You never know what you get with scissors, ink, tapes and blades

Is it possible to make a movie without cameras? Certainly, if you have 16mm film and other things like scissors, blades, tapes and inks.

By cutting, carving, rubbing and transferring images onto a clear film base, you can get a handcrafted film which dances into moving images when projected onto a screen.

This magic is collage film, recently presented at a Beijing workshop at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) by two young Germans from LaborBerlin, an independent film collective embracing a more experimental approach to film production.

The principal technique is to create a series of single images on a long strip of film and then to let images blend seamlessly to produce the illusion of a moving image.

"As the 16mm films run at 24 frames per second, you have to make 24 images to get a 1-second moving picture," explains Juan David Monroy, one of the two instructors.

"Largely, it's the same principle as animation," says Chen Cuimei, a participant at the workshop. The 30-something Malaysian director is making short films for websites, although her major used to be animation. "Since I transferred to working for the Web, I've left the tangible medium for a long time, as everything I work with now is digital."

Chen says the consistent focus on stories, and the commercial value behind them, has made her ignore the nature of the film art. "I almost forget what films feel like," Chen says, with a touch of regret. But feeling and working with the strip, she finds she has rediscovered a forgotten joy.

"The medium of film is warm and romantic, a unique language different from digital video and 3-D," Monroy says.

His main aim of doing collage films is to explore. "The medium still has a lot to offer. If few people keep using it, we want to at least keep making it."

Though collage film is defined as experimental, its history can be traced back decades.

"Actually, it is more a craft, dying out in the face of the video boom and 3-D," Chen says.

At the workshop, 23-year-old Ren Lun, a Central Academy of Fine Arts student who studies experimental films, says, "I've done experimental works with digital video and even 3-D. However, it is the first time for me to use film. I have no idea what it will look like when it is screened." Ren had crafted a variety of images, such as fishes, footprints, and other strange creatures of his imagination, and colored them with inks.

After splicing and winding the film on a projector, the eagerly anticipated show comes alive. It is cool but confusing.

"I can hardly believe the film just shown is the one I made," says Qiu Qian after watching her work. That is another interesting part of collage-making - you never know what you have created until you see it on screen.

You can contact the writer at lijing2009@chinadaily.com.cn.

China Daily