Hey, Matilda! I just watched your Super 8 film called "Bruno." It's very
beautiful. This isn't just because it is in a
natural setting during a beautiful sunny day, but also because your subject,
the young boy, is beautiful. Why? Well,
it's not just a question of what his body is like, or his hair or his face,
although these are important. It's also two other things:
his manner of being there for the camera, and the way in which you shoot him.
I like this kind of film because it seems
more interested in stopping time and soaking up life than in narrating or
pulling a neat trick. Can we call this love?
Sure, but by that I would not want people to take such emotional content to
some "deeper" level, like it's about some
kind of perverse love. It's true that the film does not seem to be shot by a
parent, although Bruno is quite young. I would
suspect that the person shooting is a sibling.
I don't know but there could be an objection that says the film is not edited
with any intention, or no use is made of the
potential editing holds. I sometimes hear artists says that a work is
"unresolved." You might say something like that about
"Bruno." What would that mean? I guess it would mean that there are different
ways in which this film could've been
made, and that your viewer is left to decide how to read it. And to say it's
unresolved seems to say that you shouldn't
really leave your viewer with so many questions. That could be. I guess it
depends on how important it is that you are
in control of what a viewer is thinking about when she or he watches "Bruno."
For example, I found myself thinking
about the short story by Thomas Mann called "Death in Venice." I don't really
remember much about it, but I think it's
about a middle-aged man who admires a young boy on a beach. (There are actually
quite a few such short stories. It's
a common theme for the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov.)
Now sometimes a student will object to what I'm thinking about when I watch her
work. This has happened on several
occasions to me during a class critique. And I think it's legitimate to say,
whoa, that's not what I meant at all, and this person
is reading way too much into it. I think it's important not to put too much
into a critique, unless of course
you have set out to control what people are thinking about when they watch your
work. I really enjoyed "Bruno," even
though I know it would have a different feel if I saw it in Super 8. The pace
is affected by the online exhibition. It's like
there are these slower transitions than if we were watching "Bruno" in film.
Do you know what I mean? In film things are
snappy, and I can tell that this online video may be as beautiful as the Super
8 from which it comes, its image quality may
be as satisfying, and yet it does not move like the film would during
projection. I can feel the difference, even if this online
form also has wonderful colors and compositions.
Bernie
- - - - - - - - -
Matilda Thomas wrote:
http://vimeo.com/user19278176 My first film on super8, any feedback would be
appreciated!
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