Essay Smeshay

s3433026 – Tom Lewis – Integrated Media – Assessment Task 1: K. Film Essay

Exquisite Corpse (2011) – Hashim Majeed, Dom Bonnice, Ellie Cameron–Krepp, Kieran McGrath

Exquisite corpse is a K-Film which explores a poem by John M. Ford entitled ‘Against Entropy’ using videos as the basis for particular themes and ideas. These themes and ideas have a revolve around the strong relationship between the videos, text and audio. I had a very strong first impression of the documentary film and immediately saw the correlations between the video, text and its surroundings. I liked this because the text often related directly to the video playing and instantly made me want to participate and immerse myself into what was happening.

PATTERN

The reoccurring pattern that I can identify throughout is the relation between the primary videos and the three relating video surrounding it.. The primary video often has a clear connection with the other videos which is reoccurring throughout and helps distinguish a clear theme to be portrayed. On this particular page the quote ‘Although Some of the colours have to fade’, directly links with the four black and white thumbnails on the interface. This is a reoccurring pattern throughout the film which i definitely think helps contribute to the narrative.

The music is repetitive, in a nice, immersive way that compliments the structure of the k-film. The ambient genre of the music makes me feel comfortable with what is being showed, it doesn’t act as a distraction which I have found to be the case with a number of other K-films.

INTERFACE

The interface consists of four screens in each corner with the top left as the primary frame. I think that the simplistic navigation allows for more focus on relations with the primary and surrounding videos being showed. There is a text section running along the left side of the video’s which is creatively constructed from top to bottom. I like that it is assembled in this way as poems are traditionally read from left to right or horizontally, which compliments the ‘disorder and order’ present in the film.

The audience are able to actively participate by clicking on one of the three other videos sending them to a new screen with fresh text and video. Having four thumbnails helps the audience be more selective through the journey of the film while not being overwhelmed, and decreasing the chance of conflicting videos which i believe is key to the success of ‘Exquisite Corpse’.

CONTENT

The large variety of content within ‘Exquisite Corpse’ allows for an exciting experience and helps support the narrative function of the film. Occasionally in the early stages of the film some content repeats quite frequently but evens out as you get deeper. Through the links from one video to another the author was able to successfully use the ‘in’ and ‘out’ keywords to bring the viewer into a completely new idea while still relating it back to the previous page. For instance at one point i was on a page consisting of different varieties of ‘paths’, which then lead me to a page about light, fire and smoke after picking the thumbnail depicting a path in the daylight. These subtle relations really interested me and made me think deeper to try and make the connections. The poem itself as I see it describes an event using magically balanced clauses and sentences. The authors simplistically connect these

To Conclude, I believe that this K-film was successful in many regards, particularly in the narrative structure and relations of the text, audio and video. The authors, i feel, definitely achieved an in-depth alternative take on the Against Entropy poem that effectively encapsulates the audience.