The "Pan" films, presumably not titled as such originally, was a series of nine different one-minute short films created by experimental filmmaker Hollis Frampton for his enormous thirty-six hour film cycle "Magellan". As such, they were never released as individual works or given title cards because of being an intended part of this greater context, and in the end never actually used due to the project being cut short by the filmmaker's death in 1984. Reportedly, Frampton had originally hoped to complete seven-hundred and twenty "Pan" films in all, although for whatever reason only nos. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 697, 698, 699, and 700 are available now. One would think that because of the large gap in numbering there were more shot remaining unavailable; but due to a lack of evidence supporting this, the series is generally known as containing only nine.
"Pan 0" was obviously the first and like all of them, very little can be judged from it when taken out of context. For one minute the viewer is treated to a single long panning shot of white clouds, over which are superimposed dark storm clouds flickering quickly to create an interesting effect. The other reviewer clearly does not understand the relevance of the series and cannot see this as being any more than a short clip of flickering clouds; it would be difficult for any of us to understand the relevance without the cycle being completed to fully know what he was trying to do. One interesting thing about this particular segment is that it's possible it was a shortened remake of Frampton's first film, "Clouds Like White Sheep" (1962), although that short was reportedly destroyed--and no more comparison can be made apart from the assumed content.
"Pan 0" was obviously the first and like all of them, very little can be judged from it when taken out of context. For one minute the viewer is treated to a single long panning shot of white clouds, over which are superimposed dark storm clouds flickering quickly to create an interesting effect. The other reviewer clearly does not understand the relevance of the series and cannot see this as being any more than a short clip of flickering clouds; it would be difficult for any of us to understand the relevance without the cycle being completed to fully know what he was trying to do. One interesting thing about this particular segment is that it's possible it was a shortened remake of Frampton's first film, "Clouds Like White Sheep" (1962), although that short was reportedly destroyed--and no more comparison can be made apart from the assumed content.
