Apologies for coming in late on this, but I wanted to mention an interview with Jean Renoir: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKCrOLcDbjE
where he makes basically the same argument as Chris does below, Nicky Hamlyn. On 21 Aug 2011, at 19:51, ch...@signaltoground.com wrote: > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:02:20 -0500 > From: Fred Camper <f...@fredcamper.com> >> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Quo Vadis Celluloid? >> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com> >> Message-ID: <20110819160220.13352yd9jm75r...@fredcamper.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; DelSp="Yes"; format="flowed" >> >> What is there about your >> particular practice that depends only on celluloid and could not be >> accomplished with video? How major would the loss be for you, and what >> kind of loss is it, and why would it be so major? >> >> Fred Camper >> Chicago > > I've been mulling this over for a couple days. It seems like the > digital/film debate has for years often been about resolution, about the > fact that film "looks" better. And it seems like the responses to Fred > have been largely along that line. But has that ever been anything but a > losing argument? Resolution for video has been getting better and better, > to near "perfect" in the right settings. And I've never liked perfect. > > When you look at some of the old classics in film, they're a series of > imperfections. Some of Brakhage's films fight between under and > overexposure on purpose. Baillie's All My Life was (until he digitally > corrected it) the "wrong" colour. Owen Land's films are most obviously > shot on cheap sets. You can see the splices in Maya Deren's films and you > can feel the hesitation in a Mekas film. What film of Jack Smith doesn't > look like glorious crap and what would his film "Scotch Tape" be without > the... scotch tape. > > But to me its about the tools, which frankly don't make perfect images. > The regular 8 camera that keeps jamming, the super 8 camera where you can > pull the cartridge out and fog the film on purpose, the bolex, where you > can make superimpositions and be surprised about how the images come > together. To me filmmaking has always been about limitations (the wind, > the 2 1/2 minute roll of film, etc.) > > I project one of my handprocessed films on video and it looks "great", but > to me its never been right. Because the other videos that are in that > program, by other people, look so "perfect", with their HD devised images > and their 5-channel soundtrack sound. It looks strange because its amongst > other, very different work that comes from a very different visual > tradition and aims for a clarity that I argue film never had. > > gotta run, so can't develop this much further. no pun intended. > C > > > _______________________________________________ > FrameWorks mailing list > FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks nicky.ham...@talktalk.net _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
