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94-502: While some experimental films have been distributed through mainstream channels or even made within commercial studios, the vast majority have been produced on very low budgets with a minimal crew or a single person and are either self-financed or supported through small grants. Experimental filmmakers generally begin as amateurs, and some use experimental films as a springboard into commercial film-making or transition into academic positions. The aim of experimental filmmaking may be to render

188-526: A 2000 edition of the art journal Art in America . It examined structural-formalism as a conservative philosophy of filmmaking. In the 1970s, Conceptual art pushed even further. Robert Smithson , a California-based artist, made several films about his earthworks and attached projects. Yoko Ono made conceptual films. The most notorious of these is Rape, which centers on a woman's life being invaded with cameras, as she attempts to flee. Around this time,

282-631: A Hollywood Extra (1928), by Slavko Vorkapich and Robert Florey . However, much pre-war experimental film culture consisted of artists working, often in isolation, on film projects. In the early 1930s, Painter Emlen Etting (1905–1993) directed dance films that are considered experimental. Commercial artist ( Saturday Evening Post ) and illustrator Douglass Crockwell (1904–1968) made animations with blobs of paint pressed between sheets of glass in his studio at Glens Falls, New York . In Rochester, New York , medical doctor and philanthropist James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber directed The Fall of

376-747: A Trust Deed resulted in the Len Lye gift to the gallery. The Len Lye Collection and Archive consists of all non-film works in Lye’s possession at the time of his death in 1980, as well as several items that have been given to or otherwise acquired by the Foundation since. This body of work is extended by Len Lye works in the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (formerly the New Zealand Film Archive)

470-420: A cast and crew of hundreds, while a low-budget, independent film may be made by a "skeleton crew" of eight or nine (or fewer). These are typical crew positions: In production, the film is created and shot. In this phase, it is key to keep planning ahead of the daily shoot. The primary aim is to stick to the budget and schedule, which requires constant vigilance. More crew will be recruited at this stage, such as

564-464: A certain appeal of the film to a possible audience. Not all films make a profit from the theatrical release alone, however, the studio mainly targets the opening weekend and the second weekend to make most domestic profits. Occasionally, a film called a "word of mouth film" does not market strongly but its success spreads by word of mouth. It slowly gains its audience. These are special circumstances and these films may remain in theaters for 5 months while

658-656: A cinematic equivalent of the first person in literature. Brakhage 's Dog Star Man (1961–64) exemplified a shift from personal confessional to abstraction, and also evidenced a rejection of American mass culture of the time. On the other hand, Kenneth Anger added a rock sound track to his Scorpio Rising (1963) in what is sometimes said to be an anticipation of music videos , and included some camp commentary on Hollywood mythology. Jack Smith and Andy Warhol incorporated camp elements into their work, and Sitney posited Warhol's connection to structural film. Some avant-garde filmmakers moved further away from narrative. Whereas

752-538: A film, create and edit the sound and music, and mix the final cut on a home computer. However, while the means of production may be democratized, financing, traditional distribution, and marketing remain difficult to accomplish outside the traditional system. In the past, most independent filmmakers have relied on film festivals (such as Sundance Film Festival , Venice Film Festival , Cannes Film Festival , and Toronto International Film Festivals ) to get their films noticed and sold for distribution and production. However,

846-572: A form of mash-up cinema that has strong socio-political undertones. Chris Marker 's La Jetée (1962) consists almost entirely of still photographs accompanied by narration, while Jonás Cuarón 's Year of the Nail (2007) uses unstaged photographs which the director took of his friends and family combined with voice acting to tell a fictional story. Other examples of films created in the 21st century with this technique are Lars von Trier 's Dogville and David Lynch 's filmography . Animated films in

940-441: A freelance job held by recent university graduates, does not feed scripts into the system that are ready for production nor already produced. "Coverage" is a way for young screenwriters to be read and their ideas might make their way up to an executive or famous producer and result in "meet and greets" where relations with up-and-comers can be formed. But it has not historically yielded ideas studios pursue into production. The studio

1034-430: A green light may have protracted difficulties in making the transition to pre-production and enter a phase referred to as developmental hell for extended period of time or until developmental turnaround . Analogous to almost any business venture, financing of a film project deals with the study of filmmaking as the management and procurement of investments . It includes the dynamics of assets that are required to fund

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1128-703: A highly original way in his essays (collected in the book Figures of Motion ). Many of his kinetic works can be found at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth , Taranaki including a 45-metre high Wind Wand near the sea. The Water Whirler , designed by Lye but never realised in his lifetime, was installed on Wellington 's waterfront in 2006. His "Tangibles" were shown at MOMA in New York in 1961 and are now found worldwide. In 1977, Len Lye returned to his homeland to oversee

