 ... ya ya ya,... sudah tahun baru 2008, dan semuanya tetap terfokus pada perayaan...:) hari itu senin, 31 desember 2007 gw pulang kantor sekitar jam 5an sore.. yah cuek sih gw, lagian jam kantor untuk gw ga tbatas ini,... yup, after beresin reeling untuk film Hantu ..gw ama temen gw cabut balik ke kosan.. tapi gila, baru jam 5 sore, kawasan monas dah dipenuhi orang2 yang pasti memusatkan kegiatannya untuk pesta perayaan pergantian tahun.. gw di halte busway monas tertegun sambil bertanya ama diri gw.. wow, begitu banyak orang2 datang ke monas untuk acara pergantian tahun,... berbagai macam gaya dan tampang orang pada sore itu sedikit membuatku tergelitik.. :) wah ternyata sangat besar animo orang untuk melihat dan menikmati pesta kembang api... tepat satu jam sebelum gw pulang, sambil nunggu rendering tiap reel, gw sempetin keluar dari ruang editing untuk liat berita di TV, dan begitu kaget gw melihat banyaknya insert berita hampir semua tv memberitakan berita banjir yang melanda banyak tempat.. terasuk di jakarta sendiri.. 
:) sayangnya gw juga termasuk orang yang hanya menjadi penikmat berita itu..dan ketika gw pulang lalu melihat pemandangan seperti itu di sekitar monas,... begitu tergelitiknya hati gw..banyak pikiran berkecamuk, sebagai pekerja film, gw ingin membuat film yang menyajikan perbedaan yang kontras antara kedua keadaan tersebut.. disamping begitu besarnya keinginan gw untuk membuat suatu sajian fakta dimana masih banyaknya kepentingan pribadi yang menutup rasa sosial.. Begitu mudahnya menghamburkan biaya untuk sebuah perayaan,.. meskipun di perayaan itu tetap ada kata simpati untuk bencana alam yang banyak terjadi,... namun tetaplah itu hanya sebuah klise... namun untungnya tidak sepenuhnya gw menjadi penikmat berita karena banyak yang bisa gw perbuat walau bukanlah hal yang seberapa... :) sampai malam tiba pun keadaan masih penuh dengan hingar bingar,... dikawasan selatan, termasuk kost gw... sudah terguyur hujan mulai jam 7, dan seperti biasa.. kawasan monas tetap cerah.. :) yah hal yang wajar untuk sebuah perayaan yang telah dipersiapkan matang..  melihat fenomena itu ada hal menarik yang ditulis teman ku Adit GP, manajer sebuah band indie di surabaya..dia berteriak untuk orang-orang yang masih hingar bingar dengan perayaan.. aku copy lewat bulletin board di friendsternya dia.. --> Selamat tahun baru 2008 untuk orang2 BODOH.. Selamat tahun baru untuk kamu yg
ngabisin bensin motor kamu & bikin
bising telinga Selamat tahun baru untuk kamu yg sok
nasionalis dan menuduh negara tetangga
kita mencuri budaya indonesia. sementara
kamu sendiri menertawakan saya yang
mengenakan kemeja batik di pesta
pernikahan teman saya. f@#k u & happy
new year !! Selamat tahun baru untuk kamu yg mudah
dihasut oleh berita2 palsu. kamu lebih
hina dari para penjilat !! Selamat tahun baru buat para cewe matre.
Jual me** cuma buat dapetin sebatang
handphone mewah. Bercintalah dengan
pacarmu sendiri ! Selamat tahun baru buat yg suka teriak2
"anti rasis" tapi munafik! Koncomu yo
iku2 ae cok. Nggak pernah warna warni.. Selamat tahun baru buat kamu yg
menganggap Ibu kamu bodoh. Sementara
beliau tidak pernah merasa bodoh karena
telah susah2 menyelamatkan nyawamu
selama 9 bulan di perutnya, kesakitan
ketika melahirkanmu ke dunia, dan
merawatmu hingga dewasa !! Selamat tahun baru dari saya. dengan
penuh tanda tanya, bisa2nya orang2
seperti kamu masih hidup. bahkan makin
banyak. cape deh..
--> yah memang lucu wajah negeri ini... dan aku salut dengan ungkapan temanku untuk mereka...mungkin sudah saatnya gw benar2 berpikir untuk kemajuan negeri ini... :) wake up Guys... :) Taon Baru..??? ga ada yang beda.....
some genius of them... 
Kings of Convenience are an indie folk-pop duo from Bergen, Norway. Consisting of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, the musical group is known for their delicate tunes, calming voices, and intricately subtle guitar melodies. Both Øye and Bøe sing in their tracks, and both of them compose.untill now, they are still in independent lable for their music.. and I really2 like all of their songs.. Missread, a single from the last album..and a flick story about a friends.. in this case, i realy2 love their video clips.. this is another long track shot record..full of long track and a reality scene is true there.. there is a crew that bring some chairs for erlan and eirik.. really2 beautifull.. enjoy this video clips..i don't know who te director of this video clip, but :) enjoy one long track shot of full video clip.. Download this Film (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..) enjoy.. :)
Ten Minutes Older Ten Minutes Older the great film compilation in 2002, that a lot of cool and spartan directors directed there in each episode. There is 2 segment of this filn, The Trumpet and The Ciello. 
