Posted by
michael
on from the ad-te-omnis-caro-veniet dept.
tregoweth writes "The New York Times has a story about 'Decasia,' a film created entirely from deteriorating nitrate film footage. Ya can't beat analog for interesting disintegration."
Ha.... at least its still viewable.
by
purduephotog
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Because if it was my digital VCR tapes from 8 years ago, the only thing they are good for is imitating sparklers when tossed in a fire.
Analog fails gracefully, digital fails catastrophically.
Re:Ha.... at least its still viewable.
by
purduephotog
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
One or Zero - your choice?
Interesting thought- now randomize them. Or make them.5 - as in can't tell the level. Leave a bunch out. Skip a few. Now throw in a compression algorithm. Whats this, missing pixels? Whacked Code Values (CV). Or worse yet,corrupt data that can't be read.
Cool and all, but
by
prichardson
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
This seems really, but would it be enjoyable to watch? A lot of art is just "hey, cool!" and then is put on a shelf. This really cool idea is only really cool because it's so original, it will never be cool again.
-- Help I'm a rock.
All they offer is a VHS copy
by
Quazi
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I know it would defeat the whole point of the video, but I'd like it in DVD format. You don't want your own copy of this film to end up like all the ones it's portraying, do you?
Re:All they offer is a VHS copy
by
Gaccm
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Um... wouldn't the deterioration be a benefit? The entire movie is a bunch of messed up clips of film. Does it really hurt the film if some more warping is added to the film?
--
Only dead fish swim with the stream...
What about AOTC?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Ya can't beat analog for interesting disintegration.
Oh, I don't know. This year's all-digitial Attack of the Clones provided for an interesting example of the distintegration of George Lucas' writing, directing and overall creativity...
The text
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 3, Funny
In case it gets slashdotted. Not trying to karma whore here, just being helpful:
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small versions of their images on Google cache
by
Viking+Coder
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Re:I don't get it...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Related to your point, this Variety review seems appropriate:
Like Peter Delpeut's Dutch "Lyrical Nitrate" a decade ago, Bill Morrison's U.S. experimental feature "Decasia" finds poetry in the abstract psychedelia created by deteriorating archival film stock. Lacking any obvious thematic or emotional arc, compilation pic succeeds as a pure exercise in visual stimulus, its narcotic effect much amplified by Michael Gordon's thunderous, dissonant orchestral score. Logical destinations are fest avant-garde sidebars and cinematheque schedules.
Project began as the film component to a multimedia stage extravaganza that premiered in Switzerland two years ago (for which the score, played by 55-piece Basel Sinfonietta, was commissioned). While it demands a suspension of normal narrative/human-interest expectations, "Decasia" can stand alone as a hallucinatory canvas of images -- most from the presound era, and all streaked, misted, darkened, speckled or tornado-disrupted by chemical decay. Much footage (Sufi dancers, far-flung landscapes, WW1 parachutists) has an ancient-ethnographic feel; midsection's silent slapstick and melodrama clips feel like they're from another planet. Pulsing din of Gordon's Glenn Branca-style soundtrack adds a curiously ominous dimension to parade of time-imperiled moving pictures. Biggest minus is outrageously overlong final credit scroll, which kills much good will at nearly seven slug-slow minutes.
Weird, but oddly appealing
by
Zerbey
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
This Morrison guy is clearly bonkers. Who would make a film out of disintegrating film stock? It's like filming a compost heap.
On the other hand, in the same way everyone (go on, admit it) slows down to take a look at a major road accident you just can't resist seeing how bad it really is.
I, for one will be tuning into Sundance when it airs - just for the pure morbid curiousity.
Re:Weird, but oddly appealing
by
FattMattP
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Who would make a film out of disintegrating film stock?
Why would someone write the most obfuscated or smallest C code? Because they can. On top of that, it might turn out to be interesting or a learning experience.
People attempt to do something interesting and experimental and observe the results. Most of the time the results aren't great, but sometimes they are. You don't know until you try.
Most art is just visual hacking. Once you realize this it's easy to judge something on its merits and see through any pretense or bullshit that the artist has of himself. You'll also become less patient of prima donnas and have more respect for a modest, yet talented, artist.
So the question is..
by
tezzery
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Will someone be looking at crappy bad quality divx cam rips in 100 years appreciating them artistically?
The music is amazing too
by
van+der+Rohe
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Glad to see this film get some props on Slashdot.
The composer of the score, Michael Gordon, is one of my favorite living American composers, and this film is the perfect vehicle for his fascinating, gritty music.
For more info on him and his new music organization Bang On A Can, see their site here.
The soundtrack to the film is available from Cantaloupe, a very interesting label for contemporary music.
Re:But what about the copyright holders?!
by
kfg
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I suppose it "benefits" them by continuing to allow them to rest peacefully in their graves.
If you are about the average age for a Slashdot reader I may well be older than your parents. Much of the material used had already passed into the public domain before *my* parents were born.
The film is *old.* There are no copyright holders.
KFG
Decomposing nitrates
by
psyconaut
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Gives a whole new meaning to "the premiere went off with a real bang!";)
-psy
Ignorance of copyright
by
captaineo
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I was shocked that the New York Times Mangzine article about this film neglected to mention any of the copyright issues. Very few (no?) motion pictures have yet entered the public domain. Therefore, Mr. Morrison is likely in blatant violation of the copyrights on various pieces of his film.
I find it offensive how casual industry "insiders" tend to be about copyright violations, while they simultaneously condemn audience members for time- or space-shifting their own works.
Hopefully reality will catch up to them soon enough - the only available subject for the next "Decasia" will be the white noise of encrypted video streams, their keys long lost in obsolete trusted playback hardware...
