Freedom (and respect)

[HelsinkiZim]

Call this a manifesto - if you will.

Play this before reading

DO NOT EVER FEEL APOLOGETIC ABOUT THE VALUE OF VIDEO.

Its killing us.

We are in a race to the bottom based on the insecurities we have on the value of the moving image.

Hollywood shackled it and bid it out to he highest bidder (red and alexa). But in the 80s and early 90s the trend was bucked - we just never appreciated or acknowledged it.

Welcome the vhs dads filming events, and the eventually - In film, it was Rodrigues, and eventually Tarantino to embrace the lowering cost if cameras and gear- respectively to cost vs risk of today.

- but in video, it was (eg) Vito Acconci, Sadie Benning and Bruce Nauman. Their importance is not defined by influence. But by how their work resonates in everything on Youtube. Do yourself a favor and watch the Ze Frank archives. He defined the "pause cut" and even the "random cutaway" loved by former Viners - see phillip defranco, logam paul etc

Our history is documented i the School of the Art Intitute Chicago video library. It is here, I saw it them as an undergrad - but they feel like forgotten memories - the gypsy doc, the"women of verge of breakdown down", "the Israeli tenements films or (?) Moroccan revolutionary doc" /I made my short film dissertation about him in 2004).

I digress.

I want to talk about how we shy away from being proud of video. Like it is the distant cousin of photography.

That is what photographers want you to think, but, today, they are wrong.

If they dont agree -fuck em.

Price accordingly. Give value. Be creative-

Lets fight for our respect and eventual move towards being considered artist and designers instead of technicians-

My video looks better and does more than any website/photo I have seen (from the empowered photogogs standing next ti me on shoots). Why am I paid less?

Peace.

 

[HelsinkiZim]

The excuse has always been that people understand photos but not video. Thia is not the case anymore. W9th 8K video on Red, there is no difference.

We need to get arrogant and throw away the overbearing humility that we are fringe.

We are not, no matter your flavor of current camera.

[HockeyFan12]

I've often disagreed with you, but I agree with you here. Your argument is in the spirit of the ongoing "use cheap gear," thread. You should use the medium in an ontologically sound way. Video is fast and ephemeral. Film is slow and physical. Good videos use the difference to their advantage and don't apologize.

In recent history but before video's ubiquity, Zodiac used video very well. Not by apologizing for a smaller sensor or whatever else, but by allowing Fincher to shoot 100s of takes and comp together just the ones that suited that particular film. After the more fringe artists you cite but before the Alexa's prominence, a few other other artists used video unapologetically well: Channel 101 (look at the illustrious alumni from that group of great storytellers)–they also influenced Awesome Show and the SNL Digital Shorts; Dogme 95; Chronicle (very good genre film); and even the toweringly innovative cult classic Werewolf: The Devil's Hound, which used tons of coverage to more than make up for a lack of resources elsewhere. Video is cheap, cameras small. They owned it. A+

Video is not film.

It's not worse.

It's not better.

It is different.

Let it be different. Embrace it. If it's your medium, use it. If it's not, shoot film, which I love the hell out of. To some extent I think film schools are harmful in our era. They teach you the old way, which was great... but now we're in a faster moving age. Even Vine videos are a far more worthwhile medium than most gave them credit for being. A lot of good filmmaking in a given six seconds.

And horses for courses. I can see why JJ Abrams shot film on Star Wars. It made sense. It's nostalgic. I can see why a lot of art films are shot on 16mm. It's physical. As a viewer, I mostly far prefer it. But if digital is what inspired you to get into production, don't apologize. Shoot the hell out of it. It's its own thing. Your voice is your own. Shoot video as video, not as an apology for film, and you've taken a step 95% of A list DPs refuse to. It clips. It wobbles. Love the wobble. Love the clip. Love the pause cut. Love the meme. Love the vloggers. Love snapchat. Love vine. Love what you do, whatever you're doing.