The Ciello 
Eight master directors of world cinema combine forces for this omnibus film that focuses cumulatively on the subject of time. Bookended by cello interludes, Ten Minutes Older: The Cello presents just one parameter to each of its filmmakers: no final entry can be more or less than ten minutes long. The resulting films run the gamut of styles and moods, beginning with Bernardo Bertolucci's Histoire d'Eaux, which presents an Indian fable about a mentor's impatience. In Mike Figgis' entry About Time 2, the director continues with the experimental structure he pioneered in Timecode; similarly, Jean-Luc Godard uses his time allotment to present a fractured series of clips on youth, death, and love. Another non-narrative entry, Volker Schlöndorff's The Enlightenment presents a series of images on racism. Claire Denis' effort Vers Nancy chronicles a philosophical discussion on time between a teacher and student on a train ride; in Jirí Menzel's Ten Minutes After, the effects of time on aging Czech actor Rudolf Hrusinsky are documented. In perhaps the film's most narrative-oriented segment, director Michael Radford offers up a sci-fi vision of an astronaut returning to earth to find that his son has aged faster than he has. Ten Minutes Older: The Cello is a companion piece to 2002's Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet, which aired in the U.S. on the Showtime cable network. The Trumpet 
Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate — some witty, some somber — in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates getting out of jail by travelling to Siberia in search of a wife. Victor Erice directed the impressionistic Lifeline, in which a family of Spanish farmers try to help an infant who has fallen ill. Werner Herzog visits the Uru Eus tribe of South America — believed to have been the last unknown indigenous people on earth prior to their discover in 1981 — and explores the often sad toll their discovery has taken upon them in Ten Thousand Years Older. Chloe Sevigny plays an film actress waiting out a ten-minute break in her trailer in Int. Trailer. Night, directed by Jim Jarmusch. Wim Wedners contributes Twelve Miles to Trona, in which a young man, dazed and ill, tries to drive himself to a doctor through a barren desert. Spike Lee looks into the Florida vote-counting scandal, and how Al Gore's assistants and supporters reacted to it, in the short documentary We Wuz Robbed. And in 100 Flowers Hidden Deep, directed by Chen Kaige, a delusional elderly man is convinced his furniture still stands in the vacant lot where his home used to be, and he persuades workers to help him move it away to safety. -------------------------------------------------------- here is the episode of Godard's work, Jean-Luc Godard - Dans le noir du temps one of The Ciello session with english subtitles. Jean-Luc Godard uses his time allotment to present a fractured series of clips on youth, death, and love. just like origins and deaths, in his manifesto of histoire du cinema. Download this Film (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- here's Jim Jarmusch's - INT. Trailer. Night. One of The Trumpet session. :) some experimental from him about "film" itself. Download this Film (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- here's Victor Erice - Lifelines, in which a family of Spanish farmers try to help an infant who has fallen ill One of The Trumpet sessions Download this Film (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- here's Wim Wedners contributes Twelve Miles to Trona, in which a young man, dazed and ill, tries to drive himself to a doctor through a barren desert. one of The Trumpet Session Download this Film (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- :) cheers.. and enjoy it
Eros 
is a triptych about eroticism and desire by directors Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni. The film also serves as an homage by the two younger directors to Antonioni, who has informed and inspired their work. Three directors from disparate cultures put love and sexuality under the spotlight. Wong Kar Wai's The Hand stars Gong Li as a 1960s high-end call girl in an impossible love affair with her tailor. Steven Soderbergh's Equilibrium stars Robert Downey, Jr. as an advertising executive under enormous pressure at work. During visits to his psychiatrist (Alan Arkin), they delve into the possible reasons why his stress seems to manifest itself in a recurring erotic dream. Michelangelo Antonioni's The Dangerous Thread of Things is the story of a ménage-a-trois between a couple and a young woman on the coast of Tuscany. "For me the experience of shooting The Hand was a very intense and intimate one. We began to work on the project in 2003, during the SARS epidemic. The original plan was to shoot in Shanghai. Owing to the epidemic, it had to be revoked. Because of travel restriction, we could only shoot in Hong Kong and Macau. We shot with a very basic crew as many had decided to leave the inflicted area. We tried to shoot as fast as we could. The last two days of shooting were done in a continuous 48-hour shift. Each day, we went through our daily ritual of cleansing our hands and putting on masks. Upon the advice of health authorities, we tried to avoid any physical contact with one another. This situation inspired me to make a film about the act of 'touch.' What motivated me to do this film was Michelangelo Antonioni–who had been the guiding light for me as well as filmmakers of my generation. I am deeply honored to have participated in this project. And, I must also thank Ms. Gong Li, Mr. Chang Chen and the rest of the cast and crew for their unrelenting and generous support for the film." – Wong Kar Wai "I wanted my name on a poster with Michelangelo Antonioni." –Steven Soderbergh Here is The Hands by Wong Kar Wai, The Hands.. bring erotica but not pleasure.. here's the kar wai magic to bring the erotica.. :) kar wai not forget about the east culture . With the stars Gong Li as a 1960s high-end call girl in an impossible love affair with her tailor it splitted in 5 part. enjoy :) part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 Download : Part1 | Part2 | Part3 | Part4 | Part5
don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..)
Steven Andrew Soderbergh, who directed Oceans eleven, until thirteen, sex lies and videotape also alot of another features fiction.. now has shot his experimental film by himself. Building no.7 , a short experimental film created by soderbergh. homage to Godards Alphaville, soderbergh created the true vision about film and video itself and assuming about video like histoires Du Cinema project, Soderbergh try to make the argument with his eye about godard... :) some silly point from soderbergh maybe.. for me .. it's a silly point.. but enjoy this.. Building no.7. Download this Film (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..) enjoy.. :)
Vincent visualizes his nightmarish fantasies: his aunt dipped in wax, his beautiful wife buried alive, and his dog Abacrombie transformed into a horrible zombie. But at every turn he is reminded by his mother that, “You’re not Vincent Price, you’re Vincent Malloy. You’re not tormented, you’re just a young boy.” The film ends with a tongue-in-cheek citation of Poe’s “The Raven“: “And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted . . .Nevermore!” Thus, in a humorous way, the boy Vincent shares with the protagonist of the poem–the student trying to forget his lost Lenore–what Poe himself described as the “human thirst for self torture . . the luxury of sorrow,” as he melodramatically indulges his dark fantasies. Vincent is for Burton the same sort of indulgence, a chance to represent himself on the screen as the tortured boy/outsider/artist. He characterizes Vincent as an artist by associating him with both the easel and the quill pen. Isolated and misunderstood in the grand tradition of the romantic artist, Vincent engages the darker side of life via the screen personae of Vincent Price, a figure associated with Poe through his roles in Roger Corman’s Poe films of the 1960s. The film is also an early stylistic benchmark for Burton, whose collaboration with Heinrichs established a pattern of combining 2D and 3D animation within a single film. Heinrichs, who has since collaborated with Burton as associate producer (Frankenweenine) and production designer (Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas), argues that Vincent was a breakthrough project “that taught Tim and me that you can combine the really graphic look of a two-dimensional picture with something that works in three dimensions.” The melding of these two modes of animation is found throughout the film, and endures as a stylistic signature in Burton’s later work. Heinrichs says that this notion of combining dimensional and flat animation was suggested by the three-dimensional models that Disney used to provide its animators as reference material. The film’s combination of 2D and 3D methods is foregrounded by its use of black and white. Without the use of color to establish spatial separation and define areas of screen space, the combination of 2D and 3D spatial representations is distilled and clarified. Black and white also reinforces the binary juxtapositions throughout the film: Burton effectively opposes light or high key scenes for Vincent’s normal childhood with dark or low key scenes for his imagined torments. Download this Film (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..) enjoy.. :)
