Film Processing and Such Things

Well, let me just say how cool this class has been so far. I really miss being in classes where im able to do art versus spacing out in front of a movie screen or hearing someone lecture. I have not dabbled in visual arts (drawing, paint) as much as I used to. The techniques and assignments we've learned have just been really interesting, mainly because I never knew most of this stuff was possible. Using and getting to play with actual film has been enlightening for me living in the digital age that we do now. I was really into photography and developing film when I was younger; being exposed to it as a child while my mom was in art school for photography. I had never used or even touched any moving camera film until this class, however. I find it so interesting how such a small surface (a strip of 16mm) can be manipulated to create such comlicated images when projected. The Rayogram exercise was really cool, especially being able to develop it directly in the room. I did find it sligtly diffcult working in such low light, especially when a red light is not close by. At least in my experience, the film wouldn't lie flat enough or the paper under it and it made it hard to keep objects on the film, especially the little beads and things. I also wished I had brought some more inventive items but I didn't have much around the house. Trying to scatter stuff across such a long length of film also made mine end up a little boring since everything was so spaced out. What you realize once it's projected, however, is that it doesn't look quite as uninteresting when the frames are flying by so quickly. I think there's a lot of potential to make the rayograms even more vibrant by painting and combining magazine transfers to make really complex images. It was interesting to find that coffee can develop film, even if the image is variably less clear. It's a trick I had never heard of and seems simple enough to try again sometime. The magazine transferring is perhaps my favorite technique to have picked up from the class so far. I found the simplicity of the process really amazing. The task of working and cutting images to fit on such such a small surface seemed daunting at first, but I began to find that even more interesting. Every tiny cut/tear or juxtaposition of colors and pictures ends up being so noticeable when projected that you really have to be precise and conscious of each placement. That challenge was most appealing to me, especially the task of creating some meaning amidst a collage of images moving by at the blink of an eye.