Running Fence Film Analysis

The Maysle's brothers have collaborated with site specific contemporary artist Christo a number of times, capturing Christo's art work in a cinematic format. However, the Maysle's brother capture much more then just the artwork itself, they capture it's process which in contextualizes and immortalizes Christo's work in a contemporary format. In this essay, I will discuss the methods in which the Maysle's brothers represent Christo's art work so as to best represent Christo's contemporary approach to his art. I will discuss the format in which the film is constructed, which has an outline of a three part act film; the pre-production, production and post production portrayal of Christo's artwork in Running Fence

In Running Fence (1978), the …show more content…
Upon completion, there were a number of over head tracking shots done by means of helicopter, however the image was quite bland. It was also difficult to assess the scale of the art piece since there was nothing to compare it to. Where the Maysle's truly captured the art piece was in the static shots of the fence. They station the camera parallel to the fence, so that it takes up the foreground and background of the shot. As well, one side of the shot would be filled with the white material and the other would see it continue into the distance. This allows us as viewers to grasp the length and size of the fence, since we see it in perspective as in spans across the country side. This is also a much more cinematic approach since we see the white cloth flow in the wind, as well as the sun reflecting upon it. The stylistic choice of using solely didactic sounds of the wind and the fence rattling attracts the viewers into the shot, and creates a sensation as if we were really there since these series of shots are all eye level. Where the Maysle's display of the artwork truly excelled was in the depiction of the implied meaning of the artwork. Some of the landscape shots of the fence have the houses and ranches of the blue collar townspeople, as the fence widely resembles a white color. This white color is that of Chrito's, a New York based contemporary artist who is bring his new and innovative art to this blue color town in California. This in turn reveals more about Christo; its demonstrates his artistic abilities and intelligence. We see that his art does have meaning and that it's not contemporary art simply because of its size, but because of its