untuk seorang teman di Surabaya yang kemarin kirim sms dan menanyakan bagaimana dan apa sebenarnya hirarki video art.. yang jelas, video art adalah karya seni yang menggunakan video sebagai medium penyampaiannya.. untuk lebih jelasnya ini ada sebuah artikel pasti tentang video art itu sendiri semoga bisa membantu :) enjoy bro !!! Video Art Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and is comprised of video and/or audio data. (It should not however be confused with television or experimental cinema). Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations. Overview Video art is named after the video tape, which was most commonly used in the form's early years, but before that artists had already been working on film, and with changes in technology Hard Disk, CD-ROM, DVD, and solid state are superseding the video tape as the carrier. Despite obvious parallels and relationships, video art is not film. One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema. Video art may not employ the use of actors, may contain no dialogue, may have no discernible narrative or plot, or adhere to any of the other conventions that generally define motion pictures as entertainment. This distinction is important, because it delineates video art not only from cinema but also from the subcategories where those definitions may become muddy (as in the case of avant garde cinema or short films). Perhaps the simplest, most straightforward defining distinction in this respect would then be to say that (perhaps) cinema's ultimate goal is to entertain,[citation needed] whereas video art's intentions are more varied, be they to simply explore the boundaries of the medium itself (e.g., Peter Campus, Double Vision) or to rigorously attack the viewer's expectations of video as shaped by conventional cinema (e.g., Joan Jonas, Organic Honey's Vertical Roll). History of Video Art Video art is often said to have begun when Nam June Paik used his new Sony Portapak to shoot footage of Pope Paul VI's procession through New York City in the autumn of 1965. That same day, across town in a Greenwich Village cafe, Paik played the tapes and video art was born. The french artist Fred Forest has also used a Sony Portapak since 1967. This fact is sometimes disputed, however, due to the fact that the first Sony Portapak, the Videorover did not become commercially available until 1967 and that Andy Warhol is credited with showing underground video art mere weeks before Paik's papal procession screening. In 1959 Wolf Vostell incorporated a television set into one of his works, "Deutscher Ausblick" 1959, which is part of the collection of the Museum Berlinische Galerie possibly the first work of art with television. In 1963 Vostell exhibited his art environment "6 TV de-coll/age" at the Smolin Gallery in New York. This work is part of the Museo Reina Sofia collection in Madrid. Prior to the introduction of the Sony Portapak, "moving image" technology was only available to the consumer (or the artist for that matter) by way of eight or sixteen millimeter film, but did not provide the instant playback that video tape technologies offered. Consequently, many artists found video more appealing than film, even more so when the greater accessibility was coupled with technologies which could edit or modify the video image. The two examples mentioned above both made use of "low tech tricks" to produce seminal video art works. Peter Campus' Double Vision combined the video signals from two Sony Portapaks through an electronic mixer, resulting in a distorted and radically dissonant image. Jonas' Organic Honey's Vertical Roll involved recording previously recorded material as it was played back on a television — with the vertical hold setting intentionally in error. The first multi-channel video art (using several monitors or screens) was Wipe Cycle by Ira Schneider and Frank Gillette. An installation of nine television screens, Wipe Cycle for the first time combined live images of gallery visitors, found footage from commercial television, and shots from pre-recorded tapes. The material was alternated from one monitor to the next in an elaborate choreography. At the San Jose State TV studios in 1970, Willoughby Sharp began the “Videoviews” series of videotaped dialogues with artists. The “Videoviews” series consists of Sharps’ dialogues with Bruce Nauman (1970), Joseph Beuys (1972), Vito Acconci (1973), Chris Burden (1973), Lowell Darling (1974), and Dennis Oppenheim (1974). Also in 1970, Sharp curated “Body Works,” an exhibition of video works by Vito Acconci, Terry Fox, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Dennis Oppenheim and William Wegman which was presented at Tom Marioni's Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, California. Prominent Video Artists Many of the early prominent video artists were those involved with concurrent movements in conceptual art, performance, and experimental film. These include Americans Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Peter Campus, Doris Totten Chase, Dan Graham, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, William Wegman, and many others. There were also those such as Steina and Woody Vasulka who were interested in the formal qualities of video and employed video synthesizers to create abstract works. Notable pioneering video artists also emerged more or less simultaneously in Europe and elsewhere with work by Pascal Auger (France), Knox Harrington, Domingo Sarrey (Spain), Wolf Vostell (Germany), Dieter Froese (Germany), Wojciech Bruszewski (Poland), Wolf Kahlen (Germany), Peter Weibel (Austria), David Hall (UK), Lisa Steele (Canada), Miroslaw Rogala (Poland), Rodney Werden (Canada), Colin Campbell (Canada) and others. Video Art Todays Although it continues to be produced, it is represented by two varieties: single-channel and installation. Single-channel works are much closer to the conventional idea of television: a video is screened, projected or shown as a single image, Installation works involve either an environment, several distinct pieces of video presented separately, or any combination of video with traditional media such as sculpture. Installation video is the most common form of video art today. Sometimes it is combined with other media and is often subsumed by the greater whole of an installation or performance. Contemporary contributions are being produced at the crossroads of other disciplines such as installation, architecture, design, sculpture, electronic art, and digital art or other documentative aspects of artistic practice. The digital video "revolution" of the 1990s has given wide access to sophisticated editing and control technology, allowing many artists to work with video and to create interactive installations based on video. Some examples of recent trends in video art include entirely digitally rendered environments created with no camera and video that responds to the movements of the viewer or other elements of the environment. The internet has also been used to allow control of video in installations from the world wide web or from remote locations. Emerging in the 1970s, Bill Viola (USA) continues as one of the world's most celebrated video artists. Matthew Barney, the creator of the Cremaster Cycle, is another well-known American video artist. Other contemporary video artists of note include Americans Gary Hill, Mary Lucier, and Sadie Benning, Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), Shaun Wilson (Australia), Raymond Salvatore Harmon (America), Stan Douglas (Canada), Douglas Gordon (Scotland), Martin Arnold (Austria) , Gillian Wearing (UK), Helene Black (Cyprus), Agricola de Cologne (Germany), Paul Pfeiffer (America), Paul Chan (America), Miranda July (America), Walid Raad (Lebanon, America, and Eve Sussman (America). *)Refferences Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture by Sean Cubitt (MacMillan, 1993). A History of Experimental Film and Video by AL Rees (British Film Institute, 1999). New Media in Late 20th-Century Art by Michael Rush (Thames & Hudson, 1999). Mirror Machine: Video and Identity, edited by Janine Marchessault (Toronto: YYZ Books, 1995). Video Culture: A Critical Investigation, edited by John G. Hanhardt (Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1986). Video Art: A Guided Tour by Catherine Elwes (I.B. Tauris, 2004). A History of Video Art by Chris Meigh-Andrews (Berg, 2006) Diverse Practices: A Critical Reader on British Video Art edited by Julia Knight (University of Luton/Arts Council England, 1996) Expanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood (New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1970). ---------------------------------------------------- yah begitulah sekiranya bro.. yang jelas, perkembangan video art sendiri semakin pesat sepesat perkembangan medium video tersebut di Indonesia sendiri teman teman di ruang rupa jakarta sudah menunjukkan bagaimana perjuangan mereka dan mereka sangat konsisten, sampai batas antara dokumenter dan video art sendiri sangat tipis.. namun sudah jelas menurut artikel diatas.. dan yang jelas banyak teman teman ngeklaim karya mereka video art tapi sangatlah tidak jelas di kepala mereka apa itu sebenernya video art.. :) seperti sebuah kisah klise yang terjadi pada polemik perkataan ".. yang jelas aku hanya ingin bikin film.." tanpa menjelaskan maksud dan tujuan yang jelas dengan apa yang di katakan.. yah akhirnya banyak juga polemik hanya ingin lulus kuliah tanpa adanya implementasi jelas atau tidaknya maksud lulus kuliah.. :) paling yah.. cuman lulus aja tanpa adanya korelasi tepat mengapa dia ingin lulus.. :) entah setelah lulus mau kemana juga terserah.. tapi masih mending lah mereka lulus.. daripad gw ga pernah lulus kuliah hehehe :) seperti sebuah karya,... kalau tanpa arah .. yah yang peting bikin karya, paling hanya jadi sensasi sesaat di benak dan otak tanpa adanya apresiasi yang berarti :) .. dan betapa menjelaskannya kedangkalan otak dan pemikiran akan sebuah karya.. ok bro !!! cheers..
Setelah menonton film yang cukup bikin marah ini, aku mencari tulisan yang searah dengan pikiran aku.. dan ternyata ADA !... berarti memang begitu adanya komentar tentang film ini ini tulisan dari seorang teman di rumahfilm.org .. dan saya sangat setuju dengan apa yang tertuangkan di tulisan ini, karena semakin banyak pembunuhan kreatifitas yang aku rasakan dan yah kita lihat aja bagaimana selanjutnya.. :)  Cintapuccino:
Lampu Merah Buat Rudi
oleh Hikmat Darmawan Dalam film remaja tapi bertokoh “dewasa” ini, bertebar dialog macam begini:
”Siapa sih elo?”
