[Frameworks] FUTURE OF FILM (was Letter to other Filmmaker Artists)

[Steve Polta]

Alain comes close to making a point that I was considering making.
Some (at least myself) work with film because it is personally enjoyable. I happen to like tinkering with machines (cameras, projector, editors, etc) and I like working with my hands. I like looking at the row of still images on a film strip and I like cutting and reassembling pictures (and sounds). There's much much more that I "like" about film but this is a large part of it. This enjoyment is completely personal and really need be no one else's concern but it is a large part of what motivates me. As Hollis Frampton said somewhere, "if you don't enjoy your work on an idiot level" (i.e. the physical "work" of the process), it's not going to work out for you. This attitude doesn't make my films (or Frampton's) any better than anyone else's but it explains a large part of why I work with film. It is arguable that the history of avant-garde/experimental film is the history of men and women (clearly including Frampton) who held similar fascinations.

I mean, what are most of us talking about other than the free use of our leisure time? Don't we want to do what we enjoy? Besides contributing to a esoteric community what else is there? Working with video, editing on a computer, makes me feel like I'm working in a office, and I don't like that feeling. If that's filmmaking I think I'd rather do something else with my time.

Steve Polta, speaking for himself...

--- On Tue, 7/20/10, 40 Frames <info at 40frames.org> wrote:

From: 40 Frames <info at 40frames.org>
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] FUTURE OF FILM (was Letter to other Filmmaker Artists)
To: "Experimental Film Discussion List" <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 12:52 PM


Tim, 
You make a good point, though I wonder who cares anymore, esp with so much pressure to produce and produce often. Working with filmcan slow this process down. 

I see the matter as a quality of work issue... sadly, it's also a part of the economy (solid state building and repair, machine shops, not to mention processing and printing labs) that is dying. The old models of work had us doing more with our hands than typing. 


Alain



On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 12:36 PM, Tim Halloran <televisual at hotmail.com> wrote:






Related to several of the ongoing discussions:

 

One thing that has been distressing me lately is the dismissal and denigration of analog film practices as tedious, time-consuming, and, that most dreaded of all, "boring." 
 
I really think that analog shooting, editing, and projection are true manifestations of a kind of "slow cinema" movement that should be explored and embraced rather than discarded. 

 
I don't think there is anything that gets me more calm and centered than a long, quiet, and yes, slow editing session on a flatbed in a dim editing room. Its bliss man. ;]

 

http://slowdownnow.org/

 

Tim



 





...because this work is really slow and exhausting...

 

Bernd



On 20.07.2010, at 22:52, Sam Wells wrote:




To go back to the idea of the "future"... who cares what "future" there is for film? Or for anything? 
 
Are you joking ? _______________________________________________
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