At NYU Mitchell Stephens and his colleagues created a movement to explore the impact of the presentation of a montage of images in rapid fashion. We began to understand that one could recognize (and sometimes recall) images that were displayed for as little as a third of a second. Several experimental movies were produced an presented at various arts shows throughout New York at the time.
From Stephens’ book:
The Russians borrowed a word to express the ability to record movements in the most complex combinations to place points wherever they wanted to create a fresh perception of the world. This term, which would have so much significance for film, entered the art world primarily through photography… the essential experiment in film montage was conducted by Lev Kuleshov, an influential film instructor… the point of what became known as the Kuleshov effectis that meaning of a shot is dependent upon the shots that surround it. The point of montage is that new meanings can be created through the juxtaposition of different shots.
These experimental movies became to be known as kinestasis film.
Do This
Watch each of the movies and answer the questions that follow for each. Confirm your participation in this activity by posting a short reflection and reaction in the Drop Box on Canvas.
While the movement took hold in the late nineties (most likely due to the invention of non-linear video editing software such as Final Cut and Premier), the popularity of kinestasis goes back to the 1970s when a little known movie producer got a shot at showing his kinestasis film on prime time television. Chuck Braverman produced an exciting masterpiece that traces the history of the United States in four minutes through a fast cut collage of approximately 1,300 images presented in about 4 minutes. It is accompanied by a coordinated drum solo. To put this in perspective, it was cut entirely by hand using a razor to assemble the analog images on to a single film strip. It was first shown in live TV in the early 1970s during an episode of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour Television Show (a popular show that appeared on Sunday nights on CBS during prime time).
American Time Capsule - mp4 Version
Remember, there are approximately 1,300 images displayed whose length ranged from a quarter to a thirds of a second. See how many questions you can answer correctly:
Question #1
What was the main context/POV of the video?
While we do not know for sure but this movie had an anti-war undertone (which was one of the attractions to it in the part of the Smothers Brothers show. As the Vietnam war wore on the show became more and more political (as well as other popular shows on CBS at the time.. M.A.S.H. being the most popular)). While not the entire plot, the movie does trace much the history of the United States through the eyes of the various wars the conquest of the West, WWI and II, etc.).
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Question #2
What was the major color/scheme that carried through the video
Much of the color overtone was red or reddish. A sign of danger and leads one to believe in the possible anti-war undertone.
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Question #3
What did the sign say that Harry Truman held up towards the end of the movie?
OK, we put in a distractor.. it wasn't a sign but a newspaper headline, a VERY famous newspaper that announced that Dewey had won the election over Truman, when in fact it was premature. We did not want to give it all away in the question... we are testing your 'fast-seeing' ability. When we ran this in a recent study with middle school children (most of whom did not know who Truman was or the context of the newspaper headline), most of them got it.
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Question #4
What was the famous cartoon icon that showed up near the end?
Again a test of your fast seeing... it only appeared for 1/3 of a second... Mickey of course.
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Question #5
Which president was shown at the end of the movie?
This should have been an easy one... Nixon... the movie ended there as the then current event... and should have been easy because of the length of time his picture was on the screen... the idea behind kinestasis is that once, you get used to fast seeing, when you view something in regular time (maybe a second), it seems like slow motion...
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Sidebar
Jeff Scher is a colleague who I met through my acquaintance with Stephens. He experimented greatly with kinestasis. Through the magic of the Internet I met Jeff and we discussed his film on several occasions. He knew it was experimental but it does produce the exact effect we look for. See how many stories you can identify in this short film. There are several others but this one was the most fun and less esoteric.
Milk of Anmesia - mp4 Version
See how many questions you can answer correctly:
Question #1
What were all the images that formed the background of the film?
Not expecting to know this but asking you to make a guess... they were still images of items that formed the backdrop from the producer's life... signs, newspapers, cigarette packages, street scenes, etc. The title of the film was your hint.
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Question #2
Was this movie shot as a movie but a quickly viewed series of still shots that appeared to be moving because of the speed they were presented?
OK, an easy one: but we wanted to make the point of kinestasis.. that when images are placed next to one another they appear to be movie and one continuum.. the science behind this is real and what it says is that about 1/3 of a second is all it takes for this phenomenon to occur. This translates to the framing rate for moving images in film... 15 frames per second for black and white... or about 24 for color (it takes us longer to process color). There is a lot of theory behind of all of this and explains the science behind television and movie making but that is the subject of another course (EME 6209).
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Question #3
What was the metaphor of the cow?
Milk=Cow? a play on words?? milk of magnesia vs milk of amnesia? Memories of the producer's life... things remembered and others that have been long forgotten...
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Question #4
Name some of the repeated images/scenes
This is not intended to be a complete list but swimming and diving, tight rope, pets, the cow, scenes from what we can only guess is from his past. Repetition is a fact of a child's life... I talked with Jeff about this and this is mostly what he said... I did not wish to make him feel bad by asking too much, as if I 'didn't get it" insofar as what he was trying to say. Each time I view this video I get more out of it.
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Sidebar
Jeff Wescott was a student who took a film/video class from me. In that class we experimented with kinestasis but instead of making it a single concept film, students were asked to insert the montages at appropriate moments in the film to make a point. You will notice how this montage moves more quickly in the form of a climax and how the final moments are made more dramatic at the end mostly because your eyes get used to the fast pace and once it slows down to normal speed it actually seems to be slow motion. An interesting technique.
America Westcott - mp4 Version
See how many questions you can answer correctly:
Question #1
Whose presidency did this mostly cover?
Another easy one... GW Bush
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Question #2
When you first started viewing this video did you get the sense of where it was going and possibly ending up?
The overtone was again about war and how big business seemed to direct our entire lives. The music and pictures seemed to be driving the point of where this was going.
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Question #3
True or False: The newspaper montage was made up of many repeats of the same newspaper filmed many times over (similar to the Milk of Amnesia film)?
I am not sure I recall what he told me was the exact number but I think Wescott made this video with about 100 different newspapers headlines.. regardless, the task was monumental for a student to be doing for a final project in a course
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Question #4
What major visual technique did the producer utilize to increase the emotion and build to a crescendo/climax?
Speed... the video also did an excellent job of timing to the music, which seemed to set the tone... but the images at the end and the speed they were displayed was a fabulous example of the power of kinestasis.. even at the end when the lights went out in the stadium.. played at regular speed, seemed like slow motion.. making a dramatic point.
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In Activities-6696.
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