Week 2: Reflection

I have found that the ideas discussed have surprised me, as I was not aware of the complexity of moving image!

I am wanting to experiment more with moving image and trying to work on my own editing skills to create a seamless video.

As stated in the presentation: “A single photograph, on the other hand, has no such defined viewing time. Even a cursory glance at a photograph is generally longer than the split second exposure that made it.” This intrigued me, as it goes to show how significant every millisecond is and how much goes into creating a moving image, rather than a still, such as a photograph.

“As well as creating tension, the freeze-frame is also used like a portrait”; this is an interesting fact which could be incorporated into my work! Simple things such as a freeze-frame, can be so effective in setting a scene, as well as doing other basic things like character introductions.

“The aesthetic discussion of photography is dominated by the concept of time. Photographs appear as devices for stopping time and preserving fragments of the past, like flies in amber. Nowhere, of course, is this trend more evident than when still photography is compared with film. The natural, familiar metaphor is that photography is like a point, film like line. Zeno’s paradox: the illusion of the movement.” (Wollen. D, The Cinematic, 1984.)

I find this point extremely interesting, as it has made me question my own beliefs regarding photography and is almost scary. A photograph is almost a trap in an attempt to encompass past joy and familiarity. Similarly to Barthes in Camera Lucida, the photograph is almost seen as another universe, except Barthes discusses how the photograph is foreboding, as it captures the death of a moment, as well as holds the faces of many of the dead.

“My own fascination with pictorial narrative is not a recalcitrant fascination, like that of Barthes. Unlike him, I am not always longing for a way of bringing the
flow to a stop. It is more a fascination with the way in which the spectator is
thrown in and out of the narrative, fixed and unfixed.”

Peter Wollen, ‘Fire and Ice’, in Photographies, no. 4 (Paris, April 1984)

This is an interesting view, which I would like to explore further within my own project. The idea of the spectator being thrown out of the narrative seems like an interesting concept to experiment with.

As someone who is unfamiliar with moving image, the presentation and research was challenging for me, as there is a significant amount for me to learn. However, this has also taught me a lot contextually and historically, so I feel like I could try to use this within my own work. I am surprised by how simple little actions, such as freeze frames are so effective within film and I feel like I have learned a lot, whilst I also have a lot to learn!