[Frameworks] Texts / Works Bridging Early Cinema, Early Video, Early ___

[robert harris]

The “early cinema/early video” query is a good one, one that I’ve not seen explored with much rigor. 

Kleinhans’ question of “broadcast TV or portapak” is significant.

Early TV might have more in common with radio than with early film.

Early video (portapak) provoked, for some practitioners, sensibilities in keeping with those of the Lumieres. 

The Lumiere camera was more like video than any other camera (including the Edison version) as it was, like video, a capture and playback device (and lab).

The promptness with which the Lumieres could playback their recordings (if my film mythology serves me) is almost video-like (time was a little slower in those days, so they say).

 Both early film and early video were made without post-production edits, hence were finished in camera.

 Video’s instant feedback loop is an unequivocal distinction from film.

To give proper attention to all origin strains of video, you have to consider camera-less, raster based work (Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell and others).

The “early cinema” equivalent might be the first people to mark on clear leader, some Italian Futurists, Hans Richter, Man Ray etc.

 As to cultural “outrage”, it wasn’t uncommon for the people throwing things at the artists and making big scenes to be the Surrealists themselves.

 

Some worthy writing of early video (essays you should be able to easily find): 

Hollis Frampton, The Withering Away of the State of the Art

David Antin, Video: The Distinctive Features of the Medium




On Jan 13, 2016, at 2:46 AM, Chuck Kleinhans <chuckkle at northwestern.edu> wrote:

> An answer depends on how “early” you’re talking about film (1890s? later?), and about video (Broadcast TV or Portapak?).  Probably the most significant common feature is the fixed camera position.
> 
> The most significant difference (beyond the obvious one of resolution) is shot duration.  Video (portpak on) allowed for remarkably long shots compared to almost all film.
> 
> If you (or anyone) can find it, Noel Burch’s film “Correction Please, or How We Got Into Pictures” is a great explanation of the evolution of early films' means and style, concentrating on how the audience was shaped by the evolving formal elements of cinema.
> 
> Chuck Kleinhans
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