PART 2

MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Chapter 2.6
Film/Video and Digital Art

Copyright © 2011 Thames & Hudson

 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Introduction
 The moving image is one of the youngest mediums used by
artists
 Film
 Digital
 Video

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Moving Images Before Film

 Illusion of movement
 Zoetrope
 Images showing separate scenes of an action placed inside
 Viewed through slits in a rotating cylinder
 Gives the impression of continuous motion
 Basis of modern film and video technique
 Theory of persistence of vision
 Separate images presented to the human eye at regular intervals
appear as a continuous sequence

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

2.95 Diagram of a zoetrope

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.96 Eadweard Muybridge, The Horse in Motion, June 18, 1878. Albumen print. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Eadweard Muybridge,
The Horse in Motion
 Creating the illusion of movement
 First motion had to be frozen in a still image

 Eadweard Muybridge
 Photographed a horse running
 Used a line of 12 cameras
 Proved what the human eye cannot see
• A galloping horse has all its legs off the ground at once

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Silent and Black-and-White Film

 Earliest films were short clips
 Documenting daily life
 Black and white
 Silent without a soundtrack
 Nickelodeons
 Small storefront movie theaters
 Popular in the early twentieth century
 Movie palaces
 Ornate, often featuring a pipe organ
 Developed as movies business
 By 1896 movies were shown all over Europe and the U.S.
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.97 Georges Méliès, scene from A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune), 1902, 14 minutes, Star Film
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Georges Méliès, A Trip to the Moon

 George Méliès, French magician and filmmaker

 Used films as part of his magic show
 Made science fiction and fantasy films
 A Trip to the Moon
 His most famous film
 Astronomers launch themselves from a cannon
• Crash into the moon’s right eye
 Méliès moves time forward using
• Multiple settings, repeated scenes, cuts

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.98 D. W. Griffith, Birth of a
Nation, 1915, publicity poster
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

D. W. Griffith,
Birth of a Nation
 Birth of a Nation
 Hollywood’s first blockbuster film
 One of the first films to tell an epic story
 Innovative editing techniques
• Transitions between scenes
 Silent
• No spoken dialog
• Tells story with symbolism, gesture, and intertitles
 Now controversial for its reinforcement of racist views

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.99 Orson Welles, Scene from
Citizen Kane, 1941, 112
minutes, RKO Pictures
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Orson Welles, Citizen Kane

 Orson Welles
 Writer, director, actor
 Citizen Kane
 Widely considered among the most important films of all
time
 Revolutionary techniques
 Fabricated newspaper headlines and news reels
 Dramatic lighting
 Innovative editing
 Natural sound
 Elaborate sets
 Moving camera shots, deep focus, low camera angles

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Sound and Color

 Color films
 Beginning in the late 1920s
 Novelty to attract audiences

 Sound
 Before 1927: sound performed live in theaters
 1927: integrated sound
• Dialog
• Background noise
• Music

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.100 Victor Fleming, scene from The Wizard of Oz, 1939, 101 minutes, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Victor Fleming, The Wizard of Oz

 Black and white/color used to distinguish locales

 Kansas (black and white)
 Dorothy Gale transported by cyclone
 Land of Oz (color)
• Ruby slippers
• Yellow brick road
• Emerald City
 Characters
• Dorothy, her dog Toto, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Lion, Wizard

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.101 Stanley Donan and Gene
Kelly, still from Singin’ in the Rain,
1952, 103 minutes, produced by
Loew’s Incorporated, distributed
by MGM
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Stanley Donan and Gene Kelly,

Singin’ in the Rain
 Looks back to the time when the film industry made the
transition to using synchronous sound

 Musical
 Tells the story with dialog, song, and dance

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Animation and Special Effects

 Animation
 Creates the illusion of movement
• Still images created separately (drawings, photos, etc.)
• Shown in a sequence