1222-401: A huge debt to the photography of Edward Weston , Paul Strand , and others, and in fact celebrate illusion. Further, while many filmmakers began making rather academic "structural films" following Film Culture ' s publication of an article by P. Adams Sitney in the late 1960s, many of the filmmakers named in the article objected to the term. A critical review of the structuralists appeared in

1316-500: A large collection of films of that period were restored and re-released on DVD, titled Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941 . With Slavko Vorkapich, John Hoffman made two visual tone poems, Moods of the Sea (aka Fingal's Cave , 1941) and Forest Murmurs (1947). The former film is set to Felix Mendelssohn 's Hebrides Overture and was restored in 2004 by film preservation expert David Shepard . Meshes of

1410-442: A minimal crew or, often a crew of only one person, the filmmaker. Some critics have argued that much experimental film is no longer in fact "experimental" but has in fact become a mainstream film genre . Many of its more typical features—such as a non-narrative, impressionistic , or poetic approaches to the film's construction—define what is generally understood to be "experimental". In the 1920s, two conditions made Europe ready for

1504-592: A new generation was entering the field, many of whom were students of the early avant-gardists. Leslie Thornton , Peggy Ahwesh , and Su Friedrich expanded upon the work of the structuralists, incorporating a broader range of content while maintaining a self-reflexive form. Andy Warhol , the man behind Pop Art and a variety of other oral and art forms, made over 60 films throughout the 1960s, most of them experimental. In more recent years, filmmakers such as Craig Baldwin and James O'Brien ( Hyperfutura ) have made use of stock footage married to live action narratives in

1598-429: A number experimental queer filmmakers such as G.B. Jones (a founder of the movement) in the 1990s and later Scott Treleaven , among others. With very few exceptions, Curtis Harrington among them, the artists involved in these early movements remained outside the mainstream commercial cinema and entertainment industry. A few taught occasionally, and then, starting in 1966, many became professors at universities such as

1692-415: A pairing of producers with writers , where they develop a "take", a basic story idea that utilizes the concept given by studio executives. Often it is a competition with several pairings meeting with studio executives and "pitching" their "take". Very few writing jobs are from original ideas brought to studios by producers or writers. Perhaps one movie a year will be a "spec" script that was purchased. Once

1786-681: A patriarchal gaze. Their response was to resist narrative in a way to show its fissures and inconsistencies. Chantal Akerman and Sally Potter are just two of the leading feminist filmmakers working in this mode in the 1970s. Video art emerged as a medium in this period, and feminists like Martha Rosler and Cecelia Condit took full advantage of it. In the 1980s feminist, gay and other political experimental work continued, with filmmakers like Barbara Hammer , Su Friedrich , Tracey Moffatt , Sadie Benning and Isaac Julien among others finding experimental format conducive to their questions about identity politics. The queercore movement gave rise to

1880-432: A selection of Lye's writings, which are just as surprising and experimental as his work in other media. One of his theories was that artists attempt to reproduce themselves in their works, which he exposited in an essay complete with visual examples. Lye was also an important kinetic sculptor and what he referred to as "Tangibles". He saw film and kinetic sculpture as aspects of the same "art of motion", which he theorised in

1974-601: A sequel. They will additionally acquire a completed and independently financed and produced film. Such notable examples are Little Miss Sunshine , The English Patient , and Roma . Studios hold general meetings with producers and screenwriters about original story ideas. "In my decade working as a writer, I knew of only a few that were sold and fewer that made it to the screen," relays writer Wayne Powers. Alan Watt, writer-director and Founder of The LA Writer's Lab confirmed that completed original screenplays, referred to as "specs", make big news when they sell, but these make up

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2068-418: A typical film run is closer to 5 weekends. Further earnings result from pay television purchases, foreign market purchases and DVD sales to establish worldwide distribution gross of a film. Once a screenplay is "green-lit", directors and actors are attached and the film proceeds into the pre-production stage, although sometimes development and pre-production stages will overlap. Projects which fail to obtain

2162-445: A very small portion of movies that are ultimately given the green light to be produced by the president of a studio. The executives return from the retreat with fairly well-established instructions. They spread these concepts through the industry community, especially to producers they have deals with (traditional studios will have those producers in offices on their lots). Also, agents for screenwriters are made aware. This results in

