Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Direct Animation: Ignore the frame line and pull marks as long continuous bands
- Type
- Set in Direct Animation's manner (Write letters by hand one frame at a time and keep the drift), and let Photogram's lettering (For letters, lay cut stencils on the paper and leave them reversed) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Direct Animation's material (Paint onto clear stock, scratch into black, and switch between them); bring in exactly one thing from Photogram (Photo paper, lamp height, exposure time, distance controlling edge hardness).
- Colour
- Build on #F4E7C4, #E34B36, #161313 and admit one accent from #f0eee5, #73777a, #111315.
Where they fight
- Direct Animation and Photogram are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show.
- Direct Animation and Photogram stand roughly 105 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Direct Animation Laying one scanned scratch texture over the footage so the dirt sits still instead of changing every single frame.
- Photogram This is not black and white abstraction in general. Merely arranging unusual objects records only shadows, while transparency and distance from the sensitized surface are what make the image.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Direct Animation (technique, 1935–) and their accent from Photogram (technique, 1830s– / avant-garde revival). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Direct Animation exists for: short experimental films and titles that put the material itself in front, or abstract runs of color and scratch cut by hand to a piece of music. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Direct Animation - Hand-drawing on film - Scratched marks - Continuity that ignores frames - Physical blots of color Composition: Ignore the frame line and pull marks as long continuous bands. Type and lettering: Write letters by hand one frame at a time and keep the drift. ## Accent comes from Photogram, used sparingly - Cameraless - Object contours - Reversed values - Contact and distance Let one material quality come from it: Photo paper, lamp height, exposure time, distance controlling edge hardness. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #F4E7C4, carry the structure in #E34B36 and #161313, and let a single accent come from #73777a. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, play, intimacy, technique, calm. ## Where they fight - Direct Animation and Photogram are techniques rather than looks. Decide which one runs last in the process, because that is the one that will show. - Direct Animation and Photogram stand roughly 105 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Direct Animation: Laying one scanned scratch texture over the footage so the dirt sits still instead of changing every single frame. - Photogram: This is not black and white abstraction in general. Merely arranging unusual objects records only shadows, while transparency and distance from the sensitized surface are what make the image. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Direct Animation 1935– / Technique / Experimental Film
Images made without a camera, by drawing, scratching and pasting directly onto the filmstrip. The film stock itself becomes the brushstroke and the rhythm.
- Photogram 1830s– / avant-garde revival / Technique / Photographic Techniques
No camera is involved. Objects laid on the sensitive surface and exposed to light turn contour, transparency and distance into the picture.
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