want to create a plastic world.
To give you an idea of the concept... the story so far involves two
characters who chase a dropped dime down into the sewers and encounter a
light fingered rat, albino alligators, rum runners distilling juniper
juice, and hobos riding the rails.
>
> > At the very least it will be a load of fun to make.
>
> Sounds interesting. How do you intend to animate it?
I haven't quite figured out all of the technical issues, but it will be
a digital creation. I'll use 2D animation software and a drawing tablet
along w/ Photoshop and possibly scanned images to create a more or less
fully animated B&W digital tape. Xfer to film is a possibility.
I've already done some low res "pencil tests" using freeware
"GifBuilder" and Photoshop.
I'll record the music myself using an old guitar, a cheap harmonica, a
wheezy organ, an antique cow bell and any other noisemakers I can dig
up. I imagine that sync will be a nightmare but I'll figure it out as I
go along.
Because of the time necessary to animate something like this I won't be
able to start in earnest for quite some time.
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