Experimental Film Today
- Giovanni Peresson
- Dec 22, 2023
- 4 min read
By Giovanni Peresson 22/12/2023
An area in the world of experimental cinema which I have not covered in depth which deserves to be recognised is modern experimental film. Across the world there are people who create experimental films of sorts and with the current technologies available to us, the possibilities are limitless. I have dedicated this last week of research to this topic and show that it is not just something from the past that has been forgotten.
Modern experimental film takes a wide range of approaches including abstract and non-narrative filmmaking, found footage, interactive films and even experimenting with the medium itself exploring the different possibilities of moving images, sound and structure. The first example I would like to discuss is interactive films. I briefly mentioned virtual reality films in a past blog but did not go in depth. With the advent of new technologies such as virtual reality and on demand streaming services such as Netflix, every now, and then we get a glimpse at something new, something we haven't seen before. A lot of the time it's just one time gimics that people do genuinely enjoy, but platforms such as Netflix never make these new developments last too long.
Virtual reality offers an immersive 360 degree experience with an interactive narrative that you yourself can influence and create changes based on your actions. If you told someone this 50 years ago, not a soul would believe you. There is a fine line in my opinion on the difference between a virtual reality game and film. They do share a lot of similarities, but one is more focused on the narrative than the actual user.
In 2017 at Cannes Film Festival two virtual reality by Gianluigi Perrone, The more successful one The 7th Night of Thelma takes place during a cult ritual and the director when asked to describe his process said it was "to heal the viewer" The film takes a very immersive and puts the viewer front and centre in what can only be described as creepy. These films being showcased at such prevalent and prestigious film festivals highlights their importance and that soon they may have a key position in the world stage of media and video consumption.
Even within the world of VR itself, technology continues to evolve at great pace with headsets becoming high resolution and supporting higher refresh rates (limits motion sickness with higher frame rates) whilst also becoming smaller and available at affordable prices to the point where a quarter of U.S. households have a virtual reality headset available. Other innovations which are emerging are the use of haptics such as gloves that allow you to feel objects in your hands and circular treadmill like platforms that allow you to walk and run around.
In my opinion, it will inevitable that VR films will
become mainstream in the future, and I even believe people will have dedicated rooms in their homes for these virtual reality setups within the next 20–30 years if the price keeps dropping and technological advancements keep moving at the pace they are now.
Another take on interactive filmmaking is Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, (2018), D. Slade, Netflix which is a film where can you can make decisions on what actions the main character takes based off of pop-ups that appear on-screen allowing you to pick a choice. This is a film in which you can with 5 different endings, with 21 different variants of the endings. That's a lot of different possibilities and ever since this film we haven't really seen anything like this which makes it even more unique and this leap of faith of innovation with nothing like it done before that gives it its position in the world of experimental cinema and its unique approach to storytelling and challenging the conventions of narrative filmmaking.
A Series, Kaleidoscope by yet again Netflix is an 8 episode heist series where you can watch the episodes in any order which means there are over 40,000 different combinations to how you can watch this incredible series. The creator took a very unconventional approach to storytelling, and it must have been extremely rigorous and time-consuming to create a narrative that can be told in so many different ways.
Although these two examples I am using from Netflix could be considered mainstream and therefore wouldn't be classified as experimental films, in my opinion they do due to their innovation and the fact each viewer has a unique experience and therefore will have their own views. We occasionally see stuff like this pop up, whether they are genuinely trying to innovate and explore new approaches to the conventions of narrative or they are doing it for the media attention and profits, we won't know. Even in Hollywood we see experimental films of sorts, but of course they are more tailored to the average film goer they defy the standards that have been set by filmmakers of the past.
I have only discussed interactive films both from screen and virtual, but there is still the more traditional form of experimental films which when I have been looking online over the past twelve weeks the majority of modern experimental films are by students, but I do believe there is a reasonable explanation for this and the reason is funding. Unlike in the past, galleries and universities wouldn't or at least as often fund projects, which leaves distribution to YouTube and Vimeo where based off what people like to watch on those platforms there isn't much available success in this genre. Although, when students take experimental film modules they keep the genre at least alive and still relevant and occasionally there are people who will continue to carry the legacy of the greats from the past and continue their important world in the fields of both cinema and art.
Bibliography
Meien Li, "THE ROLE OF VR/AR TECHNOLOGY IN FILM INDUSTRY", University of Washington, available at: https://uw.pressbooks.pub/cat2/chapter/12-the-merging-of-vr-ar-films-to-the-cinema-industry/ accessed: 20/12/23
The 7th Night of Thelma( 2017) G. Perrone, Immerex
"Experimental VR Film Screened at Cannes", Virtual Reality Society, available at:
https://www.vrs.org.uk/experimental-vr-film-screened-cannes/ accessed: 20/12/23
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, (2018), D. Slade, Netlfix
Nada Elnahla, (2019), Maynooth University, available at:
https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/17189/1/Black%20Mirror%20Bandersnatch%20and%20how%20Netflix%20manipulates%20us%20the%20new%20gods.pdf Accessed 21/12/23
Anonymous, (2019), "How many paths will bandersnatch had?", Reddit available at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmirror/comments/a9ugah/how_many_paths_will_bandersnatch_had/ accessed 21/12/23
Kaleidoscope, (2023), E. Garcia, Netlfix
Andrew Webster, (January 2023), "Kaleidoscope is a generic heist story but a fascinating experiment", The Verge, available at:
accessed 22/12/23
This Blog has been written for educational purposes as part of CIN506 Experimental Film Week 10 Blog.
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