Experimental film
Experimental films are those which reject the conventional ways of filmmaking, such as continuity editing, following a narrative, and the commercial production process, with the aim of creating new, thought-provoking aesthetics -- also known as avant-garde films (Pramaggiore & Wallis, 2005:247).
This is because "avant garde" is a military term meaning "forward guard" -- the soldiers who lead troops into battle -- therefore the name acts as a metaphor since these filmmakers are the pioneers of these new film conventions, leading other filmmakers by influencing them (Shim, 2013).
Sometimes also called vanguard cinema, this type of filmmaking began after the rules of conventional filmmaking had been established, such as the shot-reverse shot, and cutting to what a character is looking at (an evolution of the Kuleshov effect), after World War One in 1920s Europe (Morrow, 2013).
This is because "avant garde" is a military term meaning "forward guard" -- the soldiers who lead troops into battle -- therefore the name acts as a metaphor since these filmmakers are the pioneers of these new film conventions, leading other filmmakers by influencing them (Shim, 2013).
Sometimes also called vanguard cinema, this type of filmmaking began after the rules of conventional filmmaking had been established, such as the shot-reverse shot, and cutting to what a character is looking at (an evolution of the Kuleshov effect), after World War One in 1920s Europe (Morrow, 2013).
However, because of this avant-garde films do not have a set of rules of their own, often being made outside of the film industry in art, music or science (eyefilm, s.d).
Yet many experimental films have inspired conventional filmmakers, causing the line to blur. For example, experimental filmmaker Luis Buñuel used a shot of a hand with ants crawling out of it in his film, Un Chien Andalou (1929), which influenced David Lynch, who is considered a Hollywood filmmaker although he often uses surrealism in his films -- similar to artist Salvador Dali who worked on Un Chien Andalou -- to use a shot of a severed ear with ants crawling out of it in Blue Velvet (1986) (Singer, 2017).
This therefore exposes wider audiences to the conventions of experimental film, and creates new conventions in mainstream cinema from the niche of avant garde (eyefilm, s.d). This is important since may experimental films have not been seen by wide audiences throughout history, especially before the digital revolution when not everyone could have access to films on platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube (Morrow, 2013).
However, it can be argued that what is defined as conventional in film has changed over the course of history and has been different for audiences in different decades -- for example, directors such as Alfred Hitchcock with the change of genre in the middle of Psycho (1960), and Terrence Malick creating a narrative through poetic style in The Tree of Life (2011) experimented with the film form by breaking what was considered conventional and changed how audiences saw mainstream cinema (Quench, 2016).
However, it can be argued that what is defined as conventional in film has changed over the course of history and has been different for audiences in different decades -- for example, directors such as Alfred Hitchcock with the change of genre in the middle of Psycho (1960), and Terrence Malick creating a narrative through poetic style in The Tree of Life (2011) experimented with the film form by breaking what was considered conventional and changed how audiences saw mainstream cinema (Quench, 2016).
Editing workshop
I chose the theme of fear to explore in a montage for this workshop. Fear can be defined as "an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger" (Merriam-Webster, 2018).
For this reason, I wanted to experiment with the conventions of the thriller genre for this short montage, since this genre relies on suspense and anticipation in both the characters and the audience, as well as highlighting danger (Buffam, 2011).
However, by experimenting with the form, for example, by making the danger the character faces something which is not physical, but instead more psychological, I found that this film actually fits more into the category of psychological thriller. This is because the threat comes directly from inside the character's mind, who must work out a mental solution to their problem (Buffam, 2011).
Examples of psychological thrillers are Taxi Driver (1976) and Rear Window (1954) (Buffam, 2011). But, in Taxi Driver (1976), the audience are left questioning whether the crime the character seems to have committed is real or just inside his head, and in Rear Window (1954), the crime the main character thinks his neighbour has committed does turn out to be real in the end. I wanted to somewhat combine these two movies, and have my main character also be the hero and solve his own problem like these characters do in the end, making it have more of a closed ending than Taxi Driver (1976), more like that of solving the crime in Rear Window (1954).
However, I also took a lot of inspiration from Psycho (1960), because of how this changed the horror genre when it first came out. Before Psycho (1960) the danger in horror movies was an actual monster, such as Frankenstein or Godzilla, but in this film Norman Bates was the monster, and the danger came from his mind (Gleiberman, 2009), similar to the main character in my montage since the shadow acts as a manifestation of his fear.
For this reason, it can be argued that Psycho (1960) was an avant-garde film at the time, because it broke what was conventional for the horror genre and pioneered new tropes.
