One of the first films I saw in a UNC-W class was Brakhage's Black Ice. I remember at first thinking of it as little more than a pretty screensaver. As it progressed I became entranced with the way in which it was created. Absent were any of the perfections one would find in a computer rendering. It was raw and unforgettable.
I experienced a similar interest in the means of creation with the Film Scratch Junkies film that was first screened in 6x1. Again the sense of almost mystical images plagued my mind on how something so unnatural looking could look so organic. To my surprise we dove in on the first day into exactly this mystery. Everyone in the class was given some stock footage to scratch, color, paint, and in any way alter. The tiny images made little sense in the 6 foot segment given me, what looked like a series of almost identical pictures of a baby. Being free from the chains of creating some continuous narrative, I began creating my first 6x1 project.
Naturally we only started on what would be our minute-long film. As I walked out of the class I wondered how best to preserve my 9 feet of stock footage. The first real film I had ever worked on I clutched to it like a child making sure as to not drop or bend it in any way. My solution to find a more permanent container came as soon as I finished drinking my bottle of orange juice. I left a small amount of juice in it to experiment further with my already altered film. When I tightly rolled the film up and placed it in the bottle I noticed that the orange juice would come in contact with the film at each turn of the roll. I assumed this random occurrence would create an unspeakably cool effect on the film strip.
A week and a half later when I pulled out the film I anxiously unrolled it to see what the orange acids had done to my film strip. Sadly, they had simply eaten away practically all the emulation that they came in contact with, not quite the amazing effect I had hoped for, but it was an interesting experiment.
When we did eventually splice all our films together to create our group film it was an awesome experience. To see, for the first time, our creations on the screen rather than simply in our novice imaginations. I was surprised at the difference in viewing experience knowing how the creation was made and what each of its elements entailed.
