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Saturday, 19 September 2009 23:56

Abstract is the essence of art and Claus-Dieter's machinima premiere of "9" takes us back into the very roots of design and filmmaking.  It's intriguing and filled with an emotional string-filled score.


Claus-Dieter Schulz has once again tapped his artistic talent for art and film with a very interesting piece, yet intriguing machinima film, "9", which made it's debut on the Second Life screen on Sunday, September 13th, 2009.  Have you seen it yet? 

I was privileged to be a part of his premiere in Second Life, on a private island accompanied by a dozen other machinima enthusiasts.  Special thanks to Ricky Grove and Phil Rice for organizing such a sucessful event! 

Ricky Grove and Claus-Dieter discuss the "9" premiere

Let's watch the premiere of "9" on the big screen

from the audience's perspective!
What do you think about that Claus?

Claus-Dieter's "9" takes us back to the essence of art, design and filmmaking by interpolating lines, points and shapes in space to create a fantastic abstract imagery as motion graphics. 

It's a fantastic blend and inspired by the work of Oskar Fischinger, Hans Richter, Stan Brakhage.  The gentle ensemble of strings pulsing throughout  the film makes for a moving score and ties in nicely with the motion graphics. 

I'm not built on the same level of sophistication that Claus has demonstrated here, but I can recognize the awesome design and appreciate the production that went into making this abstract film, "9".  

Watch Claus-Dieter Schulz "9" at his personal website or Machiniplex. 

Thoughts?  Leave your comments below.

 

Comments

avatar digitalphil (webmaster)
0
 
 
What does everyone think about the film? I'd like to hear about your interpretations and feelings as a simple motion graphic machinima with no story or characters.
Saturday 19 September 2009, 19:19
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avatar Ricky
+1
 
 
Thanks for the post, DP. I appreciate your support. We chose "9" because primarily because it was so well done technically. I'd never seen any machinima remotely like it, so it was quite original to machinima. One of the things I've always hoped for in machinima was for filmmakers to use film/animation history as inspiration. Claus-Dieter looked to the beginnings of the modernist, abstract film movement for inspiration. He called his film a "concrete work of art" like those of the artists you mention. Some folks find abstract art like this distancing, but I don't. We read poetry, which are words pulled out of their usual context and re-organized, but no one complains that poetry lacks passion (good poetry that is). My feeling is that most Americans just don't have much exposure to this kind of work and so they dismiss it because it's unfamiliar.

But "9" has a lot of feeling in the film and it doesn't just come from the great "Boards of Canada" soundtrack. Combinations of shapes, shadows and movement appeal to the very basic act of seeing without interpretations. You see exactly what was filmed and create a context for it all your own. Seen from that perspective, "9" is a unique machinima film and deserves to be added to the Machiniplex collection of films.

What I'm really hoping for is that the film will be an influence for other directors to try their hand at creating an abstract film. Every voice/imagination is different and the variety of films created would be wonderful to behold. Sometimes we machinima filmmakers in trying so hard to emulate popular films/tv or other machinima films we admire, get all balled up in the realism of characters, stories, etc. The freedom that can come with giving all of that up and just creating whatever comes to mind can be exhilarating. Look at Lainy Voom's "Push" a film she created by giving up any attempt at continuity or realistic characters. And the result is amazing. Some artists thrive working experimentally.

BTW, we'll be Premiering "Push" next month in Second Life, so we'll get a chance to talk to Lainy about the film. Check the machiniplex3.blogspot.com site for more info coming soon.

sorry to be so long-winded, but there you go,

Ricky
Sunday 20 September 2009, 13:54
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avatar digitalphil (webmaster)
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Excellent post Ricky! I will check out "Push" and visit the maciniplex3 site. This is great inspiration for my ambitions to become a machinima director.
Sunday 20 September 2009, 17:27
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