Re:Ignorance of copyright
by
Qender
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Speaking of ignorance...
Many films are no longer copywrited. Even more are totally lost. There are great film archives, several stories high, with rows upon rows of film canisters, mostly unmarked. If you open one up you can find a reel of flim, or you can find half a reel of film, the rest eaten away by insects living in the canister. Sometimes you open a film canister and find nothing but dust, the film deteriorated into a powdery and flammable substance.
Many of these old films are on silver nitrate film. Silver Nitrate isn't used anymore because of it's tendancy to burn down theaters when it catches fire when run through a hot projector.
Most of these films have no owners claiming them, no identifying pieces of information. The bits of film the bill morrison restored and edited into "decasia" are not sequences from old hollywood films. They are from documentaries, they are from personal films. And some of them look like nothing more than weird splotchy flashing covers.
I know this is slashdot, but not everything equates to copyrights.
Re:Ignorance of copyright
by
captaineo
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Thanks for the info. Of course there is very little chance Morrison would actually get in trouble for collecting old film, but it's still no less an infringement than, say, distributing MP3s made from a newly-discovered tape of some music group you've never heard of. And here he's charging money for it!
(I dislike strong copyright as much as anyone else, I just think so much of the conduct the RIAA/MPAA/FCC are pounding on is just as harmless as gathering these old film clips...)
I'm sure if movie studios had thought of selling rights to post-decay film prints, they would all have gone to the highest bidder already:)...
Some facts for a change...
by
tobyvoss
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I happen to have worked for "Decasia" as one of three projectionists at the event here in Basel, Switzerland.
It's a piece of Art, folks! Painstakingly selected sequences pitting decay and the fight against each other.
As best I know, the film was made exclusively with rights-free material.
The three identical films we simultaneously projected were of course all brand-new 16-mm copies of the old decaying material. No celluloid, no nitrate, no fire - although we did have one projector lock up at the end and melt exactly one frame out...
Slashdot Mirror
Because if it was my digital VCR tapes from 8 years ago, the only thing they are good for is imitating sparklers when tossed in a fire.
Analog fails gracefully, digital fails catastrophically.
NO CARRIER
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
Of course, that's not to say you can't make a film entirely from deteriorating digital footage.
--
This seems really, but would it be enjoyable to watch? A lot of art is just "hey, cool!" and then is put on a shelf. This really cool idea is only really cool because it's so original, it will never be cool again.
Help I'm a rock.
I know it would defeat the whole point of the video, but I'd like it in DVD format. You don't want your own copy of this film to end up like all the ones it's portraying, do you?
Ya can't beat analog for interesting disintegration.
Oh, I don't know. This year's all-digitial Attack of the Clones provided for an interesting example of the distintegration of George Lucas' writing, directing and overall creativity...
small versions of their images on Google cache
Education is the silver bullet.
Like Peter Delpeut's Dutch "Lyrical Nitrate" a decade ago, Bill Morrison's U.S. experimental feature "Decasia" finds poetry in the abstract psychedelia created by deteriorating archival film stock. Lacking any obvious thematic or emotional arc, compilation pic succeeds as a pure exercise in visual stimulus, its narcotic effect much amplified by Michael Gordon's thunderous, dissonant orchestral score. Logical destinations are fest avant-garde sidebars and cinematheque schedules.
Project began as the film component to a multimedia stage extravaganza that premiered in Switzerland two years ago (for which the score, played by 55-piece Basel Sinfonietta, was commissioned). While it demands a suspension of normal narrative/human-interest expectations, "Decasia" can stand alone as a hallucinatory canvas of images -- most from the presound era, and all streaked, misted, darkened, speckled or tornado-disrupted by chemical decay. Much footage (Sufi dancers, far-flung landscapes, WW1 parachutists) has an ancient-ethnographic feel; midsection's silent slapstick and melodrama clips feel like they're from another planet. Pulsing din of Gordon's Glenn Branca-style soundtrack adds a curiously ominous dimension to parade of time-imperiled moving pictures. Biggest minus is outrageously overlong final credit scroll, which kills much good will at nearly seven slug-slow minutes.
The latest NIN video is out!
This Morrison guy is clearly bonkers. Who would make a film out of disintegrating film stock? It's like filming a compost heap.
On the other hand, in the same way everyone (go on, admit it) slows down to take a look at a major road accident you just can't resist seeing how bad it really is.
I, for one will be tuning into Sundance when it airs - just for the pure morbid curiousity.
Will someone be looking at crappy bad quality divx cam rips in 100 years appreciating them artistically?
Glad to see this film get some props on Slashdot.
The composer of the score, Michael Gordon, is one of my favorite living American composers, and this film is the perfect vehicle for his fascinating, gritty music.
For more info on him and his new music organization Bang On A Can, see their site here.
The soundtrack to the film is available from Cantaloupe, a very interesting label for contemporary music.
I suppose it "benefits" them by continuing to allow them to rest peacefully in their graves.
If you are about the average age for a Slashdot reader I may well be older than your parents. Much of the material used had already passed into the public domain before *my* parents were born.
The film is *old.* There are no copyright holders.
KFG
Gives a whole new meaning to "the premiere went off with a real bang!" ;)
-psy
I was shocked that the New York Times Mangzine article about this film neglected to mention any of the copyright issues. Very few (no?) motion pictures have yet entered the public domain. Therefore, Mr. Morrison is likely in blatant violation of the copyrights on various pieces of his film.
I find it offensive how casual industry "insiders" tend to be about copyright violations, while they simultaneously condemn audience members for time- or space-shifting their own works.
Hopefully reality will catch up to them soon enough - the only available subject for the next "Decasia" will be the white noise of encrypted video streams, their keys long lost in obsolete trusted playback hardware...