A note from the filmmaker,
My introduction to experimental film was in my first-ever film class at Denison, an Intro to Film Aesthetics and Analysis course that I took in the spring of my freshman year. Although it was a brief introduction, I remember thinking it made perfect sense. You get to throw away the principles of narrative film and use the "rules" or principles of visual arts to express something more abstract. Having a background in painting, this piqued my interest.
During the summer of 2024, I had the most incredible opportunity to explore this interest. I spent an entire summer studying experimental film, mainly women's films from the 60's and 70's. By the fall, I was enrolled in a seminar that focused entirely on experimental film and learning to shoot 16mm. I have experience shooting both negative and reversal, hand processing, hand drawing and direct animation, projecting, and editing film.
The unfortunate downside is that experimental film seems to be a dying art of the underground. 16mm and Super 8 are uncommon, the craft is expensive, makes little money, and has no value to corporate America, but maybe that's why I love it so much. There was something about the tactile experience of working with 16mm that gave me a new appreciation for filmmaking.
These experiences, and my love for so many of the films I obsessed over all summer, have become a huge influence on my approach to narrative filmmaking.
It is difficult to obtain good digital copies of these films, and the one linked is not the greatest. Superconscious Journey of the Soul was my final project for the seminar. It was my first attempt at single exposures and is far from perfect, but despite being technically flawed, it's one of my favorite things I've ever made.
Superconscious Journey of the Soul was inspired by Micheal Newton's book "Journey of Souls." The book chronicles 29 people's experiences with past life regression hypnosis. In each of the 29 accounts, the subject describes a life between lives that is consistent across each case. The film explores what this journey might look like, imaginatively constructing an image of the life between lives by intercutting images of the real world with the imagined animated one. The sound and editing choices help add to the emotional experience of what it might be like to experience something so intense as uncovering hundreds of forgotten lifetimes.
Originally shot and edited on 16mm, Superconscious Journey of the Soul was shot using a Bolex, two rolls of Kodak color reversal film, and two rolls of Kodak's Ektachrome stock. The majority of the film is single-exposure stop motion. It was shot using an animation stand that would point the Bolex down at a tungsten-illuminated surface. Hand-cut and sometimes hand-drawn paper dolls, cut-outs, and glitter were used to construct an animated universe that structured the film. The animation process took an estimated 17 total hours. The other sections of the film feature abstract visuals and portraits shot using a projector as a light source. There are also quite a few handheld shots that depict mainly images of nature and a cat on a windowsill.
The sound for the film features voice clips of a past life-guided meditation and Brian Eno's song "The Big Ship"