1) ‘Essay Questions’ Paul Arthur
This article begins (quite flamboyantly) by Arthur describing how contemporary documentary film makers have moved away from the original mode of documentary film making, as Nichols would call “observational mode” or cinema verite. Apparent and total ‘truth’ driven film making claiming “clarity”, Simplicity, Transparency”! The move away from the “fly on the wall” style shooting and into a new space of essay films”.
“Essays are distinctly process orientated: they are rhetorical journeys in which neither exact route nor final destination are completely spelled out”.
Arthur describes the ability of the essay film to jump back and forward in time. He also argues it as a medium in which the makers of meaning itself is questioned; “how is meaning created, by whom, under what social or historical circumstances”.
“The conjunction of language and image, fundamental to film grammar, is a key ingredient of an essay film”.
I believe this is the heart of this reading for me…
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1.GRAMMARa word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause (e.g. and, but, if ).
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2.the action or an instance of two or more events or things occurring at the same point in time or space.
This exercise could be a really great opportunity to explore and gain a deeper understanding of what it means to place certain images together. What meaning does this create? I can consciously evoke a feeling or thought through my choice in joining these pieces of materials together. I can keep that at the forefront of my mind as I collect my materials and start to assemble them. What effect am I going for.
2) ‘In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film’ Phillip Lopate
Lopate outlines some key elements/qualities of an essay film, that in his opinion, are non-negotiables.
- An essay-film must have words, in the form of a text either spoken, subtitled or inter titled
- The text must represent a single voice
- The text must represent the speakers attempt to work out some reasoned line of discourse on a problem
- The text must impart more than information; it must have a strong personal point of view
- The texts language should be as eloquent, well-written and interesting as possible.
He emphasises the use of language and it’s relationship to the image. He believes that eloquence and beauty of the language used is a crucial element of the essay film.
Essay Films to Watch – Lopate’s Recommendations
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Fellini’s Roma, Michael Moore’s Roger and Me, Isaac Julian’s Looking for Langston, Tony Buba’s Lightning Over Braddock, Morgan Fisher’s Academy Leader, Cocteau’s Testament of Orpheus, My Dinner With Andre, Swimming to Cambodia, Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog, Chris Marker, Letter From, Siberia, The Koumiko Mystery and Sans Soleil
Lopate also emphasises the importance of being able to clearly feel and see the authors argument or point of view on the subject they’re exploring.
What is my point of view on the markets? What am I trying to express? And how am I going to do this?
3) ‘The Essay as Form’: T.W. Adorn, Bob Hullot-Kentor, Frederic Will
A dense reading, but nice moments none the less. This reading argues that the essay provokes resistance because it is reminiscent of the intellectual freedom that has never been able to fully emerge and develop in Germany. It is representative of the intense subordination under “whatever higher courts” – it is an emotional and childlike expression which cannot be intellectualised or compartmentalised. It is a love/hate relationship of all things. What does the author want to discuss through this free form? It is unlike any mainstream media artefact. It has no rhyme or reason (at first glance). It is open and doesn’t finish where you think it should. It doesn’t even start there.
This reading suggests that the better essay approaches the more complex matter/idea or concept and not the simplest ones. That the silly essay chats about people. I’m finding this reading rather intimidating considering I’m about to embark on assembling my essay film in a way that is representative of my exploration into people. The people I’ve met in a community space and why it is I am drawn to them.
4) ‘The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments’ Laura Rascaroli
Essay film here is described as the unorthodox, personal, reflexive “new” documentary.
- Transgression
transgression
trɑːnsˈɡrɛʃn,trɑːnzˈɡrɛʃn,transˈɡrɛʃn,tranzˈɡrɛʃn/
noun
noun: transgression; plural noun: transgressions
an act that goes against a law, rule, or code of conduct; an offence. “I’ll be keeping an eye out for further transgressions”
I like understanding the full definition of certain terms in relation to what we’re talking about. Sometimes I’ll think I know what a word means but within a context it takes on a whole different meaning for me. And it’s a refreshing way to think about the task at hand.
From this reading, which again explores what constitutes an essay film or rather what the highest qualities of the form, I gather that for each film comes a new set of rules that depend on the author and the subject. There is no genre, it expresses art-film impulses. It rejects traditional boundaries and it is “transgressive”.
This reading also discusses the beginning of the essay in film theory and practice.
