scratch film junkies round 2

i'll have to say that the first day of class when we wrote about our thoughts on the first viewing experience of scratch film junkies, it was introduced to us as if most of us hadn't seen many films like that, so that we'd probably have more to write about as far as viewing something some what foreign and writing about out our experience... I felt more experienced in the fact i had SEEN so many like that before in kreul's avant-garde class.. it wasnt really new to me so I mainly wrote about that.. how i appreciate what i had seen because i figured i had untrained my eyes to something so different and i could really see what was going on and the effect of its visual greatness.. this is all true, i have seen a lot of experimental films in his class, and others...

but now...

now i have a completely different take on what i see in front of me in a scratch film junkies film.. after all the exercises we've done and learned about in only a few weeks of class I see these films in a totally new light.. watching the one we watched last week in class floored me.. the amount of time and effort put into making that film is a lot more apparent to me. I appreciate it way more than ever. I found myself zoning out of admiration at some points and started trying to figure out the process of how it was made in certain parts.. it was pretty impressive. I have a lot more respect for these filmmakers.

something else i wanted to write about was the use of music.. i know some people who love experimental films that will argue that they are sometimes best left silent, or just without music and other sounds instead.. i've heard that music can be distracting or that it can turn a film into a music video. i beg to differ on this.. i for one am a true music lover, all kinds... I think that the music helps to accentuate the greatness of a film.. in St. Louise I thought the music choice went well and maybe even helped KEEP attention to what was going on in the screen.. I know that I've seen a fair share of silent experimental films that i started to get bored with that maybe the use of music would have helped prevent? I think a good beat can help you keep track almost.

in st.louise specifically i really liked all the film manipulation with scratching and painting, and then it switched to some kind of person with an otter head or something flailing around hanging out of a whole in the ground.. the absurdity is hilarious and interesting as well. I read in the info about the film that they heated and burned some of the film with magnified sunlight..and i think that's pretty fucking creative and interesting.. I looked for if i could pick out which parts of the film that was but couldn't find a good quality to look at anywhere .. i'm downloading some of their other stuff as we speak including st. louise so hopefully ill be able to check that technique out.. its pretty sick.

i dont think i could ever produce something as awesome as the scratch film junkies because i would never have the patience to do all of that.. and so perfectly to add to it. ill stick to watching them all.