Experimenting with Sports

This is an experimental video that completely deals with sports and related activities. Various special effects and sound effects have been added to the clips in order to allow the viewer to experience sports from a different perspective, the one that is not usual. The clips are recorded in slow motion in 240 FPS and further decreased in post production.

Cricket Experiment

This is another video filmed again in 240 FPS with a Sony HD handycam exceeding the smooth slow motion recording capacity of a Z5. The Sony Z5, being a professional camera can record only in 200 FPS. The advantage here with the Z5 is that it can record in slow motion for 12 seconds whereas, the one that I used could record only for 3 seconds. The emphasis here on the video is to capture the bowler and the batsman seperately.

The Cricket Pitch

For street cricket players, anything that is close to a real cricket pitch such as low trimmed grass, hard gravel or mostly a place where the ball is able to bounce becomes an ideal representation of the real pitch. This video was filmed in 240 FPS and further slowed down and increased in some places to provide the experience of cricketing. The whacking of the ball by the bat is indeed a good feeling for the one who is batting but not the bowler. There is a very small moment of excitement from the time the ball is bowled until the batsman hits it or misses it. This rapid moment in real time was captured and slowed down or to be precise the time was manipulated to allow the viewer to experience the suspense of whether the ball will be hit or missed.

Basketball Experiment

This is an experimental film that basically comes under the theme ‘sports’. The video has been filmed in slow motion with a Sony HD Camera in 240 FPS. The speed has been increased and decreased in Final Cut Pro and certain sound effects have been added to give the viewer a feel of the area.

Sneezing in Slow Mo!

I came across this ad made by the South Australian Department of Health asking people to get a flu shot. Even though the video is gross, the message is really very effective. Thanks to slow motion recording, things that were never visible to the naked eye can now be seen! I’m pretty sure that this ad had an impact on the viewers!

The term ‘experimental’

There are many definitions on the web that explain experimental films. I came across another interesting site that talks about various experimental films and gives a broader insight into the topic. For further reference, please visit http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Experimental-Film.html

Experimental films are very different from feature-length Hollywood fiction films. In Mothlight (1963), Stan Brakhage (1933–2003) completely avoids “normal” filmmaking (he doesn’t even use a camera) by sprinkling seeds, grass, dead moths, and bee parts directly onto the film stock; the result is a three-minute rhythmic “dance” between nature and the projector mechanism.

There are many types of experimental film, but despite their diversity, it is possible to pin down tendencies that help make experimental film a discrete genre. Edward Small identifies eight traits of experimental films and in the process defines important differences between the avant-garde and Hollywood.

Most obviously, production is a collaborative enterprise, but most experimental filmmakers conceive, shoot, and edit their films alone or with a minimal crew. Often they even assume the responsibility for the distribution of the finished film. It follows that experimental films are made outside of industry economics, with the filmmakers themselves often paying for production (sometimes with money from small grants or the rentals on previous films). This low-budget approach buys independence: Maya Deren (1917–1961) bought an inexpensive 16mm Bolex camera with money she inherited after her father’s death, and used this camera to make all of her films, forging a career completely apart from the Hollywood mode of production.

Unlike mainstream feature films, experimental works are usually short, often under thirty minutes in length. This is in part because of their small budgets, though most filmmakers make short films for aesthetic reasons too: to capture a fleeting moment, perhaps, or to create new visuals with the camera. Ten Second Film (Bruce Conner, 1965) was originally shown at the 1965 New York Film Festival, and all ten seconds were reproduced in their entirety, as strips of film, on the festival’s poster. Experimental filmmakers are usually the first to try out new ways of making movies, after which these technologies are adopted by Hollywood. Scott Bartlett’s (1943–1990) films, such as OFFON (1967, with Tom DeWitt), were the first to mix computer and film imagery, and influenced Douglas Trumbull’s (b. 1942) light show in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The reverse is also true: avant-garde filmmakers continue to use formats such as Pixelvision or 8mm long after the height of their popularity. Also like OFFON , experimental production often focuses on abstract imagery. The quintessential example is Stan Brakhage’s notion of “closed-eye vision,” the attempt to duplicate on film the shimmers of light we see on our eyelids when our eyes are closed.

As Brakhage’s films suggest, most experimental films avoid verbal communication, giving primacy to the visual. Unlike “talkie” Hollywood movies, experimental films are typically silent, or use sound in nonnaturalistic ways. As well, experimental films typically ignore, subvert, or fragment the storytelling rules of Hollywood cinema. Some films—such as Harry Smith’s (1923–1991) Early Abstractions (1939–1956)—abandon narrative altogether and focus instead on creating a colorful, ever-changing picture plane. When experimental films do settle down into a story, it’s often one that shocks or disturbs conventional sensibilities. Sometimes their subject is themselves and the medium of cinema.

Many experimental films violate one or more of the above traits. Andy Warhol’s (1928–1987) Empire (1964) is over eight hours long, and Peter Hutton’s movies photograph nature in objective terms, avoiding the avant-garde tendency toward subjective psychology. The traits, though, provide a rough guide to the ways that experimental films differ from feature-length narratives, and provide an entrance into the history of the avant-garde.

Editing in relation to time

The film Run Lola Run starring Franka Potente, directed by Tom Tykwer is an interesting film because it has some relation to time as a major element in the movie contributing to events or consequences that happen due to a delay within a fraction of seconds. The editing in the movie is also something that has to be noticed, it takes place along with the rhythm and beat synchronising with the visuals too.