{"id":1944,"date":"2011-06-19T17:53:07","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T22:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/?p=1944"},"modified":"2011-09-03T00:19:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T05:19:28","slug":"long-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/2011\/06\/long-shots\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Shots"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u201cFor Flaherty, what is important about Nanook hunting a seal is his relationship with the animal, the real extent of his wait. The length of the hunt is the very substance of the image, its true subject.  In the film, this episode is thus composed in only one shot.  Can anyone deny that it is much more moving as a result than montage of attractions would have been?\u201d<sup>1<\/sup><br \/>\n&#8211; Andr\u00e9 Bazin<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/nanook.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1948\" title=\"nanook\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/nanook.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As cinema continues to finalize its transition from a medium composed of celluloid grain into one composed of digital pixels, it is important to take a closer look at some differences between these two means of producing a moving image.  As D.N. Rodowick notes in a chronological outline of this transition, cinema has been under the influence of digital technology since digital image processing and synthesis was introduced in the 1980s<sup>2<\/sup>, though this development merely allowed for special effects work to be done on films shot on celluloid.  The real game-changing shift comes not only with post-production digital editing advancements, but also with the advent and ubiquity of digital <em>capturing<\/em> devices.  \u2018Films\u2019 are being shot on hour-long digital tapes or with cameras rigged up to hard drives rather than 11-minute-capacity reels housing a thousand feet of celluloid. But for digital filmmaking to take possession of its \u201carea of competence,\u201d as Greenberg would say, it must determine and utilize that which is exclusive to itself as a medium.<sup>3<\/sup> Of all that is unique to this new medium of cinema, I cannot see a more significant trait than its drastically extended allowance in shot length.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/3974228779_ffca198bdd.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1949\" title=\"3974228779_ffca198bdd\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/3974228779_ffca198bdd.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/3974228779_ffca198bdd.jpg 500w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/3974228779_ffca198bdd-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Additionally, if one wishes to look at just how varied our perception of the cinematic image is by this development, one would find a strong model in the genre of \u2018structural\u2019 filmmaking.  P. Adams Sitney, who first named and outlined the characteristics of the genre, defines this avant-garde niche as one \u201cwherein the shape of the whole film is predetermined and simplified, and it is that shape that is the primal impression of the film.\u201d<sup>4<\/sup> With a film that is <em>about<\/em> shape, and the deconstruction and minimizing of that shape, the work acts as an expos\u00e9 of the formal paradigms that construct the narrative cinema.  Michael Snow\u2019s canonical structural film <em>Wavelength<\/em> is practically <em>the<\/em> example of this commentary. In \u201cToward Snow,\u201d Annette Michelson\u2019s seminal piece on <em>Wavelength<\/em>, she outlines the film\u2019s deconstruction of narrative form.  She writes, \u201cThe film is the projection of a grand reduction; its \u2018plot\u2019 is the tracing of spatiotemporal<em> donn\u00e9es<\/em>, its \u2018action\u2019 the movement of the camera as the movement of consciousness.\u201d<sup>5<\/sup> She then adds, \u201cVoiding the film of the metaphoric proclivity of montage, Snow created a grand metaphor for narrative form.\u201d Given that he has taken on digital recording methods with some of his recent moving image work, there is not a more appropriate artist than Michael Snow to look at the shifts in perception that have been born from digital filmmaking\u2019s extended long takes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Michael_Snow_Solar_Breath_Northern_Caryatids_2002_447_539.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1950\" title=\"Michael_Snow_Solar_Breath_Northern_Caryatids_2002_447_539\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Michael_Snow_Solar_Breath_Northern_Caryatids_2002_447_539.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Snow\u2019s 2002 video piece <em>Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids)<\/em> is a worthy candidate for this examination, both for its formal make-up (it is a single, static shot that lasts for 62 minutes), and for its primary subject (a pair of windows), which has a striking resemblance to the aesthetics of <em>Wavelength<\/em>.  Throughout <em>Solar Breath<\/em>\u2019s running time, the drapes hanging on the viewer\u2019s side of the windows dangle, whip, and react to the wind that flows in and out of the space through one of the windows that has been left open.  Though this window is open, there is still a screen that stops the drape from exiting the space.  