Black frame has been used since the beginning
of the film art, primarily as leader in laboratory
processing, editing and as a protection of the film
strip at the beginning and the end of roll. It was also
used in fragmented form as a reproduction of black
boards featuring opening credits and inter-titles, and
is subliminally present in every celluloid film projection
where black occupies 50% of the film. Gradually
it evolved into a complex and expressive device,
but is still widely ignored in motion pictures and
documentary films. Due to interpretation of black as
something conceptually and structurally void, black
frame rarely goes beyond its rudimentary use as the
temporal-spatial transition or a neutral background
for the titles. In experimental film, especially flicker
film, it proved to be a basic quantum element in
structural and projective aspect. It seems the research
on black frame doesn’t exist, so the goal of this essay
is its analysis and categorization. Governed by its
expressive value, the author classifies it into four distinctive
categories: temporal-spatial, dramaturgical,
fragmented and transmedial.

Tihoni Brčić