Starting from Andy Warhol’s Empire and other films, Giuliano Bruno analyzed and discussed the concept of reel time and architectonics of duration in his works. To develop the aesthetics embodied from the extended duration, he then further dived deep into films from Antonioni, Tsai Ming-Liang etc. and at last, concluded Warhol’s achievement as a preface of late-modernist aesthetics in the cinema by preoccupating with duration.
Followed by the author’s pace, I figured out the difference between real time and reel time. Real time is the time in reality, while reel time is the time in the film, or in another word, the recording of real time. Warhol used the reel time to expand the real time of daily urban rhythms by atmospheres, like the light changes diffracted from the Empire State Building. It reminds me that in the films we usually watched, the reel time is always shorter than the real time, e.g., the biography films. By contrast, Warhol and other artists unfolded time as an existence of the space.
Shiqing Li, 3035772456
This is a relatively detailed and well-structured reflection on the dialectical relationship between “real time” and “reel time” created by films based on reality which blur the actual time and space and subjectively process and interpret the real world. In addition, some related questions deserve further consideration: 1) what technologies do movies use to shape “reel time”? 2) What are the differences and similarities between “real-time” and “reel time” in the cases discussed? 3) How can this technology be handled in different situations? What are the corresponding effects? Considering these questions may help you better understand this concept and potentially apply it to your video project later.