Reading Response Four

I have to admit that I was surprised by George Maciunas 10 Feet. Usually in avant-garde there tends to be a movement away from math and set patterns; especially ones that the viewer can figure out. I figured that 10ft was supposed to be a metaphor for something else but it turns out it was exactly what it said it was: 10 ft (of film). The best part was that it skipped 8 but in my head I knew exactly when 9 was coming. One on the other hand is a interesting film because of my obsession with slow motion. One is much more engaging than 10 Feet because not only does it show an image; it's an image we wouldn't be able to enjoy because of it's brevity.



1. Guns of the Trees, Rabbitshit Haikus, and Diaries Notes and Sketches are all films from the time period that Mekus states was the birth of "Baudelairean Cinema." Charles Baudleraire was a poet poet in the later 1800s that also lambasted religion in is work. Aside from both being polemicists, each of these men are recognized as brining back romanticism to their movement in art. Both men also actively participate in the critiquing of the art that they themselves participate in.

2. Mekus's views on avant garde cinema changed in the late 1950s and early 1960s due to the impression of nouvelle vague in France. Nouvelle Vague is an all-inclusive term for French filmmakers in the '50s and '60s that were linked by their self-scious rejection of classical cinematic form and youthful iconoclasm. Mekus also saw a rise in new filmmakers coming from various countries that hadnt had time to become established directors. He also saw a change over from strictly "experimental" films to more active and socially conscious works. Seeing that the early films had led up to this new movement, he began to go back and watch those also.

3. Mekus's passion for acting shaped his views on film in the 1960s to the point where he picked 4 films for awards because of their use of performance and who was performing. He also stated that he was less interested in classical acting than spontaneous performance that comes about in Engels and Leacocks films.


5. Jack Smith uses a number of visual techniques in Flaming Creatures. He used outdated color stock to produce pastel hues and murky, high contrast shots to create different depths and ranges of space. The film itself is 10 scenes that are more or less held together by rhythm and separately loosely into 3 episodes. The photography changes for each scene like a musical piece.

Callie Angell

6. Angell characterizes Warhols first period of filmmaking as minimalist and generally "unwatchable." Films like Sleep and Empire which both are more than 5 hours long and both feature little or no action during a static shot on one subject

7. Not only did screen tests help Warhol learn specific ways of posing, framing, and lighting his subjects but they also served as a guest book for all the famous writers, actors, and filmmakers that came through his factory at the time. The screen tests paralleled other works of his such as "Photobooth pictures," an exercise in serial photography.