Moving Shadows: Experimental Film Practices In a Landscape of Change

2012, Moving Shadows: Experimental Film Practices In a Landscape of Change.
Sami van Ingen. Hardcover. Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, 155 pg.

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Moving Shadows: Experimental Film Practices in a Landscape of Change is a wide-ranging and accessible introduction to contemporary artisanal film practice, capturing a moment when, in the face of new digital technologies, experimental filmmakers see themselves as [what van Ingen calls] “lo-fi analogue” artists. The heart of van Ingen’s book comes from his intimate contact with the experimental film community, which gives Moving Shadows its rich anecdotal and technical detail. Moving Shadows provides on-the-ground accounts of how filmmakers are using a range of new and old technologies to handcraft remarkable films that are still expanding our understanding of the cinematic. Part oral history, part technological tour, this book passes down invaluable and increasingly arcane knowledge from the still-vibrant but disappearing medium of film”. (Michael Zryd, Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies, York University, Toronto)

MOVING SHADOWS Excerpt

Table of Contents

Preface 9
INTRODUCTION 15

1. FILM ART
Experimental Film Praxis 19
Specific Medium 20
Cinema of Structure 22
Flicker and Time 25

2. THE LAB AS TOOL
Handy Risks 32
Paying with a Gun 33
Artist-run Laboratories 35
The flow of Niagara 37

3. NEAR THE EDGE
Surfaces and Handy Gestures 53
Optical Printings 60
Camera Operations 65
Magic in the Giant Enlarger 66

4. ENGAGING RESIDUE
Footage Found 89
The Repository 92
Wasted Footage 92
Impeccable Catherine 97

5. EXTENDING OUTWARDS
Beyond the Screen 105
Cinema Alive 107
Perpetual Conveyor Belt 109
Patents 113

6. THE PRESENT END
Portrait of Film 122
The Possible Future 124

APPENDIX: Works 129
Sources 143