”Apa sih mau elo?” Saya gatal sekali ingin menambahi kata ”Rud” pada dua macam kalimat itu. Jadi, begini: ”Siapa sih, elo, Rud?”; atau, ”Apa sih mau elo, Rud?” Menonton Cintapuccino, saya memang gatal sekali ingin bertanya demikian kepada sang sutradara, Rudi Soedjarwo. Saya heran, sutradara yang dengan gagah pernah berteriak di mimbar FFI, “Selama saya masih berdiri, film Indonesia tak akan mati!” ini kok bisa-bisanya menghasilkan film luar biasa malas begini. (Atau mungkin saya heran, kok bisa-bisanya Rudi berteriak begitu?) Jika film Indonesia tak mati, tapi hasilnya macam begini saja, ya, saya pikir lebih baik mati dulu saja lah film Indonesia. Siapa tahu bisa reinkarnasi, mungkin jadi cacing dulu untuk menebus “dosa”, sebelum jadi makhluk lebih tinggi dan akhirnya masuk nirvana. Rudi sang pemenang Citra –apa artinya? Demikian juga Jujur Prananto, cerpenis handal dan pemenang Citra untuk penulis skenario, yang mendampingi Icha Rahmanti sang penulis novel yang difilmkan Rudi ini. Apa artinya para pemenang Citra yang seharusnya jadi tolok ukur keunggulan film nasional itu? Saya merasa gatal bertanya-tanya begitu karena saya merasa telah dikhianati Rudi lewat film ini. Saya suka sekali Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? –sebuah film hiburan yang segar, menyenangkan, dan dengan caranya sendiri telah cukup tepat menyuarakan suasana zaman. Keterampilan teknis pembuatan film yang menjadi kebanggaan tersendiri para pembuat film generasi Rudi, sangat tampak. Ciri lain, keasyikan membuat film, tampak nyata dalam Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? –sejenis keasyikan yang memancar dari layar, menular kepada penonton. Film-film Rudi sesudah itu rata-rata tak kehilangan ciri keasyikan tersebut. Tentu, banyak sekali masalah dalam film-film Rudi macam Tentang Dia, Mengejar Matahari, Mendadak Dangdut –umumnya, berhubungan dengan karakterisasi, “logika dalaman” film, dan ketakbermaknaan pesan-pesan dalam film-filmnya, yang sering bersifat pseudo-filsafat itu. Tapi paling tidak, saya mendapatkan sebuah sajian yang dihidangkan dengan keterampilan teknis pembuatan film yang beres. Berbagai kelemahan film-film Rudi, adalah juga kelemahan umum pembuat film generasinya. Dalam konteks kelemahan umum itu, Rudi termasuk di atas rata-rata lah. Setelah meletakkan dulu akal saya di tangan penyobek karcis bioskop, paling tidak saya bisa berharap mendapat hiburan alakadarnya dari film-film Rudi. Harapan itulah yang dengan spektakuler diruntuhkan Cintapuccino, persis setelah adegan main “kartu monyet” di saat credit title permulaan film. Fotografi yang tampak kurang profesional, misalnya. Tak apalah jika memang semangatnya adalah dalam rangka sinema gerilya. Tapi keseluruhan dialog, cerita, setting, pengarahan seni peran dalam Cintapuccino sama sekali tak menampakkan semangat itu: yang tampil hanyalah sebuah upaya mensimulasi gaya hidup remaja konsumtif tanpa refleksi sama sekali. Apa perlunya kamera, tata cahaya, dan penataan adegan harus bernuansa gerilya-non-profesional itu? Ada, memang, upaya philosophizing (memfilsafat-filsafatkan) cerita, di awal dan akhir film –soal “metafor” kopi untuk beberapa tipe cinta itu (saya ragu, adegan Ida Kusumah membisiki Sissy Priscillia tentang perlunya menikah dengan orang yang dicintai itu sebuah upaya berfilsafat juga, karena alangkah dangkalnya adegan itu!). Yang terasa hanyalah “filsafat” kelas horoskop dan tips cinta majalah ABG. Dengan kata lain, Cintapuccino sama sekali tak punya hal berharga untuk diucapkan. Masalah film ini mungkin telah ada sejak kelahiran novel Cintapuccino sendiri. Novel yang tergolong chic lit lokal ini adalah salah satu sukses pertama lini penerbitan populer penerbit GagasMedia. Hampir berbarengan dengan novel ini, terbit juga Jomblo yang telah difilmkan juga, oleh Hanung Bramantyo. Kedua novel ini agaknya menjadi cetak biru sukses GagasMedia: keduanya ditulis oleh penulis muda debutan, yang sama sekali tak terdidik sebelumnya dalam profesi atau seni menulis, dan keduanya punya jaringan pergaulan anak muda yang oke. Boleh dicurigai, pertimbangan ke-“tokoh”-an para penulis baru itulah yang jadi pertimbangan penerbit, sebuah potensi laris yang kuat. Demi potensi itu, GagasMedia menerapkan kebijakan redaksional yang radikal: sama sekali tak melakukan editing, naskah dibiarkan apa adanya. Soal (peniadaan) penyuntingan ini memberi pesan bahwa memang buku-buku jenis ini semata barang dagangan. Sebagai barang dagangan, kemasan lebih utama daripada ambisi artistik apa pun. Rupanya, sikap ini cocok benar dengan cara Rudi membuat film Cintapuccino –paling tidak, kesan yang saya tangkap dari film itu: bahwa film adalah barang dagangan, tak lebih dan tak kurang. Karena pertimbangan daganglah, dipasang Miler (sebagai Nimo) yang lebih tampak idiot ketimbang ganteng dan pantas jadi obsesi Rahmi (Sissy Priscillia) selama, ceritanya, 11 tahun. Miler agaknya adalah bintang Malaysia, paling-paling disertakan semata untuk membuka pasar di negeri jiran dan bukan karena talenta. Karena pertimbangan daganglah, tak ada upaya pencerdasan lebih lanjut dari sang sineas dalam adaptasinya terhadap buku populer itu. Karena menganggap film hanyalah barang dagangan lah, maka Rudi tampak sekali malas menafsir dan memberdayakan berbagai unsur film untuk menghidupkan cerita yang mati ini. Rudi sekadar memajang saja tiga pemain senior Nani Wijaya, Ida Kusumah, dan Nani Somanegara dalam film ini. Terutama Nani Wijaya dan Nani Somanegara yang aktris watak kuat, sama sekali tak termanfaatkan. Rudi juga mencoba bermain-main dengan pendekatan “kamera goyah”, dengan (digital) handheld camera, seperti pada bagian awal saat permainan “kartu monyet” keluarga. Buat apa? Efek realisme? Tapi realisme apa sih yang ditawarkan oleh komedi romantik ini? Dan jika film ini menawarkan fantasi eskapis, “komedi” dan “romantik”-nya pun tak tergarap. Satu-satunya pilihan Rudi yang benar dalam film ini, hanyalah Sissy Priscillia. Aktris ini tak cantik tipikal, tubuhnya montok cenderung gemuk. Pemeran Milly yang blo’on tapi jagoan menyetir dalam Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? ini menampakkan bakat besar untuk jadi bintang romcom yang alamiah. Ada satu adegan klise dari segi filmis, saat Rahmi seolah berbicara dengan pujaan hatinya, tapi ketika kamera perlahan zoom out ternyata ia hanya bicara dengan bonekanya. Monolog ini direkam dalam satu take panjang, dan satu-satunya yang membuat adegan ini berjalan hanyalah renyahnya pemeranan Sissy. Selebihnya, film ini hanya jadi kesia-siaan pameran gaya hidup kelas menengah yang dungu, yang hanya disibukkan oleh rasa cinta remeh. Cinta, tentu, bukan soal remeh –tapi film ini membuatnya remeh. Film ini adalah “lampu merah” bagi Rudi, untuk berhenti dulu membuat film. Bukan karena “paket-hemat-bikin-film-tujuh-hari-selesai”-nya yang banyak dikritik itu. Bikin film cepat tak mesti berarti asal-asalan, kok. Rudi mesti berhenti dulu membuat film karena tampak ia sedang tak asyik membuat film. Ia hanya kejar setoran, seperti supir metro mini S 75 yang kesetanan ngebut di jalan sempit Mampang. (Bahwa ada saja penonton yang merasa terwakili oleh film cinta remeh ini, membuat saya berpikir: jangan-jangan, budaya kita pun sedang di jelang lampu merah?) *** Judul: Cintapuccino
Sutradara: Rudi Soedjarwo.
