Cameraless Filmmaking Response

For whatever reason I initially thought this was supposed to be a response for the pinhole camera assignment, and was prepared to talk about the chaotic balance of proper exposure, something I have had to deal with on the Bolex as well. I seem to have inconsistent luck with that sort of thing, and the whole "will it expose correctly or not" scenario is a little stressful for me. Then again, when I used the Holga camera that was purely a luck based endeavor and my pictures from it always turned out very well. Maybe it's because I gave my Holga camera a badass name. I guess when I get to the 16mm shoot I should give my Bolex a temporary name too (note that my 16mm for Shannon's 302 turned out fine, this is more just stigma from my Boston days).

As far as cameraless filmmaking goes, it's much less stressful. There's no worries about correct exposure (except the one black box exercise), no worries about correct framing, no need for everyone to work in sync/a lot more individually based (which is helpful if you have someone in your group not pulling their weight). In fact, I absolutely love [almost] everything about this project. The only part that I have trouble with is the animation, just because I've never been very good at precise writing/drawing/etc and so the animation doesn't play to my strong suits and I find myself wanting it to be better. However, what I love about projecting 16mm film is that the whole process becomes so abstract and my imprecise nature is almost enhanced by it (at least to me). This was especially true with the painting, which I utilized in both of my segments. I think the emotion that you try to convey ultimately becomes more important than specific patterns. If you can develop a specific rhythmic tapestry that means something personally to you, it tends to come out on film very well. I will also say that from this project I have had two different cameraless project ideas that I would really like to pursue in the future. One is building off my water segment in the project, where I had the idea of how to convey rain falling through trees at night. The other is doing a magazine transfer project where you distort images of suggested feminine beauty as commentary, combining some paint and bleach/scratching aspects (you would hold still on a single still of the picture before starting the abstraction process). That second one might have been done before, it seems like something someone would think of. However, all potential unoriginality aside, it's still an interesting idea to me.

Here's a couple cool cameraless projects on youtube:

Note: I like the second one, even though there's a huge gap of black nothing in the middle, because it gives an idea of the impact of music on cameraless filmmaking. On the one hand, with the inclusion of music it becomes a rhythmic piece. On the other hand, if the film is good, I think the visuals will create their own unique rhythm and visual "sound" imprint without the help of a music track, sustaining a medium specific beauty (eg Brakhage).