The Girl Chewing Gum

The Girl chewing Gum is an experimental British film that was directed by John Smith while he was a student at Royale College of Art and released in 1976. The film captures an ordinary day on Stanford Road in Eastern London where we can observe the behaviour of people, birds and cars. What stands out however is an imposing voice that seems to govern over not only the inhabitants of Stamford Road, but also to the viewers. At first he gives simple instructions and remarks to the passersby and to the camera, which is supposed to be the viewers, but the longer the film goes on, the more outlandish he starts to sound. We go from basic observations, like a child to raise his hand, or a man to pass the street, into more creative and detailed remarks, such as a building have 8 large doors on each wall that open throughout the day, or how a suspicious man has robbed the post office and holds a revolver in his hand. What the movie is trying to tell us is that this “voice” takes the role of the actual director, in a meta way. A movie director always gives directions to the camera crew and actors on how the scene should play out, and in this film, we see in a way the raw footage of a director giving orders on how the scene should play out and how the more he is invested, the more “crazy” he starts to become. The movie is shot as a long take, where there are no cuts in order to create an immersion of the director’s vision. There is, however, one cut-away at the end of the movie, where we are transported to the place this voice is located, about 15 miles from the place where the movie was shot. This disconnect is supposed to represent the literal distance between the scene and the director, in a way, the distance between reality and fiction. We are no longer show what the director is wanting us to see, but rather, what he actually sees himself, as the camera does a 360 degree span to capture the outskirts of the city.

The Girl chewing Gum is an experimental British film that was directed by John Smith while he was a student at Royale College of Art and released in 1976. The film captures an ordinary day on Stanford Road in Eastern London where we can observe the behaviour of people, birds and cars. What stands out however is an imposing voice that seems to govern over not only the inhabitants of Stamford Road, but also to the viewers. At first he gives simple instructions and remarks to the passersby and to the camera, which is supposed to be the viewers, but the longer the film goes on, the more outlandish he starts to sound. We go from basic observations, like a child to raise his hand, or a man to pass the street, into more creative and detailed remarks, such as a building have 8 large doors on each wall that open throughout the day, or how a suspicious man has robbed the post office and holds a revolver in his hand. What the movie is trying to tell us is that this “voice” takes the role of the actual director, in a meta way. A movie director always gives directions to the camera crew and actors on how the scene should play out, and in this film, we see in a way the raw footage of a director giving orders on how the scene should play out and how the more he is invested, the more “crazy” he starts to become. The movie is shot as a long take, where there are no cuts in order to create an immersion of the director’s vision. There is, however, one cut-away at the end of the movie, where we are transported to the place this voice is located, about 15 miles from the place where the movie was shot. This disconnect is supposed to represent the literal distance between the scene and the director, in a way, the distance between reality and fiction. We are no longer show what the director is wanting us to see, but rather, what he actually sees himself, as the camera does a 360 degree span to capture the outskirts of the city.

Dans l’épisode d’aujourd’hui de « est-ce que c’était cool ou est-ce que je suis juste défoncée aux antidouleurs ? » : John smith est le whimsy king et c’est comme ça que ça marche la loi de l’attraction askip

Dans l’épisode d’aujourd’hui de « est-ce que c’était cool ou est-ce que je suis juste défoncée aux antidouleurs ? » : John smith est le whimsy king et c’est comme ça que ça marche la loi de l’attraction askip

oh .

oh .

i love creative people i want to be one so bad

i love creative people i want to be one so bad

not a single bad outfit

not a single bad outfit