Pemain: Sissy Priscillia, Aditya Herpavi, Nadia Saphira.
Produksi: SinemArt Pictures. Penulis adalah redaktur rumahfilm.org. Lebih dikenal sebagai pengamat komik, mengawali karir menulis dengan mengamati berbagai segi budaya populer, buku, dan film. Tinggal di Jakarta.
Weekend - 1967 Godard masterpiece JeanLuc Godard, alone FilmMaker that always make his own cinematic law being full of confidence to bring the reality Ideology in his film,Weekend. The famous 400feet full long track shot is very amazing.. this is those long shot that titled Action Musicale in that film.. this scene also called crossing the farm.. simple talk about different music and how godard very impression with mozart and he bring it on that scene just like an anecdot,... if we seen this scene.. just see there a lot of directing but it also came with a reality of life.. sound of dialogue is present alot of pictures and it's only a dialoge the piano player with his beautiful lady who being attracted with his piano playing.. actually in vivre sa vie, Godard do his long track shot too but in weekend, this long shoot is very impression with itself explanation and see the music background, the polyphonic tones, and every camera stop there always a message that Godard try to tell about life itself. enjoy it..
download this Video ( don't forget to save it as .FLV and rename the get_video name of file)
La JeTee - 1961 chris Marker masterpiece "Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments, only afterwards do they claim rememberance on account of their scars."
A short film that is a reflection about time, happiness and love, entirely composed of b&w static shots. La Jetee, is one of the most enigmatic and thought provoking science fiction films ever made.
The original French version should be available around here, but the English narrator got something captivating and laconic in his voice, too. 12 Monkeys is the remake for this film... that's claimed from the diector of 12Monkeys.. but for me, Ted not sure bout his apreciation of La Jetee and 12Monkeys just a sensations that hollywood viewing his capability of a giant blockbuster.. coz, in La Jetee, we've seen a lot of fantasi and reality labyrinth .. and also a depth message from chrisMarker for viewing his capability of it's own story... un Photo Roman.. that statement is dept and more deep if we called a film is motion capture... stillFrame photo also can make our mind motioning those pictures in ourselves memory and mind.. that's the point of Marker by viewing this film.. he use 35mm movie camera, but he choose to make this film looks like photo slide and he claimed that he's under lowBudget.. but if we take a look again scene by scene, this film is full of directing and reconstruction.. about museum, pierr itself, also a lot of dramatic events.. i think this film is not lowBudget.. but however chrisMarker makes a great movement in that year.. beside fritz lang, truffaut,dzigaVertov and the other of film icons.. :) -mbek- here is LaJetee in English naration.. it splitted in 3 part.. just for fast viewing Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Download La Jetee part - 1 | Download La Jetee part - 2 | Download La Jetee part - 3 (don't forget to save as .FLV files and rename of get_video name of file name that you download ..)
artikel ini diambil dari wikiversity, untuk seorang teman yang mau mempelajari scoring film .. :)  Creating moods using individual musical notes - Single notes
- Some of the instruments of a symphony orchestra create a mood when you play even a single note.
-
That means all you have to do is play a single note to create a film score. -
Wow! Even filmmakers who are not musicians can do that. -
Example -
You can create the sound of fear by playing a violin trill. At a certain pitch, the violin trill sounds really scary. -
The purpose of this lesson -
The purpose of this lesson is to show you that you can create a film score just by playing a single note... if you use the right musical instruments. The Sound of Fear - Creating moods with individual notes
The texture of the sound of certain musical instruments automatically creates a mood. You don't have to do anything special. Just play that one note.
- "It gives me a trill!"
A trill is a special musical sound created with rapid bowed instruments such as a violin. The average filmmaker can never play a trill on a real violin. Not in a million years.
- Your computer makes it possible
With GarageBand and Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra(Mac users), filmmaker just press one key on the keyboard to get a wonderfully realistic trill sound. For filmmakers with no musical talent, this is a miracle. Using the software instruments in the Macintosh computer, a filmmaker can create fantasitc sounds for motion pictures. ther is a Windows software also have a good purpose too, such as Project5 and ProTools.
- There is a problem
Just playing a violin trill is not enough. When you play a violin trill with GarageBand, the trill turns on and then it turns off. Not realistic. To make the trill seem realistic, you must adjust the volume of the sound so it fades in and fades out. That is simple!
- That's it!
This entire process is fast. Super fast! Once you have found the correct musical instrument, you simple adjusted the volume of the note. - Creating moods with individual notes
One of the simplest ways to create moods is with single notes or cords. This works only if the sound is so fantastic, it creates the correct mood. - The secret: Organic notes
You do not need to be a musician if you use very organic sounds such as the sounds of a symphony orchestra. If you use the sounds of a symphony orchestra, people automatically think you have musical talent. - Good news: Really cheap orchestra
The only economical way for a low budget filmmaker to create the sounds of a symphony orchestra is with software instruments that live inside your computer. The grand theory of film scoring Music creates all of the mood for a motion picture. The visual images and the words of the actors do not tell the audience what to feel. Only the music explains the emotion of the scene. - Four kinds of music
The four kinds of music in a motion picture are: - Narrative music
- Background music
- Songs
- The melody line of the actor's voices.
- Music that tells a story
Of the four kinds of music in film scores, music which narates the story is the most important. - Sources of narrative music for motion pictures
- Organic sounds - As typified by the "sound of fear" from this lesson.
- Rhythm - As typified by the "sound of joy" which is the next lesson.
- Melody - For non-musicians, melody comes from midi files of classical music and broadway music. For non-musicians, this is where all your skills of "cut & paste", simplify, and organize are put to the test.
- Editing for narrative music in a conversation
Because the music which narrates the story will drown out any dialog, the editor must add gaps between the dialog. That is, between the sentences or ideas in a motion picture. Since the film's editor and the film's composer must work closely together, it is easier for the composer and the editor to be the same person. That can be you! - wikiversity -
artikel ini diambil dari wikiversity, untuk seorang teman yang mau mempelajari scoring film .. :) What is narrative music? - There are many kinds of music in a motion picture but narrative music is the most fun.
