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The Lawspeaker
02-06-2012, 03:48 PM
Chronos (http://video.yandex.ru/users/arni-raj/view/191/user-tag/%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC%D1%8B/#)


Chronos is a 1985 abstract film directed by Ron Fricke, created with custom-built time-lapse cameras.At 45 minutes long, Chronos has no actors or dialog. The soundtrack consists of a single continuous piece by composer Michael Stearns. Filmed in dozens of locations on five continents, the film relates to the concept of time passing on different scales -- the bulk of the film covers the history of civilization, from pre-history to Egypt to Rome to Late Antiquity to the rise of Western Europe in the Middle Ages to the Renaissance to the modern era. It centers on European themes but not exclusively. Other time scales include the passing of seasons, and the passing of night and day, and the passing shadows of the sun in an afternoon to the passing of people on the street. These themes intermingle with many symbolisms.

Chronos shares its particular style with the film Koyaanisqatsi, for which Ron Fricke was the cinematographer, as well as his later films Sacred Site and Baraka.

Special camera mechanics and rigging were built to handle the unusually long and smooth time-lapse shots planned by the director, such as a 24-hour shot of a desert while perfectly-evenly panning 180 degrees. The director also used the system in his later films.

Michael Stearns, while composing the soundtrack for the film, used a custom-made instrument called "The Beam" to generate many of the sounds he required. The Beam was 12 feet (3.7 m) long, made of extruded aluminum with 24 piano strings of gauge 19-22.

The name of the film comes from the Ancient Greek word χρόνος, khronos, which means time and is also the source to many modern terms related to time, such as chronology, synchronous etc.



Koyaanisqatsi (http://vimeo.com/21811390)

(- Life Out of Balance - shot between 1975 and 1982)



Realizado entre los años 1975 y 1982, "Koyaanisqatsi" -primera parte de lo que sería luego una trilogía formada por Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powwaqatsi (1988) y Naqoyqatsi (2002)- es un singular documental que refleja la colisión entre dos mundos obligados a convivir: por un lado la vida de los hombres en la sociedad moderna, la vida urbana y occidental, llena de tecnología, ciencia y consumismo. Por otro la naturaleza y el medio ambiente del planeta Tierra. Sin voz humana, tan sólo con el poder de las imágenes y la banda sonora minimalista de Philip Glass, Godfrey Reggio presentó este documental ante 5000 personas el 4 de Octubre de 1982 en el Radio City Hall de Nueva York, convirtiéndose al instante en un documental de culto.
Baraka (http://vimeo.com/13256686)

(shot in 1992)



Baraka es un documental de vanguardia lanzado a las pantallas en 1992. Este film exhibe una sucesión de imágenes y sonidos, sin mediación de la palabra humana. En este devenir se integran, en un solo gran tejido, secuencias de la soledad de la naturaleza, el vértigo de las ciudades, el horror de campos de exterminio, la diversidad de los cultos, ancestrales aproximaciones a lo sagrado aún vivas en el mundo contemporáneo.

The Lawspeaker
02-20-2012, 01:17 AM
There is something about the 1980s - about the music that is used in films, in the atmosphere, in the street-scape, the look and feel of the technology that is used - even in the way people look (the clothes, the way they look in general) that make me feel unheimisch (for lack of a good English word - it can't be translated.. maybe apprehensive, eerie, sense of foreboding). It was as if society was already uprooted and in a precarious state with society decaying from within: the films of that period (like for instance Highlander or Conan the Barbarian) show that clearly. It was as if society was literary expecting Armageddon. It saw the rise of moral degradation on one hand (remember the start of the AIDS epidemic and the heroin epidemic spiraling out of control), a soring Christian fundamentalism on the other. Extreme poverty for one group (and a massive recession in the West) and incredible technological and financial improvements for the other (the rise of Japan).

Society started to become more rigid and social mobility in the West began to decline - a process which continues until today. For short: a divided society standing morally and maybe literary at the edge of abyss.

It is almost as if the 1980s are being repeated today (in a slightly different way).

heathen_son
02-22-2012, 06:45 PM
Born in 1985, I was exposed to music and TV of the 80's as a young child.

Musically, and visually, there are aspects of that period that are engrained very deep in my mind. I would say it has influenced myself and others around my age in a distinct way.

The Lawspeaker
02-22-2012, 06:48 PM
Born in 1985, I was exposed to music and TV of the 80's as a young child.

Musically, and visually, there are aspects of that period that are engrained very deep in my mind. I would say it has influenced myself and others around my age in a distinct way.
Same here.