Scratchtacular

A new semester. Booya. Ready to dive into 6X1. Haven't had any experience with experimental film before, but seeing just the tip of the iceberg on the first day I have a greater appreciation for it. What's more artful than literally painting and scratchin on a 16 or 35 mm canvas? Eat your heart out Stanley Kubrick. Stumbled onto a few Brakhage shorts while traveling the grapevine but haven't seen many films like the one from the Scratch Collective. In the short time we spent scratching on Monday I wondered how great it must feel to see a finished project lit up by the projector after laboring over frame after frame. Enjoyed the synchronicity between sound and image, whether it was deliberately timed that way when scratching and manipulating, or it was happy circumstance. The repeated technique of filling in the negative space of live action footage with scratch marks jumped out of the frame as well. Very cool how tempo changes on the soundtrack created stylistic shifts with the image. The high speed color transformations towards the end got me the most. Really dug that part. All in all I enjoyed seeing the few shorts and have a newfound appreciation of exactly what goes into making them. No wonder most of 'em are just a few minutes long.