Opinion: Experimental Film is OK

Kaeyla Noble

COM 385: Experimental Film

Final Paper

            At the beginning of the semester, we were asked what we thought about experimental film. My thoughts were made very clear that I hated experimental film and wanted nothing to do with it. Halfway through this semester we had watched several different examples of what experimental film looks like at the top tier level and had learned certain techniques that would help our own films become experimental as well. I still wasn’t convinced that experimental film was something that I needed as a filmmaker. We approached finals week at the end of the semester I have opened myself up to the idea of using experimental film techniques to further my creativity within my own projects. At the beginning of the semester experimental films relationship with me was very complicated and full of misunderstandings.

            I would have loved to have been able to say that I fell in love with experimental film throughout this process but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The films that stood out me the most were Fantastic Planet and Eraserhead. Both movies stood out to me because of their erratic, insane, and ultimately weird plot that they showcased throughout the entire movie. Specifically, in Eraserhead I understood that one of the core messages was aimed at the food industry and how terrible it was at the time (and ultimately still is). However, I found the rest of the plot harder to follow and had little appreciation for the lack of dialogue throughout the film. Now I understand that both of those things were intentional and are ultimately very popular techniques used in experimental films, but my hope when enrolling in the class was to learn about how I could make my own films more experimental given the very industry standard, cookie cutter, idea of what it is to make a film. fantastic planet on the other hand was my favorite film that we watched throughout the whole semester because I liked the idea of something else that we didn’t know of controlling our every move. I loved how the film depicted human beings as the inferior yet there were still divisions amongst the humans at the micro level regardless of how abused they were. I thought this was a great message in terms of what we go through on a day-to-day. Social media creates a division at the micro and macro level that a lot of people either refuse to recognize or recognize but don’t do anything about because they don’t see it as a solvable problem. What I ended up learning from both movies is how film can be very extreme while talking about extreme subjects, and that I as a filmmaker don’t always need an outline.

            When we got about halfway through the semester, I started becoming inspired while I was creating the capture a dream film. I was inspired by the fact that the statement capture a dream could be interpreted in so many ways periods some of those ways being very deep and others of them being very comedic, and I ultimately fell in love with the fact that it had so many different dimensions to just three words put together into a statement. My ambitions got the best of me as I started writing out various terms that also had multiple dimensions I could create from. From deep philosophical questions and statements to very comedic and weird jumbles of words I had compiled roughly 20 statements that I then put into a hat and wanted to draw from every week. The train of inspiration that I decided to get on came to its destination and it was time for me to step off. After turning in the captured dream film, I was very discouraged by the film I had created. It was ultimately the first film that I had created without a plan, and I was beating myself up over the fact that I should have had one and if I did have a plan then the film would have been 10 times better. Through this experience I’d argue experimental film has taught me a great lesson. Whether you have a plan or you don’t, or you’re more emotional or more logical, or you want to meet industry standard or you don’t you have to be OK with going out of your box if you want to create memorable work. Regardless of how I feel about the genre as a whole I’d argue there’s a lot of people can learn from experimental film.

            Experimental film is the genre where I’d argue most if not all things are possible for the film industry. Any filmmaker that decides to label their films experimental is then given a bi on any rule that would otherwise be “broken” if they labeled their film drama or thriller. For instance, there is a standard with contemporary horror that people get scared. If an audience is not scared after a movie is done and it is labeled a horror movie most of the time that movie is deemed a bad movie. However, if you have a movie labeled as experimental that has horror techniques used in it can be considered evolutionary and genius. Experimental film ultimately gives every filmmaker room to try out weird camera techniques and bring back old school techniques as well. One of the films we watched in class was a completely no dialogue driven film, and although it drove me crazy, it served a great purpose. Unfortunately, a lot of films nowadays are very dialogue driven which has its cons and has its pros. Some of the pros of having a very dialogue driven movie is that you will have a much easier time keeping your audience entertained and your plot will be more visible to the audience as well. However, the cons of having a very dialogue driven film is that having too much dialogue can take away from the underlying subtext that every movie needs to have a bigger meaning than just the surface level premise. If a film lacks meaning and lacks a bigger purpose the likelihood that it’ll make an impact on the audience is less great regardless of the genre. On top of experimental film giving film makers the room to do anything they want it also gives them the opportunity to create new rules for the film industry. For instance, a film such as a Eraserhead that has little to no dialogue and has long sequences of silence could inspire another filmmaker who is shooting a drama to use silence as a tool to move the audience to certain direction versus filling the silence with dialogue. Ultimately experimental film has a great deal of power by giving the power back to the filmmaker and giving them the ultimate freedom that doesn’t accept rules, regulations, or standards.

            Sadly, I still don’t like experimental film as a genre. However, it is a tool that I will be using in the future now that I understand the general idea of what experimental film is. Sexy there is no part of me that is going to go further within the genre and try to figure out the history of it. But if this class has taught me anything it is that every topic within film has its own purpose and can be used 2 enhance any filmmaker’s capabilities. I know that I will use experimental film techniques in some of my projects in the future. I appreciated the thrilling aspects Eraserhead specifically showed that I’d argue made the film so uneasy. I’m sure that I will draw inspiration from that movie specifically to create a very unsettling horror movie in the future. Ultimately. Experimental films’ and my relationships will forever be complicated but now has a hint of respect to it.