Lights and Sounds

This week's screenings had an interesting variety of length, color, sound, and subject. Some of the films gave me a headache, one in particular, was soothing. My favorite by far was "The Dark Room," by Minyong Jang. With the use of camera obscura and a rotating lense, Jang uniquely captured the flow of the ocean. It felt as though we were surrounded by water, surfing in slow motion. Carl described this experience as being in "a container of the ocean," I agree. I can't even remember if it was a silent film because I was so involved with the image, which rarely happens. Usually whether or not a film has sound determines my liking it or not. Altogether, Jang beautifully filmed the peacefulness and delicacy of water.

One thing I liked about "Lace of Summer" was the way it reminded me of a home-made movie. With the super-eight film and "cinema songs"(?) the filmmaker realistically showed the feeling one gets when they think of summer. I liked the repeated images of tents and how the film appeared colorless but there were hints of mint green and light blue at certain times. At first I didn't understand why there was a scene with a woman behind a curtain, later we learned this was the filmmaker. The film reminded me of what you see in a feature length movie, a snippet of someone else's memory of childhood, but this was sincere.

"Third Eye Butterfly," by Storm De Hirsch was intense. The combination of color and sound was incredible. I think my favorite part was how the music sounded so much like a drum circle and no color was left out. I felt like the film was all over the place, my eyes jumped all around the screen. The multiplication of the images created a unique experience for each viewer. I liked how Carl put it; "one could look across the screen, side to side, or combine all of the images into a single frame." Also, the hints of a butterfly that appeared once and a while(eye, wing, color, or an entire butterfly) was a nice touch.

"Available Light Shift" was probably my least favorite simply because I kept nodding off. I don't have much to say about it because I feel like there wasn't a lot to it. No offense to the filmmaker, of course. There was a thin amount of random color kept me going, also I thought it was interesting how the entirety of the film was based on the element of chance.

I definitely enjoyed "Night Flight Transmissions," by Brent Coughenour because of the bursts of light correlating with the bursts of image and sound. I liked how he paired the random images and constructed a harmonizing feel altogether. The innocent image of the child riding the bike became somewhat scary because of the sounds behind him. I think the uneasy feeling it produced is what was so likable. At first I didn't know what or if someone was talking in the background, then the noises became recognizable numbers. The noisy sounds that turned into words, finally eased its way into what sounded like church music. At the end, we learned that Coughenour wasn't just pulling random images, he was using family members and personal ideas to construct actual memories.