Information
- BFI identifierN-5045246
- Date1996
- Production countryUnited Kingdom
- SynopsisA film that records a complete dance piece. It records 44 mins of dance movement without overlap. The duration of the shots, and the speed of the dolly movement (always from right to left starting at the same place), is laid out according to a pre-determined pattern, a pettern unrelated to the choreography. Some passages are replaced by black, with the soundtrack continuing over. These (visual) silences are also organised according to a scaled version of the pattern, providing punctuation. The camera movement is always slow, such that it becomes (most) apparent during the pauses in the dance piece (the stops of the title). Awareness of dance and its filming will slip back and forth. When the dancers pause, the camera movement is most apparent, when they move again, it drops from awareness. In addition, the footstep sounds move in and out of sync, according to a scaled version of the same pattern. This provides another mesh, whose movement will at times be apparent, at other times not. The camera frames the stage, not the dancers. This allows the filmic rhythmic elements to prevail. The meshing of the various rhythmic elements interacting with the clear structures of the dance performance to produce a new pattern, inherent only in the interaction, apprehended by the viewer but not tangible, ebbing and flowing. The effect might be compared to the phenomenon of interference fringes observed when light sources interact in the laboratory - the reinforcing and diminution the result of wave interactions. Phase is all. The question is whether tension and attention are possible without conventional montage. If it is, then in this film the forward momentum is achieved by rhythmic devices depending on proportion, not on accent. - AR (Synopsis)
- Genre
- Credits
- Cast
Title
The Stop Quartet/film ()
Category
Non Fiction- Collections
- Film / Video
PDC Portable Digital Carrier - Video - On loan
Video - MOV - Master
16mm BW Positive - Acetate - Mute - Master
16mm BW Negative - Acetate - Mute - Master
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- +The Stop Quartet/film
Work - N-5045246 - 1996 ()
United Kingdom - Film - Non Fiction
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