Reading Response Seven

4a. Warhol calls himself an "anti-romantic," and Sitney agrees. Warhol practiced Abstract Expressionalism, which is normally a romantic genre. However, Sitney argues that Warhol's style was on a completely different level and was not romantic at all, rather it was a logical viewing experience that was meant to make the viewer perceive.

4b. Sitney argues that the poles between Warhol's style and that of Snow and Gehr cannot be reconciled because of the different meanings behind the camera movement (or lack there of). Their techniques are similar, but spirituality behind them is vastly different. Warhol started with a stationary camera, using zooms mainly, then moved to in-camera editing. The still camera work of Snow and Gehr is utilized for a different purpose. It is meant as a "mythical contemplation of a portion of space," meaning it's trying to get a different type of reflection from the viewer. Warhol's goals are much less romantic, promoting complete awareness and concentration on more logical activities.

4c. "Conscious ontology of the viewing experience" refers to, as Sitney puts it, Warhol's goal of challenging the viewer to endure a film for a very long time, all the while being completely aware of what's going happening onscreen. This is why Warhol showed some of his films at 16 fps when they were actually 24. The slightly slowed motion forces the viewer to sit through the entire experience, dissecting and studying the image(s) before him or her as if studying it to a science. This relates to structural films because, after Warhol introduced this technique, structural filmmakers had to take films like these and give them purpose. They made films that attempted to guide the viewer to an ending impression or goal.

4d. Sitney responds to Warhol's attack on structural films by describing Michael Snow's "Wavelength." He describes a 45 minute forward zoom in which a room in explored in great detail and duration. Activities outside are taking place and filters and effects are adding for style. The camera finally comes to rest on a photograph of waves. "The insight that space, and cinema by implication, is potential is an axiom of the structural film." Sitney is trying to show the difference between Warhol and Snow, and thus Warhol and structural film, by described Snow's need to illustrate some sort of message to the viewer. By closing in on this room and suggestion the outside world, then ending on a photograph that contains waves of a vast sea, Snow is portraying a message about space. Warhol would've made this film differently. There would have been no underlying message, no metaphors or deep meaning, only a deep, detailed inspection of this room and things going on outside of it. It would've been purely observatory, purely for perceptive purposes. This greatly contrasts the agenda of a structural film.