The drape, therefore, smacks lazily against the screen as the wind attempts to suck the undulating fabric out of our space and into the outdoors.  On a small number of occasions, the drape will blow forward far enough to give the viewer a glimpse of the outside, where a solar panel sits on a table in the lawn, soaking in the sun, generating the energy that is potentially allowing the video camera to operate and record that which we are seeing.  While all of this takes place \u2013 seemingly in real time without any breaks in the action \u2013 non-diegetic sound of someone eating fills the soundtrack.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nThat<em> Solar Breath<\/em> is a single shot of a set of windows steers it directly into dialogue with <em>Wavelength<\/em> (never mind that they were both made by Michael Snow).  While <em>Solar Breath <\/em>genuinely has the appearance of being a single shot, <em>Wavelength<\/em> is very much a different story.  In his original statement written for the release of the film, Snow purports <em>Wavelength<\/em> to be \u201ca continuous zoom which takes 45 minutes to go from its widest field to its smallest and final field,\u201d<sup>6<\/sup> even though the material nature of celluloid, as well as the jumpy visual appearance, reveals this to not be the case.  Michelson skimps around this claim, hazily mentioning the disruptions in the zoom in her description of it, saying that it is \u201cby no means absolutely steady, but proceeding in a slight visible stammer.\u201d(\u201cToward Snow,\u201d 174)  Shot with various stocks of 16mm film \u2013 some expired, some current \u2013 the film is very much a collection of reels.  Not that it is any big secret that <em>Wavelength<\/em> was not actually done in a single take (the film goes from day to night and back to day in the course of 45 minutes). The reality of the matter is that <em>Wavelength<\/em>, a film made in 1967, couldn\u2019t have been done in a single, 45-minute take even if Snow had wanted to; no reels of film, neither in 1967 nor now, support shots that are even half that length.  The illusion that what we are seeing is continuous is an intuitive connection between our awareness of the limitations of the medium, and our detection of the intentions of the filmmaker to overcome these limitations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/pasolini.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1952\" title=\"pasolini\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/pasolini.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/pasolini.jpg 457w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/pasolini-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pier Paolo Pasolini, who coincidentally published his article \u201cObservations on the Long Take\u201d in the same year of <em>Wavelength<\/em>\u2019s premiere, likens the long take to that of our own present perception:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cReality seen and heard as it happens<em> is always in the present tense<\/em>. The long take, the schematic and primordial element of cinema, is thus in the present tense.   Cinema therefore \u2018reproduces the present\u2019.\u201d<sup>7<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If the lingering shot is the present of a particular, subjective observer, it remains a reproduction of the present until it is finished, whereby it becomes the past, allowing for interpretation. Pasolini\u2019s theory develops to posit that a shot\u2019s meaning can only be given value once it is finished; like with human life, the possibilities of relations and meanings and developments is endless, \u201cchaotic,\u201d until it is over. This reveals <em>Wavelength<\/em> to be an anomaly of sorts. When its shots end, they are each followed by a brand new shot that begins in almost exactly the same place, with almost exactly the same perspective of exactly the same room as when the previous shot ended.  While Pasolini sees montage as the construction of an objective viewpoint \u2013 the selection of the best of every possible subjective perspective to present objectivity devoid of the present \u2013 <em>Wavelength<\/em> exists as a montage that retains its subjectivity and its illusion of the present.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/what_is_cinema_cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1953\" title=\"what_is_cinema_cover\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/what_is_cinema_cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"140\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/what_is_cinema_cover.jpg 140w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/what_is_cinema_cover-127x300.jpg 127w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 140px) 100vw, 140px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bazin\u2019s opinion on long takes differs from Pasolini\u2019s in that it promotes long takes in order to retain the objectivity, rather than the subjectivity, ingrained in the single, unedited shot.  He speaks of three different types of editing, and \u201cAll three have a common feature, which is the very definition of editing and montage: they create meaning which is not objectively contained in the images and which derives solely from placing these images in relation to one another.\u201d(\u201cEvolution of Film Language,\u201d 88-89)  In Bazin\u2019s essay &#8220;The Ontology of the Photographic Image,\u201d<sup>8<\/sup> he details how a photograph, captured on emulsion, presents the photographed subject in the present.  