Screen Tests

Screen Tests are a developed and practiced by the American artist Andy Warhol in the 1960s art form of experimental film.

In general, the candidate had to sit on a chair in front of a canvas and was filmed with the camera is still for three minutes. The time limit is the full passage through a 16- millimeter film role. The Screen Tests are always close-ups of the faces of the people portrayed. In some cases only the mouth, one eye or another detail is even seen. Filmed was mainly 1964-1966 in Warhol's Factory. All recordings are silent films.

The effect on the filmed people was very different: Some tried "cool" to act and showed no emotion, others considered the psychological pressure is not, and began to cry and walked away.

You can see the " test " as a parody of the test shots of the casting of the commercial film industry in Hollywood, since most already known, or at least always very self- conscious personalities confrontation were exposed to the camera. Unlike namely, as in Hollywood, the tests were not the effect of external characteristics, which could be achieved by illumination, etc., but they were on the contrary, designed by Warhol " illumination" of the inner personality that had to withstand the relentless gaze of the camera.

Warhol used some of the early screen tests in his films 13 Most Beautiful Women (1964 ) and 13 Most Beautiful Boys (1965 ) and in 50 Fantasticks and 50 Personalities ( 1966). To distinguish from the originals are incurred together with screenwriter Ronald Tavel movies Screen Test No. 1 and Screen Test No. 2 (both 1965).

The result is the (a total of approximately 400 to 500) Screen Tests a fascinating historical document of the 60s and its protagonists in New York City.

Famous people who were " screened " by Warhol

Cool (aesthetic)
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