Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Robert Schaller
This idea of handmade film is not very revolutionary; in fact it is, in a way, a leap backwards in modern film. However, in the same way this old fashioned technique is bounds forward in this technology-obsessed medium. When Robert Schaller played his first film I was instantly reminded of Edison’s first testing of his film invention. The name escapes me now, but it was a specter-like figure dancing on screen silently. A black background with a completely drawn out human form swiveling on a non-existent stage in front of an ever-steady camera. This handmade film instantly put me into a time machine going back to the turn of the previous century, yet I was in a theatre watching modern art. This absence of camera use, more or less, made think of how inventive this Robert Schaller really is. The idea of a recording pinhole camera, or a strip of film from a make shift inventor again seemed like a revolutionary idea.
As the films went on I thought less and less about the handmade emulsion, and more about what was being projected. Most of the time I was watching an array of colors dance upon the screen with scratches appearing in random order across the space within the frames. If I could describe it, I would call these pieces; an abstract painting that was suddenly animated upon the artist’s canvas. This uncontrollable and completely random burst of energy appeared with its disorderly theme through out the rest of the showings for the night.
When the showing for the film with three projectors came to action, I have to say my first impression was that of being impressed. Never before have I considered such a method of showing a project to my audience. The three projectors, again in a random fashion, placing three images on the screen. The film that most stuck out in my mind was when Schaller placed his projectors on their sides, and then showed a film of a dancer. My first prediction that the three separate screens would interact with each other, and in a way they did. However, it was not in the manner that I foresaw in my mind. The dancer was in one screen, then another, or at times in all three. It seemed as if Schaller were switching the film stock he used at this moment, because the projection went from crisp and clear to a grainy form, and also back to the scratched images of a ghost dancer forever dancing on screen.
Each of the three screens was vertical as opposed to the usual four to three aspect ratio. I guess you would say the aspect ratio was now three to four. My philosophy is the wider the better, but Schaller explained later when he was talking to the crowd that he feels a vertical frame space was more fitting to the human body. This brought a specific shot into mind. It was the frame on the far left of the three on screen, and the dancer was on her tiptoes flirting with the left edge of the frame, she was in and out of it. Then she took a barrel roll across the floor sending her across the bottom of the frame leaving the top bare with the tones of gray. She stood up on screen right in her pose of grace. All the while the camera stood motionless staring at the girl move around its steady space.
I could never project with the approach that Schaller does. I need control over all that I do. I want to be the one to hit play, I want to know that everything will run right, and I want to be the one to turn on the lights when just the right amount of black has left the audience to think about what they have seen. Schaller’s style is totally unpredictable. Anything could go wrong, especially with three obsolete projectors running simultaneously. This random method seems to be a modern form of art that was presented to us in an old fashion way that contained new ideas and views.
As the films went on I thought less and less about the handmade emulsion, and more about what was being projected. Most of the time I was watching an array of colors dance upon the screen with scratches appearing in random order across the space within the frames. If I could describe it, I would call these pieces; an abstract painting that was suddenly animated upon the artist’s canvas. This uncontrollable and completely random burst of energy appeared with its disorderly theme through out the rest of the showings for the night.
When the showing for the film with three projectors came to action, I have to say my first impression was that of being impressed. Never before have I considered such a method of showing a project to my audience. The three projectors, again in a random fashion, placing three images on the screen. The film that most stuck out in my mind was when Schaller placed his projectors on their sides, and then showed a film of a dancer. My first prediction that the three separate screens would interact with each other, and in a way they did. However, it was not in the manner that I foresaw in my mind. The dancer was in one screen, then another, or at times in all three. It seemed as if Schaller were switching the film stock he used at this moment, because the projection went from crisp and clear to a grainy form, and also back to the scratched images of a ghost dancer forever dancing on screen.
Each of the three screens was vertical as opposed to the usual four to three aspect ratio. I guess you would say the aspect ratio was now three to four. My philosophy is the wider the better, but Schaller explained later when he was talking to the crowd that he feels a vertical frame space was more fitting to the human body. This brought a specific shot into mind. It was the frame on the far left of the three on screen, and the dancer was on her tiptoes flirting with the left edge of the frame, she was in and out of it. Then she took a barrel roll across the floor sending her across the bottom of the frame leaving the top bare with the tones of gray. She stood up on screen right in her pose of grace. All the while the camera stood motionless staring at the girl move around its steady space.
I could never project with the approach that Schaller does. I need control over all that I do. I want to be the one to hit play, I want to know that everything will run right, and I want to be the one to turn on the lights when just the right amount of black has left the audience to think about what they have seen. Schaller’s style is totally unpredictable. Anything could go wrong, especially with three obsolete projectors running simultaneously. This random method seems to be a modern form of art that was presented to us in an old fashion way that contained new ideas and views.
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