Grateful Dead (Robert Nelson) - Nelson made a tape collage from the Dead's first album (given to him on 1/4" by them) that ran about 8 minutes, then cut his film very tightly to that tape piece. When their second album came out, the Dead asked Bob to make a new soundtrack for the film, using the new album instead. Although he did it out of friendship for them, he wasn't happy with it, as the cutting the image to the sound had been a really important concept for him in making the film.
“...” Reel Five (Stan Brakhage) - Cut to a pre-existing James Tenney piece ("Flocking"). I suppose Christ Mass Sex Dance could also possibly qualify, but I don't know for sure that Stan cut that film TO the Tenney piece ("Blue Suede"), or if he just thought the soundtrack and image worked together.
21-87 (Arthur Lipsett) - composed to Lipsett’s own
pre-made sound collage. I think at least one other Lipsett film was made this way - maybe Free Fall?
John Whitney’s oil-wipe films are abstract films created “live”
to various recordings. Drawing in a pan
of oil with a stylus (this filmed from below on b/w stock) John would improvise abstractions in
real-time, playing along to a particular recording. Several films were made this way, including
Hot House, Celery Stalks at Midnight, Mozart Rondo, Mahzel, 3rd Man Theme,
Egyptian Fantasy, and several others, all made between about 1948-1953, some of
them extending later into the ‘50s as John attempted to create color versions
that he hoped would have wider distribution.
Mark T
From: Herb Shellenberger <[email protected]>
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 1:32 PM
Subject: [Frameworks] Films composed to music
Hello Frameworkers. There have been a few really great looking-for-this-type-of-film
threads recently, so I thought I would throw my query out there.
A colleague and I were discussing experimental films that
were composed to music. In general we think of film scores being added after
the fact, but there are few films that I can think of that are composed
specifically to fit a piece of music:
Studies for the Decay of the West (dir. Klaus
Wyborny)
In
Wyborny's "musical film," every new sound triggers a new image: 6,299
shots, all directly edited within his Super-8 camera. An intoxicating, stroboscopic trip to
industrial, natural and urban landscapes in East Africa, New
York , the Ruhr region and Rimini .
This experimental music film refers to Oswald Spengler’s world-famous
1918 philosophical work The Decay of the West. Culture pessimist
Spengler argues that progress is an illusion and that the modern era brings
little good. People are no longer able to understand the rationality of the
world. Wyborny does not set out to make a film version of Spengler's theories,
but rather a visual reflection on the modern age; a stroboscopic journey in
five parts to industrial, natural and urban landscapes. He uses 6,299 shots,
edited directly in a Super-8 camera. Each piano note and violin vibrato evokes
a new image: demolished buildings, rubble, destruction and nature. This
film forms a counterpart to Wyborny’s previous films series Eine
andere Welt. Lieder der Erde II(2004/2005). [Film Society of
Lincoln
Center ]
Passage Through: A Ritual (dir. Stan Brakahge)
When I received the tape of Philip Corner's “Through
the Mysterious Barricade, Lumen 1 (after F. Couperin),” he included a
note that thanked me for my film, “The Riddle of Lumen,” he'd just
seen and which had in some way inspired this music. I, in turn, was so moved by
the tape he sent I immediately asked his permission to "set it to
film." It required the most exacting editing process ever;
and in the course of that work it occurred to me that I'd originally made
“The Riddle of Lumen” hoping someone would make an
"answering" film and entertain my visual riddle in the manner of the
riddling poets of yore. I
most expected Hollis Frampton (because of Zorn's “Lemma”) to pick
up the challenge; but he never did. In some sense I think composer Corner has -
and now we have this dance of riddles as music and film combine to make
"passage," in every sense of the word, further possible. (To be
absolutely "true to" the ritual of this passage, the two reels of the
film should be shown on one projector, taking the normal amount of time,
without rewinding reel #1 or showing the finish and start leaders of either -
especially without changing the sound dials - between reels.) [Stan Brakhage,
via CFMDC]
These are both films that use film to “play”
music in a sense, or use music to generate images or structures. While some
filmmakers may have used music in this way in a portion of a larger film, I’m
more interested in films that exclusively use this method, whether it is with
one complete piece or a few. Also, I’m trying to focus on films that integrate
music more deeply than just cutting on specific beats.
Any ideas would be much appreciated!
Herb
Shellenberger
Programs Office Manager
3701
CHESTNUT STREET |
PHILADELPHIA , PA
19104
phone: 215.895.6575 | fax:
215.895.6562
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