Experimental Filmmakers/Video Artists????

[Jay_Blanchard]

Just wondering if there were any experimental film/video makers who wanted to discuss how they've utilized the DVX in their productions. I've used mine to replace most of the 16mm work I used to do, and I've found it's flexibility in achieving all types of film-like looks to be astounding. Now if only there were a way to scratch and paint on video tape....

[Neil Rowe]

the beautiful thing about it being video is that you can "scratch and paint" digitally in post to your hearts content.. pending your software, you can do just about anything

[Jay_Blanchard]

true...but scratching and painting with a digital pen just isn't as tactile as taking an exacto & a sharpie to celluloid. it's really tough (if not impossible) to get the same type of rough, organic aesthetic (see stan brakhage's late works) you get from direct manipulation. however, it is scary how close programs like corel painter & others are coming.

that will always be video's biggest limitation in my mind--you can't experience the medium in the same physical way that you can with film. you can't hold it up to a light & see the little pictures & scratch off the emulsion, etc. i'll never abandon film for precisely that reason.

but video's got a few big benefits--it's clean, it's easy, and it's cheap.

[David Jimerson]

I'm sure the same was said of quill pens.

[Taylor Moore]

Jay,
Having started cutting film on a flatbed, I hear you on missing the tactile aspect of the process...

[kai]

"'640K is more memory than anyone will ever need...."

-Bill Gates, 1981

[vovka]

It is not exect words, due to transletion english to russian and back to english.
"Color monitors never will be used, becuse they distract at work place" Peter Norton 198x

[David Jimerson]

It was frequently said among the chattering classes in the 1890s that everything which could be invented had been invented.

[Jay_Blanchard]

I think it has less to do with "accepting new technologies" (which i obviously have no problem with considering i gave up my bolex for the dvx on most shoots). But I'm guessing most people who are taking the technophile view have never done a paint film. It's just not the same doing it on a computer--aesthetically or physically. Video doesn't offer the same kind of comraderie between artist and tool that film does--no hand processing, no scratching or chopping up the physical tape, no paint under your fingernails & fingerprints and hair in the celluloid that gets projected...

it's a beautiful thing & anyone who hasn't tried it definitely should. i love video, but to consider using it as a replacement for film is like replacing a violin for an sythesizer, or oil painting for sculpture--they're just two incredibly different mediums, with extremely different uses.

[Mike_Donis]

I know what you mean about the "physical aspects" of cutting and painting on celluloid. But the practicality of using a computer to rotoscope and edit is so much more beneficial in the long run; it may not be as fun, but it gets the job done quicker and easier.

That said, I've personally never used motion picture film before, but have done MANY video projects, and regardless of the ease of use, there's something that makes me want to give film a try. It just seems so much more...cool!







the DVX rules though! :P