If it doesn't tell a story, if it isn't a documentary, if it isn't animated, if it's so strange that you can't think of a single thing to say about it--well, it's an Experimental Film. Many students making their first film want to make a film that will redefine the medium of cinema--that will defy the audience by not telling a story, that will assault them with shocking images, and that will challenge them with dense, inscrutable symbolism. These are, well, um, Experimental Films. (OK, we admit we're being a little disingenuous. In fact, experimental film is an offshoot of painting and photography, not of cinema. Taken in that context, these films can be quite interesting [we admit a particular fondness for the films of Maya Deren]. But too many filmmakers, when they are just starting out, use experimental film as an excuse for laziness: Why go to all the trouble of inventing intriguing characters and putting them in a thoughtful story when you just can splash cool images across the screen?)
