Hand Made Films

(Norman McLaren)
















(Barbel Neubauer)
















For many years now I've worked in the film industry. I suppose it goes without saying that most of the Hollywood movies I worked on were certainly not very good, however the actual celluloid film and its images could be incredibly striking. In earlier days when I was first starting out, I met fellow shlubs in the lower realms of the film business who also had a certain jones for the image. Some had attended art schools or universities wherein the film departments were heavily experimental and free-form. Many had made their own student films utilizing weird and interesting film manipulation techniques. It was from such people that I learned about the work of certain early experimental film makers (often their mentors). Names who come to mind are Pat O'Neill, the Whitney brothers, Stan Brakage, Ed Emshwiller, Joseph Cornell, Norman McLaren, Bruce Conner, Jack Smith, Ken Jacobs, Eleanor Antin and others. I should probably note that my interests and occupation at that time were in the visual effects locale. It was an interesting time, just on the cusp of computer technology becoming feasible in photographic visual effects, although on a rather crude DIY basis. Software as we know it was non-existent, and each project had to write their own code and build their own equipment. Large computers were still too costly for most films and normally utilized only by NASA, the military, or large number-crunching conglomerates like banks (networked from huge mainframes). Though there were film geeks and wireheads who would not be deterred.

During this bygone interregnum of the analog and digital worlds, motion-control photography was at the forefront of certain types of effects as seen in the"slit-scan" shots used by Doug Trumbull in 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, or the space battles in STAR WARS, and "state of the art" television commercials which were being produced at Bob Abel's company here in Los Angeles. In any event, even before this time, some film artists were actually painting on the celluloid itself and projecting it, or utilizing painting and printing techniques with traveling mattes and compositing them on optical printers. The boundaries of art and commercial film blurred entirely. That's how I made a living, but hardly in so artful a method as the people previously mentioned. It was fun. Imagine, actually fun. There are dedicated artists who still utilize these primitive tools in their work, to obtain a chance to see such films is a treat and not to be missed.

Film can be like a drug, I suppose anything can, but the actual touching of it, the inking on it, the painting on it,can be addictive and obsessive. Hence some of the work I've posted here. Artists who for over 60 years have painted, scribed, punched, inked onto the actual emulsion of the film itself.

Anyone who has seen a roll of color print which has not yet had the tail trimmed off can probably remember seeing streaks of incredibly luminous colors in totally abstract forms as the end of the roll flaps its way through the projector gate. It's merely the print emulsion which has been partially light struck, developed, washed randomly and sometimes wrapped-up wet. After all, it is the non-used roll-out leader which will be trimmed-off and go into the trash. But anyone who has seen those patterns and colors probably remembers them. The work exhibited here reminds me of those pieces of accidental art--bold and yet detailed. There is one photo of Stan Brakage working on a piece of 16mm film, it is just that tiny and intricate a process. Which is not to say that these works rely on pure chance. Most are as completely patterned and linear in execution as any animated film. Room for all ideas. Amazing world.

(Stan Brakage)


















(Stan Brakage)














(Richard Reeves)
















(Harry Smith)