- Narrative Music simply means "music which tells a story".
- Before we begin, you must understand what is narrative music and how it differs from other kinds of music such as background music and songs.
 Narrative music is the most important music - Just another actor
- Narrative music is like another actor in the movie. Narrative music is like the announcer for a movie. Narrative music tells the audience what mood they should feel. Without narrative music, the audience might not know how to feel. The audience needs someone to guide them.
 How long is narrative music? - Narrative music has an average length of 3 seconds but each theme can be as short as one second or as long as ten seconds. Often narrative music will be linked together to make a single, long piece of music with many different moods, one mood after another.
- However, be aware that for all of your homework assignments in in the course on film scoring are all three (3) to five (5) seconds long. Keep it simple!
 Narrative music vs. dialog (Dialog always wins) - Narrative music is usually very loud therefore narrative music can never be used when there is dialog. In motion pictures, dialog is always the most important thing. Therefore, never have narrative music when there is dialog because you will not hear the dialog.
- A Confict!!!
- Do you see the conflict?
- By now, you should be thinking, "When there is dialog, I need narrative music to explain the moods to the audience. But when there is dialog, there is no place to put narrative music."
- This seems to be a major conflict. "I need music but I have not place to put it."
- So how do you add the necessary music if there is no room? That is the question!!!!
 - Dialog is the winner
- By the way, when there is dialog and narrative music together, only one wins. The winner is the dialog. The looser (the musical sound track) will be turned down by the movie's mixer at the last stage of movie post-production. Therefore, you must find a way to add narrative music while not stepping on the dialog. How can that be?
 The Solution - Below, I explain the solution to this problem. To make room for the dialog, you edit the scene, adding gaps for the music. These gaps will stick out horribly unless the gaps are exactly the same length as the narrative music.
- And there is a perfect solution for that problem too. You must learn to be both the film editor and the film composer.
What is Musical Sound Effects? Filmmakers do not need to create music. They only need to create the proper mood. Many times, filmmakers can do this with just musical sound effects. Musical sound effects are extremely short and simple musical tones, rhythms, or melodies.
 Foreground music The music (and musical sound effects) for a motion picture can be loud or can be soft. Loud music is called foreground music. Many timess, loud music helps tell the story so it is called narrative music.
"Don't forget the background music"
Background Music Background music quietly adds to the mood of the scene. Since narrative music is loud (just like the actor's dialog), narrative music can never be on top of dialog. But background music, being much softer, can play when the actors says their dialog. - Rule for background music: No drums
Even though background music often contains rhythm (which you will learn about in the lesson about the "Sound of Joy", you must never use drums. This is the same frequency as the voice and creates spikes in the volume. This makes listening to the dialog harder.) Exceptions to the rules Above, you learned that you must never have narrative music when you have dialog because narrative music will drown out the dialog. Naturally, there is an exception to this rule. - What if you do not want the audience to hear the dialog? What if you want the audience to fight to hear the words of the actor? What then?
Silence of the Lambs Watch Silence of the Lambs. Listen to when Dr. Hannibal Lecter is saying very bad things. The dialog by itself is very simple. But by adding narrative music on top of the dialog, the audience cannot hear the dialog clearly. The audience must strain to hear the words. This creates tension and makes the audience feel uncomfortable How to make room for narrative music? The solution -- (You are going to learn a great secret of extreme value!) - If narrative music is so important, how do you fit it into the scene? Since narrative music is never supposed to be on top of dialog, where do you put it? Narrative music is so loud, it would drown out the dialog so it must be placed before or after each sentence or phrase, never on top.
- So how do you find space between actor's dialog for the narrative music?
The answer (Pay attention!!! This is very, very, very important!) - You make room. You physically cut the dialog apart in the motion picture to leave a gap for the narrative music. During post-production, it is too late to ask the actors to pause in the middle of their dialog. Therefore, you must add the gaps as you edit the film. You must change the timing of the dialog using a film editing program. (Do you see a problem with this?)
Wear two hats - Working with the film's editor
- How do you convince the editor of the motion picture to create the necesary gaps for your music between the lines of dialog of the actors? This is not easy!
- The perfect solution
- The perfect solution is you should learn film editing as well as film scoring so you can become both the film's editor and the film's composer. Then you have completed control. Then you can create the music and add the gaps in the dialog at the same time! That saves a huge amount of time.
- This way, you will always have the correct length of the music and the pauses between the dialog. This is the best way to get a perfect edit of a dramatic scene.
- Think about this. You can do it!!!
artikel ini diambil dari wikiversity, untuk seorang teman yang mau mempelajari scoring film .. :) Creating music for narrative motion picture  Why is there music in motion pictures? Here is why you need music in motion pictures: - The actor's words do not clearly explain the emotions of a scene.
- Often what an actor says is the opposite of what the director wants the audience to feel.
- Similarly, visual images do not tell the audience what to feel. Even horror movies have very beautiful visual images.
- Therefore, the mood of a motion picture comes from the music.
- Music gives the story more details and impact.
- The music explains the emotions that the audience should feel.
- Music can even narrate the story.
Why use a symphony orchestra? - Something special for filmmakers
- There is something special about a symphony orchestra.
- Filmmakers do not need to be professional musicians. All filmmakers need do is create moods for a motion picture.
- You don't need musical talent to do this! You just need a symphony orchestra.
- What is so special about a symphony orchestra?
- If you use the sounds of a symphony orchestra, people automatically think you are a genius.
- The symphony orchestra inside your computer
- Now, low budget filmmakers can have wonderful sounds of a symphony orchestra using software instruments inside your computer.
- GarageBand makes this possible. You just add Apple's Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra or download Ben Boldt's free instrument packages.
Top secret I will tell you three secrets. Pay attention! This is the best information you will ever get about motion pictures. The three secrets of filmmaking - 1. Sound, not the picture, is more important
- In motion pictures, 90% of what you see on the screen is sound. The visual image that you get in your mind does not come from the picture or even the words of the actors. Instead, most of the important details of the picture actually come from the sound.
- Even more important, 100% of what you see off screen comes from sound. The audience only sees a very small portion of the movie set. All the rest is imagined from the sound.
- 2. Without music, the audience is confused.
- All music creates a mood. This mood becomes part of the story. Therefore, filmmakers can use the music to guide the audience. Without music of some kind, the emotion of the scene is not clear.
- 3. Most movies need a narrator.
- Often, the audience needs someone to explain the movie to them. I do not mean a voice-over narration. Instead, I mean music which narrates the story. I call this "narrative music" because it helps tell the story.
 Five kinds of music The five kinds of music in a motion picture are: - 1. The melody line of the actor's voices.
- This is the ever changing pitch of the actor's voice.
- Many sound effects have a pitch and a rhythm.
-
- Music that you add:
- This is music which enhances all the moods in the scene. This is individual notes, rhythms, and melodies.
- This is music which actually tells a story.
- This is music which has a single mood. (Therefore, songs are good only for scenes which have a single mood.)
The Melody Line
of the human speaking voice - Melody in the dialog
- Dialog already has a melody. Most people do not realize this. This music comes from the pitch of the actor's voice.
- If you do not believe me, just try reading a script in a monotone voice to see the huge difference that the melody of the actor brings to the scene.
- Stage Acting
- For stage acting, actors are trained to speak with a three octave range or more. This continually changing pitch of the actor's voice is the melody line of the human speaking voice.
