[Frameworks] Film and Digital for beginners

[Bernd Luetzeler]

Hi Jonathan,

one important aspect is that in film,
the smallest unit one can modify is the frame,
while in digital video the smallest unit is the pixel.

cheers

Bernd


Am 13.07.2012 um 22:42 schrieb Jonathan Walley:

> Hello everyone,
> 
> This question isn't about experimental cinema specifically, but it's certainly an important question for our world, and I think experimental filmmakers (and scholars, critics, etc.) are among those best equipped to answer it. So here goes. There is some preamble meant to set the stage, but you can skim it and skip down to the question if you want.
> 
> Each semester I teach an introductory cinema studies course called "Film Aesthetics and Analysis." The main goal of the course is to teach students how to analyze film aesthetics (in case the title of the class didn't make this obvious), and it is aimed at the general campus community, not just Cinema majors. Indeed, the majority of students in the class are non-majors who have never studied film before.
> 
> Early in the course I talk about filmmaking on a very material level - call it the "nuts and bolts" of filmmaking, a subject I return to periodically across the semester (e.g. how cameras work, the process of editing, projection, etc.). I have always privileged film - that is, analogue, photochemical, mechanical, "celluloid" film - but to keep up with the times I have been trying to talk more about digital cinema technology, with a view to contrasting the two media. Though I'm a luddite when it comes to film, I'm not necessarily interested in converting my students to that mindset, nor to favoring one medium over another. I simply want my students to understand the ramifications of shooting, editing, projecting, and viewing films on different media.
> 
> SO NOW, THE QUESTION: what would you say are some of the most important, and most fundamental, differences between making and/or seeing "films" in these two media, in terms that intro-level undergrads can understand and appreciate. For example:
> 
> -true black is not possible in digital projection the same way it is in film projection (something I can actually demonstrate in class).
> -differences in resolution.
> -different "lifespans" of film and digital.
> 
> And so on and so forth. Though I do talk about things outside the realm of film aesthetics specifically (such as the cost of digital conversion, preservation issues, etc.), my main interest is in showing my students the concrete, appreciable consequences that attend the decision to do something in film or in digital. And to be able to demonstrate them in class with specific examples - using the 16mm and digital projectors I have in the classroom - would be nice, so suggestions of such specific examples would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any ideas.
> Best,
> Jonathan
> 
> Jonathan Walley
> Dept. of Cinema
> Denison University
> 
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