Fig. 1 Psycho (1960)
I was influenced to use a shadow by the image from the shower scene in Psycho (1960) where the killer is outlined only in shadow (see fig.1). This is because my character knows they are afraid, but they can't quite identify the fear entirely, which is the reason they can't get rid of it -- much like the audience are unable to identify the killer in the shower scene here.
The killer's shadow acts as a physical manifestation of the monster inside his head, similar to how the shadow acts as a physical manifestation of my character's fear. In this way, I found that the audience could become aware of something psychological in a physical form without any dialogue.
Fig.2 Psycho (1960)
However, I found this could also be done through emotion, which is why I decided to use a lot of close-up shots of my character, similar to how the victim is framed in the Psycho (1960) shower scene (see fig.2). This helped to emphasise the fear since it brings the audience closer to the character's emotion, making it more immediate.
This effect is also created within this scene by jump cuts which get closer to the victim's mouth. Jump cuts can disorientate the audience by confusing the passage of time. This is why I also decided to use them, since fear can be a confusing emotion and I wanted to physically show as much of my character's psychological state as possible.
I also managed to do this through overtonal montage, which is what the shower scene from Psycho (1960) uses. Cuts are made to music which is shocking and jarring to the audience. However, I wanted to use music in my montage which would also motivate cuts but would build tension, since the passing of time is shown. For this reason, I wanted the cuts to be slow, such as the opening shot where the character looks directly down the lens, since this can build expectation in the audience, putting them on edge, since the shadow frustrates my character and makes him uncomfortable.
To show the tone of the montage I also used black and white similar to Psycho (1960), because this emphasised the shadow by making the contrast between black and white more striking. Also, black is associated with fear (Bourn, 2010), so I wanted this colour to be the most heightened, as my character's fear is.
To also show my character's psychological state, I took inspiration from the TV series Homecoming (2018-), since it uses a mask to turn the frame into a 4:3 aspect ratio, seemingly trapping the character in the frame (see fig.3). I decided to use this in my montage to show how the character is trapped in his own mind.
Fig. 3 Homecoming (2018)
However, once the main character of Homecoming (2018-) comes to a realisation, the frame widens to show this. I used this when my own character realises they can overcome their fear to show they are no longer dictated by their mind, as this makes them less boxed in by the frame, but seemingly freer.
I also tried to achieve this trapped effect by duplicating layers to create a disorientating, distorted effect around the character, making it look as if there were two of him, one overlapping the other, as if he has trapped himself in, since he has trapped himself in his mind. I got rid of this when the frame widened as well, to further emphasise the freedom and new certainty the character feels.
List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Psycho (1960) [film clip online] YouTube. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Figure 2. Psycho (1960) [film clip online] YouTube. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Figure 3. Homecoming (2018) [television programme online] Amazon Prime video. At: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B07FP41Z59/ref=atv_hm_hom_1_c_2LIVgA_3_3 (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
References
Bourn, J. (2010) Color Meaning: Meaning of The Color Black. At: https://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-black/ (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Buffam, N. (2011) 'Thriller.' In: The Script Lab [online] At: https://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/986-thriller/ (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Eyefilm (s.d) What is experimental film? At: https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/collection/film-history/article/what-is-experimental-film (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Gleiberman, O. (2009) ''Psycho': The horror movie that changed the genre.' In: Entertainment Weekly. [online] At: https://ew.com/article/2009/08/04/psycho-the-horror-movie-that-changed-the-genre/ (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Merriam-Webster. (2018) 'Fear' definition 1a [online] At: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fear (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Morrow, J. (2013) 'A (Very Brief) History of Experimental Cinema' In: No Film School. [online] At: https://nofilmschool.com/2013/09/brief-history-experimental-cinema (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Pramaggiore, M. & Wallis, T. (2005) Film: A Critical Introduction. London: Laurence King Publishing. pp. 247.
Quench (2016) What is Experimental Cinema? At: https://cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk/quench/film-tv/experimental-cinema/ (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Shim, M. (2013) 'How to Talk Experimental Film: A User's Guide' In: The Independent. [online] At: http://independent-magazine.org/2013/03/minhae-shim_defines_experimental-film_avant-garde_video-installation/ (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
Singer, L. (2017) 'Blue Velvet: five films that influenced David Lynch's shocking masterpiece' In: BFI. [online] At: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/blue-velvet-five-films-influenced-david-lynch-s-shocking-masterpiece (Accessed on 5 December 2018).
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