- Stage actors as film actors
- Many stage actors such as James Cagney and Pat O'Brian speak with a very strong melody line (musical speaking voices). See their classic movie "Angels with Dirty Faces" to hear the melody of the actor's speaking voice.
- When you have strong performances by trained actors, there is no need for music since the melody line of the actor's voice provides all of the necessary mood for each scene.
- Modern actors are more realistic
- Modern actors do not have a strong melody line in their speaking voice. They are much more monotone. With modern actors, you need more music to explain the movie to the audience.
Background Music In this course, you will learn three special ways to create background music for motion pictures using programs like Apple's GarageBand. - Musical sounds come from three sources.
-
- Individual notes and chords
-
-
Background music is called that because dialog can go over it. Foreground music (usually narrative music) cannot have dialog over it. Sources of music for motion pictures - Organic sounds - Single notes as typified by the " sound of fear" which is the first lesson.
- Rhythm - Delicate, repeating notes as typified by the " sound of joy" which is the second lesson.
- Melody - For non-musicians, melody comes from midi files of classical music and Broadway musicals. For non-musicians, this is where all your skills of "cut & paste", simplify, and organize are put to the test.
Note: Special editing for narrative music - Narrative music requires special film editing.
Because the music which narrates the story will drown out any dialog, the editor must add gaps between the dialog. That is, you must cut between the sentences or ideas in a motion picture and pull them apart. Bottom line - Since the film's editor and the film's composer must work closely together, it is easier for the composer and the editor to be the same person.
- That can be you... once you finish these lessons!
- You can be both
- You can learn to be both a film editor and a film composer.
'Composing for the films' (1947): Adorno, Eisler and the sociology of music.(editor Theodor W. Adorno who collaborated with composer Hanns Eisler on the book 'Composing for the Films') Author/s: Martin Hufner
Composing/or the Films (Komposition far den Film) by Theodor Adorno and Harms Eisler has a title which distinguishes it from modern literature about the medium of film. It is not 'film music' or 'music and film'. The emphasis is on 'composition', clearly indicating that the content deals primarily with the question of writing music for a relatively new mass medium. It treats both the composer's position towards society within the production process, as well as the actual work of composing for films. In Adorno-Eisler, the music always appears as something added on, no matter how well done from an artistic point of view.
If one looks at the contemporary literature dealing with film music, one will mostly find works with a practical orientation which examines the effect music develops within a film. Today's books deal with such matters as reception, or the influence of music on the perception of films. Part of Eisler and Adorno's work in fact also deals with these considerations, but thinking solely of these matters obscures the book's overall meaning. The authors' real purpose went deeper, seeking principles. Composition for the Films - just like Philosophy of New Music (Philosophie der Neuen Musik) by Theodor W. Adorno - is an executed excursus about the Dialectic of Enlightenment (Dialektik der Aufklarung) by Max Horkheimer and Adorno, their major theoretical work, a 'critical theory of society' which takes into consideration the interdependence between intellectual and material production. Origins Composing for the Films was written between 1940 and 1944 in American exile within the context of several research projects funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Hanns Eisler directed the 'Film Music Project,' while Adorno participated in the 'Princeton Radio Research Project'. Although working in two different places, they decided to cooperate. They noted in the foreword to their book that 'it suggested itself that the authors who have intimately known each other's practical and theoretical works in music for many years, should come together in order to formulate some thoughts' [1]. With this remark the content of the book departed from its point of origin. The original 'Film Music Project' became just one chapter in the book. The 'Project' initially was directed 'more towards practical experimentation than towards theory' [2]. Only after that followed the theoretical evaluation of the practical. The contents of Composing for the Films extend from sociological thoughts to a practical experiment in music concerning '14 ways to describe rain' by Hanns Eisler. It was not the intention of the authors 'to give an overview of the contemporary film music and its trends' [3]. The history of the publication of the book itself has the makings of a thriller. The authors fought over who was mainly responsible for its contents, who omitted or added to it, and for what reasons it was written. To evaluate the significance of the book, however, it is only of minor interest as to who did the lion's share or who made the greater contribution in formulating the book's content. Dream Factory Hollywood Of course the place where the book was conceived put its mark on its contents: it was written in the immediate vicinity of the dream factory Hollywood, which then and today is the synonym for films as typical products of mass culture. The authors state clearly in the beginning that 'one cannot see the film as an isolated art form of its own standing; it rather must be understood as the most characteristic medium of our present mass culture which uses the techniques of mechanical reproduction' [4]. Even though this narrowing of film art to production for a film theater audience is no longer acceptable today, it is still valid for a great majority of all films made. The authors did away with many cliches and prejudices of a functional theory which only operates with pseudo-psychological arguments. According to Eisler and Adorno, it was important not to accept 'rules set by experience' in film art without serious examination. 'When there is no real experience,' they argued, it also cannot have rules [5]. Their list of false experiences includes an incorrect transferral of the leitmotif into the sphere of the film [6], the call for 'melody and smooth sound' [7], as well as the claim that as 'one may not hear the music' [8], the 'use of music must be justified by the optical effect' [9], or composing the music as 'illustration' [10]. They directed their arguments against stereotyping music thanks to an increasing compartmentalization of production. Generally the composer joins a production towards the end. Under these circumstances music is and will remain a slave of its master, that is of the director or the producer. The reader would face a large void if he or she were to take the result of 'ideas dealing with aesthetics' as the only goal of their enterprise: 'So much is true: there must be a relation between picture and music' [11]. One look at the mainstream culture of our time, however, shows that even with such a statement there is much that can be criticized in contemporary films. Since producing a film costs a lot of money, producers look for every opportunity to reduce costs. One popular and successful way of doing this has been selling the soundtracks by themselves, politely termed secondary usage. One should be able to consume this music without looking at the film. That reduces the demand for a relation between picture and sound to an absolute minimum. It must be said that people have become so accustomed to music being combined with films in this' way that they believe there is a perceptual connection. Film and New Music Neither author pondered these questions very much. The musical socialization of both started in the circle around Schonberg. Both were composers, though only Eisler had experience as a composer for films. The authors were especially interested in following the traces of new music through the history of filmmaking. It is difficult to determine whether the many dissonant sounds and colors could be understood without the developments in the new music. New characters, gestures exaggerations as dramaturgical means and building sharp contrasts have long ceased to be unusual, making themselves part of the 'technical principle of abruptly changing direction' [12]. No horror film and no cartoon can live without it, but this did not lead to a better understanding of new music. Eisler and Adorno wrote that 'all really new music that came after Strauss has remained esoteric' [13]. One might even be able to argue that the assumption may not be without foundation; that the existing film music in fact has really fortified the separation of the new music from a wider audience. 