Video Film Review; 406; Found Footage/Film Collage

Television and movies have specific places and events happening or to tell a story. Filmmakers who do not rely on their own live action photography existing images. Joseph Cornell best known for his box collections of found objects was a pioneer of the found footage film. In this excerpt from his first film entitled Rose Hobart composed in the 1930s we see him bring the collage sensibility and a surrealist touch to this new film genre. Cornell made Rose Hobart by taking a potboiler called East of Borneo and re editing it. Though this seems like a simple exercise. The result is that in Cornell's version certain special qualities not easily seen in the original shine through.

We see Cornell's gentle obsession with Rose Hobart the lead actress in the film and the sexual undercurrent of the original story is emphasized. The new story is hard to follow. Cornell has remade east of Borneo as he loved it. He's added a soundtrack of favorite music holiday in Brazil. And a touch of informality leave him hear him change the record during this excerpt. Right. The birth of contemporary interest in the found footage film corresponded with the pop art movement

of the late 1950s and early 60s. The classic found footage film of this period is a movie made in 1957 by Bruce Connor and excerpted here a collage artist himself Gunner uses found footage like the pop artists used their paintings to hold a mirror up to the everyday artifacts of our culture. Cold from newsreel and old movies. The film shifts tones from hilarity to tragedy. The movie begins by poking fun at the big budget spectacle of Hollywood films putting together chases westerns and crashes as if to say that all our popular movies are really just one big one. But as the film progresses the compilation of violence becomes less madcap. And more ominous. Suggesting that a culture which bases its imagery on violence does so at its own risk. You're.

You're. You are. Mixing images from magazines movies newspapers and television

stand Vanderbeek made science fiction in 1959. In this excerpt we see the relationship between collage art and the found footage film. When such a combination of techniques was far more rare than it is today. Mm.

Hmm. Oh. Oh oh.

The found footage film is flourishing today more than ever as an inexpensive way to

make films it's an ideal form both for film students learning their craft and filmmakers working on slim budgets using the collage technique and echoing the personal obsession of joules of Cornell and Rose Hobart Esther should top ski and her film bedtime story has one central character a dreamer caught in a nightmare the dreamer seems fixated on an image of a man opening a trap door. This image was probably no more than an instant in some long forgotten movie. Yet it has come to haunt the dreamer. Bedtime story suggests one of the ways that movies become part of our subconscious. Made in 1981 this film is silent. Think you can say.

Mission to Mungo by Jim Hoberman is not made up of found footage but have found postcards from communist China. The soundtrack however does come from an old film. Let's be Berkeley's Footlight parade with Jimmy Cagney singing Weberman edits the postcards in such a way that the story becomes so many extras in a Broadway musical. By emphasizing the relation between militarism and spectacle. He also implies that things can easily be turned into their opposites by simply manipulating the medium. What do you. Think. Eh eh.

The found footage film and its techniques have become important to influencing such recent documentaries as the Atomic Cafe and no place to hide. Excerpted here. Produced by Tom Johnson and Lance bird and narrated by Martin Sheen a social criticism issuing a warning for today by reminding us of our past. Thank you. Do you see all. The Army guys money. Just. To help stuff. You better. Clear up the broken glass and all the debris all in

all I'd say we've been. Very lucky. Nothing to do nothing but wait for orders from the authorities and really. To come through this without warning but not because the enemy succeeded making past our warnings. Over the improbable like our son with the bomb was. Not. Being alert. Now we're not. Learning anything about rationing. Let me know why Clara lying. Will. You know. In all that we were told about the bomb as we grew up. There was a double message. There was an official message.

You can be safe. Simple precautions can be taken. Plans can be made. The strong and the ready will survive. And there was another message the one that our hearts read. There is no place to hide from this. If anyone survives I walk the dream of utter destruction. It's true. The dream of safety is not. That easy. The old. You.

Remember to do the same thing. That's what this is all about.