Lars Von Trier - Deconstructing...

If any of you are in process of working on a bookwork, be it at concept stage, shooting, editing and or sequencing I'd recommend you have a look at the YouTube video just posted by Channel Criswell: Lars Von Trier - Deconstructing Cinema. It's a short and sweet 14 minutes in length and many of the ideas presented apply equally to the making of a photobook.

I immediately liked the opening frame - a film should be like a pebble in your shoe. In workshops I often talk about this, the idea of provocation, where there is something that's not quite right, strange and difficult to grasp. Lewis Bond the guy behind Channel Criswell deftly sums up Von Trier's esthetic - the need to raise questions, use of a wide vocabulary, symbolism, stylistic distinction, enigma, challenge oneself and the audience, a refusal to conform to convention - and more. The video concludes with the truism that - art is never mean to be completely understood, art has no limitations... to break its boundaries is what it's meant to be a true artist.

We are working in a medium that has infinite possibilities. We all know that. Let's embrace the infinite.

You can watch Lars Von Trier - Deconstructing Cinema HERE. And the Channel Criswell website HERE.