'Conventional' music does not just infiltrate the thinking of the bourgeois concert audience even as it reaches a mass audience. An additional phenomenon occurs at the same time: a wide section of society absorbs new music above all in a visual form. The experiences of a visit to a film theater directly influence the perceptions of new music. In this way music becomes the sound of the picture. It is clear that this cannot be helpful for an unobstructed perception of new music. The conditions producing film music were very different from those of producing 'autonomous' music at the time that the authors made this statement: 'In reality no serious composer will join the movie industry for other than material reasons' [14]. Instead the species 'film music composer' developed, which lately has also left its linguistic mark in the ambitious formulation 'sound designer'. Stereotypes and Mainstream When one looks at mainstream film history, one simply notes its lack of perspective and a lack of progress. Stereotypes have become entrenched. Changes in film language over the past 100 years are not worth mentioning; the same goes for film music. Innovations are made solely in the technical and practical parts. While in the history of radio drama (Horspiel), the relations between word, sound and music were rethought at the end of the 1960s, this change of paradigms - meaning artistic technique - did not take place in the history of film. In Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Horkheimer described this phenomenon in very harsh words: 'In spite of all the progress in acting technique, rules, and in specialties, in spite of all this fidgety activity, the bread with which the industry of culture feeds man remains the stone of stereotypes' [15]. 'One is carried with rocket-like speed from the place that one occupies anyway to a place ... where things are no different' [16]. And so one is enchanted by the awe of technology, Dolby-surround and 'special effects'. Film Art and Music What we have said only applies to the mainstream. There exists something besides Hollywood - Dziga Vertov, Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann, Louis Bunuel come to mind, along with Jean-Luc Godard, Alexander Kluge and Wim Wenders. All possess a complex understanding of montage. A 'mounted' music, which often enough is an integral part of the dramatic layout, joins the constructing of the film structure, the narration by means of pictures. Peter Weiss wrote that this is different from making feature films whose scripts 'are still overloaded with the goods inherited from literature and theater dramas. [The avantgarde films] are about an expression of emotions, of chains of thoughts which often escape rational thought'. [17]. A different film language, a different form of narration, requires a different music, if music is at all necessary. For this reason a way leads from Rene Clair's Entr'acte (in cooperation with Marcel Duchamp, Picabia and Erik Satie) directly to Alexander Kluge's montage films. When a film enters into a state of reflection - which means that it wants to be more than just a promotion for itself and the circumstances which make it possible - then the music can look for its place. The films of Godard and Kluge demonstrate this clearly. It is not surprising that Godard and Kluge often use the repertoire of the history of music. This action is certainly not simply justified by a lack of financial resources. Transform the old into something new: whoever has the gift of an artistic language, has access to all possibilities. According to Adorno and Eisler, 'This means that past and unfashionable materials of music will not be sold out if the film really mobilizes their potential, if they will experience a break. This break refers as much to the content of expression as to the purely musical character' [18]. In this context a look at Alexander Kluge's Die Patriotin of 1979 is instructive. The entire film is a gigantic montage of picture-music-film. Besides a dramatic level, which does not operate in a linear form, he used pictures and film material encompassing 2000 years of German history. There is no music that was composed specifically for this film. Rather there are pieces taken from the 'classical' repertoire (by Bach, Beethoven, Sibelius, Skriabin, all the way to Eisler), as well as works of 'light music'. In the opening sequences dim archival film footage depicting dead or dying soldiers is blended into a picture of World War II underscored with an excerpt from Hanns Eisler's triptychon Das Vorbild (The Shining Example). In scene 6 the viewer experiences scenes of harvested fields, contemplations of nature, old castle ruins - all joined by a meager prelude by Alexander Skriabin. Again later (scenes 10-13) there is a the view of a big city at dusk, pictures of heads that are out of focus, finally an air raid with direct hits. The accompanying music is Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela which the sounds of the planes overwhelm only briefly. There is no direct semantic reference between all these musical examples and pictures. Nevertheless, one would be able to create one if one takes into consideration the history of Sibelius' symphonic poem. Sibelius describes the flavor of the scene at an early stage in the following way: 'Tuonela, empire of death - the hell of Finnish mythology - is surrounded by wide, black, water which flows rapidly, on which the swan of Tuonela travels majestically, singing' [19]. The film montage of a dim landscape, faces and war certainly coincides with this image, but one does not have to understand every reference. Nothing is said directly, all remains vague, but because of this it coalesces into something concrete which at the same time the viewer is not able to define. Alexander Kluge wrote that 'In my opinion, exactly this is narrative cinema, that is, telling stories. And what else is the history of a country than the broadest possible story? Not one story but many stories. This means: montage....Throughout the history of film montage means "the world of forms of the context" ' [20]. It is therefore consistent to use historic music with all its 'vague' implications. Picture, film, commentary and music create experiences in their very personal way. However, they also host historical experiences, irrational knowledge within themselves. A film about German history needs the viewer and listener who him/herself is standing at one point within history and pieces together the film from this vantage point for him/herself. Kluge's approach aims towards discovery, more than that of Eisler and Adorno who, in Composing for the Films, still talked about the interdependence of the effects between music and picture mostly within the categories of 'imitation', 'correspondence', and 'contrast'. By doing so, they treated this relationship in traditional terms. This becomes immediately apparent when one looks at the very first expression of Adorno's 'philosophical process' from 1932: 'This is not about a divisive explanation of terms, it rather is about the constellation of ideas, that is, the idea of mortality, of meaning, and the idea of nature, and the idea of history' [21]. Here they affect each other, particularly when documentary material is used. Adorno treated it as a nature, building on Karl Marx and Georg Lukac's early theory, that is it would become a 'second nature', the world of conventions. By means of his montage technique Kluge retranslated this nature into a historical experience. Ultimately this is what the catch phrase 'take something old and transform it into something new' ('aus sit mach neu') means. Looking at it this way, the use of the 'ode of joy' of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony towards the end of Kluge's film (section XII, Silvester, 'Song of Joy') appears in a completely different light. Just like a spectrum, this light is divided in a personal, subjective life experience, on the one hand and into its historical substance, on the other, which brings the text back into the consciousness outside the drug 'music' in the scene in which a group of women all talk at once. The semantic popularity of the Ninth Symphony by Beethoven is dismantled: conventional historical experience is crushed and pieced together in a new way. One might be able to call this process deprogramming and reprogramming of semantic fixations. This method runs through the entire film, since in Die Patriotin the same pieces of music are brought together with different picture contents. In the course of the film both start to develop an interdependent relationship because, not just the emotions of pictures, but also the emotions of music, cross each other. All begins to be in a constellation to something else. The montage procedure becomes identical to the film's main point, which the 'Patriotin Gabi Teichert' formulates in section three 'At the Party Rally' ('Auf dem Parteitag'): 'I am a history teacher. I have come here because I want to change history together with you.... It is my opinion that the material for our history lessons ... is not positive enough because our German history also is not positive enough. Now, I want to get other material.... To get different material we must first change history' [22]. Therefore, we misunderstand the 'film music' in Kluge's Die Patriotin if we look at it as 'film music'. The music is a 'historical inheritance' and 'material' which is changed in its meaning just as much as history itself. Adorno and Eisler maintained in their final statement that 'The only hope that film music might develop towards something better is if the music incorporates an exact knowledge and the consideration of a special function in a certain case' [23]. The chances of this happening are good, contrary to the thesis of the authors that film does not represent its own art form. Here we can detect a phenomenon of popular culture in general by growing without bounds it fights itself; this opens spaces for occupying new areas between the established ones.
The Three Regimes: A Theory of Film Music Robert Spande Film music is a contingent necessity. As Hegel described an absolute necessity and as Zizek interprets, it is a necessity in the form of contingency.1 It has been said that film music originally appeared largely to cover up the sound of the clanky machines which projected the earliest of the silent films.2 The solution for this traumatic intrusion of the real, this contingency to be dealt with, was itself, contingency. Numerous else besides playing a piano could have solved this problem and ultimately did. Yet |
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