 Special effects
 Models
 Props
 Make-up
 Post-production

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Animation

Click the image above to launch the video

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.102 Wladyslaw Starewicz, Mest Kinematograficheskogo Operatora (The Cameraman’s Revenge), 1912, produced by
Khanzhonkov Company, Moscow, Russia
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Wladyslaw Starewicz,
The Cameraman’s Revenge
 Stop-action animation
 Figures photographed in a pose, moved very slightly,
photographed again
 Process repeated until all movements have been recorded
 The Cameraman’s Revenge
 Characters are insects
 Story of infidelity
 Slapstick quality
 Like many animated films, more for adults than children

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.103 Hayao Miyazaki with Kirk Wise (English version), still from Spirited Away, 2001, 125 minutes, Studio Ghibli
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Hayao Miyazaki with Kirk Wise,

Spirited Away
 Cel animation
 Most common technique for making animated films
 Individual drawings called ‘cels’
 Spirited Away
 Oscar-winning film
 Hayao Miyazaki: writer and director
 Story influenced by Japanese mythology
 125-minute film
• Required between 90,000 and 200,000 drawings
 Storyboards: drawings used to show the progression of
events
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.104 George Lucas, still from
Star Wars Episode IV—A New
Hope, 1977, 121 minutes, Lucasfilm
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

George Lucas,
Star Wars Episode IV—A New Hope
 Earned $194 million at the box office
 New standard for blockbuster films
 Brought science fiction into the mainstream
 Special effects
 Super-realist paintings
 Detailed models
 Computer-generated images
 Digitally timed effects

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.105 Jean-Pierre Jeunet, still from Amélie (The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain), 2001, 122 minutes, Claudie Ossard
Productions
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Jean-Pierre Jeunet,
Amélie
 Reveals the magical qualities of everyday life
 Intense color

 Exaggerated elements help tell the story

 Amélie’s heart beats out of her chest
 Amélie melts into a puddle

 Inanimate objects, such as Renoir’s Impressionist painting

Luncheon of the Boating Party, almost take on the
significance of characters
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Film Genres
 Genres are categories of film
 Established conventions, plot lines, character types
• Musicals
• Science fiction
• Romantic comedies
• Westerns
• Horror
• Documentary
• Experimental film

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.106 Robert Weine, still from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919, 80 minutes, Steiner
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Robert Weine,
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
 One of the earliest horror films
 Characters:
 Francis, Dr. Caligari, Cesare, Jane
 Innovative plot
 Framing story
 Sets and mood
 Inspired by German Expressionist forms

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.107 Davis Guggenheim, still from An Inconvenient Truth, 2006, 95 minutes, Lawrence Bender Productions
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Davis Guggenheim,
An Inconvenient Truth
 Documentary film
 Based on actual people, events, subjects

 Presents facts about global warming

 Issue of concern to former Vice President Al Gore
 Also includes Gore’s lectures, life, political career

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Film as Art: Experimental Films

 Non-mainstream approaches
 New technology and subject matter
• Inexpensive equipment
• Using various methods to achieve desired effects
 Visually compelling and poetic
• Manipulating filmstrip itself
• Layering images
 Unusual content
• Dream sequences
• Fantasy imagery

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.108 Maya Deren, still from Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943, 16mm black-and-white silent film, 18 minutes
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Maya Deren,
Meshes of the Afternoon
 Co-directed by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid
 Repeated sequences
 Cloaked woman with a mirror over her face walks down
the road
 Woman enters a house and walks up the stairs
 Repeated objects
 Flower, key, telephone, large knife, record player, billowy
curtains, rumpled sheets
 Time is circular, elements change
 Reflects a state of mind, like visual poetry
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.109 Sadie Benning, still from Flat Is Beautiful, 1998, Pixelvision video with sound, 56 minutes
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Sadie Benning,
Flat is Beautiful
 Challenges societal perceptions
 Uses innovative visual techniques
 Grainy black-and-white images
 Made with a toy camera (Fisher Price PixelVision)
 Sections shot on Super-8 film
 Animated collages
 Main character: Taylor
 Issues of identity and sexuality

