Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: "Film Done Wrong" becomes high cinema art.

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Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 12-04-2002, 08:31 PM:

The decay of the medium becomes the message in a new film of cinematic entropy "made of deteriorating film", projected in New York City. Here's two paragraphs from the review by Sarah Boxer in the New York Times of Dec. 3rd entitled "Where A Film's Gooey Bits Are The Real Showstoppers":

"Decasia," set to a clangorous, tuneless, relentless symphony by Michael Gordon, opens with the image of a whirling dervish. But that's not the focus. The movie also shows waves crashing on a rocky coastline, an old aqueduct, a shoji screen, a mining accident, a drowning man, a rug factory, a spinning wheel, a Ferris wheel, an athlete, a politician, a farmer, a cowboy, a birth by C-section, a baptism, a massage, an old man's angry face and some parachutists. But they are not the focus either. The scene stealers are the spots of decay attacking those documentary images. As Mr. Morris observed at the screening, "Decasia,"is a cross between a Robert Flaherty documentary and a Stan Brakhage film. "Nanook of the North" meets "Hell Itself."

The species of decay in the movie are many and varied: splotches, bubbles, honeycombs, snowflakes, gooey bits, wiggly chromosomal shapes, jazzy spots, jumpy spots, steady spots, Wonder Bread spots, black streaks and blinding white flashes that could trigger an epileptic fit. The types of decay have so much character, so much life, that at a certain point you begin to feel that the decay itself has intention, targeting certain images for ruin. 'I saw the film as a wrestling match between decay and recognizable images,' Mr. Morrison, the filmmaker, said. The decay won."
[Lots more at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/03/movies/03DECA.html ]

After all our hard work trying to avoid imperfections, an avante garde
focuses not on the permanence of film , but on its decay.
Reminds me of the time in an outdoor screening in a Queens park one summer 60's night, where the beautiful, gleaming, streamlined Norelco projector suddenly froze, stopping the show. As the image of the melting, scorching film appeared onscreen, an elderly couple near me smiled with nostalgia, and told me it reminded them of their courting days at the movies.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 12-05-2002, 06:38 AM:

Nothing lasts forever. [Frown]

(But processed and stored properly, film can come close [Cool]

)

Film Storage

IPI Storage Calculator

Film "decay" is usually caused by excessive heat or humidity during storage, and a buildup of acid vapors from the hydrolysis of nitrate or acetate base. Venting the acid vapors or using Molecular Sieves to adsorb them in sealed containers, greatly slows the reaction:

Molecular Sieves

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 12-06-2002, 07:03 PM:

Hello, Gerard,

I have another form of film art, Origami!

Here is what our latest print looked like fresh out of the can!

TES responded with the comment,"Keep track of the refunds you have to give and let us know so we can see about getting a replacement."

NOT! The replacement arrived less that 12 hours after our call.

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 12-06-2002, 08:51 PM:

Gerard, thanks for posting the link. I had heard about Decasia when it was a work in porogress, but had forgotten to follow up on it. I was always fascinated by the swirling "defects" that appeared in the early silent films I have shown over the years. I look forward to catching up with this film.

I'm not sure that I'd call it "film done wrong," but perhaps "preservation done wrong." [Big Grin]

Although there's a side of me fascinated with "film done wrong" as well. I've been saving the burned and battered frrames (damage inflicted by others, I must say) I've come across over the years for a project I hope to begin sometime in the near future. (If anyone has any they would like to send my way, please let me know. [Smile]

)

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 12-08-2002, 12:10 PM:

Over the years flmmakers have used film defects for dramatic purposes. I know a number of features have displayed the "film burning in the gate" phenomenon. I remember one in particular -- Ralph Rafelson's HEAD, which we ran, as we do every film, in subrun sometimes years after their initial release. Consequently the piece of paper that warned the projectionist of this particular special effect didn't survive in the can. Needless-to-say, during the first show when I saw the "film burn" happen on the screen, I slammed the dowser closed, only to ponder why the film was not jammed and still running without incident. Now there's a test of good troubleshooting skills, eh?!

I too have a box of damaged frames that I've collected over the years. I guess that's a hobby of a lot of projectionists....it's just so difficulty to throw away even a single frame of a great classic film, so it goes in the shoe box.

Frank

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 12-08-2002, 12:38 PM:

Decasia has a Web site.

here

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 12-08-2002, 09:56 PM:

Jeffrey,
Thanks for the link, but although I have the required Flash program, after waiting a good ten minutes for the page to load and getting only 50% loaded, the computer froze and I had to reboot.
I pulled maintenance on the hard drive, including defragging, but hesitate to try again until I know what results others may have had with the link.
Anyone......???
Gerard

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 12-13-2002, 03:08 PM:

Does this URL help bypass the welcome page slowness?

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 12-13-2002, 03:50 PM:

Frank

quote:
Ralph Rafelson's "Head"

Try Bob Rafelson's "Head" from Columbia pictures.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 12-13-2002, 07:58 PM:

Yup....I knew that. [Smile]

Frank

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 12-13-2002, 08:58 PM:

Jeffrey,
I'm afraid that didn't work either. It produced an empty window the color of your sweater in your portrait, with a rapid interminable clicking from my hard drive. When I tired of that I couldn't escape--
not even with CNTRL--ALT---DELETE. Rebooting produced backup errors.
Fix? Yes. Error prevents complete repair. Computer reboots itself,
so here I am again.
But if the FLASH! program produces just a head shot, FAAHHGGEDDABOUDIT!
(I was expecting exciting sound & movie clips.)
Gerard

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 12-14-2002, 09:33 AM:

I checked the Decasia Web site using the SamSpade Safe Browser.
here

"This site uses Flash 5 Plugin."

The index-mini URL I posted is all Flash. No links in the html code.

Posted by Ken McFall (Member # 845) on 12-14-2002, 05:20 PM:

I tried your links and they all work perfectly for me.... I'm got a 1 meg connection (ooooer misses) so have no problems with downloads.

Interesting sampler....

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 12-14-2002, 07:31 PM:

My problem probably lies with my downloading of FLASH 5.

Posted by John Hazelton (Member # 898) on 12-14-2002, 10:32 PM:

The site froze my computer right up, also.

I've got a high-speed connection and a pretty new computer, so I was able to get through the Flash screens with no problem. However, when I clicked on the link to watch the sample movie, my computer locked up tight after the browser opened up a new window for the clip.

Don't know what the problem is, but, man, I'd sure like people to code using only HTML standards.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 12-15-2002, 05:54 AM:

This is the technology that will run D-Cinema. Kinda makes lab splices start to look like child's play. [Smile]

Frank

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 12-22-2002, 02:07 PM:

There was an article in the NY Times Magazine about Decasia:

Sublime Decay