Lost Post - |ˈstrək ch ərəl| |film|

I thought I had posted these a while ago. Not sure how they never made it up on my blog.


2. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics?

The modernist movement that Deren, Brakhage and Anger were a part of was more about representing dreams and vision. Structural is a "cinema of the mind father than the eye." The four formal properties of structural film are the fixed camera, loop printing, re-photography, and the flicker effect.


3. 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

The techniques used in structural film are used to induce states of the mind. The metaphor is that of consciousness. Structural film still follows Sitney's argument about the American avant garde representing the human mind, just through different means than the modernist tradition.



4. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?

Warhol as well as Fluxus (which was an influence of Warhol) techniques are the backbone of Structural film. Fixed camera and the idea of letting the film evolving in front of frame spontaneously are common techniques and themes in both.


5. 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?


Sitney says that wahol described himself as "anti-romantic", but what he means in the opposite of Abstract Expressionism, or almost a commentary on the whole romantic movement.


b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr 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?

Its the idea awareness to the viewing process in simple terms. Warhols films were often mean to be boring in order to allow one to become fixated on other aspects of the films. Screen Tests allowed the chance to study a person's face when attempting to be still. Structural films like wavelength used this idea with a slow zoom to allow the viewer to become aware of every detail in the mise-en-scene to the most extreme level.

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?

6. What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?

The metaphor is that of all Structural film, consciousness. This idea of the film bingeing the mind rather than the eye is present in wavelength not only visually but audibly with its experimental soundscape.