2256-761: Is Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí 's Un chien andalou (1929). Hans Richter's animated shorts, Oskar Fischinger 's abstract films, and Len Lye 's GPO films are examples of more abstract European avant-garde films. Working in France, another group of filmmakers also financed films through patronage and distributed them through cine-clubs, yet they were narrative films not tied to an avant-garde school. Film scholar David Bordwell has dubbed these French Impressionists and included Abel Gance , Jean Epstein , Marcel L'Herbier , and Dimitri Kirsanoff . These films combine narrative experimentation, rhythmic editing and camerawork, and an emphasis on character subjectivity. In 1952,

2350-479: Is customary for the production office to arrange a wrap party , to thank all the cast and crew for their efforts. For the production phase on live-action films , synchronizing work schedules of key cast and crew members is very important. For many scenes, several cast members and many crew members must be physically present at the same place at the same time (and bankable stars may need to rush from one project to another). Animated films have different workflow at

2444-454: Is drawn up to plan expenditures for the film. For major productions, insurance is procured to protect against accidents. Pre-production also includes working out the shoot location and casting process. The Producer hires a Line Manager or a Production Manager to create the schedule and budget for the film. The nature of the film, and the budget, determine the size and type of crew used during filmmaking. Many Hollywood blockbusters employ

2538-698: Is known to a relatively small number of practitioners, academics and connoisseurs, it has influenced and continues to influence cinematography , visual effects and editing . Experimental film reached mainstream audiences at world exhibitions, especially those in Montreal, Expo 67 , and Osaka, Expo 70 . The genre of music video can be seen as a commercialization of many techniques of experimental film. Title design and television advertising have also been influenced by experimental film. Many experimental filmmakers have also made feature films, and vice versa. Filmmaking Filmmaking or film production

2632-476: Is nonlinear, as the director typically shoots the script out of sequence, repeats shots as needed, and puts them together through editing later. Filmmaking occurs in a variety of economic, social, and political contexts around the world, and uses a variety of technologies and cinematic techniques to make theatrical films, episodic films for television and streaming platforms, music videos, and promotional and educational films. Although filmmaking originally involved

2726-590: Is often characterized by the absence of linear narrative, the use of various abstracting techniques—out-of-focus, painting or scratching on film, rapid editing—the use of asynchronous ( non-diegetic ) sound or even the absence of any sound track. The goal is often to place the viewer in a more active and more thoughtful relationship to the film. At least through the 1960s, and to some extent after, many experimental films took an oppositional stance toward mainstream culture. Most experimental films are made on very low budgets, self-financed or financed through small grants, with

2820-404: Is the film distributor who at an early stage attempts to choose a slate of concepts that are likely to have market appeal and find potential financial success. Hollywood distributors consider factors such as the film genre , the target audience and assumed audience, the historical success of similar films, the actors who might appear in the film, and potential directors. All these factors imply

2914-422: Is the process by which a motion picture is produced . Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screenwriting , casting , pre-production , shooting , sound recording , post-production , and screening the finished product before an audience, which may result in a film release and exhibition. The process

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3008-727: Is the repository of Lye’s film prints that are owned by the Len Lye Foundation, and viewing prints are also in the Collection at the Govett-Brewster. The Len Lye Centre a dedicated gallery for the Len Lye collection connected to the Govett-Brewster was opened on 25 July 2015. This is the first gallery in New Zealand to be dedicated to a single artist. There are two documentaries about Lye: Flip and Two Twisters , directed by Shirley Horrocks and Doodlin' , and

3102-463: Is up!" to inform everyone that a take is about to be recorded, and then "quiet, everyone!" Once everyone is ready to shoot, the AD calls "roll sound" (if the take involves sound), and the production sound mixer will start their equipment, record a verbal slate of the take's information, and announce "sound speed", or just "speed", when they are ready. The AD follows with "roll camera", answered by "speed!" by

3196-942: The British Film Institute in London, the National Film Board of Canada and the Collective for Living Cinema. Some of the more popular film festivals, such as Ann Arbor Film Festival , the New York Film Festival 's "Views from the Avant-Garde" Side Bar, the International Film Festival Rotterdam , and Media City Film Festival prominently feature experimental works. The New York Underground Film Festival , Chicago Underground Film Festival ,

3290-889: The Centre Pompidou in Paris often include historically significant experimental films and contemporary works. Screening series no longer in New York that featured experimental work include the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, Ocularis and the Collective for Living Cinema . All these associations and movements have permitted the birth and development of national experimental films and schools like "body cinema" ("Écoles du corps" or "Cinéma corporel") and "post-structural" movements in France, and "structural/materialism" in England for example. Though experimental film

