At Land

Having seen some of Deren's earlier work "Meshes of the Afternoon" (1943), it was interesting to see another one of her gritty independent films in class yesterday. Like "Meshes", Deren seems to exhibit a very unconventional approach in her 1945 film, "At Land". As I watched this I couldn't help but notice some of her signature film-making methods take center stage. The reverse editing, slow-paced motion, lack of music, close-ups, and continuous range of movement all illustrate the the moods and emotions of the of her work.

As Deren stated in "Creating Movies with a New Dimension" she clearly states that we should "...not approach motion picture photography in the conventional manner." Rather she suggests that while we should always experiment and explore new techniques to film-making we should never be reserved to the more traditional rubrics of film expression. Instead, become innovative and creative with the use of photography and study the other arts to gain knowledge on how to accomplish this feat.

I can definitely see her point in terms of the location and spacial logic. She seems to pick the shots according to the space that might dictate a specific scene. For instance, as her character climbs a tree in "At Land" we are close to her and see her climbing higher eventually through bushy forests and ironically people. In another scene she uses the lens to widen the horizon as her character is walking through paths and sandy beaches, giving us a more distant relationship to the viewer while also displaying the emotional value of her character. It's almost like poetic motion with the continuous movement patterns from point A to point B. It was very interesting approach: slow-paced and visual poetry with the illusion of movement according to it's spacial relativity. Worked very nicely if you ask me.