Reading Response #3

It’s a little crazy how all of my classes this semester relate so much to each other, but are totally different classes. For example, my Music 101 class discussed a man named John Cage, who did a lot of contemporary music. Well, I chose, “American Experimental Film” from Green Cinema, because John Cage just so happened to be mentioned in this article, and the article has a lot to do with what I am working on; experimental media.

“American Experimental Film” talks about the birth of Experimental film which was influenced by German Expressionism, Soviet Constructivism and French Trick Filmmakers. Experimental film artists wanted to get away from Hollywood’s narrative and “storytelling” of film and make their film more for just viewing pleasure. Most of the experimental filmmakers had a background in visual arts so they had practice to work on their films. Some film even had political statements, even though they were mostly free of conventional narrative.

As a filmmaker, this article relates, because my first video was all conducted through experimentation. The whole process to make my video, became my final piece. I didn’t know what I was going to end up with until it was actually done. The process lead me to my final video. I also find avant-garde and abstract art very interesting, and those have a lot to do with experimental film.