Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Book recommendations

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Posted by Anisa Shmiem (Member # 7983) on 04-07-2014, 10:43 AM:

Hi all,

I am currently writing my dissertation, my subject title is 'The cinematic future of 4k resolution and beyond; and it's relationship to traditional film negative shooting.'

I am running low on academic references such as books and journals and would appreciate if anyone could direct me towards some!

Your help would be greatly appreciated
Many Thanks
Anisa

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-07-2014, 10:49 AM:

I don't know any books, but you need to get rid of that apostrophe in "it's."

And looking at it again, I'd say the semicolon would be better off being a comma.

I'm no bookworm, but I do know punctuation! [Smile]

Posted by Anisa Shmiem (Member # 7983) on 04-07-2014, 12:17 PM:

Thank you for that, equally important to the books.

Posted by Jarod Reddig (Member # 6363) on 04-12-2014, 11:20 PM:

If you haven't already watched it Keanu Reeves made a documentary a few years ago entitled "Side by Side", in which they talk of the demise of film and the impact digital will have on the future of film making. Maybe check that out.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 04-13-2014, 01:15 AM:

If this is a doctoral dissertation, shouldn't you be conducting original research rather than simply collecting and collating what has already been done? Perhaps contacting folks who are involved in whatever aspect of this subject you're interested in would be a way to get new information for your thesis.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-13-2014, 11:16 AM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
I don't know any books, but you need to get rid of that apostrophe in "it's."

I'm relieved to discover that I'm not the only one for whom apostrophe abuse causes an immediate increase in blood pressure!

Frank: Many undergraduates in the UK do something called a "dissertation" in their final year, which is effectively an extended essay (typically 10-15k words) that discusses a given research topic using mainly secondary sources. I'm guessing that this is what we're talking about here. Confusingly, the final output submitted by a doctoral student in the British system is still referred to as a thesis rather than a dissertation by many people, even though in strict technical terms the thesis is really the argument or research discovery, whereas the dissertation is the written form in which it's communicated.

Anisa: SMPTE Imaging Journal, American Cinematographer and Image Technology would be good places to start as far as journals are concerned, though unless the degree programme you're on is strong on, and emphasises the technical aspects of filmmaking, your library may not have subscriptions. It could be worth asking your supervisor, and/or your school or department's library rep, if subscriptions could be organised in time for them to be useful for you.

The resolution/bit depth/colour space comparison issues between film and digital have been researched, discussed and opinionated about a lot within the archiving and preservation communities, too. You will find some relevant material in the Journal of Film Preservation, which has the added advantage that the back issues from 1995-2012 are available online and for free (though some articles are in French, with only abdidged summary/extended abstract versions in English). If your institution has a Project Muse subscription, check out The Moving Image as well, though my gut feeling is that you won't find a huge amount of direct relevance to your work. As for books, Giovanna Fossati's From Grain to Pixel (Amsterdam UP, 2009) is possibly relevant; but again its* emphasis is on the preservation and restoration of old movies, not the creation of new ones. Focal Press's** website may be worth a look. Their books are essentially high level technical traning manuals, but some do include reflective and analytical content along the way.

* Note - no apostrophe when used as a possessive pronoun (the apostrophe indicates a contraction of "it is").

** A common misconception is that the possessive form of all nouns ending in the letter s has a trailing apostrophe. In fact (in British English at least - I know that there are some significant differences in punctuation conventions between British and US English, especially in the punctuation of quotations, though I'm not sure on this particular one), only possessive plural nouns ending in s do. The possessive form of all singular nouns, including those ending in s, is apostrophe-s.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-13-2014, 08:52 PM:

quote: Leo Enticknap
no apostrophe when used as a possessive pronoun (the apostrophe indicates a contraction of "it is")

That's the way I learned it -- if you write a word with an apostrophe in it, try reading it as if the words were not contracted (such as "it is" or "that is")and if that's not what you wanted to say, it indicates the apostrophe doesn't belong.

Posted by Eric Robinson (Member # 2966) on 04-18-2014, 12:31 AM:

So the apostrophe (does not) need to be in "doesn't?"

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-18-2014, 12:20 PM:

Hmm! Well I guess there are exceptions to almost everything! [Big Grin]

Kind of like "I before E except after C" -- that's a weird rule.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 04-18-2014, 01:23 PM:

"I before E, except after C, but weird is weird"! Interestingly, the reverse tends to apply in German.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 04-21-2014, 12:45 PM:

I before E except after C and your weird neighbors [Wink]