[Frameworks] Sources for digital "prints" of avant garde classics

Thu Feb 15 23:48:31 UTC 2018

Hi all,
This is provide one filmmaker's perspective on digital prints etc. in response to the discussions below. We should be so lucky to be making only classics.
Typically, it has been the independent filmmaker who has subsidized the lab and labor costs of film prints. I remember Hollis Frampton's passionate letter to MOMA on the topic of rental fees for these costly prints (and the artist's presence). 
SB was in a fortunate position in his career to insist on film prints only.
Many are not able to take this purist position.
Even today there is a financial consideration to making digital copies. Labs and facilities charge for the service of making digital scans from film prints. The cost is not negligible--neither is the cost of internet services through which to make the scans available.  
There are quality issues for the filmmaker as well--I've learned I must carefully hand clean prints before submitting them for a scan--the automatically applied "ultrasound" cleaning has limitations. 

A couple of my films from the 1970s are distributable only in digital, but through old-school Standard Def scans that I paid a lab for. Disappointing versions. But making more prints is beyond my scope. I have subsidized a few HD scans of these "period films" and one pal has scanned one for me. 
I am also fortunate to be a recipient of support for restoration of one of these films--through film technology at a film lab. It will go through an internegative stage so the prints will be once removed from the camera original. I think digital restoration is probably more advanced--direct from camera original and with color correction options that seem more sophisticated than lab color timing. Oh, yeah, dirt and flaw reduction and transfer to 4K.

I once had the opportunity to view a manuscript of Galileo on the movement of the heavenly bodies, with hand-inscribed equations, thanks to Edward Tufte. It was beautiful and charismatic, but I wouldn't need to read only that version, if I could read it at all. I don't need to read only first editions of my beloved authors.

Film has always lived in the age of mechanical reproduction. Film prints have their aura, but so do digital images.
The aura comes from the viewers as well as the means of production.

I once tried to show an actual film print at a noted college to discuss these questions with the students. But of course the projector wouldn't thread. 

Cheers,

Robert Withers
withersr at earthlink.net
202 West 80 St. NYC

From: Esperanza Collado <esperanzacollado1 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Sources for digital "prints" of avant garde classics
Date: February 15, 2018 7:23:45 AM EST
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>

Hi Elena,

Once I rented Lemon by Frampton from Anthology Film Archives, it was a digital file and was screened at Irish Film Institute. I think we couldn't get the actual print as it was already booked, so we rented that file but not for free of course. 

So, in the end it costs money too if you screen digital, and you're not even showing the original work. That sucks :)

What city is this? Can you tell us?

2018-02-15 12:53 GMT+01:00 Elena Duque <elenaduque at gmail.com>:
Thanks, Pip

I totally understand that, and I work for a festival that is very aware of that ((S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico in A Coruña). Ideally, I would suggest them to project in 16mm, but this is a test screening in a small Spanish town, happening in a month and a half thanks to a venue they just got recently. So, there is no time and no money for this edition (besides of getting a projector, it would be necessary to hire a projectionist and pay for the shipping of the prints), but hopefully we will be able to that properly next year. So, I'm trying to do my best with what's available, in a place with no avant garde screenings tradition whatsoever. It is important to be aware of the context, and as much as I think that the analog screening is a totally different experience, I think this is better than nothing. We go little by little, trying to create a new audience that does not exist now!

Given that, thank you very much for your suggestion! I will look through your catalogue and maybe I will make you some enquiries, trying to be respectful to all the filmmakers involved. 

Cheers!

2018-02-15 12:39 GMT+01:00 Pip Chodorov <frameworks at re-voir.com>:
Dear Elena,

Many filmmakers don't want their films shown digitally. A good example is Stan Brakhage. It really denatures the intended image. Other filmmakers are more tolerant, such as Jonas Mekas. It is a big debate.

At Re:Voir in Paris we have digital files for our VOD platform and DVD/Blu-Ray publishing but these are meant only for home video, and though we do get requests for screenings we always encourage programmers to screen film prints from the coops. A 16mm projector is really quite affordable. But if the programmers insist and if the filmmakers agree, we can rent files.

