Fourteen

For years now, director Frank Scheffer has been fascinated by modern composers, including John Cage, who died in 1992. The controlling principle behind many of Cage's works are the so?called chance operations. Coincidence determines which sound is rendered and in which way sounds are combined. This film is a registration of the piece Fourteen by Cage, performed by the Ives Ensemble. Seven different cameras travel ? arbitrarily, not directed ? through the room with musicians who play the piece unconducted. The designer of the lighting plan, Andrew Culver, worked on the basis of chance operations, too. So the light score, a composition for 112 spots, was not pre?determined. For years, Andrew Culver was Cage's permanent assistant. Frank Scheffer cooperated with Culver in the realisation of these four films.