Lumiere Films
I found it really interesting watching many of these Lumiere films this week and looking back on the early years of cinema. I’ve seen most of these films before in other classes, but I’ve found it interesting to revisit them given the context of the studio we are currently undertaking. These pieces are (or at least seem) very observational rather than fully staged in the way they are captured, which has been massively beneficial to look at as before this I wasn’t entirely sure what exactly the short film projects we’d be delivering at the end of the semester could or would consist of – whereas I feel that now I have a much better idea of what we could potentially do for that final assignment (and likely much of the other work we’ll undertake throughout the semester). I think what these short little films do so well (aside from providing an interesting window into the past) is bring out the intrigue in everyday mundane life. On one hand they seem very spontaneous and observational, but on the other they are obviously very well thought out and composed to draw the viewer exactly where they should be looking. This is something I think will prove to be really important in how successful our films are throughout this studio as it shows very plainly that even though you’re pointing the camera at something mundane – it doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, boring to look at. I also think there’s a lot that we can learn from the Lumiere’s in terms of resourcefulness given our current COVID situation. We will likely need to just sort of use whatever is available and certainly be very resourceful in doing practical work both for this class and the rest of our classes this semester so I think it nice to put into perspective what filmmakers have been able to do with arguably far less resources than we have available to us even without being about to leave the home.