Serene Velocity

"Ah, the colored light this movie generates. Opalescent. Shimmering. Call it The Divine Poem. Or Metropolis."
-- Ken Jacobs.

I thought this film was very hypnotic. I liked how the image was the same but at different focus length. Gehr had me fooled because I thought it was one continuous shot. Come to find out, Gehr took a shot then changed the focal length. This film took an entire night to film.
--Helene Dacey, 2000

This film by Gehr, was structural in content. It focused on the zoom lens of the camera and it filmed a hallway with different lenses. The effect of the video was disorienting because the zooms were done in such a rapid way. This technique gave me the illusion that the camera was moving when in all actuality, the camera stayed still the entire time. This film was interesting because it challenges perspective. At certain times in the film objects on the wall become visible that were not there before. This gives the illusion that the camera is in motion. Gehr changed the lens from a wide angle lens to a narrow angle lens in order to change the perspective. The film was started at night but ends in the morning. At the end of the film, the scenes jump from as far away from the door you can get to as close to the door that you can get. This film was somewhat hard to watch because the scenes changed so quickly. Gehr did a good job of working with perspective and the zoom lens.
--Erica Ferry, 2000

Serene Velocity was an interesting film to watch. Although at first I felt like I was watching a clip from Sesame street. The only thing missing was someone saying "near...far" in the back ground. However the deeper we got into watching the film the more hypnotic it got, and the hallway became some what of a pulse.
--Alessandra Raffa, 2000

Ernie Gehr Work