Sitney, “Structural Film”
Visionary Film, Chapter 12
Visionary Film, Chapter 12
You may find it helpful to read the first few pages of the other assigned reading for this week (James Peterson, “Rounding Up the Usual Suspects”) before tackling this chapter, focusing particularly on p. 72-76. Read that overview, which will review key concepts from the first half of this class, then tackle this chapter and answer the following questions.
1. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics? What is meant by “apperceptive strategies”?
Four characteristics of the Strucutural film are its fixed camera position(fixed frame from the viewers perspective), the flicker effect, loop printing, and rephotography off the screen.Very seldom will you find all four characteristics in a single film, and there are structural films which modify these usual elements.
Four characteristics of the Strucutural film are its fixed camera position(fixed frame from the viewers perspective), the flicker effect, loop printing, and rephotography off the screen.Very seldom will you find all four characteristics in a single film, and there are structural films which modify these usual elements.
Definition of APPERCEPTION
1: introspective self-consciousness
2: mental perception; especially : the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience
Apperceptive strategies Sitney says, "is cinema of the mind rather than the eye".
Apperceptive strategies Sitney says, "is cinema of the mind rather than the eye".
2. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class.
It seems that Sitney is saying the central metaphor of structural film has to do with the minds eye instead of the perception we try to interpret through tour actual eye.
3. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?
Sitney says Warhol made the prolific of footage the central fact of all of his early films, and he advertised his indifference to direction, photography and lighting. That he let things unfold in front of the camera naturally by "simply turning on the camera an walking away."
4. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:
a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?
Warhol defines his art "anti-romantically". Pop art, especially as he practiced it, was a repudiation of the processes, theories, and myths of Abstract Expressionism, A Romantic school.He made himself familiar with the works of Brakhage, Markopoulos, anger and especially Smith., but Warhol turned his genius for parody and reduction against the American avant-garde film itself.
b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?
Warhol's fixed camera was at first an outrage, later an irony, until the content of his films became so compelling to him that he abandoned the fixed camera for a species of in-the-camera editing. In the work of Michael Snow and Ernie Gehr, the camera is fixed in a mystical contemplation of a portion of s[ace. Spiritually the distance between these poles cannot be reconciled.
c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?
The term Ontology comes from Greek and means "to be". So I'm guessing “conscious ontology of the viewing experience” has a similar meaning in that the viewer takes what they see on the screen and interpret in a way that their mind seems fit. I believe this relates to Warhol's films because this is the way that I watch and relate to his films, by putting together the pieces in my mind. The same as with Structural films.
d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?
Sitney says, "the Strucural film is not simply an outgrowth of the lyric.It is an attempt to answer Warhol's attack by converting his tactics into the tropes of the response."
Sitney says Warhol made the prolific of footage the central fact of all of his early films, and he advertised his indifference to direction, photography and lighting. That he let things unfold in front of the camera naturally by "simply turning on the camera an walking away."
4. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:
a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?
Warhol defines his art "anti-romantically". Pop art, especially as he practiced it, was a repudiation of the processes, theories, and myths of Abstract Expressionism, A Romantic school.He made himself familiar with the works of Brakhage, Markopoulos, anger and especially Smith., but Warhol turned his genius for parody and reduction against the American avant-garde film itself.
b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?
Warhol's fixed camera was at first an outrage, later an irony, until the content of his films became so compelling to him that he abandoned the fixed camera for a species of in-the-camera editing. In the work of Michael Snow and Ernie Gehr, the camera is fixed in a mystical contemplation of a portion of s[ace. Spiritually the distance between these poles cannot be reconciled.
c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?
The term Ontology comes from Greek and means "to be". So I'm guessing “conscious ontology of the viewing experience” has a similar meaning in that the viewer takes what they see on the screen and interpret in a way that their mind seems fit. I believe this relates to Warhol's films because this is the way that I watch and relate to his films, by putting together the pieces in my mind. The same as with Structural films.
d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?
Sitney says, "the Strucural film is not simply an outgrowth of the lyric.It is an attempt to answer Warhol's attack by converting his tactics into the tropes of the response."
5. On p. 352 Sitney begins an analysis of the Wavelength rooted in conveying the experience of watching it; this style of analysis is admittedly hard to read without having seen the film (we’ll discuss this style of analysis in class). Try your best so that you can answer the following question related to p. 354: What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?
Annette Michelson finds this film a metaphor for "consciousness itself". I believe that the changing of night to day and all of the other things seen changing throughout time in the background can convey this consciousness, the fact that we are aware of our environment and surroundings although sometimes we must look a little deeper to find it.
For the rest of the chapter, focus on the discussions of the following films:
Paul Sharits: T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G
George Landow: Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc.
James Peterson, “Rounding Up the Usual Suspects”
[Found in "Kreul Articles" folder on your flash drives]
[Found in "Kreul Articles" folder on your flash drives]
The following questions ask about three reading strategies for the minimal strain of the avant-garde. They are all previewed on p. 77. Your answers should incorporate details from the subsequent discussions of them (see page numbers in the parentheses).
6. What is the reading strategy associated with the “phenomenological schema” (include details and examples from 77-80)?
“Phenomenological schema” can be seen as "the link between cinema and consciousness, and his films represent " an inquiry into the modes of seeing, recording, selecting, composing, remembering and projecting" "For Michelson the clearest example is Snow's, One Second in Montreal (1969), in which the flow of time is somehow inscribed in the filmic image, immediately given, perceptible in our experience of it" This can be related to any long take with little dramatic action.
“Phenomenological schema” can be seen as "the link between cinema and consciousness, and his films represent " an inquiry into the modes of seeing, recording, selecting, composing, remembering and projecting" "For Michelson the clearest example is Snow's, One Second in Montreal (1969), in which the flow of time is somehow inscribed in the filmic image, immediately given, perceptible in our experience of it" This can be related to any long take with little dramatic action.
7. What is the reading strategy associated with the “art-process schema” (include details and examples from 80-85)?
The “art-process schema” is somewhere between art and life an example given is the film Mothlight by Stan Brakhage, which one can derive meaning on several levels.
8. What is the reading strategy associated with the “anti-illusion schema” (include details and examples from 85-90)?
Derived from the art criticism of Clement Greenberg, “anti-illusion schema” is any element on the screen that does not produce an impression of three dimensional space is read as a demonstration of the inherent flatness of the cinematic image
The “art-process schema” is somewhere between art and life an example given is the film Mothlight by Stan Brakhage, which one can derive meaning on several levels.
8. What is the reading strategy associated with the “anti-illusion schema” (include details and examples from 85-90)?
Derived from the art criticism of Clement Greenberg, “anti-illusion schema” is any element on the screen that does not produce an impression of three dimensional space is read as a demonstration of the inherent flatness of the cinematic image
7. Take another look at this passage; we'll try to go over it in class as well.
ReplyDeleteTry to put more of the responses in your own words so that I know that you are getting the idea.