3384-820: The LA Freewaves Experimental Media Arts Festival, MIX NYC the New York Experimental Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and Toronto's Images Festival also support this work and provide venues for films which would not otherwise be seen. There is some dispute about whether "underground" and "avant-garde" truly mean the same thing and if challenging non-traditional cinema and fine arts cinema are actually fundamentally related. Venues such as Anthology Film Archives , San Francisco Cinematheque , Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California , Tate Modern, London and

3478-547: The Lettrists avant-garde movement, in France, caused riots at the Cannes Film Festival , when Isidore Isou 's Traité de bave et d'éternité (also known as Venom and Eternity ) was screened. After their criticism of Charlie Chaplin at the 1952 press conference in Paris for Chaplin's Limelight , there was a split within the movement. The Ultra-Lettrists continued to cause disruptions when they announced

3572-611: The London Film-Makers' Co-op , and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center. Following the model of Cinema 16, experimental films have been exhibited mainly outside of commercial theaters in small film societies , microcinemas , museums , art galleries , archives and film festivals . Several other organizations, in both Europe and North America, helped develop experimental film. These included Anthology Film Archives in New York City, The Millennium Film Workshop,

3666-671: The Pompidou Centre , Paris in 2000, an Australian touring exhibition organised in 2001 by the Art Gallery of NSW , Sydney, at ACMI , Melbourne in 2009, and at Ikon Gallery , Birmingham , UK in 2010. Similarly, in New Zealand, surveys have been shown at the Gus Fisher Gallery , Auckland in 2009, and City Gallery Wellington in 2013. The University of Auckland staged an opera Len Lye the opera , composed by Eve de Castro-Robinson , about his life in 2012. Lye

3760-928: The State Universities of New York , Bard College , California Institute of the Arts , the Massachusetts College of Art , University of Colorado at Boulder , and the San Francisco Art Institute . Many experimental-film practitioners do not in fact possess college degrees themselves, although their showings are prestigious. Some have questioned the status of the films made in the academy, but longtime film professors such as Stan Brakhage , Ken Jacobs , Ernie Gehr , and many others, continued to refine and expand their practice while teaching. The inclusion of experimental film in film courses and standard film histories, however, has made

3854-438: The film editor reviewing the footage with the director and assembling the film out of selected takes. The production sound (dialogue) is also edited; music tracks and songs are composed and recorded if a film is intended to have a score; sound effects are designed and recorded. Any computer-generated visual effects are digitally added by an artist . Finally, all sound elements are mixed down into "stems", which are synchronized to

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3948-432: The internet has allowed for the relatively inexpensive distribution of independent films on websites such as YouTube . As a result, several companies have emerged to assist filmmakers in getting independent movies seen and sold via mainstream internet marketplaces, often adjacent to popular Hollywood titles. With internet movie distribution, independent filmmakers who choose to forego a traditional distribution deal now have

4042-682: The mythopoetic film , the structural film, the trance film and the participatory film, in order to describe the historical morphology of experimental cinema in the American avant-garde from 1943 to the 2000s. The film society and self-financing model continued over the next two decades, but by the early 1960s, a different outlook became perceptible in the work of American avant-garde filmmakers. Filmmakers like Michael Snow , Hollis Frampton , Ken Jacobs , Paul Sharits , Tony Conrad , and Ernie Gehr , are considered by P. Adams Sitney to be key models for what he calls " structural film ". Sitney says that

4136-481: The property master , script supervisor , assistant directors, stills photographer , picture editor , and sound editors . These are the most common roles in filmmaking; the production office will be free to create any unique blend of roles to suit the various responsibilities needed during the production of a film. Communication is key between the location, set, office, production company, distributors and all other parties involved. A typical day shooting begins with

4230-626: The "Art in Cinema" series of experimental films at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art , where Oskar Fischinger's films were featured in several special programs, influencing artists such as Jordan Belson and Harry Smith to make experimental animation. They set up "alternative film programs" at Black Mountain College (now defunct) and the San Francisco Art Institute . Arthur Penn taught at Black Mountain College, which points out

4324-506: The 21st century such as Don Hertzfeldt 's It's Such a Beautiful Day , a 2012 American comedy-drama film, and Frederick C.G. Borromeo's film debut Distortion , a 2023 non-narrative film made in RPG Maker engine, are landmark examples of experimental animated films. Laura Mulvey 's writing and filmmaking launched a flourishing of feminist filmmaking based on the idea that conventional Hollywood narrative reinforced gender norms and