5) ‘The Essay Film: From Montaigne, After Marker’: Timothy Corrigan
Corrigan is clearly a huge lover and advocate of Essay Film form. He beautifully describes the capabilities and power of the essay film in breaking down and reassembling film form. Everything we have come to know about film, the way it shapes and perceives time, places, people, events and ideas, is deconstructed and then re-evaluated and questioned in the form of an essay. What are our assumptions about representation that we keep appropriating over and over again without realising? About love, sex, people? Everything we know to be true, we think we know it for a fact. The essay film can be used as a philosophical tool to explore concepts far beyond our limited ideas represented in classic, romantic and mainstream film. Essays don’t play on our emotions in the conventional way. They don’t try and illicit an emotional response or manipulate us into thinking or feeling something. They are an exploration of a concept and an idea individual and unique to the person who is also the author and the explorer.
6) ‘Elements of the Essay Film’ – FANDOR
Image Sound Words. How can these three elements be used to explore a chosen subject? I attempted to incorporate all three elements into my experiment at the film essay. The words acted as a separate train of thought to the spoken words. The text on screen was my poem, my reflection on the people I spoke to (my subjects/participants). The one thing I noticed when I interviewed them (prior to filming the actual video) was that many of them spoke about what the market used to be like, what their experience was when they came her 20 years ago, or more! The voice then represented the curiosity I had about the participants. This theme emerged for me about living in the present. What it means to look back on something in retrospect and with a different perspective. How that changes our feelings about something. Did we feel that way at the time?
This little video helped consolidate the elements I would be focusing on. The readings where very helpful but because of the time restrictions on this assignment, I needed to keep my creative elements simple without getting to much into the academic philosophy of the idea.
7) Ross McElwee ‘Time Indefinite’
Some might say moments of time indefinite are essayistic. Ross McElwee’s use of text on screen, plus narration, plus his presence in the film. His rearranging of events, search and exploration of his own fears and anxieties about people and the world, his extreme clarity on what’s his point of view vs what other might think about him; this idea of him against the world or him figuring out the world. Ross McElwee is an incredible filmmaker because of his ability to combine materials from different years, spaces, places about many themes, people and create his own meaning or own interpretation of the world. His authorship, being able to write the way he does, to not only narrate but to use his materials to tell a whole story, is really powerful. He explores themes of love, death, marriage, getting older, birth. Complex and powerful themes through his eyes. He is one of my favourite film makers and a great example of someone who’s wonderfully talented at essay form.
8) Sukhdev Sandhu, ‘Vagrancy and drift: the rise of the roaming essay film’
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/aug/03/rise-essay-film-bfi-season
This article explores the essay form as a unique medium where the piece is not defined by its subject matter. They can be about everything and anything, there is no defined form or rule book. They are digressive, associative and self reflexive.
This reading looks at the approaches to structure that are so vastly different. Perhaps it is not so much about the structure but the author developing a pure aesthetic. Rather than working within a form, the subject will define and determine the way the piece develops. It is allowing something, some subject to exist, without any boundaries or preconceived ideas impressed upon it by the million ways we shape and mould meaning through entertainment and non fiction film.
To allow a subject to exist in it’s truest form, then perhaps you can begin your essay film.
9) Peter Yeung ‘ The Secret History of the Essay Film’
http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/19816/1/the-secret-history-of-the-essay-film
This article just introduced me to Chris Marker, noted here as one of the best essay filmmaker in the world. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of Essay Films that are identified in these readings and research, available online. It seems that many need to be sourced either downloaded, or a library or DVD. The essay forms online like “video essay” are more of an educational spoken documentary about a subject. They don’t seem to be true essay films so I wont include them in my research findings. I like this article because it includes a bunch of clips of early to contemporary snippets of popular film essay.
This article identifies Herzog and Moore as successful filmmakers visible enough to be influencing the form of the film essay. Although the writer argues that the subject matter of an essay film doesn’t need to be dark. It can be compellingly beautiful.
10) Kevin B Lee “Video Essay: The essay film – some thoughts of discontent”
This article warns the reader to be aware when distinguishing what we watch, from the trash to the treasure. That the essay medium is a double edge sword because it gives rise and opportunity to everyone who has the equipment to produce this kind of material (as easily as it is for people to consume it), but it also allows for anyone who calls themselves a media practitioner to produce “supercuts, list-based montages and fan videos” that somehow make their way into the same media stream.
What is the significance of the essay in relation to film and video? His argument is that many critiques and theorists are quick to say what isn’t an essay film, but are they really understanding what constitutes an essay film? Who is to say?
What is the difference, if any, between the experimental and the essay video?
For Lee, “an essay film explicitly reflects on the materials it presents, to actualise the thinking process itself”.
A question he offers, is the exclusion of what isn’t an essay film (from the “genre”), a practice for filmmakers outside the mainstream, to protect their genre thus creating and being able to sustain a kind of identity as a media producer and artist?
It has been interesting looking into what is or isn’t a film essay.
My opinion, it encourages the filmmaker to look for what is true and authentic to them – whatever subject. Know it and understand it to the best of your ability, and proceed to uncover your experience or quest for knowledge on the subject through text, sound and image.