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Video
 Often made for art-related presentation
 Art galleries or art events
 Television monitors or projected onto walls
 Installations to transform the space
 Relatively inexpensive equipment
 Medium commonly used for experimentation

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Video

Click the image above to launch the video

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.110 Nam June Paik and John J. Godfrey, still from Global Groove, 1973, single-channel videotape, color with sound.
Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Nam June Paik and John J. Godfrey,

Global Groove
 Nam June Paik
 Pioneer of video art

 Global Groove
 30-minute video recording
 Combines recognizable and distorted pictures
 Comments on role of media in daily life
 Foreshadows music video

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.113a Bill Viola, Going Forth by Day, 2002. Installation view, video/sound installation, five-part projected image cycle
2.113b Bill Viola, The Raft, May 2004. Video/sound installation, color high-definition video projection on wall in darkened space,
screen size 13’ x 7’3⅞”
2.113c Bill Viola (on the right) in production for The Raft, Downey Studios, Downey, California, 2004
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Perspectives on Art:
Bill Viola:
How Did Video Become Art
 Bill Viola
 One of the world’s leading video artists
 Working in video since the 1970s
 “New electronic communication technologies played a central role in
re-imagining not only what a work of art could be but also how it
could reach beyond the art world to engage life and society directly
and transform the world”
 “Video as art exists somewhere between the permanence of painting
and the temporary existence of music”
 “The medium of video, where images are born and die every instant,
has brought a new humanism to contemporary art”

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Interactive Digital Media

 Artists involve viewers as active participants
 Interact with the artwork
 Choose different paths to follow
 Help determine the outcome

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.111 Constance de Jong, Tony Oursler, Stephen Vitiello, Fantastic Prayers, 2000. Screenshot from CD-ROM. Courtesy Dia Art
Foundation
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Constance de Jong, Tony Oursler, Stephen

Vitiello, Fantastic Prayers
 Constance DeJong (writer)
 Tony Oursler (visual artist)
 Stephen Vitiello (sound artist)
 Started as a performance
 Virtual artwork on the internet
 Fragments of text, images, sound
 Constantly shifting and changing elements
 Not restricted by fixed boundaries
 Eight environments

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.112 exonemo, The Road Movie, 2005. Mobile installation system (MobLab on the road in Japan, October 18–November 6, 2005)
and online artwork
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

exonemo, The Road Movie

 Interactive Web project

 Bus called “MobLab”
 Japanese and German artists traveled across Japan
• Trip tracked by GPS

 Viewers invited to make their own road movie

 Print out and fold digital origami replicas of the bus

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Conclusion
 Film and video
 Sequencing of still images
 Replicate the appearance of life moving around us
 Believablity and appeal
• Sound, color, animation, special effects
• Establishment of genres
• An artistic medium

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

This concludes the PowerPoint slide set for Chapter 2.6

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts

By Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Copyright © 2011 Thames & Hudson

PowerPoints developed by CreativeMyndz Multimedia Studios

 Chapter 2.6 Film/Video and Digital Art
PART 2
MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Picture Credits for Chapter 2.6

2.95 Ralph Larmann
2.96 Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-45683
2.97 Star Film Company
2.98 akg-images
2.99, 2.100 British Film Institute (BFI)
2.101 M.G.M/Album/akg-images
2.102 British Film Institute (BFI)
2.103 Disney Enterprises/Album/akg-images
2.104 Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox/The Kobal Collection
2.105, 2.106, 2.107, 2.108 British Film Institute (BFI)
2.109 Image copyright of the artist, courtesy Video Data Bank, www.vdb.org
2.110 Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
2.111 Image courtesy Dia Art Foundation. Courtesy Tony Oursler, Stephen Vitiello and Constance de Jong
2.112 Courtesy exonemo
2.113a Photo Mathias Schormann © Bill Viola
2.113b, 2.113c Photo Kira Perov © Bill Viola

PowerPoints developed by CreativeMyndz Multimedia Studios