Quoting carli...@aol.com: > I also think that this "look" appeal-thing is like wanting to buy a > blow-up doll as a substitute for a girlfriend.
I really don't want to restart the film/video thing, but feel the need to make a couple of observations. It seems to be entirely acceptable and unquestioned on this list to post that some or all forms of video projection look like crap, as the analogy above, film=live girlfriend and video=blow-up doll, confirms. Praise of video's own unique possibilities, many of which are different from film and can produce results that film cannot, seems almost entirely absent. As a format for presenting film, it is, of course, imperfect, as I myself argued almost three decades ago, though that was in the days of VHS, a lot worse than more recent formats. But we need to remember that film is not a "girlfriend." It is a strip of plastic with a bunch of chemicals, not a lot more "substantial" than digital formats, and almost as alienated from actual human presences. The pseudo mystical statements with words like "never" strike me as not substantiatable. We cannot predict what future technology will come up with. To the film critic who once defined a great film as time spent with people one likes that one wishes would never end, I would reply, if you want a real person, go out and spend time with one! One analogy one might consider is to a live concert of classical music versus a recording. The difference there is huger than between film and high quality video, and some people I respect, John Cage and Peter Kubelka to name two, got/get pleasure out of recordings. Yet I can, and many times a good recording is preferable to me, and more musical, than a bad performance. I once heard one of my heroes, Ton Koopman, live, leading his group in some Bach cantatas. I have all his recordings of these. Yet, yet, yet, the acoustics in the hall were so poor, much was lost, and in the end I got more pleasure from the recordings. Yet of course a recording can never replace, or be the same as, a concert with live performers. But recordings are invaluable for many reasons, not the least that they permit multiple listenings. VHS wrecked the aesthetic of many, if not most, films. There are perhaps some films whose aesthetic will be mostly or totally lost even in 4K projection. I suspect they are very few compared to the films destroyed on VHS or even on DVD. A small or even medium-sized loss is not a ruination. I hope those who want to work with film will keep it alive in various ways. And I don't want to lose film, certainly not for preservation of films, and will still always prefer it for films shot on film. But we have little influence over what happens on the industrial scale, and while we should do what we can, a group of our size and influence is not going to stop time. In the end, no one can. Fred Camper Chicago _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks