Page 40 - Studio International - December 1972

the final film was not intended for viewing in the normal way, i.e. on
a projector running at 24 or 16 frames per sec the existing print is
shown on an Analysis Projector that runs at the same speed as the
original recording camera, i.e. one frame or two frames per sec'.
M.L.
The subsequent Unword film was shown in the series of
multi-screen projection presentations made by I.B. and M.L.
in various parts of the country during 1970-71.
THREE
The beginning of an Unword performance, 1969: a 16mm
film-image projected onto word-covered sheets stretching
from ceiling to floor, l5ft high. Each wall of words was
demolished to reveal another layer 3ft behind, and so on
until the rear of the performance area was revealed about
100ft back; the film-image inevitably increased in size until
it filled the rear wall.
FOUR
In this episode from a 1970 Unword event, images from two
Cinemascope projectors cover the cyclorama screen behind
the live action, while onstage right footage shot at a
previous event in the Unword series is showing on an
Analysis Projector at 2 frames per second. All around and
behind the audience (but not seen in this photograph) three
16mm projectors cover the walls of the theatre with film.
FIVE
Episodes from the Unword film, 1970.
Six
Slide-projection sequence, 1970.
SEVEN
Sheet: 16mm, black and white. Magnetic soundtrack.
21 mins. 1970.
A film by I.B. and M.L. of architectural locations (court-
yards, streets, buildings), indoor locations (rooms, corri-
dors, subways) and countryside locations, in which a
3-metres square white linen sheet was placed within the
location as a focal point. Magnetic soundtrack of natural
sound (street noises, birdsong, conversation, etc.).
A white sheet was chosen because it was an easily visible
object which combined anonymity and adaptability, so that
visual attention is attracted to a focal point within an
environment. Sometimes the sheet changes and the envir-
onment stays the same, sometimes the environment
changes (light, people, passing cars, etc.) and the sheet
stays the same; most often the sheet and its environment
change simultaneously, sometimes only fractionally within
each shot. There are no actors, all people appear in frame
by chance; many other changes within each shot are
equally random and unplanned. The sheet and its surround-
ings would be placed in their context within the film by
setting up the camera, framing, tilting, high speed, low
speed, etc. Subsequent editing involved the juxtaposition
and combination of the various location sequences. The
actual location filming took just over a year; each location
was an episode in a one-year event-process. The complete
working process lasted sixteen months, beginning in May
1969 with I.B.'s text '19 Proposals for a film to be called
Sheet', and ending in September 1970 when a final print was
made for the Festival of Underground Film at the National
Film Theatre, London; predictably it was then attacked by
the film-politicians for being an extremely private movie
which could never communicate to a large audience. It
certainly was a private film because the unexpected dona-
tion of a large quantity of reject neg. stock had enabled us,
during the shooting period at least, to work at an unhurried
pace free from commercial pressures. The decisions about
when and where to film had often been seemingly casual
and arbitrary: 'like deciding to go fishing' was how M.L.
described it.
Nevertheless it has become apparent that there was an
inner 'logic', even an unconscious narrative, and when
subsequently it was sold to TV the work was transmitted to
a public audience far bigger than any I could ever have
expected from a performed event or a gallery showing.