[Frameworks] Looking for (un)reliable perceptual information through camera movement

[Gene Youngblood]

The opening of Touch of Evil and all of Russian Ark are iconic examples of camera movement defining a space without the support of narration. There is narration in the Sokurov, but it doesn’t “support” the glide, which is often unmotivated and, therefore, not always subjective POV. (Fred’s question does seem to problematize the notion of motivation, which is interesting). There’s a lot of this sort of thing in Bela Tarr. In the experimental world there is of course Wavelength, and no doubt endless other examples. I’ve always liked Richard Myers’ “Moving Pictures” (1989), a 100-minute lateral track (right to left) that moves continuously through spaces, scenes and “stories” not told. At one point the camera appears to move through the open windows of a parked car. 


> On Aug 17, 2015, at 3:40 PM, Francisco Torres <fjtorrespr at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJE0IrDNxsY <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJE0IrDNxsY>
> 
> 2015-08-17 17:36 GMT-04:00 Francisco Torres <fjtorrespr at gmail.com <mailto:fjtorrespr at gmail.com>>:
> ''writing a text on filmic operations which are able to produce knowledge about space (itself, without the support of a narration) I ask myself what examples this comunity will come up with both for examples of reliable and unreliable perceptual information produced through (uncut) camera movement.''
> 
> Vorkapich wrote a lot about how framing and composition dealt with that perception.
> 
> This music video illustrates some of those concepts....
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5zaDZq0sc <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5zaDZq0sc>
> 
> 2015-08-17 5:04 GMT-04:00 fred truniger <fred.truniger at gmail.com <mailto:fred.truniger at gmail.com>>:
> "In fact, it appears that if he uses all the visual information that is available, there is no way at all of fooling a moving observer once we let him determine his own movements." (Julian Hochberg, In: Perception (Englewood Cliffs, 1964). 94.)
> 
> dear frameworkers
> writing a text on filmic operations which are able to produce knowledge about space (itself, without the support of a narration) I ask myself what examples this comunity will come up with both for examples of reliable and unreliable perceptual information produced through (uncut) camera movement.
> classical: pans show the context of an initial shot and thus help to pigeonhole the space shown. there are thousands of examples in which the parallax produced by lateral movement helps the viewer to read the structure and depth of a space. by contrast, the very slow and very short lateral movement in Johan Lurf's films reconnaissance (AUT 2012) and embargo (AUT 2014) as well as in volko kamensky's film oral history (GER 2009) produce alienation much more than clarification. my guess is, the reason for this to be the speed of the movement: too high, to slow will produce an uneasiness which counteracts the legibility of the movement. but in lurf's case the use of long focal lenght contributes to the effect. lateral movment and long focal length together make an interesting combination. it seems to withhold from the viewer some of the information needed "to determine his own movements". the same is true for the combimation of frontal camera movement and zooming at the same time - but zooming, of course, is not a very usual physical perception of my body.
> 
> any suggestions for similar or objecting examples? the simpler the (combination of) movements, the better.
> thank you all!
> fred
> 
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