Stan Brakhage is an experimental filmmaker who, according to wikipedia, explored such techniques as "handheld camerawork, painting directly onto celluloid, fast cutting, in-camera editing, scratching on film, collage film and the use of multiple exposures."
His short piece from 1993, entitled Stellar, demonstrates painting directly on celluloid, fast cutting, and possibly multiple exposures. The piece starts with a few frames which appear and slowly fade out. The seem to be heavily painted celluloid where single pin-points of light are let through (almost like stars) and then thinner swashes of paint that allow the light through (simulating gaseous clouds and other stellar phenomena).
Examining the specific techniques in the film, there are really two primary visual uses of painted celluloid: short/fast cuts between painted cells, and cells which show and then fade. The intermittent injection of cells which fade slowly versus the fast cutting creates a sense of rhythm, rather than just watching lots of single frames, fast-cutting at a constant speed.
The fast-cutting in general creates a strong sense of movement: you feel as though you are zooming, twisting, and turning through space at an incredible speed, punctuated by the longer intermittent fade-outs of frames.
While it is certainly experimental and non-narrative, I did find the general visual experience to be pleasing. I think the strength of the piece is the sense of speed and movement that is reproduced from such a small set of techniques. Additionally, some of the painted cells seem painterly, but there are some, displayed so quickly, that you wouldn't be able to confidently say aren't actual images of outer space.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Brakhage
Stellar (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8r9t135_xY
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