4418-463: The Afternoon (1943) by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid is an early American experimental film. It provided a model for self-financed 16 mm production and distribution, one that was soon picked up by Cinema 16 and other film societies . Just as importantly, it established an aesthetic model of what experimental cinema could do. Meshes had a dream-like feel that hearkened to Jean Cocteau and

4512-567: The British General Post Office, for the GPO Film Unit . He reinvented the technique of drawing directly on film, producing his animation for the 1935 film A Colour Box , an advertisement for "cheaper parcel post", without using a camera for anything except the title cards at the beginning of the film. It was the first direct film screened to a general audience. It was made by painting vibrant abstract patterns on

4606-573: The First Draft. Preliminary discussions are minimal with studio executives but might be quite detailed with the producer. Next, a screenwriter writes a screenplay over a period of several months, or however long it takes. Deadlines are in their contracts but there is no pressure to adhere to them. Again, every writer's process and speed vary. The screenwriter may rewrite the script several times to improve dramatization, clarity, structure, characters, dialogue, and overall style. Script Coverage,

4700-522: The House of Usher (1928) and Lot in Sodom (1933). Harry Smith , Mary Ellen Bute , artist Joseph Cornell , and Christopher Young made several European-influenced experimental films. Smith and Bute were both influenced by Oskar Fischinger, as were many avant garde animators and filmmakers. In 1930, the magazine Experimental Cinema appeared. The editors were Lewis Jacobs and David Platt. In October 2005,

4794-628: The National Art Gallery but was rejected. The director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Bob Ballard and local engineer John Matthews were more receptive resulting in Thorburn and Matthews going to New York to discuss an exhibition and the construction of a large work Trilogy with Lye. In 1977 Hamish Keith, Matthews and Thorburn set in motion the formation of a non-profit foundation and in 1980

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4888-507: The New American Cinema was marked by an oblique take on narrative, one based on abstraction, camp and minimalism, structural filmmakers like Frampton and Snow created a highly formalist cinema that foregrounded the medium itself: the frame, projection, and most importantly, time. It has been argued that by breaking film down into bare components, they sought to create an anti-illusionist cinema, although Frampton's late works owe

4982-619: The Surrealists, but equally seemed personal, new and American. Early works by Kenneth Anger , Stan Brakhage , Shirley Clarke , Gregory Markopoulos , Jonas Mekas , Willard Maas , Marie Menken , Curtis Harrington , Sidney Peterson , Lionel Rogosin , and Earle M. Pilgrim followed in a similar vein. Significantly, many of these filmmakers were the first students from the pioneering university film programs established in Los Angeles and New York . In 1946, Frank Stauffacher started

5076-616: The ability to reach global audiences. Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye ( / l aɪ / ; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture . His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive , British Film Institute , Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific Film Archive at University of California, Berkeley . Lye's sculptures are found in

5170-548: The advent of home video in the late 1970s, most major films have followed a pattern of having several distinct release windows. A film may first be released to a few select cinemas , or if it tests well enough , may go directly into wide release . Next, it is released, normally at different times several weeks (or months) apart, into different market segments like rental , retail , pay-per-view , in-flight entertainment , cable television , satellite television , or free-to-air broadcast television. The distribution rights for

5264-568: The basis of this work, Lye was later offered work for The March of Time newsreel in New York. Leaving his wife and children in England, Lye moved to New York in 1944. In Free Radicals he used black film stock and scratched designs into the emulsion. The result was a dancing pattern of flashing lines and marks, as dramatic as lightning in the night sky. In 2008, this film was added to the United States National Film Registry . Lye continued to experiment with

5358-503: The blues singer Sonny Terry . As a writer, Len Lye produced a body of work exploring his theory of IHN (Individual Happiness Now). He also wrote a large number of letters and poems. He was a friend of Dylan Thomas , and of Laura Riding and Robert Graves (their Seizin Press published No Trouble , a book drawn from Lye's letters to them, his mother, and others, in 1930). The NZEPC (New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre) website contains

5452-409: The camera and sound stop recording. The script supervisor will note any continuity issues, and the sound and camera teams log technical notes for the take on their respective report sheets. If the director decides additional takes are required, the whole process repeats. Once satisfied, the crew moves on to the next camera angle or "setup", until the whole scene is "covered." When shooting is finished for

5546-419: The camera operator once the camera is recording. The clapper loader , who is already in front of the camera with the clapperboard , calls "marker!" and slaps it shut. If the take involves extras or background action, the AD will cue them ("action background!"), and last is the director, telling the actors "action!". The AD may echo "action" louder on large sets. A take is over when the director calls "Cut!" and

5640-754: The collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art , the Art Institute of Chicago , the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Berkeley Art Museum. Although he became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1950, much of his work went to New Zealand after his death, where it is housed at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth . As a student, Lye became convinced that motion could be part of

5734-424: The crew arriving on the set/location by their call time. Actors usually have their own separate call times. Since set construction, dressing and lighting can take many hours or even days, they are often set up in advance. The grip , electric and production design crews are typically a step ahead of the camera and sound departments: for efficiency's sake, while a scene is being filmed, they are already preparing

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5828-577: The death of cinema and showed their new hypergraphical techniques; the most notorious example is Guy Debord 's Howlings in favor of de Sade ( Hurlements en Faveur de Sade ) from 1952. The Soviet filmmakers, too, found a counterpart to modernist painting and photography in their theories of montage . The films of Dziga Vertov , Sergei Eisenstein , Lev Kuleshov , Alexander Dovzhenko , and Vsevolod Pudovkin were instrumental in providing an alternative model from that offered by classical Hollywood . While not experimental films per se, they contributed to

5922-628: The development process proceeds from there and how much detail a writer returns to the studio to divulge before beginning writing can vary greatly. Screenwriters are often protected by the union, the Writers Guild of America , or WGA. The WGA allows a screenwriter to contract for One Draft, One Revision, and One Polish. Bob Eisle, Writer and Member of the Guild Board, states, "Additional writing requires an extension of contracts and payment for additional work". They are paid 80% of their fee after

6016-852: The discovery of American avant-garde in 1958 with Brakhage's films and many others European and American filmmakers. From 1947 to 1963, the New York-based Cinema 16 functioned as the primary exhibitor and distributor of experimental film in the United States. Under the leadership of Amos Vogel and Marcia Vogel, Cinema 16 flourished as a nonprofit membership society committed to the exhibition of documentary, avant-garde, scientific, educational, and performance films to ever-increasing audiences. In 1962, Jonas Mekas and about 20 other film makers founded The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York City. Soon similar artists cooperatives were formed in other places: Canyon Cinema in San Francisco,

6110-625: The emergence of experimental film. First, the cinema matured as a medium, and highbrow resistance to the mass entertainment began to wane. Second, avant-garde movements in the visual arts flourished. The Dadaists and Surrealists in particular took to cinema. René Clair 's Entr'acte (1924) featuring Francis Picabia , Marcel Duchamp , and Man Ray , and with music by Erik Satie , took madcap comedy into nonsequitur. Artists Hans Richter , Jean Cocteau , Marcel Duchamp, Germaine Dulac , and Viking Eggeling all contributed Dadaist/Surrealist shorts. Fernand Léger , Dudley Murphy , and Man Ray created

6204-471: The film Ballet Mécanique (1924), which has been described as Dadaist , Cubist , or Futurist . Duchamp created the abstract film Anémic Cinéma (1926). Alberto Cavalcanti directed Rien que les heures (1926), Walter Ruttmann directed Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927), and Dziga Vertov filmed Man with a Movie Camera (1929), experimental " city symphonies " of Paris , Berlin , and Kiev , respectively. One famous experimental film

6298-403: The film are also usually sold for worldwide distribution. The distributor and the production company share profits and manage losses. Filmmaking also takes place outside of the mainstream and is commonly called independent filmmaking . Since the introduction of DV technology, the means of production have become more democratized and economically viable. Filmmakers can conceivably shoot and edit

6392-622: The film is advertised and promoted . A B-roll clip may be released to the press based on raw footage shot for a "making of" documentary, which may include making-of clips as well as on-set interviews separate from those of the production company or distributor. For major films, key personnel are often contractually required to participate in promotional tours in which they appear at premieres and festivals and sit for interviews with many TV, print, and online journalists. The largest productions may require more than one promotional tour, in order to rejuvenate audience demand at each release window. Since

6486-455: The film is carefully designed and planned. This is the phase where one would narrow down all the options of the production. It is where all the planning takes place before the camera rolls and sets the overall vision of the project. The production company is created and a production office established. The film is pre-visualized by the director and may be storyboarded with the help of illustrators and concept artists . A production budget

6580-694: The film itself, synchronizing them to a popular dance tune by Don Baretto and His Cuban Orchestra. A panel of animation experts convened in 2005 by the Annecy Film Festival put this film among the top ten most significant works in the history of animation (his later film Free Radicals , not completed until 1979, was also in the top 50). Lye also worked for the GPO Film Unit's successor, the Crown Film Unit producing wartime information films, such as Musical Poster Number One . On

