To draw is to film

[By Eduardo Salavisa in Lisbon] We can think about the act of drawing on a sketchbook the same a filmmaker thinks about the camera on a film. We can make a parallel between the first, rapid sketches done as notes (before we do the big picture) with the takes that a filmmaker captures before editing the film. Just like in the process of framing our attention is selective. In our sketch we only include what we see, what we feel, what we experience. We make choices, we enhance what we want, we manipulate the elements. Also, in films we choose our views, our sense of space, we make things in a way that gives emphasis to what we want. In films zoom is when we get really close to an element, in sketching we say that we give it another scale. In films we can have a panoramic view when the camera goes around, in sketching our eyes go from one end to the other. The observer/sketcher moves around to get a better understanding of what is being draw, in films the camera moves on a travelling. Not to mention the different plans (plongé, american plan, etc) that are used in filming and in sketching.

We could say that drawing is filming, and filming is drawing.

(abstract based in the proposal (not accepted) made by me and Karina Kuschnir to the 2018 USK Symposium in Oporto).

Karina Kuschnir

Eduardo Salavisa

Karina Kuschnir