The photo is objective proof of the subject\u2019s existence. Similarly, a motion picture film presents the <em>change<\/em> of the subject objectively. This change in the subjects exists as it was captured, regardless of image distortion.  The objectivity of this change is interrupted, though, with montage, which introduces the subjectivity of the editor, inviting interpretation and meaning that was not invoked in the original shot.  Going back to Bazin\u2019s thoughts on Nanook\u2019s hunt, the duration of his wait is presented in its actual temporal form; the wait that we experience in watching the hunt is identical to the duration that Nanook experienced at the original moment of filming.  It is, thus, made present again in the viewer.  Any cuts or edits in this shot would extinguish its validity as an objective document of the duration of Nanook\u2019s wait.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nThere are comparable problems with this theory, again, when it is matched up with <em>Wavelength<\/em>. Because the shape of the structural film is the subject of the work, it is the zoom that should be considered the subject of Snow\u2019s film (as opposed to the walls of the loft, any of the human performers, or the photograph of the waves).  Going by Bazin\u2019s ideas, then, the film is a document of the <em>change<\/em> of the zoom, and the duration of that change.  The duration of the camera zoom at the heart of the film is fixed at 45 minutes once the starting point (the back of the loft), end point (the photograph), and the zoom speed are determined, all of which is set in the first moments of the first reel. The camera\u2019s projected zoom is intermittently broken up by cuts, but, again, each shot progresses in the same direction at the same speed. Repeating one of Michelson\u2019s key thoughts, \u201c[<em>Wavelength<\/em>\u2019s] \u2018action\u2019 is the movement of the camera as the movement of consciousness,\u201d(\u201cToward Snow,\u201d 175) the film presents only <em>one <\/em>consciousness.  The fact that the zoom is broken up into many parts is inconsequential to the duration because all of the shots are intra-subjective, giving the illusion of a continuous trek.  <em>Wavelength<\/em> successfully functions as a document of the duration of a 45-minute zoom through a loft because of this approximate continuity among its successive shots.  The objective duration of the zoom would be the same as one shot as it is as several.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/virtual-life-of-film.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2175\" title=\"virtual-life-of-film\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/virtual-life-of-film.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"313\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/virtual-life-of-film.jpg 200w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/virtual-life-of-film-191x300.jpg 191w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That <em>Wavelength<\/em> represents a single journey despite being composed of several shots is a result of the viewer\u2019s intuition of the mode (celluloid) in which it was captured.  This is a cognitively formulated suspension of disbelief, but as Rodowick details, it is also an inevitable awareness that is inherent in, and shapes the way that we perceive, every creative medium:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cA medium, then, is nothing more nor less than a set of potentialities from which creative acts may unfold. These potentialities, the powers of the medium as it were, are conditioned by multiple elements or components that can be material, instrumental, and\/or formal. Moreover, these elements may vary, individually and in combination with one another, such that a medium may be defined without a presumption that any integral identity or an essence unites these elements into a whole or resolves them into a unique substance.\u201d<sup>9<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thus, in McLuhan-ist fashion, the potential of the recording medium is a very important factor in its interpretation, in large part because we know what something can and cannot do, and therefore are more open to compensations.  This is why the emergence of a medium such as video provokes new grounds for the perception of the extended long take.  With video, several-hours-long shots <em>are<\/em> possible.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nA sample of some of the structural filmmakers who have taken the plunge into digital capturing methods, other than Michael Snow, includes Ernie Gehr, Jonas Mekas, and, most recently, James Benning with his 2009 film <em>Ruhr<\/em>.  Benning makes for an interesting model at this point, because a majority of his films are founded on durational concerns that he explores in long, static shots.  <em>Ruhr <\/em>is Benning\u2019s first \u2018film\u2019 not captured or exhibited on celluloid in thirty-two years of filmmaking, and contains the longest shot of his career, coming in at 60 minutes.  Mark Peranson described this shot in his review of the film in the Winter 2010 issue of <em>Cinema Scope<\/em> magazine<sup>10<\/sup>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cRelieved of the necessity of changing camera rolls, Benning goes all out with a mesmerizing shot of a coke-processing tower in Schwelgern, where every ten minutes water pours down onto the base and creates a billowing pillar of steam leaking through the steel-latticed structure and into the atmosphere; the tower looks that it is on fire.  