[Frameworks] Quo Vadis Celluloid?

[Mike Morris]

Reposting this with the proper subject heading...sorry:

Part of the issue I haven't seen addressed yet is whether making films 
can survive without Kodak. Something I remember happening when Polaroid 
went out of business was that photographers who had been doing certain 
alternative processes with Polaroid products began using similar 
products made by Fuji (not sure what the present status of that is...). 
Then there is also the "impossible project" that started making certain 
kinds of polaroid products again (also haven't checked into the status 
of this project recently...). I know that Fuji certainly doesn't make 
the variety of stocks that Kodak has, certainly not an equivalent to 
7302 or 7363 which are so useful to film artists, but could certain 
aspects of this kind of practice be maintained via Fuji or other 
manufacturers? It seems that as long as some stock is being 
manufactured, certain areas of film making can continue, such as the 
super 8 stocks that are available from Pro 8mm or other companies, or 
the
 double 8 that is re-perforated from other stocks, etc. 

I've
 heard it said that film will likely remain a capture medium for a time,
 but may have a hard time surviving as an exhibition medium. What's 
still lost in that case is part of the process of working with film and 
how that affects the possible meaning of a finished piece. In my own practice, I would have to think hard about trying to imitate some of the intrinsic qualities of film in digital video (HD or otherwise) since they are not necessarily intrinsic to the video technology. 

The goal of imitating film in video, while it may eventually satisfy some of the physiological responses that people (who know much more about these issues than I do) have cited, I see conceptual problems in this goal (which isn't to say they won't be interesting or productive to explore in-depth...). It seems to me that digital video should be subject to the same kind of approach toward it's "materiality", or lack thereof, whatever is intrinsic to the technology and can be theoretically built up around it. If I remember right, some of Fred's writings have featured artists who are exploring this. All this to say that I think the loss of conceptual possibilities that film practice provides would really suck because they are in dialogue with the conceptual possibilities of digital video and both areas of working are enriched by that dialogue.

Thoughts?

Mike Morris
Dallas, Texas

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