Found Footage Now and Into the Future

Subject guarantor:

Name of lecturer(s):

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

Guided film experimenting.

Mode of study:

Friday and Saturday

April 5 - April 6, 2013

9:30 am - 5:00 pm

in English

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

none

Recommended optional programme components:

none

Course contents:

The term „Found footage film“ derives from „found object“ (objet trouvé) in art history. Found Footage methods have traditionally provided an easy and direct way of revealing hidden qualities or potential within both original (non-found) and found film material. It offers a basic tool and resource in terms of a wide range of film genres from avant-garde to documentary, narrative to music clips and now particularly with regards to digital film production. By rethinking, re-visualising or rematerialising found or unlost film footage it is possible to uncover and use what previously would of remained unrecognisable or unimaginable within such footage. This provides an important resource and model for developing new narrative potential or aspects in your films during the post-production stages of film production.

This module will consider possibilities of working from both within and outside the actual 16mm film-frame via methods of de-collage, re-assemblage and radical re-editing. Fine art methods will go hand-in-hand with more traditional or industrial forms of editing to activate and explore a range of original visual or cinematic effects. The module will run over two days and be centred on practical approaches to re-imagining and recycling a number of 1970s documentary or educational 16mm prints provided for use by the participants. The first day will entail physically reconstructing and unmaking, or undoing, this found footage material via processes of erasure and deconstruction. The second day will focus on rebuilding and reediting the resulting footage to evoke a range of new and unexpected outcomes. Using selected found footage sequences as the starting point, participants will engage in individual investigations through a variety of manipulation, editing, resurfacing and post-production approaches. The resulting short works will be screened at the end of the module, alongside with parts of the original found film material from which the new works were derived.

Recommended or required reading:

none

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

none

Assessment methods and criteria:

100% attendance + active participation

Course web page:

Note:

In 2009 Marcus Bergner completed a feature length film made entirely from found footage film material titled The Surface, which has been screened in Paris, Rotterdam and Los Angeles. Excerpts of this film will be shown in the module as will works by other artists and filmmakers including that of Gianfranco Baruchello/Alberto Griffi, Bruce Conner, Bruce McClure, Cecile Fontaine. Reference will be made to seminal articles by French film theorist/ historian Nicole Brenez including The Cartography of Found Footage (2000).

Further information:

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans: