From: Gene Youngblood (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Mar 31 2010 - 10:02:27 PDT
Re: hypermediaThanks Patrick, Jonathan and Myron,
I'm familiar with Tag's illustrated essays, for example on Ophuls (I recently saw the one he did on "Caught"). They're a step in the right direction, but no cigar. The full potential of hypermedia analysis won't be realized until it's done interactively, with "hot" links, motion, and the other manipulations I mentioned (though your pointing to Gallagher reminded me of one I left out -- annotating over the image).
I suspect that no one, in fact, is doing these things in film analysis (outside of the classroom), and if you think about it, that's astonishing. Such an obvious thing to do, and so powerful.
I'm sure you all know the sequence in "Quick Billy" where Bruce shows us a home movie-within-the movie and talks about it voice-over, as if he's sitting there with us watching the thing. That has the contextual flavor I'm imagining. We need only add the digital bells and whistles that are available today.
gene
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick Friel
To: email suppressed
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: hypermedia
They are not interactive, but Tag Gallagher's illustrated film essays are quite remarkable (the few I've seen). They are hard to come by, but a couple are on some of the Criterion Rossellini DVDs.
I don't have the links, but J. Fred MacDonald has a couple of his books that he's put online for free that include stills and clips. I think they are television histories. Can probably find by Googling him or inquiring on the Association of Moving Image Archivists listserve.
Patrick Friel
Chicago
On 3/31/10 10:51 AM, "Jonathan Walley" <email suppressed> wrote:
Gene,
I'm sure there are several sites that do something like this, but I know of one specifically: David Bordwell's website on cinema (http://www.davidbordwell.com/). A lot of Frameworkers probably already know of this site, though Bordwell doesn't talk very much about experimental film. David's blog, especially, provides numerous stills, and sometimes clips, to illustrate the points he's making - often about film style.
As for the teaching arena, I think most professors probably make their own DVDs at this point. When I lecture, I have a DVD with numerous clips burned onto it, plus powerpoint slides that provide stills from said clips. My students often ask me where I "get" these materials, as if there's a clearing house for film professor visual aids somewhere out there.
Though I teach "media" (personally I think of myself as a "film scholar" rather than a "media scholar"), I try not to allow my classes to get too bogged down in it. But being able to show/pause/repeat clips and show extracted stills from them (often with annotations in text) in class is incredibly helpful, especially when my emphasis is on formal structure and visual style - which it usually is.
I've seen DVDs about various aspects of filmmaking advertised in film/video studies journals, and sometimes I get offers for these from the manufacturers. For instance: http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Edge-Magic-Movie-Editing/dp/B0009PVZEG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1270050381&sr=1-5
I'm not sure if these are what you have in mind, nor can I speak to how good any of these are (the one I link to above looks pretty light to me). DVD commentary and special features are always a mixed bag...hit and miss. Sometimes it's just the director ruminating about the film, sometimes there are very helpful and in-depth special features. I'd love to know of a resource for information about the quality of DVD extras.
Hope some of this is useful. Best,
Jonathan
Jonathan Walley
Asst. Professor of Cinema
Denison University
email suppressed
p.s. while looking up the above-cited amazon link, I was AMAZED to find this. Production teachers beware!
On Mar 31, 2010, at 11:23 AM, Gene Youngblood wrote:
Frameworkers,
Is anyone aware of a film criticism (or film analysis) website where text is augmented with links to clips that illustrate the text. You are reading an online analysis of Potemkin. Click on the word "montage" and it shows you the sequence that is being analyzed. You can repeat the clip, slow it down, freeze it, zoom in on a detail.
Alternatively, are there DVDs that do this, either interactively or as a fixed mode of analysis and explication? The professor is lecturing in a classroom, or the critic is featured in a documentary, and their voices carry over clips of what they're talking about, with the same possibilites of repeat, slow, freeze and detail.
It would be nice, for example, if Criterion's Brakhage releases featured someone like Fred Camper analyzing Stan's complex phrasings, rhymes, etc. in this manner.
Gene Youngblood
28 Sunrise Road
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507 USA
vox/fax: +1.505.424.8708
email suppressed
__________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.