Why We Watch Movies During the Elective Course

It had to be pointed out to me by my typography tutor what the purpose of watching movies on a Thursday and Friday had to do with our elective course. Don’t get me wrong, film is one of my favourite forms of art, yet it was impossible for me to make the connection between what movie was actually shown and what it had to do with my art education.

The films we watch are in Peckham cinema and accompany a fantastic lecture. My favourite was Seeing is not Seeing, a very interesting look at illusions and how our brain manipulates our sensory responses. Click below for more.
http://web.mit.edu/persci/gaz/gaz-teaching/index.html
http://www.lottolab.org/Illusions%20page.html

Anyway, back to why we watch crappy movies... For example, Hollow Man, Paul Verhoevan’s film about scientists who discover how to make people invisible, but their test subject becomes an insane killer who stalks them - staring Elizabeth Shue and Kevin Bacon. If anyone has seen it they’d know it’s a cheesy horror flick with great special effects, and yes it is one of the many where you see Kevin Bacon’s butt...

Thank god we discussed the purpose for watching these films in class or I would have never figured out that as artists and designers you need to make the connection of what you are watching/ experiencing, otherwise you’re just downloading information. You need to put it in perspective of what you are studying and what you are interested in, take the Hollow Man’s wonderful animation sequence of Kevin Bacon turning invisible, or the ape, as an animator and figure drawer you could appreciate the level of detail in the anatomy and the sequential breakdown to transparency.

I like this way of thinking. It’s positive! It stops me from moaning, “this sucks”, or “I don’t get it” and establish a connection to something relevant that I’m doing at the moment.