As it repeats, surrounded by clouds it itself creates, the image takes on a psychedelic quality, with each billowing blossoming into differing colours, a function of both the material being processed as well as the changing quality of light.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As a continuous documentation of the repeating cycles of the steam from the tower, and of the daylight\u2019s shift into the darker tones of the evening, this kind of shot is unique to the technology of video capturing.  No form of celluloid could present the entire duration of this event.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-19-at-11.52.29-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2177\" title=\"Screen shot 2010-06-19 at 11.52.29 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-19-at-11.52.29-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-19-at-11.52.29-PM.png 952w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-19-at-11.52.29-PM-300x165.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A peculiar anecdote in the same review reveals another facet of video, and at the same time calls into question its indexicality.  Near the end of his description of <em>Ruhr<\/em>\u2019s concluding shot, Peranson reports, \u201cthe shot grew dark faster than time allows \u2013 Benning condensed 90 minutes to 60, in effect speeding up the sunset&#8221;(\u201cRuhr,\u201d 57) (*Note \u2013 According to an interview with Benning, the shot was actually narrowed down to 60 minutes from a 120- minute shot<sup>11<\/sup>). In this off-hand factoid, the credibility of the documentary value of the shot virtually vanishes. The shot, which is perceived to be a particular duration in the film, is revealed to have been twice as long in the original captured moment.  First of all, it is important to note that there are two methods in which Benning could have eliminated that hour of running time. Either he sped up the video to play at 200% its captured speed, or he cut out a chunk from somewhere in the middle, and joined the remaining fragments through very slow dissolves and color correction.  In the aforementioned interview with Benning, he reveals the latter method to have indeed been the case, but it is the potentiality of both options that questions and complicates the ways that we perceive video and its indexical value for duration and change.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nTo capture, and then playback, a document of a subject\u2019s change in a manner which can be deemed to be indexical, there is a responsibility placed on the coordination of frame rates in the production and post-production development of the shot.  In the analogical medium of celluloid, options for deviating from this coordination have always been slim, and have only gotten more strictly defined since the end of the silent era.  Presently, 16mm and 35mm films are almost universally shot at 24 frames per second; with super 8mm, one has the added option of 18 frames per second, and the silent era saw a range of complicated frames rates, some of which, such as 17 frames per second, are awkward prime numbers that are practically incompatible with any of today\u2019s projectors.  While many of these frame rates were used for slow motion or fast motion techniques, the options for projecting a film at a frame rate that is different from that which it was captured, while still retaining an illusion of being \u2018real-life\u2019 speed, are nil (anything less than a 10% speed change will be imperceptible to most eyes).  Even so, a film projected at a faster or slower frame rate than which it was shot is still, materially, unaltered.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nVideo, on the other hand, has a wide and complicated array of potential digital speed alterations.  In editing suites such as Avid and Final Cut Pro, video can be sped up or slowed down by as little as .01%.   Changes in video speeds will result in one of two distortions in the frame counts: in progressive video, frames will intermittently be dropped so that the final running time corresponds to the calculated manipulation, and in interlaced video, two frames will weave themselves together in order to compensate for the lost or gained time.  In Europe, where the PAL video standard calls for frame rates of 25 frames per second instead of 24, films are telecined with a 4% speed-up to compensate for the difference, yielding very slight, though imperceptible fast-forward in practically every video available in the continent.  The reality of this type of speed-up, though, originates in the post-production process: a film shot on either celluloid or video is subject to this manner of durational manipulation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.02.50-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2179\" title=\"Screen shot 2010-06-20 at 12.02.50 AM\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.02.50-AM-223x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"223\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.02.50-AM-223x300.png 223w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.02.50-AM.png 371w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In contrast, the potentiality of the technique of \u2018seamless splicing\u2019 (i.e. Benning\u2019s method of halving the duration of his shot of the coke tower) is rooted in the moment of capture.  In the Fall 2009 issue of <em>Cinema Scope<\/em><sup>12<\/sup>, Benning recalls the circumstances for another shot used in <em>Ruhr<\/em> in which seamless splicing was also used:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I began filming\u2026in a wooded area adjacent to the D\u00fcsseldorf International Airport.  There was no wind.  It was absolutely still, not one leaf was moving.  The high definition captured every tiny twig\u2026I found the frame and pushed the start button filling two SxS cards with one take \u2013 a 114-minute shot.  During that time 40 planes landed.  The frame remained absolutely still, no registration movement, no dancing grain\u2026I wasn\u2019t sure this stillness would be acceptable, but then a plane passed through the frame providing momentary movement.  Ten seconds later a wind vortex produced by the passing plane sang though the frame and disturbed one loose branch hanging from a nearby tree\u2026 When the next plane landed it started all over again\u2026When I looked at the footage on my computer that night I realized I had recorded an action that would have been impossible to capture on film.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the film, this shot lasts roughly seventeen minutes, in which 4 of the 40 captured planes are seen landing.  Just like in the coke tower scene, any jumps in time that Benning added in post-production are imperceptible.  What we see in the film dictates that there are approximately 4 minutes between the landing of the first plane and the landing of the second; however, it is anyone\u2019s guess as to how much time actually passed between the original landings of these two planes, or even if there were other planes that landed in between them.  What we are aware of while watching this shot, though, is the potentiality that Benning recorded a large stretch of uninterrupted footage, and is presenting the viewer with <em>his<\/em> most ideal representation of this event.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.08.29-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2180\" title=\"Screen shot 2010-06-20 at 12.08.29 AM\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.08.29-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.08.29-AM.png 637w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Screen-shot-2010-06-20-at-12.08.29-AM-300x164.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This boundless, uninterrupted palette of moments likens the editing process to the more subjective, \u2018hands-on\u2019 artistic medium of painting.  Rodowick quotes Thomas Elsaesser\u2019s \u201cBeyond Distance\u201d, in which Elsaesser writes, \u201c\u2026the digital image should be regarded as an expressive, rather than reproductive medium, with both the software and the \u2018effects\u2019 it produces bearing the imprint and signature of the creator\u201d. Rodowick adds, \u201cThe image becomes not only more painterly but also more imaginative.<sup>13<\/sup>\u201d This is such a monumental quality for video to have, not only because it validates its place among more traditional fine art media, but because it gives it an edge against celluloid as a tool for artists\u2019 and filmmakers\u2019 creative and subjective freedom. When a shot is captured on celluloid, the potentiality of missed moments \u2013 via reel changes \u2013 comes into play.  Therefore, because there are moments in the entire duration of the captured event that are ineligible for inclusion in the final presentation, the viewer cannot be confident that the filmmaker was allowed to curate the duration down to his most desired selection. This is akin to denying a painter access to certain viewing angles of his model, or the use of particular, appropriate brushes.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nMichael Snow\u2019s <em>Solar Breath<\/em>, thus, both suffers <em>and<\/em> reaps rewards from video capture\u2019s potentialities.  As a presentation of a long, continuous shot of wind playing and fighting with the window drapes, the indexicality of the duration of this event is dubious from the moment it is clear that it was captured in video.  We see three or four instances in which the drapes blow forward to reveal the outdoors, but the intervals in which these, or any change, occur is shrouded in doubt and cannot be assumed to be an accurate representation of the real duration (this, of course, disregards situations in which an artist may explicitly state his faithfulness to the captured material in the editing process, which itself is a rare circumstance that cannot be read into the long-term interpretation or perception of the work).<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\nOn the other hand, <em>Solar Breath<\/em>\u2019s capture method instills a subjectivity and creative freedom into the work via this same slight-of-hand potentiality.  Like Benning\u2019s hour-long coke tower shot, or his fifteen minutes of overhead planes and rustling twigs, Snow\u2019s film is viewed with the possibility that the bit that we are seeing is only a fragment of the entire capture.  <em>Solar Breath<\/em> isn\u2019t randomly 62 minutes long; it is that length because Snow didn\u2019t want it to be any longer or shorter.  The piece presents the moments from the original shoot that Snow deemed to be worthwhile; the distance between the first and the second glimpses into the outdoors is what it is because Snow didn\u2019t feel the need to shorten it (or even lengthen it).  The potential for greater authorial control in the duration grants what <em>is<\/em> seen more weight as an expression of Snow\u2019s tastes and intuitive sense of temporal composition.  