Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Scratch Film Junkies Response

Four specific things really stuck out to me about this film.

One
The scratching and image overlap seemed void of meaning to me. Nevertheless, I liked how certain things were revealed and concealed via the scratching and overlapping. I cannot recall a specific instance because most of the film is a blur, but I do recall objects moving in and out of view because they would be revealed and concealed by the extra film elements.

Two
The parts I really enjoyed were the slower parts highlighted by slower beats. I liked the opportunity to breathe for a second and sit and think about an image for a second before continuing the barrage of beats and imagery. The slow portions almost felt like slow motion even though no motion was taking place. The music behind the imagery helped your mind to connect two frames that obviously contained no implied motion.

Three
As the images changed, I noticed the beats would tend to change as well. Sometimes I noticed the images didn't quite match the beat, but I tried to watch it as if they were synched. What I mean is I forced the images to match the beats. In a way it both engaged and disengaged me from the film. Engaged because I focused on the imagery and music. Disengaged because I payed less attention to what I was actually seeing. I became engulfed in matching the sound and forgot to watch the technique.

Four
After a while of watching I would find myself getting bored with the "themes." What I mean is that as soon as I would get bored with a particular section, a new section or theme would begin. One section would seem to drag a bit and as soon as I thought it was dragging, the section would move on. This I saw as a pro and con. It was good because I think the film realized it was getting bored and then continue in order to hold my attention. It was annoying though because I got bored after seeing the same technique for too long.