What is Experimantal Film?

There are certain traits that Camper attributes to experimental film listed below with my commentary. As a whole, I think that he has identified some excellent ways to categorize an experimental film but I also believe that the nature of the genre makes every rule that one could pinpoint as nothing more than a possible trait, not an essential component of the genre:

1. They are created by one person or a small group with a very small budget and no expectation of commercial success. (I totally agree with the small chance of commercial success but I think that a film with a committee of directors directing different parts without seeing each other's sections could produce an interesting film similar to the game where a group of people must write a story without seeing more than the line previously written. I also think that a very rich yet eccentric filmmaker could make a wonderful experimental film.)
2. It does not use the production line model. (This is probably true most of the time but it is possible to make an excellent avante garde film that is very organized with a complex network of delegation.)
3. The story is not linear. (This is probably the most important rule to distinguish an experimental film in my opinion.)
4. It calls attention to the medium and its conventions. It also uses film in different ways- like writing directly on the film or scratching it for stylistic purposes. (This is the trait that most people would notice first in an independent film of this type. It is definitely an indicator of an experimental film although it really indicates a specific type of avante garde production not the genre as a whole.)
5. It is oppositional to mainstream culture and mass media. (This I would dare to say is almost always true of experimental films but it is also true of many mainstream narratives.)
6. It does not have a clear message and requires the active participation of the audience. (Once again, this is an excellent general statement but there are experimental films that have a very clear and often political purpose. "Big Screen Version" is a mash-up of Fox News clips and is very clearly a political satire. "Ballet Mechanique" and "Strike" are other films with a political drive and a clear purpose that are also avante garde.)