Robert Beavers

The final article i chose to discuss is an article from July 2007 on Robert Beavers. Link here: http://www.afterall.org/onlinearchive.html?online_id=27

This article about Beavers' work screening at the Tate Modern last year starts with a quote from Robert that seems like it can relate to any filmmakers process, "I think of filmmaking like architecture". From what it sounds like, his films are definitely something that needs to be built up not only by the maker himself, but also by the audience. The key to Beavers's films is in their construction: he edits by cutting out frames from the reel and pasting them onto white paper. He then shuffles these fragments, and it is only when run through the projector that they trade the physicality of film stock for the immateriality of images flowing through time. This is an interesting way of constructing a work and leads to audience participation in coming up with meanings and paths of imagery in the work. I think this is a very interesting idea; scrambling frames (mostly at random) to come up with an end result that is new to not only the viewer when projected, but also the maker. The make should always have the ability to set up the shots as he wishes, but i think this "mixing" of images brings a new meaning to experimenting with your work. You know the content that you have produced, but you don't know how the outcome will be until you view the scrambled version. I have never really heard of a process such as this before in film making. This process must take tons of time and dedication in editing to get the results that the maker is shooting for.