In any case it is important to write in your screening programs and to tell the audience that you are showing electronic reproductions. Just as if you go to a museum you expect to see original paintings, not photocopies, so reproductions would be indicated on the title card. It is important to educate your audience and show them films on film!

Pip Chodorov

At 12:28 +0100 15/02/18, Elena Duque wrote:
I am trying to put together a couple of programs as a sort of introduction to experimental cinema for the audience of a small festival in a small town. They don't have the possibility to project in 16mm or 35mm (not this year at least), so I need to find digital files available to rent and screen. I have been browsing through the catalogues of all the cooperatives and distributors I could think of, but I am still missing some things I consider important. For instance, Stan Brakhage and Marie Menken. Do you know of any source, cooperative, distributor or individual, where I can find digital "prints" to rent?
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-- 
Elena Duque Viña
Telf: (+34) 605431072 
http://cargocollective.com/elenaduque

_______________________________________________
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-- 
Esperanza Collado

www.esperanzacollado.net

From: Elena Duque <elenaduque at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Sources for digital "prints" of avant garde classics
Date: February 15, 2018 7:33:19 AM EST
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>

Thanks!

It is for Oviedo, Asturias. Of course, you have to pay for the films for a public screening, no matter if they are digital or prints in 16mm, that is out of question!

2018-02-15 13:23 GMT+01:00 Esperanza Collado <esperanzacollado1 at gmail.com>:
Hi Elena,

Once I rented Lemon by Frampton from Anthology Film Archives, it was a digital file and was screened at Irish Film Institute. I think we couldn't get the actual print as it was already booked, so we rented that file but not for free of course. 

So, in the end it costs money too if you screen digital, and you're not even showing the original work. That sucks :)

What city is this? Can you tell us?

2018-02-15 12:53 GMT+01:00 Elena Duque <elenaduque at gmail.com>:
Thanks, Pip

I totally understand that, and I work for a festival that is very aware of that ((S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico in A Coruña). Ideally, I would suggest them to project in 16mm, but this is a test screening in a small Spanish town, happening in a month and a half thanks to a venue they just got recently. So, there is no time and no money for this edition (besides of getting a projector, it would be necessary to hire a projectionist and pay for the shipping of the prints), but hopefully we will be able to that properly next year. So, I'm trying to do my best with what's available, in a place with no avant garde screenings tradition whatsoever. It is important to be aware of the context, and as much as I think that the analog screening is a totally different experience, I think this is better than nothing. We go little by little, trying to create a new audience that does not exist now!

Given that, thank you very much for your suggestion! I will look through your catalogue and maybe I will make you some enquiries, trying to be respectful to all the filmmakers involved. 

Cheers!

2018-02-15 12:39 GMT+01:00 Pip Chodorov <frameworks at re-voir.com>:
Dear Elena,

Many filmmakers don't want their films shown digitally. A good example is Stan Brakhage. It really denatures the intended image. Other filmmakers are more tolerant, such as Jonas Mekas. It is a big debate.

At Re:Voir in Paris we have digital files for our VOD platform and DVD/Blu-Ray publishing but these are meant only for home video, and though we do get requests for screenings we always encourage programmers to screen film prints from the coops. A 16mm projector is really quite affordable. But if the programmers insist and if the filmmakers agree, we can rent files.

In any case it is important to write in your screening programs and to tell the audience that you are showing electronic reproductions. Just as if you go to a museum you expect to see original paintings, not photocopies, so reproductions would be indicated on the title card. It is important to educate your audience and show them films on film!

Pip Chodorov

At 12:28 +0100 15/02/18, Elena Duque wrote:
I am trying to put together a couple of programs as a sort of introduction to experimental cinema for the audience of a small festival in a small town. They don't have the possibility to project in 16mm or 35mm (not this year at least), so I need to find digital files available to rent and screen. I have been browsing through the catalogues of all the cooperatives and distributors I could think of, but I am still missing some things I consider important. For instance, Stan Brakhage and Marie Menken. Do you know of any source, cooperative, distributor or individual, where I can find digital "prints" to rent?
_______________________________________________
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https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks

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212 203-3048 mobile

WithersWorks.com
202 West 80th St. #5W
New York, NY 10024

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