Moving Images, Understanding Media

190 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media

Mixing of Forms

Th ese broad categorizations can sometimes be tricky to apply clearly. Th ere

are many examples in which we can see cases of classifi cations being mixed.

Viewers will debate the application of one category or another with certain

fi lms. Nonetheless, they can be used to establish a dialogue about the forms

that motion pictures assume and to develop a more complete and clear

understanding of the ways in which moving images function. What we

are trying to do here is to understand motion pictures, and we can most

appropriately do this in a manner similar to scientists by observing and noting

the attributes and behaviors witnessed in a subject. We might uncover some

surprises, for example distinct similarities in communicative form between

certain commercials and cutting-edge, artistically challenging movies of the

avant-garde.

Filmmakers can create narrative movies using a non-narrative sequence

of images. In the short black-and-white fi lm Sea Space from 1972, director

William Farley used a recorded statement by the helmsman of a ship to serve

as the basis for a motion picture about a tragic accident at sea that was kept

secret by a small group of sailors. In the opening static shot of a sink, the

viewer slowly perceives that the water in the basin is moving (Figure 5–22).

Th is is because the sink is on a ship, and during the following sequence of

images—an extreme close-up of a character asking a question; an unmade bed

in darkness; a long, slow zoom into a porthole until the viewer sees a rough

sea in close-up—the viewer observes an evocative, non-narrative sequence

of images that provide a contemplative counterpoint to the confessional tale

heard on the soundtrack. Many fi lmmakers have used the interplay between

Figure 5-22 Opening image

of a sink on a ship from Sea

Space. (Courtesy http://www

.farleyfi lm.com)

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