Avant-Garde Cinema

anniestocker
Oct 7
6 min read

The initial concept of our experimental film was to explore the cyclical nature of corporeal existence through fragmented imagery and sound. Our aim was to turn the final product into a sensory overload through our exploration of synaesthesia. We wanted to make the audience reflect their own existence, therefore, making them an active participant. We delved into themes that are unexplored by mainstream cinema through experimenting with cinematic form. This project presented me the opportunity to experiment with visual and auditory techniques that mimic a sensory experience. Kyra, Kai, and I adopted a combined directorial process that allowed a variety innovative exploration and creative input. One of the prominent female filmmakers of the Avant-Garde movement, Germaine Dulac, influenced my approach and fed me inspiration. Her 1928 film, ‘The Seashell and the Clergyman’ rejects traditional story telling through the constant cuts and repeated shots. I drew vision from this disjointed technique in order to play with the idea of fragmented cyclical nature of memory. I intended to challenge the traditional roles of filmmaking by deconstructing narrative structure and employing a non-linear, fragmented techniques. “Avant-garde cinema must seek new means of expression, new ways of seeing, which will allow it to convey the complexity of our inner life.” (The Avant-Garde Cinema - 1927) Acknowledging Dulac, I aimed to disrupt the audiences’ expectations by utilizing imagery through abstract visuals to evoke emotion rather than follow a set storyline. I wanted to develop from Dulac by creating fresh perspectives through the encouragement of critical thinking and the nuances of the human experience.

To begin with, our documentary was embedded in the exploration of perception and over stimulation. Our main difficulty during this project was the conceptual idea. The vastness of the project and criteria intimidated us all. From this I learnt to actively look for inspiration, we went on 4 different shoots before we developed our ideas. This then transitioned into an exploration of the human body as a physical entity. We aimed to interrogate the boundaries between the body’s physical reality and its perceived sensory process, by merging them together, we intended to challenge the viewer’s own sensory inception.

During the pre-production stage, we experimented with different colour paint to see what would work best, we decided black as it provided the most contrast against skin and canvas, creating more distinct visuals and engaging the audiences further. The paint symbolises the universal human need to leave an imprint on the world, researching early rock handprints brought us to the concept evocative hand movement and leaving a mark. Drawing inspiration from Martha Greham’s exploration of interpreted dance in her performance ‘Lamenation’, we wanted to utilize pioneering movement and offer an abstraction that allows the audience to project their own emotion into the film. Similarly to Greham, we chose to use tights to cover our limbs, which created a sense of anonymity. This striped away a personal level and helps the audience focus on form, prioritizing physical expression. Including water shots allowed us to represent new life in a cyclical nature. Ralph Steiner’s 1929 documentary ‘H2O’ emphasises the beauty of abstract textures through his observational close-up approach whilst defying qualities of water. I admired and showcased Steiner’s acknowledgment of the poetic potential of everyday objects.

Corporeal existence explores what it means to live inside a human body, exploring the themes of mortality and sensory perception.

During production, we experimented with both a tripod and handheld methods to experiment what influences the most emotional response. Cohering to the Avant-Garde approach, we opted for handheld to provide us with organic movement, reflect the themes of our project. The handheld also offered a voyeuristic tone to make the audience feel uncomfortable as they feel they are trespassing. As I filmed, the paint smearing was mainly Kyra. The tights on her arms and legs provided a uniform texture, as well as supporting the Avant-Garde movement of experimenting with different forms. To engage the audience on a more visceral level, we chose to use abstract visuals. This introduced the idea of ambiguity and invites the audience to converse the themes presented. The close-up, handheld shots of feet and hands smearing paint provides a magnified sensory experience for the audience. They are able to see the detailed texture and movements, generating a tactile response, enhancing engagement.

Much of the impact of an image comes from its manipulation of lighting. In cinema, lighting is more than just illumination that permits us to see the action. Lighter and darker areas within the frame help to create the overall composition of each shot and thus guide our attention to certain objects and actions (Bordwell and Thompson, 2013, p124). By choosing to shoot in my garage, we were able to adjust the overhead garage door, allowing us full control of the natural light entering the space. This pushed me further to experiment with different textures under the natural light, adding more depth to the outcome.

We practiced fragmentation during the editing process by repeating long, observational shots, quick cuts, and repeated shots of paint and hands. This explored visual poetry by creating rhythm and exploring time, whilst also recognising "The cinema, through its ability to manipulate time and space, offers us a new way of understanding the world and our place in it." (Dulac, 2001, p45-46) I was hesitant to use the shot of Kyra’s whole body as aesthetically it didn’t fit. By speeding the duration, we were able to create a more cohesive sequence whilst also addressing the themes of passage of time. Using the opening shot as the final shot meant we could imbed the cyclical nature of life, forcing the audience to reflect on what they have just experienced. Kyra had captured a statue of a naked woman prior to the project. We disagreed here as originally; it didn’t match the aesthetic. However, we only used the close-up shots of her individual body parts and never presented her as a whole figure. This follows our practice of fragmentation and is a tool to connect to the hand and feet shots, affirming the theme of disembodiment. We were able to use jump cuts to aid the overall aesthetic and push the audience to immerse themselves in the disoriented nature. As the decision to practice black and white didn’t come till editing, we filmed in colour which meant that we had maximum creative control. We made this creative decision as it directs the audience to purely focus on the shapes and form. Increasing the exposure and contrast intensified the black and white areas on screen, leading to a lack of detail, thus, defamiliarizing the viewer. Experimenting with different effects on premier pro enhanced my understanding of my own artistic choices; “The essence of cinema is in the editing. It’s the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.” (Francis Ford Coppola, 2004 interview) I learnt to push the boundaries of conventional cinema and experimented with the distortion of editing to create an innovative exploration of ambiguity and unease.

Similarly to the concept notion, we all struggled with the audio choices during the post-production process. Crewmate, Kai produced a score for us to use however it was too overstimulating and futuristic, which resulted in being too distracting from the visuals. I felt frustrated as ‘Sound shapes perception of an image’ - (Chion, 2019, p.13) and by this point, no audio suited the nature of this film. We captured ambience on the Zoom H1 on production day. However, paint squelching and tights pulling broke the fluidity and didn’t provide enough dynamic contrast, making visuals look empty. We overcame this by contacting Kyra’s friend who works at an art organisation called ‘Sonic Arts’, we met her with the hope to take inspiration from her work. After showing her a rough cut of the edit, she offered to help us out. We described the desired elements of uncertainty and repetition. In addition, we provided examples of audio that mirrored our film’s abstract visual sequences. The music that she created adds to the uneasy atmosphere by making the audience feel uncomfortable due to the erratic tempo changes and contrasting timbres. She gave us a long track where we selected specific parts from the score to edit into our sequence. This created pace and momentum. After this, we then incorporated Kai’s mix at the beginning and the end of the sequence. This enhanced the auditory cyclical structure to the film and the overall experience.

We achieved our aim of exploring bodily, physical movement through unconventional practices. From pushing the boundaries of conventional cinema to experimenting with different styles such as disjointed editing, abstract visuals, and filming in a voyeuristic mode, I developed as a filmmaker. I evolved my understanding of cinematic expression through juxtaposed editing, collaborative expression and the manipulation of sound and visuals. My confidence with embracing unconditional practices has grown and I look forward to applying a new level of creativity that this project has unlocked for me. Overall, we achieved our aims in producing a documentary that visually and auditorily explores the thematic cyclical nature of corporeal existence.