Whilst my film tapes are being developed I’ve decided to dive into some research on the development and history of the ‘home movie’ and how it came to be. From this small amount of reading and research I’ve developed an understanding of amateur film making, and it’s effect on Hollywood and how it changed and created a public sphere for private lives.
Home movies gave any person who owned a camera, cam-corder or any device that had a record button the chance or opportunity to become/be deemed an amateur film maker. Recording the family completing leisurely tasks such as eating dinner, kids running around the backyard or at sport are activities that were generally recorded by ‘amateur film makers.’ This aesthetic established the idea that the amateur film could be dubbed as the “home movie,” films exclusively made for private use that could be perfected for enjoyment. Another thing I’ve discovered through my research is that home movies merged the family with cinema and the viewership of cinema in the private routine of domestic life. Although this information from this article is quite backdated (1995) I find it very interesting that filming in the private capacity (like a home movie) merged the domestication of spectatorship of bigger productions like big Hollywood productions.
The two articles I read were useful in developing an idea of the effect of the home movie on the domestic routine and even on professional film making within the public sphere. However I feel like I still need to do more research on the avant-garde aesthetic to develop this idea and my understanding of the “home movie.” I also need to look more into repurposing old footage and how I can utilise it best to create the best possible film.
References
Luckett, M. (1995). Technology and representation: “filming the family”: Home movie systems and the domestication of spectatorship.
The Velvet Light Trap – A Critical Journal of Film and Television,
36, 21. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/docview/740771546?accountid=13552
Hollywood, Home Movies, and Common Sense: Amateur Film as Aesthetic Disseminationand Social Control, 1950-1962
Author(s): Patricia R. Zimmermann
Source: Cinema Journal, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer, 1988), pp. 23-44
Published by: University of Texas Press on behalf of the Society for Cinema & MediaStudies
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1225151
Accessed: 30-07-2018 22:15 UTC