Experience: Cameraless Filmmaking

I found this project to be quite interesting. I had never dealt with or even seen actual film before so I was very excited to be working with it for the first time. I found it very interesting to make a movie without actually using a camera. Instead, this process required me to manipulate the film strips themselves. Through this project I learned how to sand film, paint on film, animate directly on film, create rayograms, load spools, use the projector, and convert the film to digital format. I am excited to try this technique again. My favorite part of this project was the animation. While it was painstaking to animate an object over the course of 100 frames, it was ultimately thrilling to see it move on screen. I also liked to watch how our theme (earth, wind, fire, and water) was expressed in the film. My project partner chose to incorporate some very cool things to highlight earth and wind, while I tried to do a continuous mesh of fire and water. It was also fun to learn how rayograms and film processing works. This all occurred in the blackbox and pretty much in total darkness (witht he exception of a red safe light). After all our pieces were complete I spliced the film together in an order that I felt uniquely reflected our groups interpretation of the theme. Splicing was also a fun experience because it required me to edit the film without the use of a computer. This project was, all together, a very hands-on experience. I learned a lot and am excited to incorporate it in future projects.