Brakhage Article

When I saw that we had to read an article written by Stan Brakhage, I had a very preconceived idea of what it would be. Having seen a number of his films and knowing his style, I assumed the article would detail mainly creative techniques for creating art on film. While the article did contain hints of that, it was far more technical and mechanical than I expected. To be honest, the article was very difficult for me to read. Not only did Brakhage use tons of technical language, but he has a long-winded style that is hard to read and follow. Having taken a good number of film classes already, I felt that I already knew a lot of what this article said, and that I had heard it multiple times before. It is always good to get a refresher on the basics, but this article was not an easy read by any means, so I really struggled through it.

While I did feel that the article was mostly information I already had, I did find myself relating some recent film experiences to what I read. For example, I used the information about f-stop and light meters just this morning during a photo shoot for my Intro to Doc class. My group went down to the beach and had to figure out the light meter and how to adjust the f-stop for different lighting conditions. I also related the parts of the article about both splicing and using the projector to our class last week, as we learned about both techniques. I enjoy being at a point in the film program where I can read an article like this and be familiar with most of what it is describing. I feel like I'm finally learning something!