[Frameworks] media in the classroom

[David Tetzlaff]

OK, let's say we all agree it would be great if college and university  
classes could screen more experimental film from actual film prints.  
Then let us ask what it would take for that to happen. Three problems  
I've identified and others have confirmed would need to be addressed.

1. The cost of print rentals is too high for current academic budgets.
2. There is no support for 16mm projection.
3. Print rental is not an effective means of facilitating scholarly  
engagement.

How might we change these things.

1. Fees. The distribution would have to be subsidized by governmental  
arts agencies, private foundations, etc.
2. The distributors could no longer see their role as merely supplying  
prints, but would need to offer a complete 16mm projection service.  
They would need to maintain an inventory of quality 16mm projectors  
and a wide selection of lenses, employ projector technicians, and  
develop programs to train new people in that craft.
3. Print rental would need to be accompanied /supplemented by digital  
copies that can be studied in a library or on an Blackboard-type system.

That is, whenever a school wished to offer an experimental film class  
with 'real film', they would pay one modest comprehensive fee for  
which they would receive a.) a package of rental prints, b.) rental of  
a freshly serviced 16mm projector or two for the term, fitted with the  
proper lenses for the screen size and throw of the screening room to  
be used. c.) rental for the term of a tape splicer and tape to repair  
damaged prints d.) some sort of video training course in the operation  
of the equipment, care of the prints, and use of the splicer to repair  
broken films. e.) rental, again for the term, of digital copies for  
study after the prints have been screened (to be returned/deleted at  
the end of the course).

I am well aware that the coops as now constituted have nowhere near  
the resources available to do something like that. What would be  
required, it seems to me, is for Canyon, FMC and MoMo to combine  
operations into some Center For The Personal Film, so there would be a  
single source for all the schools to deal with, a single target for  
all fund-raising and support, a stronger focus point of advocacy. Yes,  
this would be a total change from the independence the coops have now,  
and would not come without certain losses.

But the reality is that the market for conventional 16mm rental is  
going away, and is already functionally dead in most corners of  
academia. And the only alternative I can think of for the distributor  
is some form of patronage or subsidy. One would start, I suppose by  
getting George Lucas to put up or shut up about his love for Lipsett  
and his self-identification as an experimental filmmaker (and to begin  
to atone for his cinematic sins). If the new organization was called  
the George Lucas Center For Experimental Film, I'd grimace every time  
I encountered the title, but I'd live with it. Scorcese, Coppola,  
DePalma and others are known to appreciate experimental work, and  
while they may not have Lucas's money, they have influence. If all the  
little stakes-holders in 16mm and experimental joined hands and worked  
together, they might be able to accomplish something. Continuing to  
operate in the fragmented manner they do now offers little hope for  
the future. Franklin: "We must all hang together, or surely we will  
all hang separately." Dylan: "Your sons and your daughters are beyond  
your command / Your old road is rapidly agin'/
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand / For the  
times they are a-changin'."

Is there an organizer in the house?

(Before you lay smack negativity of my little plan, realize that I've  
anticipated a lot of it, and think it through OK? Try to make a better  
scheme, not just trash this'un.)