David Lynch is an American Film director, widely known for his critically acclaimed TV series Twin Peaks, along with his films Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Out of the foray of mainstream film directors currently working in Hollywood today, it is safe to say that David Lynch is the most experimental of them all. From his kooky storylines, oddball and miscoded characters and a distinct style of score, you know you are watching a David Lynch film, even if it is Dune.
David Lynch isn’t on my experimental film module prospectus; however, I am too interested to not include him in my film. One of the things that stand out to me regarding David Lynch is how he co-creates the musical score, something that surprised me. From the beautiful theme of Twin Peaks, to the bodacious score for Mulholland Drive, this level of auteurship is magnificent. It is something I want to implement in my film, too. Although my musical tastes fit more to American Hard Rock bands such as Pearl Jam, Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crue, that didn’t stop me from picking up the bass guitar. I intend on referencing British New Wave band Duran Duran for my project. One of Lynch’s more internet-loved works is Rabbits, a surrealist look on a group of human-like rabbits in a state of psychosis. Although the visuals and story are just about as David Lynchian as any of his projects, the actual musical score itself is bonkers. This is something I would not mind implementing into my own experimental film, by creating a bass score for my own work. Maddening.
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Len Lye was a New Zealand artist who became widely known for his experimental animation work in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s as well as his work with kinetic sculptures.
Len started to experiment with animation, more specifically stop-motion in the early 1930’s. One of his first works is a short music video called The Peanut Vendor (1933), in which a monkey-esque hominid sings, moves and dances to the peanut song. What is so remarkable about this short is the actual puppet itself. In the early days of stop-motion animation, the puppet’s themselves were mostly asinine and not the most appealing, but Len Lye managed to construct an armature that was able to pose in complicated ways. Rainbow Dance (1936) is a short five-minute animation that experiments with colour in various degrees. What sticks out to me is the blending between live-action and 2D colour animation, especially given the time period in which coloured film was quite rare. In this short, Len composites coloured imagery onto a dancing man, which is very reminiscent to Disney’s later film, Fantasia. The Birth of a Robot (1935) is perhaps my favourite short by Len Lye. It is another one of his early stop-motion animations. The short itself focuses on the God’s casting oil upon planet Earth, in which cars, machines and a robot are created and working with upmost high functionality. What is so interesting about this film is not only is it presented in colour, but also the intricate set and character design. The robot itself, while reminiscent of science-fiction machinery from that era, is merely a wooden art mannequin painted silver. Even though it’s very basic, it’s serves its purpose. I am very keen on Lye’s work, as I have thought about focusing my experimental film on animation and colour. Whilst I have done many animations in the past, I would like to further hone my skills at blending 2D animation with live-action footage just like Lye had done for Rainbow Dance. |
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January 2020
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