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»Rock'n Roll« is a name for the music
that was introduced by musicians like Little Richard, Chuck
Berry,
Elvis Presley and many others.
It was loud and fast, - and danceable, an entertaining music.
And it still is.
Until today the term of »Rock'n Roll« is used for a lot of bands,
- and even more, it's a way of life, a life-style, especially
when you are
»on the road«, or »on the road again« as a rock-musician.
When you rock and roll each day, each night, each minute.
Mostly the songs are telling small stories.
I want to speak about film, not about video-art.
Film usually has a story, but what does it mean, »a story« ?
Does it need to be crime, a fantasy or a love-story ?
A comedy, a novel ?
Isn't there a story between the trees, - in the wood, where we
stand ?
Isn't there a story on each street-corner ?
Aren't there hundred of stories on each street-corner ?
Aren't there thousands of news each minute ?
Isn't there a story between the lines, - of our hands ?
Or is the line the story ?
What is the real reality of a film ?
I'm asking questions, because a lot of films are just full of
answers.
Do we need a plot ?
Or even words at all to make a film ?
I don't think so !
Film can emerge out of the most simple idea,
it can start, for example with a rainworm, then we see clouds,
we see rain,
raindrops,
reflections, - and earth.
Then comes the sun, - zoom into it and blue titles on white.
The audience later might see in it a metaphor for evolution and
life itself.
Some may see it as a parody on the business-world.
Others are sure that it is a reflection on the second-world-war
and the years after it.
Maybe there are even some which look at the film as a comedy,
- the rainworm as a drunken lad who ends up in a hospital.
However you see it, - it's just a film,
that foolish thing that takes away your time.
Or at least, - part of it.
_________________
Example :
The film »THE POINT ?«
(free narrated)
_________________
And that's what's it is all about, - the idea.
The idea comes to us like a present from the universe,
- it comes in a present time,
could be unique,
but together with »Lady Coincidence«,
they are nearly unbeatable.
If one allows it.
One thing is the idea that we get,
the other is what happens to it.
»Film is montage« was the credo of the early russian
filmmakers
around Pudowkin.
And there are reasons to believe that this is one of the
basic thruth
about film-making.
Film as a river,
film as a fire,
film as a wind,
film as a mountain,
film as a way,
film as a day,
film as a dream,
film as a song,
from a bird,
sitting on a sculpture.
Film as a painting,
as a still,
as a moving society,
a passing gossip,
snapshot cool.
Film as an earth, or an egg, or a cell,
film it - as you like, see it - as you hear.
One has to structure film,
through cuts, or without.
Structure means continuity.
»If the film loses it's continuity, it loses it's whole, it's
style
- and therefore it's impact« Pudowkin wrote in 1928.
This kind of continuity is nothing else than a rope, or a
chain of appearances
where the elements are linked at a certain point.
All elements are in coherence, everything.
Because our world is so small, that we can't even see it.
Example: »VINCIBLE RHYTHM«
(Video-Screening, 3 min.)
The »Inner Montage« is a term which describes
the development of a mental perception of the viewer.
We suddenly see, what happens inside of the actor,
we see through his face.
Maybe without a cut, maybe without lyrics or even music,
maybe even in absolute quietness
we »see« a story,
- we are in time.
The viewer gets only that one image, a particular one,
But he can follow the idea, the film,
or he makes up his own one.
A sound could guide him.
The ultimative movie could be even completely
white or black or blue.
But it has to be a film !
And films start somewhere,
The good one's in the beginning.
Once they started they are connected to the progressing time.
Each film lives on a »time-line« !
And now we are here,
- with the »Digital Rock'n Roll« !
There are basically four ways to edit a film,
- with a splicer on the old-fashioned cutting-table,
- through tape-to-tape copy on a video-editing facility,
- as digital editing on a computer,
- or by cutting in the camera while shooting.
Each of this methods has it's advantages.
On a celluloid-editing table you can't just duplicate images,
create slow- or fast motions, freeze them and so on.
This can be done easily on Video.
But on video we can't cut into the »time-line«,
- what we can do, when we work on a cutting-table.
Whatever we want to do, we can do on the computer !
Only not »the cut in the camera«.
Once we have our images loaded in the computer
and drag them on the »time-line«,
we can re-create that »cut-in-the-camera«,
or better,
we can cut until each cut is cut.
But that's not »Rock'n Roll« !
The real advantage, the challenge
that the computer-editing offers to the author-film-maker
is to create a new way of telling a story,
to develope modern fairytales for open minded viewers,
it doesn't matter anymore what idea we had,
we can use the computer-editing
like a painter.
The empty white canvas,
the virgin,
can be filled with images
- and we can start where we want,
even at the end.
It is action-painting, mind-dropping, playing chess, throwing
darts.
(free narrated)
About the individual approach, the identity, the melody.
Harry Rag, Ljubljana, October 2002
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