“Diagonal” (Ian Hunt, 2022) is the first of my found footage post-production experimental films, which is part of a series of films that I call heritage films. These heritage films explore historical cinema itself. It reshapes early film through a combination of multiple movies, presenting a direct representation of reality at the time but manipulated to construct a new narrative. Films like “Man with a Movie Camera” (Dziga Vertov, 1929) depict life in a city. However, I combined images from various locations and years in my films, which employ a similar technique, editing them together to represent life that seems to take place in a single location, akin to a “City Symphony”.
I added a soundtrack that enhances the movement of the people and modes of transport. I employed the same methodology in film selection and editing, using a progressive soundtrack for my post-production films. For some of these films, I created my soundtrack from sound loops and extracts to produce a repetitive sound that conveyed the feeling of time passing with its regular beat.
To evoke a sense of nostalgia, I incorporated the sound of a film projector starting up and running continuously in the background throughout the film, with each film concluding as the projector stops. I believe this idea was inspired by the case study of “The Lives of Others” (2006), where the flashback scenes begin and end in sync with the starting and stopping of the tape recorder utilised in the interrogation scenes.
The films were enhanced with AI editing software, which dramatically stabilised and upgraded the quality of the images before colourisation.
These postproduction “Heritage” films most effectively illustrate my key findings on memory representation in cinema. They represent memories of events not directly experienced (prosthetic memory) and contribute to collective memory. They include flashbacks through a combination of films set years apart. The subjects encompass cultural memories of people and locations that no longer exist or have radically changed.
Filmography: Heritage Films
I made minor changes to the film “Berlin”. The source footage combined early black-and-white footage that required AI enhancement with colour footage from another era of filmmaking. While both source films were filmed on celluloid, they were separated by decades of technology. This can be seen in the improved quality of the visuals of the “Berlin War Archive” (1945) footage shot by an unnamed Allied forces film crew.
Filmography: Heritage Films
My postproduction heritage films utilised the Lumière Brothers’ films. While the Lumiere Brothers did not name their films, they are differentiated by the year, location, and subject, a title of sorts.
1896
• Launch of a ship in France
• Switzerland, Geneva, National Exhibition, Swiss Village
• Westminster Bridge, Great Britain, London
• France, Lyon: Quai de l’Archevêché
• Panorama of the Grand Canal taken from a boat, Italy, Venice, Grand Canal
• Arrival of a train in Perrache station, France, Lyon
• Broadway, United States, New York
1897
• Jaffa Gate: East side, Jerusalem
• The pyramids, Egypt, Giza
• Panorama of the Golden Horn, Turkey, Istanbul
• Camel caravan, Jerusalem
• France, Lyon, place du Pont
• Japan, Kyoto, Honshu
1899
• Biarritz: the beach and the sea, France, Biarritz, Grande Plage
• Bad weather at the port, Italy
1900
• View from a whaling boat in motion, France, Hyères
• The ‘Panorama’, taken from a sedan chair, French Indochina (now Vietnam), the village of Namo
1902
• Fort-de-France: market, Martinique, Fort-de-France, French Antilles
“Berlin” (Ian Hunt, 2022)
• “Die Symfonie der Grosstadt” (Walter Ruttmann, 1927)
• “Berlin War Archive” (Allied forces film archives, 1945)
Filmography: Forbidden Futures
• “Forbidden Planet” (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)
• “This Island Earth” (Joseph M. Newman &Jack Arnold, 1955)
• “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (Robert Wise, 1951)
• “Solaris” (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
• “Solaris” (Steven Soderbergh, 2002)
• “2001: A Space Odyssey” (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
• “Planet Of The Apes” (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)
• ”Blade Runner” (Ridley Scott, 1982)
• “The Terminator“ (James Cameron, 1984)
• “The Terminator 2: Judgement Day” (James Cameron, 1991)
• “Predator” (John McTierman, 1987)
• “Alien” (Ridley Scott, 1979)