Moving Image ~ Scratch Film

TUTORS:  Jamie Holman, Brian Nicholson

We watched two short films, one entitled KALEIDOSCOPE by Len Lye from 1935 and one called MOTHLIGHT by Stan Brakage from 1965. (See Pages)  Both pieces of film explore drawing and marking directly onto 16mm film. 

KALEIDOSCOPE ~ Len Lye 1935

Kaleidoscope features scratches and marks applied directly on the film and  accompanied with a cheery musical soundtrack.  This particular piece of work would have been quite a revelation at the time.  Times were difficult, it was between the World Wars, with unrest starting again in Germany and Europe.  People hadn't recovered fully from the First World War, there was the Depression, Shortage of Work.  Times in general were gloomy and difficult.  Art, in general probably matched the mood of the times.  Then along came this experimental film, something totally new and groundbreaking.

MOTHLIGHT ~ Stan Brakage 1965

The artist noted that when he was working with the light on, moths would fly to the light and die.  This piece of work was his interpretation of bringing them back to life, by making them move again.  He dissected the corpses and placed the bits of wing, body etc, on the film, creating a moving piece of art, showing the moths 'in flight' again.

I enjoyed watching Kaleidoscope, it felt fun and happy, and the soundtrack could really have been from the 1960's or 70's. 

Prior to watching Mothlight, I was anticipating visible and clear parts of the moths.  Intricate patterns on the wings, fine hairs and details on the legs.  I was slightly disappointed that the film seemed to be so fast you couldn't really make out many of the images very clearly.  Perhaps I would have preferred it, had it been slowed down.

After watching and discussing the films, we set to work making our own experimental pieces of film.  Using pens, felt pens, scratching on the surface, we made a six foot length of 16mm film.  For the time span, 24 frames = 1 second of footage. 

For my piece, I started by trying to recreate what I envisaged to be a piece of lace, remaniscent of a moths wing.  An intricate pattern of lines and swirls.  I also did a few lines, spots and criss-cross styles.

I'm not really sure how they will turn out,  I think all the pieces of students film are to be spliced together as one continuous film, which should make for an interesting piece of tape.

I watched the films again, and think I appreciated them far more after multiple viewings.  I particularly enjoy the Len Lye ones, probably as much for the catchy tunes he matched them with.

Below is another of his, entitled Swinging The Lambeth Walk