Werner Nekes. "Film before Film." 1986. 83 min. Reflection

Out of the three films we watched Thursday evening, Werner Nekes's "Film before Film" most resonated within me. Though, the film was long and rather dry, "Film before Film" was extremely enlightening for me. The saying, "the more you learn, the more you realize how much you didn't know" was spinning in my mind as I had never before considered the many pioneers required to bring the modern day cinema that we now have today. It was an interesting journey through the history of film. "Film before Film" opened my eyes to the many historical aspects surrounding film and I cannot help, but wonder about the many moments of insight that are to come.

08.27

After our screening on Thursday, I was most interested, strangely enough, with the two shortest films by the Lumiere brothers.

Not the films themselves, necessarily, since both were under a minute long. But the idea that people were so fascinated with the idea of moving pictures that they would pay money to see things so everyday is most intriguing; the idea that people were paying to see things on screen that they could simply go and watch in person really defines the changing era.

Today, going to see a movie is not only an expensive feat, but it one of great criticism. If a movie runs over two-and-a-half hours, people complain. If a film runs under ninety minutes, people complain. The perfect two-hour movie is usually worth $10. Which, I guess, could translate equally to the early 1900's, where the price to get in wouldn't be over a nickel for a two-minute movie.

The Lumiere Brothers' movies are really fascinating from a historical point of view, being as they're the first of the business of movie-showing.

Welcome to the Projector Room!

Welcome to German 06!

We'll be using this blog as a space for personal and collective reflection on the films that we've screened in our course. As you should know by now, you'll be required to post a blog entry once a week to this blog--Views from the Projector Room. Your blog should be no less than 200 words in length. It may also incorporate images and videos! (Trolling youtube.com, you'll find lots of snippets of avant-garde films...even bits and pieces of the ones we'll be screening in this class. And there are TONS of stills of films that we'll be watching floating out there, too!)

Your blog entry should be an earnest attempt to make sense of the films we've screened. Refrain therefore from extemporaneous writing that digresses away from the matter at hand. But your blog entry doesn't have to be a formal piece of academic writing either! Instead, think of this space as a place where we can try and start to unlock the ideas lurking underneath the films we watch. What emotional effects do they have on us? What sorts of techniques does the film use to create these effects? What might a single film mean? Are there particular moments, sequences, images, symbols, sound, or words that can help us make sense of these films?

Just to get the multi-media ball rolling, here's a favorite of mine that we will not be watching this semester: