Process Red (1966) User Reviews

An Abstraction in Photography

[Tornado_Sam · 1 July 2019]

When one thinks of abstraction, they tend to think of shapes and colors, particularly blocks and circles of all different shades. While abstract like his other work, Hollis Frampton's "Process Red" takes on a different meaning of the word. This is live action not animation, that's for certain, but a rather unique form of it which goes for a more far-out dadaist look rather than focusing on one particular subject. In Frampton's film, the title color is only really the tint of the photography, and even that changes to black and white occasionally. The true theme is hands, as a series of repetitive and very brief shots flash onscreen, many of them showing hands--in and out of focus--doing different activities such as holding a cane, peeling an egg, etc. The abstraction here lies in the frantic editing style and the chaotic camerawork, not the fact that the images are unusual in what they depict. Sometimes I thought I even saw an entire person and for a quarter second, a photo of a nude female figure from the back, but everything is so quick and flashy that at times the viewer isn't certain what they're seeing. An impressively edited series of photographic abstractions, and certainly one for fans of experimental cinema.

Frampton on color

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 13 May 2016]

Colors have always been a crucial element in experimental filmmaking (e.g. "Anger sees red") and in these 3.5 minutes American filmmaker Hollis Frampton gives us his take on the color red. I must say I have seen some of his works and I would not say it is one of his worst, but this is only because some other stuff he has done is so horrendously bad and not because this one here is good for any reason. It was very fast, but not very creative in my opinion and even at under 4 minutes it already seemed repetitive. That is quite an achievement I guess, in the negative sense of course. All in all, this was a disappointing watch like many other works by Frampton. i do not recommend checking it out.

process red

[waneworble · 9/10 · 4 March 2020]

Idk why PR stands out amongst frampton's B/O/W as much as it does, i think it might be my favourite from him. frampton's films usually tend to hone in on a particular filmic/structural exercise (sometimes to their detriment bcos it feels as though there is little for the viewer 2 pull from the works emotionally), process red being among the most expansive of his filmography that i've seen. as opposed to something from the pan series, process red does more than document movement within the frame, it juxtaposes the gestures of the subject w/ the gestures of the camera w/ more immediate structural elements like the color of the stock. there's almost a color coordination within the film wherein the pink highlights a subject (a person's hand or a piece of food in the frame) & the b&w monochrome stock highlights the camera itself. one of the tightest experimental works of the structuralist filmmaking movement.