Creators’ Reflections

“I didn’t have any preexisting ideas of what I would do before my turn came around. Instead, I watched what the contributors before me had done and tried to take my cue from that. Dan O’Brien had finished with a clip from the cafe dancing scene in Godard’s Bande a Part, so I started my section with a moment from Hal Hartley’s Simple Men that is clearly referencing that scene. In this scene, the amateurish dancing has a galumphing character that reminded me of elephants walking. This made me think of Dumbo and I thought that would be a good pretext to use animated clips for the rest of my contribution – given that no one had included animation up until that point. I sequenced the rest of the clips so they went from lumbering large animals (elephants, then pigs) to sprightly and slender dancing figures (a grasshopper and a dancing tree). Along the way, I was pleased to discover visual correspondences between the clips and with the music (I was especially taken with the way the elephants at the end of The Jungle Book clip seem to be providing the saxophone blast that’s heard on the music track!). Apart from the inclusion of animation, one way my section differs from the ones that precede it is in its use of straightforward sequential editing. A lot of the other sections cross-cut between their clips, creating a rhythmic/repetitive montage that adheres to a music video aesthetic. My sequencing was governed, instead, by a linear movement from heaviness to lightness. I’m intrigued to see how the remaining contributors develop it.” (Ian Garwood)

“I used Google Sheets to plan out my shot list. One sheet contained a list of around 20 options for video clips and the other organized which ones I planned to actually use with the corresponding song lyrics. The clips were broken up to maintain the high energy level of the chorus.” (Joshua Goldstein)