Film Graphics: Abstract Aspects of Editing

A Day in the Life of Bonnie Consolo is a 1975 short documentary directed by Barry J. Spinello which presents the daily challenges faced by Bonnie Consolo, an armless woman, and her determination to overcome them. The film shows her driving, cooking, and shopping like anybody else. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

Abstract animation.

Black and white with some color hand-applied to each print, hand-painted image, hand-painted sound.

This film is my bridge from filmpainting to live-action filmmaking. A grant from a former teacher, through the National Counsel of Churches, enabled me to purchase camera, tape recorder, and editing equipment. DAYLIGHT combines filmpainting and live-action techniques. It took two years to make and starts with the words: "And so the journey ends." Although some people at the time called it a very moving film, I haven't looked at it in 20 years.

In SIX LOOP-PAINTINGS, as in SOUNDTRACK, sound and image are hand applied directly on to 16mm clear leader. The image at a given instant is repeated both on the image track and soundtrack, so that the viewer is visualizing the image he is hearing. However, unlike SOUNDTRACK, the images and sounds in SIX LOOP-PAINTINGS are not painted; they are made by cutting to size and pasting acetate self-adhesive patterns (Micotape and Zipatone) directly onto the clear film. Each pattern yields a distinct sound. Patterns of lines yield square wave sounds; patterns of dots yield sine wave sounds; patterns of diamonds yield sawtooth wave sounds, etc. The finer the pattern, the higher pitched the tone. The further spaced the pattern, the deeper the tone.

From 1967-71 Barry Spinello made films without camera or tape recorder by hand drawing both sound and picture directly onto clear 16mm leader. His interest and education (at Columbia) was in music, painting, and poetry. His effort was to merge these three: “to squeeze sound and picture out of the same tube – to weave a cloth with warp as sound, woof as picture, and meaning the fabric itself."

The "theme," a seven-second loop-painting (actually closer to eight), is repeated seven times in succession before the title appears. Then, using an optical printer, the variations start. After each variation the original theme is repeated once. The variations involve step-printing, repetitions and optical manipulations. They very closely follow the original theme.