April 7th Lecture

In the film "Natural Features", I noticed mostly the eerie noises. I noticed a lot of faces, the color black, and the act of painting. Based on Frampton's formula for films, I would say this film was about eerie noises because that is what I noticed the most in the film, it seemed to be what occurred most in the film. Visual wise, I would say the film is about faces because thats what seemed to appear most in the film. I don't think it was helpful to my understanding of the film to think of it this way. It was only when I put everything together when I really got a feel for the film and what it might possibly be about. I seemed to get this creepy feeling watching this film in class. I actually thought the exact same thing as someone in class discussed about this film- I got this feeling that there was some kind of psychotic murderer making noises and singing to himself and basically entertaining himself. I felt like this person was into torture, and I got this feeling because they kept showing faces and they would be painted over or deformed in certain ways. You could also hear screams every once in a while in the film, which made it feel like there were people tied up or something in a room nearby. I felt kind of like this person I had imagined in my head had some kind of mental disability because they kept singing and making car noises, etc. The part I found most disturbing was with the family portrait with the eyes all blacked out and I think this was when the singing started up.