So for my ‘true to form’ class, we were assigned the task to create a 1-2 minute abstract film – and I’m already confused.

When is a film and abstract and when is it not? I mean, it’s easy to point out what an abstract film is when you’re watching one (I usually base it off whether or not I’m confused as to what I’m watching – looking at you ballet mecanique). But when creating one, it begins to take a more complicated turn.

I’ve always thought abstract to mean free from narrative. I thought abstract films were films for film’s sake – films that were simply meant to be enjoyed by visual and audio stimulation, rather than following a long with a story. But at the same time, many lecturers have argued that narrative is apparent in many abstract films. So in the end, it leaves me confused as to what abstract films actually represent.

So for our first task, we were told to create an abstract film that investigates a place that does not represent external reality, but rather seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, colours, textures. Upon a long 2-second google search, external reality was defined as ‘external reality, also called material reality, subsumes the objects of our physical environment, the subject’s body, and the subject’s inscribed place in society’. So if the task was to create a film that did not represent external reality, does that mean I’m not supposed to use ‘objects of our physical environment’? Or was I supposed to represent external reality with things that aren’t necessarily the objects of external reality – e.g. I don’t represent a tree by recording a tree, but instead create the idea of a tree through the combination of shapes and colours?

Over the weekend, I decided to quickly tackle the task by recording a number of shots during my camping trip. I took shots of the scenery and local fauna. I’m not sure whether or not the shots are ‘abstract’ since they feature the physical embodiment of subject I’m attempting to represent. But because there is no continuity or narrative relationship between the shots, I thought it would be considered abstract in that sense. I’ll have to leave Paul to be the judge of that.

If I ended up doing the task completely wrong, at least through the feedback I receive – I’ll end up learning some valuable lessons. Maybe I’ll end up finally learning what abstract really means… or not, who knows.