A film essay (or “cinematic essay”) consists of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot per se, or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay.[25] From another perspective, an essay film could be defined as a documentary film visual basis combined with a form of commentary that contains elements of self-portrait (rather than autobiography), where the signature (rather than the life story) of the filmmaker is apparent. The cinematic essay often blends documentary, fiction, and experimental film making using tones and editing styles.[26]
THE ESSAY FILM
https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/19816/1/the-secret-history-of-the-essay-film
They are similar to documentary and non-fiction films in that they are often based in reality, using words, images and sounds to convey a message. It is this flexibility that has appealed to contemporary filmmakers, permitting a fresh, nuanced viewing experience.
- From French essai ‚Versuch‘ – the attempt
- Experimental form of film
- Situated between feature film and documentary
- unconventional narrative patterns
- Multi Perspective, artistic freedom, breaking with conventional film making
- Sounds gets an emphasized meaning
- Often a narrator guides through the rather free floating strands of the storyline
- Often breaks with a coherent story, continuity of room and space and causality
- Creates image metaphors
- Combines fictional and documentary archive material as “objet trouves” (found objects) and uses them as evidence to tell a story
About Essay Film
Chris Marker
La Jetee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6anMLFwHFqs (excerpt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=347evhNhe7E (about)
Sans Soleil – distorted sequence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JamGQOhCe_k
Werner Herzog
The Wild Blue Yonder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOPFRMnvgfE
Adam Curtis
Hypernormalisation // Trigger Warnung!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fny99f8amM
– Start sequence / 1:09:26
Student project example:
Austin Houldsworth
Electric money https://vimeo.com/720009
HOW TO?
Video footage – royalty free
https://archive.org/details/prelinger
https://www.youtube.com/c/USNationalArchives/videos
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html
https://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/
https://freestockfootagearchive.com/
Sound footage – royalty free
Video, image and sound footage
Voices
https://www.descript.com/overdub?lyrebird=true&ref=Welcome.AI
/// something different
Coping
Filming under “extreme conditions” – Austin and only his mum and dad
PREMIERE TUTORIALS
! Set your frames per second to 30 fps for playback on a computer !
All basic functions in less than 12 minutes
(advanced stuff in 20 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hls3Tp7JS8E&feature=youtu.be
Tips for working with still images in Premiere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rjbi8xX9Hg
From 04 Min 40 Sek > how to animate a still images “Ken Burns effect”
https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/19816/1/the-secret-history-of-the-essay-film