Experimental Films

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY

As I watched “Her Morning Elegance”, I was given a new approach to watching film which made me rethink film art in its complete lack of dialogue, forcing me to interpret the video as I saw it. This allowed for my own subjective interpretation of Oren Lavie’s work. Lavie does an exceptional job of conveying her message through the use of sound, color, and most obviously, rapid editing. In the video we see a woman sleeping alone and going about her daily business when she is passed by a man wearing all black, a complete foil to her white outfit and the blank monochromatic background. This is immediately followed by a wind gust and her getting only a red scarf to wear, implying that she is lonely in the cold without another body (such as the one that just passed by). Eventually we see them in bed together, him trying to kiss her and her stopping him. Instead, she takes his hand and they dance, followed by he and her doing less physically intimate activities, presumably to show her that he genuinely cares for her. Eventually, as they are back in bed, we see them lying opposite of each other and then in sequenced frames they come closer together, eventually touching, then holding, and finally laying together. The use of stop-motion animation allows for the viewers to see the progression of this relationship as she finds comfort with him and he is unfailingly there both with and for her.


I think the YouTube Generation has been responsible for highlighting filmmaker who is either clearly very talented or absolutely atrocious to the point of being entertaining. That is, I posit that YouTube has changed the short-film genre into one that is now more diverse in the characteristics of its art. That is, we have unlimited access to thousands of pieces of art that are essentially ranked for us. This opportunity hasn’t been available previously. What this means to me is that now the talent will speak for itself. Simply put, I believe YouTube has been beneficial in the art community because it allows true talent to be identified, whereas before, one had to make a concentrated effort to get their films seen in museums etc.