Experimental Cinema Vs Experimental Films

Since its independence from the constraints of commercial production mode, a lot of animation artists join the creation work of experimental animation. They convey their artistic philosophy to the audience by using a unique perspective and new forms of expression. Because it is primarily the creation of individual, and does not involve commercial factors, the production mode is also different with the mainstream commercial animation film.

In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.

Absolute film was a movement created by a group of artists in Germany in the 1920’s (Wikipedia). Hans Richter, Walter Ruttman, Oskar Fischinger, and Viking Eggeling were the pioneers who created absolute film, and all of them had artistic backgrounds besides Fischinger. Most cinematic projects have a story line, and something you follow through, but with absolute film it is quite the opposite. Absolute film depended solely on the artist’s vision and imagination for the film. It was a remarkable revolution in cinema, that a film could be created simply off a visual spectacle with aid from auditory music. No story line, no characters, nothing… just random images, colors, shapes flowing on the screen to music made to evoke imagination.

Documentary Movies: Key types – factual films (present people, places, or processes in straightforward ways meant to entertain and instruct without influencing audiences), instructional films (educate viewers about common interests, rather than persuading them to accept particular ideas), persuasive films (addresses social injustices), propaganda films (systematically disseminate deceptive or distorted information), direct cinema (eschew interviews and even limit the use of narrators).

There are different types of film. Examples of film are: animation, horror, documentary film, short film, action film, and film noir.

A documentary about ‘making’ of a movie, for example Fitzcarraldo (1982) or Apocalypse Now (1979)

Although experimental film officially made its debut in the 1920's, the practice could be considered as old as filmmaking itself. The nineteenth century was a period of rapid growth for camera and film technology, and when the idea of motion pictures was still new, the visual formulas and narrative patterns that have become common in modern films had not yet been constructed.

Un Chien Andalou (1929) was the first masterpiece of surrealism directed by one of the greatest Spanish director Luis Buñuel and the renowned surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. The Mise-en-scene of the film was striking in the era of its establishment and even nowadays, the film actually aimed to create no rational meanings, said by Bunuel (1983). Its major inspiration came from their dreams. Due to the film’s resemblance with dreaming, I found its visual representation coincidently matches Freud’s concept of the Oedipus complex, in a metaphorical manner.

The auteur theory is an idea or principle, which states that the film is a reflection of a director’s creative personal vision, as if to say the he or she is the primary author (which in French, means “auteur”). This theory first came to be in 1954, by a French film director named Francois Truffaut. The auteur theory’s birth was through the French New Wave, which was a group of new French filmmakers during the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the beginning, the theory received positive and negative responses. And to this day, it will create a heated debate. Many have questioned the theory, because there are usually multiple people involved in the development of a film. Ultimately, a film

a film that moves too far away from the traditional three-act-structure, is highly experimental and

Auteurism is a term first coined by Francois Truffaut to describe the mark of a film director on his films. A director can be considered an auteur if about five of his film depict a certain style that is definitely his own. In other words, much like one can look at a painting and tell if it is a Monet, a Renoir, or a Degas, if a film director is an auteur, one can look at his film and tell by style and recurring themes that it was made by a certain director. In auteur films, the director is many times what brings an audience to the theater, instead of the actors or storyline. I am going to take a look at three of the most noted auteurs: Frederico Fellini, Satyajit Ray, and Alfred Hitchcock.

Auteur Theory is based on three premises, the first being technique, the second being personal style, and the third being interior meaning. Furthermore, there is no specific order in which these three aspects must be presented or weighted with regard to a film. An Auteur must give films a distinctive quality thus exerting a personal creative vision and interjecting it into the his or her films.

First, the critical thinking courses in both history of cinema and tradition on film-making has been attached a great importance in SFAI’s curricula which is vital for me to create an experimental film. All great experimental works or theories are based on older ones, for example, David Lynch’s film style was obviously affected by the European Avant-grade Film Movement, specifically surrealism. Emphasizing the randomness in dream and the interpretation of dreams became a significant feature of Lynch’s work. Thus, it is important to learn from classic theorists to find my own style. Secondly, courses at SFAI are based on enabling student understanding toward the fundamental process of film, especially in a very unique Wet Lab offering students with 16mm and Super 8mm which will not only teach me the digital production process, but also the traditional ones. As an independent filmmaker, I participate in every aspect of my own work from screenplay writing to the background editing and Da Vinci Resolve. Although participation on every aspect of film production does help me learn a lot, professional training on handling basic concepts of film photography and storytelling strategies will definitely enable me to become an expert in filmmaking. As a Chinese student, I have never taken a film class, and I have learned all of my skills from books or websites; I am eager to seek specialised education at

Even though films and novels are equally important to society, novels are greatly underappreciated. A film is a set of actions recorded by a camera that would later be processed into a story. On the other hand, a novel is a narrative book that represents characters and actions that might or might not have realism in it.  Major studios are making millions off of movies that are watched by people across the world (Box Office Mojo, 2016), while book publishers and writers are not making as much (Dennis, 2014). There are several distinctions between novels and films, including the age of those interested, profit, how the advancement of technology has affected both, and the benefits, all of which will be discussed in this essay.

in which the filmmakers ' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent