Instructors: Howard Besser & Ann Harris
 
 

Assignments due before class:

• Go through all 6 animated tutorials called Shutters, Sprockets, and Tubes.  You can either do this at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, or do it online.
• Visit Section 2 (Film Specifics: Stocks and Soundtracks) of the Home Film Preservation Guide
• Visit the descriptions of the 4 film gauges on the homepage of http://www.littlefilm.org/
• Read:
  • Ascher, Steven and Edward Pincus, "Introduction to Film and Video Systems" in The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age, New York: Plume, 1999, pp 1-44
  • Annette Melville, ed., "Understanding Film and How It Decays", The Film Preservation Guide, San Francisco: The Film Preservation Foundation, 2004, pp 6-18.
• Recommended:
  • Child, Margaret S. 1993. Directory of information sources on scientific research related to the preservation of sound recordings, still and moving images and magnetic tape . Washington, D.C.: The Committee on Preservation and Access.
  • Screen Sound Australia Technical Glossary of Common Audiovisual Terms
  • Wasko, Janet. "The Way We Were: An historical look at Hollywood and technology in Hollywood in the Information Age, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995, pp 7-20

Agenda

• Guest speaker: Alan Berliner -- in his Tribecca studio (90 min)

• Return to Tisch building

• Discussion of vist, and of the production process
• Introduction of Case Study Project (30 min)
• Introduction to moving image artifacts: film, tape, discs and other materials.
• Further review of readings, discussion questions, and discussion of visit to MMI  (15 min)
• Structure of Film and a brief History of Film Formats (45 min)


• Excerpts from: Nature of Film, Eastman Kodak, 2003, CD-Rom.
• Review:
• Guide to Identifying Color Movie Flim Stocks by Paul Ivester.
• Chronology of MP Films, Eastman Kodak.
• More than one hundred years of Film Sizes by Michael Rogge, 1996.
• The Ultimate Table of Formats-- Aspect Ratios by Mark Baldock.

• Begin discussion of identification of different formats and gages of video and film, as well as when they evolved.  Who makes/has made moving image and sound material? Different eras, modes of production have different artifacts. Role of manufacturers and information industries.

• What artifacts exist as a result of the production? What gets saved and what gets lost? Knowing production process can aid identification. Detective work and how ancillary materials are both cultural artifacts and clues. Sources for gauges & types of moving image material.

• Current Events  (15 min)
• Recent important news articles
• Beyond Comforting the Afflicted; A show about artists' responses to the Patriot Act asks questions, points fingers and ruffles feathers, NY Times, Sept 12, 2005
• Artists on the Run, Their Art Left Behind, NY Times, Sept 12, 2005
• An Uncertain Future for Media in New Orleans, NY Times, Sept 10, 2005
• Yahoo Hires Journalist to Report on Wars, NY Times, Sept 12, 2005
• Secrets of the Mummy's Medicine Chest, NY Times, Sept 10, 2005--who should preserve this?  Where should it be displayed?
• Plaintiffs Win Round in Lawsuit on Patriot Act, NY Times, Sept 10, 2005
• Plan by 13 Nations Urges Open Technology Standards, NY Times, Sept 9, 2005
• importance of oral histories--9/11 Firefighters Told of Isolation Amid Disaster, NY Times, Sept 9, 2005
• Assignments for next week