Re: [Frameworks] Film/Video & Brakhage [Was: Letter to other Filmmaker Artists]

From: marilyn brakhage (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Jul 23 2010 - 11:05:25 PDT


The point is he could not have. If he had made whatever it is you are
envisioning, it would not have been his "Black Ice," it would have
been something else.

Marilyn

On 23-Jul-10, at 9:16 AM, Matt Helme wrote:

> Well, my point was Brakhage could have made "Black Ice" on video. He
> didn't for a reason, that's a separate issue.
> Matt
>
> From: Fred Camper <email suppressed>
> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <email suppressed>
> Sent: Fri, July 23, 2010 12:08:18 PM
> Subject: [Frameworks] Film/Video & Brakhage [Was: Letter to other
> Filmmaker Artists]
>
> I agree with Pip's comments to Matt, and would like to make two
> additional points.
>
> First, even if the definition of a video transfer and the video
> display had resolutions as high as film, video light is just not the
> same as film light, no matter what kind of display you use.
>
> Second, writing that "Brakhage could have made a film like 'Black Ice'
> on Video" is rather beside the point. Because of the way Brakhage
> worked, I think that he just would *not* have made "a film like 'Black
> Ice'" on video. Like many of the greatest filmmakers, it's not the
> case that Brakhage simply had images in his head that he then tried to
> "realize" on film. He worked out of a deep engagement with his
> materials, and the materials he used had a huge influence on his
> working process and on the final result. "Mothlight" is a great, if
> rather obvious, early example. This is a version of the older "truth
> to materials" approach of the Bauhaus, actually, but with Brakhage's
> particular poetics added. So even if he "could" have made a film like
> "Black Ice" on video, he would not have.
>
> Similarly, most of my favorite works of video art would never have
> been made on film. They are made out of a deep engagement with the
> particular qualities of video.
>
> There seems to me an unstated undercurrent to many of these film/video
> posts, a hidden "film is better" or "video is better" agenda,
> depending on the poster's views. I don't agree with either of these
> positions. Each is a unique medium with its own qualities, and then,
> even within them, there are differences: super-8 is quite a bit
> different from 35mm, and low-definition video viewed on a CRT screen
> quite a bit different from high-def on a DLP projector.
>
> Fred Camper
> Chicago
>
>
>
>
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