Unit name | Experimental Film |
---|---|
Unit code | FATV20016 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Piccini |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
DRAM11007 Production Skills or FATV10001 Film Fundamentals |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Film and Television |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit explores the aesthetic forms and thematic concerns of experimental film. Experimental film spans a wide range of practices from artists' moving image to expanded cinema to found footage to installation-based film-performance. It tends to abandon an emphasis on narrative, instead focusing on film as a medium with its own distinctive aesthetic, material, philosophical or political powers.
Experimental films and ideas they have generated have played a vital role in the history of cinema, offering a space for filmmakers and artists to explore ideas of what cinema can be, how it creates its effects, and how it can challenge and disrupt established norms. This unit examines such issues through the study of: key experimental filmmakers, such as Maya Deren and Michael Snow; different forms that experimental film has taken, such as credit sequences and gallery installations; different ways in which experimental film engages with key film concepts, such as realism, ideology and spectatorship; and the interrelation of experimental film with other artistic forms, such as poetry, performance and painting.
The unit develops its exploration of experimental film around a practical project where students make a short film or related screen work informed by the various potentials of experimental film.
Aims
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Weekly seminar/workshop, lecture, and screening.
100% Practical Portfolio, equivalent to 4000 words