Warhol’s Screen Tests are portraits of around a hundred different individuals, filmed between 1963 and 1966. In these short films, Warhol created his own group of Superstars: actors interesting enough to carry a film on their own, not by playing a specific role, but simply by being themselves. His subjects included both famous visitors to the studio – among them Allen Ginsberg, Dennis Hopper, Salvador Dalí, Susan Sontag, Bob Dylan, Marcel Duchamp, and Lou Reed – and ordinary people. The subjects were lit and filmed by Warhol using a 16 mm Bolex camera, on 100-foot (30-metre) reels of silent, black-and-white film stock. Each Screen Test lasted exactly three minutes, the time it took for the film reel to run through the camera. The standard formula, in which the subject and the camera remained virtually motionless for the entire duration of the film, resulted in a “living portrait.” When Warhol projected the films, he slowed them down slightly, extending their running time to about four minutes each and lending a dreamy, slow-motion effect to the finished works.
Although Warhol’s procedure was standardised, subtle variations in lighting and focus can be found in the Screen Tests. Furthermore, several Screen Tests deviate completely from this format, with the subject intentionally moving, gesturing, or using props. These cinematic portraits, dubbed with the Hollywood term “screen test”, were not created for the purpose of testing or auditioning actors. A traditional Hollywood screen test assesses an actor’s suitability for a specific film and character. The actor is usually given a scene, a script, and instructions on how to act in front of a camera. The director then watches the test to assess the actor’s look and qualities on film. Although each film was shot at the standard speed of 24 frames per second (fps), Warhol specified that the copies should be projected at 16 fps, the speed of silent films. The result is an unusual fluidity of tempo, a rhythm that delicately contrasts with the severity of the lighting and the boldness of the close-ups of faces and hair. Transferred from 16mm to DVD for gallery display, these innovative works reinvent traditional portraiture through seemingly simple means.
