Pine Flat

Pine Flat consisted of twelve ten-minute sequences, with an intermission half-way through. It started out with a still shot from above a grove of trees during the winter. It is hard to tell if there is any visible motion during this shot because no significant motion occurs, if any. In this scene, there is just the occasional yelling by children who apparently are playing in the grove. The film continues with more still shots, each of which consist of a little motion here and there. There is another shot of a child sitting on a grassy hill reading a book. She reads for a minute or two and then turns the page and continues with this for the whole ten minutes. The technique of using a still shot for all the sequences is a way to highlight the motion of the action that does occur on screen. Just like in La Jetée when the woman blinks in one shot, it is like that with the minimal motion that occurs in Pine Flat for some of the sequences. This lack of motion can become boring at times because it is the same scenery for ten minutes straight, making us rely on the motion of the children on screen. We are lucky that the film was filmed over multiple years, giving us scenery from all the seasons of the year.

-Danny Ponticello