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Experimental Film Makers


Andrew Szmauz

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Hey there,

 

i was just wondering what some of your favorite and most inspirational experimental film makers are. Mine is Hans Richter, the way he uses film as an extension of his paintings is, to me, life changing. I have had a film showcased in a film festival that was influenced by his work. i first heard about him in a documentary called "Free radicals: a history on experimental film". i want to know what you guys like because I am constantly looking for new ideas and influences for my work.

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The closest film to experimental I appreciate is Freddy Got Fingered. The screenplay was more experimental than anything. So I guess Tom Green.

i enjoyed that film, but i wouldn't say it was experimental. i would say that it was a badly written comedy. There is a reason Tom Green doesn't make movies anymore. Hans Richter, Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and Pip Chodorov are all experimental film makers you should check out. they make films not hollywood b movies. Hans Richter actually made the first experimental film in history, and its only about 3-5 minutes long. its true art. Film introduced a new medium to artists...which was time. artists could now capture things in real time. they are the cutting edge of avat garde, they are free radicals. without these guys I just mentioned we wouldn't have modern film techniques as we know them today.

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Badly written comedy? It was amazingly refreshing. Sure there were absolutely jokes which were just plain unnecessary, however again, the screenwriting itself was experimental. That is the nature of experimental, tries something new and isn't concerned whether it is off-putting. The idea of a feature length film literally not concerned with the plot or emotional attachment and just spits jokes 24/7 is rare.

 

Fox gave Tom Green $14 million and his (perhaps spiteful) experiment was that film.

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I've always liked experimental animation and light shows, works by Len Lye or Jordan Belson, for example. I've always liked "Meshes in the Afternoon" by Maya Deren and some of David Lynch's experimental works (and you can probably classify "Eraserhead" as experimental...)

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I was going to mention Lynch and "Eraserhead" also. "The Elephant Man" is in some ways experimental also, and is one of my favourite films. A film that gets the balance right in both art and entertainment. I find some of the more experimental films just too strange and rather boring. I'd rather look at a good painting. To me, a movie worth making must also be entertainment. Film at its heart is a show biz thing.

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I wouldn't make such a blanket statement that all movies have to be entertainment - besides, what people find entertaining can vary a lot. For some people, sitting through a typical Hollywood rom-com would be more torturous going to see a collection of Stan Brakhage shorts. Movies are an art form, and some art is more commercial than others, some have a wider audience in mind than others.

 

But I do have a theory that experimental filmmaking tends to work better in shorter forms -- as the movie gets longer, it starts to need more and more of a structure, usually a narrative one, to hold one's interest. Or at its simplest form, what the viewer craves is continuously new information to keep the brain engaged. The thing with a painting is that you can experience it at your own pace, same goes for reading experimental literature -- you can even set it down and pick it up again later.

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Sans Soliel by Chris Marker... Oh and La Jetee... In fact anything by Chris Marker.

 

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome by Kenneth Anger

 

If you can get to see anything by Gregory Markopoulos then you should but his work isn't that easy to get to see.

 

Speaking of things that are hard to get to see "Man with a mirror" by Guy Sherwin is incredible if you are at all interested in expanded cinema but it's worth checking out stuff by Guy Sherwin in general actually.

 

Films by Tony Conrad.

 

Stuff by Ken Jakobs

 

The films of Jem Cohen

 

 

Freya

Edited by Freya Black
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Hey there,

 

i was just wondering what some of your favorite and most inspirational experimental film makers are. Mine is Hans Richter, the way he uses film as an extension of his paintings is, to me, life changing. I have had a film showcased in a film festival that was influenced by his work. i first heard about him in a documentary called "Free radicals: a history on experimental film". i want to know what you guys like because I am constantly looking for new ideas and influences for my work.

 

I really don't have any. I met a few indy film makers growing up who were into the whole experimental and shooting film for the sake of shooting film type of people. They were just into capturing images and rearranging them for public display, which was cool. But nothing they did ever grabbed me as such.

 

For me film making is about telling cool stories, and nothing more. For commercial industry there's a social mantra that's kind of inflated these days, so much that experimental types are probably seen as more artistic fringe than ever before. Hopefully we'll see some good stuff coming our way in the years to come because of that alienation.

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