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 Visual Music's lettering (Use no lettering, or treat any lettering as one more figure) 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 Visual Music (Map hue to pitch and brightness to dynamics when choosing color).
- Colour
- Build on #F4E7C4, #E34B36, #161313 and admit one accent from #c9fefd, #ffff02, #03221d.
Where they fight
- Direct Animation and Visual Music share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Direct Animation and Visual Music both belong to Experimental Film, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Direct Animation Laying one scanned scratch texture over the footage so the dirt sits still instead of changing every single frame.
- Visual Music Wiring shape size straight to volume, which hits the beat and never shows the structure of the piece.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Direct Animation (technique, 1935–) and their accent from Visual Music (style, 1920s–). ## 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 Visual Music, used sparingly - Abstract forms in motion - Chords of color - Counterpoint of sound and shape - No narrative Let one material quality come from it: Map hue to pitch and brightness to dynamics when choosing color. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #F4E7C4, carry the structure in #E34B36 and #161313, and let a single accent come from #c9fefd. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: rebellion, play, intimacy, calm, exhilaration, technique. ## Where they fight - Direct Animation and Visual Music share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. - Direct Animation and Visual Music both belong to Experimental Film, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Direct Animation: Laying one scanned scratch texture over the footage so the dirt sits still instead of changing every single frame. - Visual Music: Wiring shape size straight to volume, which hits the beat and never shows the structure of the piece. ## 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.
- Visual Music 1920s– / Style / Experimental Film
Film art that translates musical structure into abstract shape, color and motion. From the color organ through abstract animation to today's audiovisual work, it forms a lineage of listening with the eyes.
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