Overview

Undulating water patterns; designs etched or painted directly onto clear or black film leader; computer-generated, pulsating, multihued light tapestries—the visual images that often constitute experimental motion pictures are unlike anything found in either fictive narratives or documentary works. Direct Theory provides a historical and theoretical survey of this overlooked and misunderstood category of international film and video referred to as avant garde. In a radical revision of film theory that incorporates a semiotic system, Small and Johnson argue that experimental motion pictures constitute a special mode of theory that bypasses written and spoken words. The book looks at the historical development of experimental film from its beginning in the European avant-garde movement of the 1920s and highlights eight defining technical and structural characteristics of the genre. This second edition includes a new preface and an added chapter discussing digital experimental film in the twenty-first century and its future. A deft historical interweaving of experimental production and scholarly discourse, this thought-provoking work firmly establishes the importance of experimental motion pictures in the discipline of film studies and production.

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9780809332137

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Author Information

Edward S. Small is an emeritus professor of film and media studies at the University of Kansas. He is a motion picture theorist specializing in semiotics and a motion picture artist concentrating on experimental production. Timothy W. Johnson's career includes English teaching, a PhD in cinema from the University of Southern California, and more than two decades as editor and production supervisor for computer and printer manuals. he is an editor and a digital media artist.

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