Visual Communication
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Transcript of Visual Communication
1
FILM LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION
Across the open door o f my office, I can see the editing equipm ent
we have been using for several weeks in putting together our last
film. From my desk I can partially see the small screen o f the
editing machine. N ow it is only a white rectangular spo t—lifeless,
just a piece o f coated glass. On a sudden impulse I rise and walk
into that room . I stop a t the door and survey it in a way I have
never done before. The objects are fam iliar^-the cans o f film, the
bins full o f strips o f celluloid, the scissors, the splicing machine.
On small hooks hang num erous strips o f film, some o f only a
few frames length, o ther o f countless feet unreeling loosely into the
bins.
I select one o f the strips o f film a t random and thread it into
the moviola. 1 pull some switches and the strip o f film starts to
move. On the small screen suddenly an image appears. We are
inside a church, large, m odern, ascetic. A girl, young and innocent,
walks tow ards us. We follow her until another figure appears on
the screen. It is an actor dressed in a dark spacesuit and wearing
a strange and brilliant helmet. We only catch a glimpse o f the
lone glass eye on the projecting front o f his helmet and there the
shot ends. The small screen becomes blank again with only a
flickering light shining beneath the glass.
W hat I have seen is ju s t a fragm ent o f a photographed
reality. A reality that was carefully arranged and rehearsed in front
o f a movie camera. A sim ilar process was registered on the other
strips o f film. Here, reality is broken down into little frames and
here in the cutting room I stand, thinking abou t this aspect o f my
craft.
Those pieces o f film were selected by me, recorded on film by a
photographer, immersed in chemicals in a laboratory until the
images were clearly visible and fixed on the celluloid base. And
1