It is not just the work of nature, but a collaboration between Snow and nature.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/michaelsnowpresents1png7dt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/michaelsnowpresents1png7dt-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"michaelsnowpresents1png7dt\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2244\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/michaelsnowpresents1png7dt-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/michaelsnowpresents1png7dt.jpg 576w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recalling Bazin\u2019s ideas on the ontology of the photographed image, he likened it to a mummification of the model, and he saw film as the mummification of change in the model.  Furthermore, these media were proof that the model and its changes existed, unaffected by the image\u2019s distortions in focus, discoloration, or incorrect aspect ratios. As Bruce Elder explained in his dissection of Michael Snow\u2019s film <em>Presents<\/em>,<sup>14<\/sup> an image is <em>not<\/em> indexical when there is distortion, and this is detailed in the opening minutes of <em>Presents<\/em> when the squished image of a naked woman becomes completely unrecognizable as a representation of a human being.  Likewise, then, any distortion of time in a moving image should be seen to diminish the image\u2019s indexicality of the model\u2019s change. This is the most liberating feature of video as a documentary medium. In the takeover of photography in the first few decades of the twentieth century, Bazin purported that \u201cPhotography is thus manifestly the most important event in the history of the visual arts. Both deliverance and fulfillment, it enabled Western painting to rid itself once and for all of its obsession with realism and to rediscover its aesthetic autonomy.\u201d(\u201cOntology of the Photographic Image,\u201d 10)  Likewise, video\u2019s inability to objectively present a durational event allows the medium to jump right into its own autonomy: the unquestionable faith that the image and its duration represent the artist\u2019s uncensored intuitive vision.<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/br><br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Citations<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Andr\u00e9 Bazin, \u201cThe Evolution of Film Language,\u201d <em>What is Cinema?<\/em> Caboose,<br \/>\nMontreal, QC, 2009: pg. 91.<\/li>\n<li>D. N. Rodowick, \u201cThe Incredible Shrinking Medium,\u201d <em>The Virtual Life of Film<\/em>.<br \/>\nHarvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2007: pg. 7.<\/li>\n<li>Clement Greenberg, \u201cModernism,\u201d <em>Clement Greenberg &#8211; The Collected Essays and<br \/>\nCriticism: Volume 4 \u2013 Modernism with a Vengeance (1957-1969)<\/em>, The University<br \/>\nof Chicago Press, Chicago, IL and London, UK, 1993: pg. 86.<\/li>\n<li>P. Adams Sitney, \u201cStructural Film,\u201d <em>Film Culture<\/em>, no. 47 (Summer, 1969), pg. 327.<\/li>\n<li>Annette Michelson, \u201cToward Snow: Part 1,\u201d <em>Artforum<\/em>, 5:10 (June, 1967), pp. 175-76.<\/li>\n<li>Michael Snow, \u201cA Statement on <em>Wavelength<\/em> for the Experimental Film Festival of<br \/>\nKnokke-le-Zoute,\u201d <em>Film Culture<\/em>, no. 46, (Autumn, 1967), pg. 1.<\/li>\n<li>Pier Paolo Pasolini, \u201cObservations on the Long Take,\u201d <em>October<\/em>, Vol. 13 (Summer,<br \/>\n1980), pp. 4-6.<\/li>\n<li>Andr\u00e9 Bazin, \u201cOntology of the Photographic Image,\u201d <em>What is Cinema?<\/em> Caboose,<br \/>\nMontreal, QC, 2009: pg. 3-10.<\/li>\n<li>D. N. Rodowick, \u201cAn Ethics of Time,\u201d <em>The Virtual Life of Film<\/em>. Harvard University<br \/>\nPress, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2007: pg. 85.<\/li>\n<li>Mark Peranson, \u201cRuhr,\u201d <em>Cinema Scope<\/em>, Issue 41 (Winter, 2010), pg. 57.<\/li>\n<li>James Benning, Interview with Michael Guillen, \u201cDarkest Americana &amp; Elsewhere:<br \/>\n<em>Ruhr<\/em>: A Few Questions For James Benning,\u201d <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Twitchfilm<\/span>, March 2, 2010,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/twitchfilm.net\/interviews\/2010\/03\/darkest-americana-elsewhere-ruhr-a-fewquestions- for-james-benning.php\">link<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>James Benning, \u201cKnit &amp; Purl,\u201d <em>Cinema Scope<\/em>, Issue 40 (Fall, 2009), pg. 39.<\/li>\n<li>D. N. Rodowick, \u201cParadoxes of Perceptual Realism,\u201d <em>The Virtual Life of Film<\/em>.<br \/>\nHarvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2007: pg. 106.<\/li>\n<li>Bruce Elder, \u201cOn the Concepts of Presence and Absence in Michael Snow\u2019s<br \/>\n<em>Presents<\/em>,\u201d in Wees, William C. and Michael Dorland, eds. <em>Words and Moving<br \/>\nImages<\/em>. Mediatexte, Montreal, QC, 1984: pp. 34-51.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFor Flaherty, what is important about Nanook hunting a seal is his relationship with the animal, the real extent of his wait. The length of the hunt is the very substance of the image, its true subject. In the film, this episode is thus composed in only one shot. Can anyone deny that it is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4405,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions\/4405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}