6674-408: The film language of the avant-garde. Italy had a historically difficult relationship with its avant-garde scene, although, the birth of cinema coincided with the emerging of Italian Futurism . Potentially the new medium of cinema was a perfect match for the concerns of futurism, a renowned for promoting new aesthetics, motion, and modes of perception. Especially, given the futurist fascination with

6768-586: The filmmaking and liabilities incurred during the filmmaking over the time period from early development through the management of profits and losses after distribution under conditions of different degrees of uncertainty and risk. The practical aspects of filmmaking finance can also be defined as the science of the money management of all phases involved in filmmaking. Film finance aims to price assets based on their risk level and their expected rate of return based upon anticipated profits and protection against losses. In pre-production, every step of actually creating

6862-405: The first New Zealand exhibition of his work at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery at that time under the directorship of Ron O'Reilly . Shortly before his death in 1980, Lye and his supporters established the Len Lye Foundation, to which he gave his work. The gallery is the repository for much of this collection, employing a full-time curator to ensure its preservation and appropriate exhibition. Lye

6956-426: The futurists were amongst the first avant-garde filmmakers group devoted to the potential of the image, praising motion and aiming towards an anti-narrative aesthetic. As an example, Marinetti's quote: "The cinema is an autonomous art. The cinema must therefore never copy the stage. The cinema, being essentially visual, must above all fulfil the evolution of painting, detach itself from reality, from photography, from

7050-480: The graceful and solemn..." As exemplified in the quote, the image is the real subject, not the story or the acting, an approach and attitude that remain true for the whole history of experimental filmmaking. Anton Giulio Bragaglia is undoubtedly the most known filmmaker from the futurist movement. The United States had some avant-garde films before World War II , such as Manhatta (1921), by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand , and The Life and Death of 9413:

7144-486: The images on the screen, and the film is fully completed ("locked"). Distribution is the last stage, where the film is released in movie theaters or, occasionally, directly to consumer media ( VHS , VCD , DVD , Blu-ray ) or direct download from a digital media provider. The film is duplicated as required (either onto film or hard disk drives ) and distributed in cinemas for exhibition (screening). Press kits, posters, and other advertising materials are published, and

7238-403: The key elements of structural film are a fixed camera position, flicker effect, re-photography off screen, and loop printing. Artist Bruce Conner created early examples such as A Movie (1958) and Cosmic Ray (1962). As Sitney has pointed out, in the work of Stan Brakhage and other American experimentalists of early period, film is used to express the individual consciousness of the maker,

7332-548: The language of art, leading him to early (and now lost) experiments with kinetic sculpture, as well as a desire to make film. Lye was also one of the first Pākehā artists to appreciate the art of Māori, Australian Aboriginal, Pacific Island and African cultures, and this had great influence on his work. In the early 1920s Lye travelled widely in the South Pacific. He spent extended periods in Australia and Samoa, where he

7426-572: The media and real life, as well as many other sources, to determine their yearly agenda. For example, in a year when action is popular, they may wish to explore that topic in one or more movies. Sometimes, they purchase the rights to articles, bestselling novels, plays , the remaking of older films , stories with some basis in real life through a person or event, a video game , fairy tale , comic book , graphic novel . Likewise, research through surveys may inform their decisions. They may have had blockbusters from their previous year and wish to explore

7520-441: The next one. While the crew prepares their equipment, the actors do their costumes and attend the hair and make-up departments. The actors rehearse the script and blocking with the director, and the camera and sound crews rehearse with them and make final tweaks. Finally, the action is shot in as many takes as the director wishes. Most American productions follow a specific procedure: The assistant director (AD) calls "picture

7614-416: The next shooting day. Later on, the director, producer, other department heads, and, sometimes, the cast, may gather to watch that day or yesterday's footage, called dailies , and review their work. With workdays often lasting fourteen or eighteen hours in remote locations, film production tends to create a team spirit . When the entire film is "in the can", or in the completion of the production phase, it

7708-402: The personal vision of an artist, or to promote interest in new technology rather than to entertain or to generate revenue, as is the case with commercial films. The term experimental film describes a range of filmmaking styles that frequently differ from, and are often opposed to, the practices of mainstream commercial and documentary filmmaking . Avant-garde is also used, for the films of

