response 5

First, respond to Tribulation 99 in relation to Zryd's description of student responses in his own classes.

From what I've read in the class notes and the article, Zryd's students had a hard time understanding which parts of the film were real, and which were fictitious. I haven't been able to get full version of the film yet, but from what I've seen so far I can understand how this could be a problem if they did not have their professor first explain the concepts behind the film. I watched the beginning before reading anything about it, and could not make any real sense of what was going on, but then again I'm not really a history buff.

Michael Zryd, “Found Footage Film as Discursive Metahistory: Craig Baldwin’s Tribulation 99”

1. Explain Paul Arthur's distinction between the "realist" use of found footage and the "figurative" use of found footage. Which becomes important in Tribulation 99 and why?

Filmmakers use found footage in a "realist" way to "illustrate or analyze" his or her point. This footage is an actual representation of what is being showcased, and is used in addition to a voice over dialogue to make a point about whatever it may be. The "figurative" use of found footage, which is more prevalent if not dominating in Tribulation 99, is the metaphorical representation of a concept or event. In this model the artist uses preconceived notions about the image to form an idea using images that might have had nothing to do with the actual event, and combines them with voice over to bring their ideas across.

Marc Masters, “The Offenders: No Wave Cinema”

2. Name at least three similarities between the punk music scene and the punk/no-wave filmmaking scene, in terms of technology, style, and community.

1. Everybody worked on each others movies and did more than one job, just like punk musicians would often play in several different bands and switch from one instrument to the next.
2. Acting and production crews formed much like the punk bands, based on the people they knew and liked as opposed to film or musical experience.
3. Both groups worked with technologies not used in the main stream; the punks with their slide guitars and the No-Waves with their super 8 cameras.

William Wees, “Peggy’s Playhouse: Contesting the Modernist Paradigm”

3. According to Wees, what are the 5 characteristics of the modernist paradigm dominating North American avant-garde filmmaking before the 1980s?

1. opposition to the mainstream and commercial cinema
2. the autonomy of art-> I'm not sure here, is this referring to artists being self reliant and independent, or does it have something to do with placing the art in historical content?
3. The need to explore and bring attention to the medium used to create the art.
4. The superiority of "high" art over modern culture
5. The need to create unique works of art that express the artist as an auteur but also invoke broad universal concepts

4. Given the 5 characteristics above, how does Awhesh reject or question each of them (give examples from throughout the article).

1. Post 80s AG film makers not only opposed the mainstream cinema but also the aesthetic of modernism associated with many AG works prior to that time.
2. Post 80s film included many aspects of society that were previously left out of AG films, and re-contextualized AG within the broader realm of all social media.
3. Instead of bringing attention to the medium, she uses the Super 8 and all of its imperfections to create a "throw together" feeling in her films. There are still manipulations present, such as film scratches, but instead of drawing attention to themselves they are encompassed into the whole experience
4. She does not try to create elaborate sets, uses low end equipment, and works with untrained actors, such as her daughter. She doesn't snub modern culture, but rather uses her works to examine it and the roles people undoubtedly have to play in it.
5. She uses found footage for some of her works, like "The Color of Love," rather then filming and thus manipulating the action in front of her camera.

5. What does Ahwesh mean by rejecting the “aesthetics of mastery” and how is this related to punk filmmaking?

She goes against conventional film making or "authoritative narrative structures." She doesn't use trained actors, uses a super 8 camera, doesn't spend a lot of time in preproduction, and films action for the sake of filming action. This is reminiscent if not directly influenced by Warhol's working style. Punk filmmaking was also more about the experience of creating the film and making it a spectacle for people to enjoy, rather then spending time perfecting every shot using high end equipment, sets, props, etc.

6. Why does Wees argue that The Color of Love subverts conventional wisdom about mainstream pornography?

In mainstream pornography there's there's usually a focus on an erect penis and the male orgasm, while in her film the focus is on two women making love and an unresponsive male.

7. In what ways does Awhesh transform images from Tomb Raider in She Puppet?
She took Laura Croft out of the video game context and made her perform repeated actions, which she edited together to recontextualize her character. She would use variations in these repetitions such as sets, costumes, and camera angles. She took other images from the game and made them work against their their original purposes. The guns never hit their targets, the tigers never attacked, ect.