Last night I attended one of this year’s MIFF special events – the ‘Vertical Cinema’ screening. I had read a little about this new approach to filmmaking beforehand, and thought that the portrait orientation of the cinema screen would be interesting to experience and beneficial to my own creative ideas. A total of 10 experimental short films were screened; luckily for me last semester as part of the Intro to Cinema Studies course we were shown how to ‘appreciate’ and engage with the non-narrative media pieces. My approach to watching these films included actively looking for patterns and repetitions in symbols and images, trying to interpret what the film was ‘about’, and also just enjoying the often spectacular geometric and precisely put together images. Of course the vertical screen was the main attraction and I thought that many of the films made good use of the height of the screen.
It’s interesting how time goes by when watching these types of film. Many went for around 10 minutes, however I found myself becoming very engaged with the visuals and didn’t really notice the length of the pieces. In fact my favourite of the films when for over 17 minutes.
The screening was very intense and some of the pieces included extremely loud sound pieces. The Vertical Cinema Project also seemed to place strong emphasis on the importance of sonic energy and this was definitely evident in the soundtracks of the films (earplugs were handed out at the entrance). I think everyone found the screening to be quite tiring as the film’s shown had to be actively interacted with and explored.
I was actually quite surprised by my ability to watch the whole 90 minute session without reaching for my phone to check the time (and when the screening would finish). I know that last year I definitely wouldn’t have been able to engage with, or discuss films such as these. I realised that while I hadn’t consciously noticed it, the discussions and analysis of experimental films last semester AS WELL AS the approach to creativity that we have been developing allowed me to actually enjoy these films.
The Vertical Cinema was certainly a unique and intriguing experience, and I walked out of the screening space with a few new ideas that I’d like to explore further. I think I’d like to experiment with the idea of a vertical canvas, and perhaps test out a few ‘experimental’ short films. While I don’t see myself becoming an avid experimental filmmaker, I think it’d provide good ideas that would perhaps be transferable into fictional and narrative-driven films.
As a ‘media practitioner’ I think it’s really important to experience a wide variety of content and attend events like these – doing this can develop ideas and broaden creativity. I used to read quite heavily however this habit has slowly died off over the years – I recognise that this is something that I need to again pick up. Reading challenges the brain to imagine/create images by itself – not relying on photos or drawings for interpretation. This is perhaps the best (and only?) way to strengthen imagination and creativity and this is why I must begin reading as much as I can.
