Deren and Pirece

When watching Maya Deren’s, “Meshes of the Afternoon” for the second time. I grasp they meaning of the film more. I see that this was all a dream sequence, but I further understood it. The hard angles that she used during the scene when she is going up the stairs showing her jumble around were incredible. I used similar angles in my film last semester in 221. Her edits were not as sporadic as some of the other artist that e watched, but they were good none the less. I didn’t realize that this was an experimental film until now. The rhythm of the film seems narrative. She takes a non linear approach to the film, but it flows. It flows in a way that you understand it. I look at her piece now not to understand it, but to view her techniques, because I feel that it is the most important part of the film. If you try to figure it out you won’t see the edits, the rhythm, and the framing she uses in them. Another film we viewed was Leighton Pierce, “You can drive the Big Rigs” a film shot from the outside of a diner then into the inside then back outside. Watching this film reminded me of the beginning scene in, “Back to The Future” when Marty McFly gets to the professors home and the camera shoots all these different angles of the room. In Pierce’s film we get this going with the day rhythm, where there are a lot of older people in the diner eating and talking in it. There are these in your face shots that he takes when the people are talking. One guy actually directly addresses the camera by looking dead into it. When this part came up I felt like I was making him mad by starting. He shoots everything around the room moderately close. The film seems to be a home coming film where the film maker comes back to check out his old home.-Randal Jackson-