Image and Poetry
Much of my independent work can be sourced back to poetry. Whether this is part of the written word, spoken slam poetry or visual poetry, they all inspire my work in equal measures. On the 4th of February Mark Cousins came to the university to give a talk about his work as a writer and filmmaker. During this talk he stated "Film is closer to magic, to poetry, than it is to prose". With this he crystallised my belief that poetry can be the basis of much artistic work and reminded me of the works of Margaret Tait. Tait's work combines the spoken word with images to illustrate their power of their subject. This type of work is interesting to me due to it's clear connection of the two different mediums, both of which I try to base my work in.
While Mark Cousins mostly concentrates on the image and the visual aspects of film, sound is not to be forgotten in the equation, especially not regarding poetry. No matter how well a movie is visually put together, film in this day and age is a medium of both vision and sound. As such, the poetry of film is connected to the languages used within it. This is not to say that the characters within a film need to be speaking in poetics. That would be counter productive. However, the idea of translating visual poetry into the dialogue or sounds that one sees is important. It needs to work together to create a effective piece of film. The use of language within film is by many seen as equally important to the actual capturing of footage (see the reverence people have for certain screenwriters).
One of the other things that has come up within this thought process is the ever present idea of Plato's Analogy of the Cave. (The Cave deals with the ideas that shadows can be considered as 'real' so long as the viewer is unaware of what is creating these shadows. Once again, this disregards the idea of sound as a part of cinema.) This analogy is often used within film studies, as the darkness of the theatre lends itself very well to a direct comparison to the cave Plato envisions. The use of language to describe this thought experiment leads me to something that has been troubling me. Language is considered ever important within filmmaking. The use of dialogue or voice-over to move a story forward, the use of semiotic (visual) language to communicate internal thoughts to the outside world. This preoccupation with language feels at times like something that is holding the medium of film back from reaching it's full potential. This can also be seen in the perceived basis of film studies as a discipline. Film studies can be said to have come about from literature studies and theatre studies, both of which are preoccupied with language above all. However, this all seems to dismiss the use of music and image as a way of communicating. the poetics of cinema (in my personal opinion) are often times best seen in the quite moments where no dialogue is used, but instead the image and sound(track) work together to create a poetic experience of what is happening.
This work of sound and image without dialogue to create poetics is something I am interested in working towards. While I enjoy writing and creating dialogue, the lack of it within this project feels like something that will enhance the strength of the work (hopefully).
While Mark Cousins mostly concentrates on the image and the visual aspects of film, sound is not to be forgotten in the equation, especially not regarding poetry. No matter how well a movie is visually put together, film in this day and age is a medium of both vision and sound. As such, the poetry of film is connected to the languages used within it. This is not to say that the characters within a film need to be speaking in poetics. That would be counter productive. However, the idea of translating visual poetry into the dialogue or sounds that one sees is important. It needs to work together to create a effective piece of film. The use of language within film is by many seen as equally important to the actual capturing of footage (see the reverence people have for certain screenwriters).
One of the other things that has come up within this thought process is the ever present idea of Plato's Analogy of the Cave. (The Cave deals with the ideas that shadows can be considered as 'real' so long as the viewer is unaware of what is creating these shadows. Once again, this disregards the idea of sound as a part of cinema.) This analogy is often used within film studies, as the darkness of the theatre lends itself very well to a direct comparison to the cave Plato envisions. The use of language to describe this thought experiment leads me to something that has been troubling me. Language is considered ever important within filmmaking. The use of dialogue or voice-over to move a story forward, the use of semiotic (visual) language to communicate internal thoughts to the outside world. This preoccupation with language feels at times like something that is holding the medium of film back from reaching it's full potential. This can also be seen in the perceived basis of film studies as a discipline. Film studies can be said to have come about from literature studies and theatre studies, both of which are preoccupied with language above all. However, this all seems to dismiss the use of music and image as a way of communicating. the poetics of cinema (in my personal opinion) are often times best seen in the quite moments where no dialogue is used, but instead the image and sound(track) work together to create a poetic experience of what is happening.
This work of sound and image without dialogue to create poetics is something I am interested in working towards. While I enjoy writing and creating dialogue, the lack of it within this project feels like something that will enhance the strength of the work (hopefully).
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