From: Fred Camper (email suppressed)
Date: Mon May 12 2008 - 17:41:39 PDT
Matt Helme wrote:
> Does Avant-Garde mean anything when you just see
> people doing the same old thing?I mean painting on
> film and a 10 min static shot of the ocean may not be
> bad, but it's old hat.
I made this point more than 20 years ago in an article called "The End
of Avant-Garde Film" in the twentieth anniversary issue of "Millennium
Film Journal." I argued specifically that painting on film was not in
itself "avant-garde" anymore, and that "avant-garde film" now referred
to a particular style. There has been better new work made since that
article, but I think my point is even more true today: "avant-garde
film" now means a particular type of filmmaking, not necessarily film
that is doing something new.
Still, I think my earlier point is correct, and is an important one:
there is no such thing as a "better" film stock. If people could use
that old Ektachrome ER, a few might love its weird colors and extreme
graininess, to take only one example.
Fred Camper
Chicago
http://www.fredcamper.com/
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