7802-399: The popular misconception in both the art world and Hollywood that the avant-garde and the commercial never meet. Another challenge to that misconception is that late in life, after their Hollywood careers had ended, both Nicholas Ray and King Vidor made avant-garde films. Film theorist P. Adams Sitney offers a concept of "visionary film", and he invented a few genre categories, including

7896-409: The possibilities of direct film-making to the end of his life. In various films he used a range of dyes, stencils, air-brushes, felt tip pens, stamps, combs and surgical instruments, to create images and textures on celluloid. In Color Cry , he employed the "photogram" method combined with various stencils and fabrics to create abstract patterns. It is a 16mm direct film featuring a searing soundtrack by

7990-784: The producer and writer have sold their approach to the desired subject matter, they begin to work. However, many writers and producers usually pass before a particular concept is realized in a way that is awarded a green light to production. Production of Unforgiven , which earned Oscars for its Director/Star Clint Eastwood , as well as its screenwriter, David Webb Peoples, required fifteen years. Powers related that The Italian Job took approximately eight years from concept to screen, which, as Powers added, "is average." And most concepts turned into paid screenplays wind up gathering dust on some executive's shelf, never to see production. Writers have different styles and creative processes; some have stronger track records than others. Because of this, how

8084-461: The production phase, in that voice actors can record their takes in the recording studio at different times and may not see one another until the film's premiere. Animated films also have different crew, since most physical live-action tasks are either unnecessary or are simulated by various types of animators . This stage is usually thought of as starting when principal photography ends, but they may overlap. The bulk of post-production consists of

8178-439: The scene, the assistant director declares a "wrap" or "moving on", and the crew will "strike", or dismantle, the set for that scene. At the end of the day, the director approves the next day's shooting schedule and a daily progress report is sent to the production office. This includes the report sheets from continuity, sound, and camera teams. Call sheets are distributed to the cast and crew to tell them when and where to turn up

8272-433: The sensation of speed and the dynamism of modern life. However, what is left of futurist cinema is mostly on paper, many films very lost, and other never got made. Amongst those literatures it is worth noting The Futurist Cinema (Marinetti et al., 1916), Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature (1912), The Variety Theatre (1913), The Futurist Synthetic Theatre (1915), and The New Religion – Morality of Speed (1916). Perhaps,

8366-415: The sort shot in the twenties in France, Germany or Russia, to describe this work, and " underground " was used in the sixties, though it has also had other connotations. Today the term "experimental cinema" prevails, because it's possible to make experimental films without the presence of any avant-garde movement in the cultural field. While "experimental" covers a wide range of practice, an experimental film

8460-596: The use of film , most film productions are now digital . Today, filmmaking refers to the process of crafting an audio-visual story commercially for distribution or broadcast. Film production consists of five major stages: The development stage contains both general and specific components. Each film studio has a yearly retreat where their top creative executives meet and interact on a variety of areas and topics they wish to explore through collaborations with producers and screenwriters, and then ultimately, directors , actors, and actresses. They choose trending topics from

8554-572: The work more widely known and more accessible. Beginning in 1946, Frank Stauffacher ran the "Art in Cinema" program of experimental and avant-garde films at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . From 1949 to 1975, the Knokke-Le-Zoute Experimental Film Festival  [ fr ] —located in Knokke-Heist , Belgium —was the most prominent festival of experimental cinema in the world. It permits

8648-593: Was a maverick, never fitting any of the usual art historical labels. Although he did not become a household name, his work was familiar to many film-makers and kinetic sculptors – he was something of an "artist's artist", and his innovations have had an international influence. He is also remembered for his colourful personality, amazing clothes, and highly unorthodox lecturing style (he taught at New York University for three years). The 21st century has seen renewed international interest in Lye's career with retrospectives held at

8742-673: Was expelled by the New Zealand colonial administration for living within an indigenous community. Working his way as a coal trimmer aboard a steam ship , Lye moved to London in 1926. He quickly entered modernist circles, exhibiting with the Seven and Five Society from 1927 until 1934, and becoming affiliated with the Footprints Studio . Most notably, Lye exhibited in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition and began to make experimental films. Following his first animated film Tusalava , Lye began to make films in association with

8836-586: Was married twice. His first wife was Jane (Florence Winifred) Thompson with whom he had two children: In Reno, Nevada, in May 1948, Lye married his second wife, Annette "Ann" Zeiss (born 1910, Minnesota) on the same day he obtained a divorce from Jane. Ann was formerly married to Tommy Hindle, a British journalist. He died in Warwick, New York , in 1980. In 1971 artist Ray Thorburn met with Len Lye and on his return to New Zealand attempted to arrange an exhibition at

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