'Layered films'

C

cresp

Member
Hello all,
first post, so please be nice.

I'm looking for examples of films that use text as a graphical device, using text layered over moving image (not subtitles).

A good example of this would be Prospero's Books by Peter Greenaway.


Where do I go from here? Manga maybe?

Thanks in advance:D
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Saw this a couple of years ago when it was doing the rounds. Might fit your bill.

argument2.jpg


Argument (1978) by Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall
http://www.lux.org.uk/touring/argument.htm

Three male voices dissect one edition of The New York Times through a series of locked-off shots, revealing the prejudice and latent content of news and advertisements, reading images as texts and presenting text as an image. Fashion photographs are used as a starting point for a political investigation of news, advertising, and images of masculinity - while at the same time, the filmmakers reflect on their own position and the possibility of radical film practice. Influenced by both the American and European avant-gardes, notably Godard and Hollis Frampton, Argument is stylistically beautiful and relentless in its enquiry.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
There isn't any way of me answering this without looking like a total self-serving prick but my last film uses text over image, in a way that isn't quite what you're used to with subtitles, there are stills of it here :

http://here.chantdownbabylon.com

and it's showing at the Whitechapel Gallery in London on 28th September.

See? I did come out looking like a self-serving prick, sorry.

Godard uses text really well I think, I think he's a good example of incorporating text into a film in different ways, why do you ask about it? What is it about it that interests you?
 
R

rob_giri

Well-known member
obvious example would be Michael Snow's 'Wavelength' (1966), i remember Woebot wrote a fantastic personal account of watching it on hard university chairs in his blog about 4 years ago.. i think.

also all of Stan Brakhages work particularly 'Dog Star Man'. if this is what your talking about
 
C

cresp

Member
No problem,
thanks for the tip mrsloane (you are not a self serving prick). I'm researching for a personal project.

I have realised that I have maybe not explained myself well enough. I've found a good example here, on the subtitled version of Night Watch (terrible, inventive film).


Thanks for your responses so far.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
there must be loads of experimental shorts that incorporate the use of text in these ways but i'm having a hard time thinking of any feature films..
 
P

Pestario

tell your friends
I know it's not exactly what you're looking for but in Stranger Than Fiction graphics are used to represent the mental processes of a tax accountant. You see spreadsheets and forms flying around his head and everything.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
If I understand what you're asking correctly (I can't check the youtube stuff at work) and I remember correctly I think that The Pillowbook might do the thing that you're talking about - although I guess you know about that anyway.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
cresp said:
No problem,
thanks for the tip mrsloane (you are not a self serving prick). I'm researching for a personal project.

I have realised that I have maybe not explained myself well enough. I've found a good example here, on the subtitled version of Night Watch (terrible, inventive film).


Thanks for your responses so far.
Click to expand...

If you go here

http://mistersloane.livejournal.com/

and go to the entry on Friday May 19th 2006, there's an essay I did on text and subtitles with reference to my own work but you may find it useful, especially a book called Subtitles, on the foreigness of film.

As far as I know that Nightwatch film was the first one to use subtitling in that way, it's such an obvious use and doesn't seem to have been taken up by anyone else.

The 'Everybody Hurts' video is also a good one.
 
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