I only kind of liked “Passage”. Intellectually I think I got it, but it didn’t really affect me. It was cool, but I didn’t connect with it emotionally.
The film must have taken forever to make. I imagine this isn’t the filmmaker’s first attempt at camera-less filmmaking, so I am sure they are adept and efficient in the technique, but pulling from what I know about the process, it had to have taken forever. A film like this could only be made, under the condition of dedication and persistence. The film relies on the interdependent relationship between the sounds, music, and shapes scratched onto the film. This relationship is explored through out the entirety of the film. What sounds will go with which patterns? Also, I really thought the filmmaker did a good job varying the colors, shapes, and sounds.
I liked the different aspects of the film; the shapes, the colors, the sounds, the music, and the overall design and structure. The title Passage was forcing me to interpret the shapes as a portal like construction that the filmmaker thrust the audience into. The film was of course about abstract shapes, and its relation to the music, and the senses, but I couldn’t help but feel that it was a journey too. This effect is created from the geometric patterns starting small, and then expanding as the film moves along, as well as the natural sounds inserted into the score, that gave me the sense that I was doing daily activities.
The music used for the film was a perfect marriage with the films playful art style and seemed to match the rhythm of the images. I don’t know which came first, the film or the music, and I don’t care really. I also want to add, that the “popping” at the beginning, like random neuron firing, really set the mood and were just cool.
I would be interested in watching it again, some other works by the filmmaker, and some other experiment with synesthia to see how this work specifically fits into that context.
I am taking this course because I have heard great things about it, and for the most part enjoyed the History of Avant Garde course, of which 6x1 has some overlap. Plus, experimental film is an individual and democratic form of art, which anyone with an imagination can participate in. So, I can create something that could compete with the heavyweights of the form, and not max out a few credit cards.
