DIGITAL IMAGES
1995-2010 2009 Published in the journal
footage
one dogma to another
The digital revolution as it conceived in the 1990s with the advent of Mini DV cameras and his successors has kept its promises? Almost 15 after the bubble of the Dogme 95 siblings Danish director Lars von Trier, the pixels increasingly dominate the screens, yet the cinematic vocabulary still discovering the possibilities of the medium timidly.
The arrival of Panasonic's Genesis, but especially that of the famous RED One, with its 11.4 megapixel sensor and its ability to capture up to 60 frames per second - more than twice as high a high definition camcorder range, is the end of the genesis of digital cinema as we have tamed, despite the technical limitations of pre-HD formats, who married all the same trash aesthetics unique to the Clinton decade.
The documentary, which by its own budgetary constraints and formal framework for television, had long ago set the video as the standard of the genre, for better or worse. In fiction, apart from the use of video as an insert dramatic - from Jacques and November (1984) Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), reality seen through the lens of these mobile devices to the questionable was at the center of a few introductory works as the first trials of Thomas Vinterberg and Harmony Korine, the infamous Blair Witch Project (1999).
NOT RETURN THE FIELD
Speaking of the film by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, he had quite a presence of mind to attract the crowds with a budget of $ 22 000 suspected and a tall tale. The key to this unexpected success simply stayed within the limits of what the viewer stuck with the limits of sight of each camera, could see, hear and decode especially its environment. Ditto for the recent Picnic aka aka Hooked Pescuit Sportiv (2007) Adrian Sitaru, which pushes this process to the extreme, while the assembly does that alternating viewpoints of the three main characters , fueling the suspicion that they have with others, even imitating each eye straying action.
DO IT YOURSELF
The budding filmmakers, ignored by public funding or established producers, were quick to bypass the laborious minutes of video to create a situation that continues today. Let's ignore list laborious and inevitable omissions, but still include memory El Mariachi by Robert Rodriguez (1992), Clerks . (1994) Kevin Smith Visitor Q (2001) by Takashi Miike, and, next door to us, Jimmywork (2004) Simon Sauvé Happiness is a sad song (2004) François Delisle Daytona the collective Amerika Orkestra, Our Private Lives (2007) or Denis Côté Cedar leaning (2007) Rafael Ouellet. Shot in small teams, often with non-existent budgets, these films exceed the threshold of the underground and often reflect more serious and daring films that called subsidized, but that did not stop him from attending international festivals, they themselves eager for new images.
RULE OF 'I'
The video was used just as much self-centered of all stripes, because nothing is more personal than a good camera back to himself. Tarnation (2003) Jonathan Caouette is an eloquent example, the patchwork pan-film technology since the age of 8 years, the film is based on an uncontrolled amount of personal material to prove the elusive personality of the director, an approach similar to that borrowed equally in perturbative Capturing the Friedmans by Andrew Jarecki (confuses justice with the key), released the same year as incidentally Tarnation, Grizzly Man and (2005) Werner Herzog mythomania bonus.
THE REAL AND THE RATE
The use of video in fiction has perfected, in a less experimental, two kinds suspects and often puerile, the 'Documenter' and the documentary experience. Indeed, what better than a good dose of handheld camera to detect the most unexpected humor in a consensual style almost indistinguishable from the small screen. Again, America is an authority on the genre, courtesy of pseudo-journalistic antics of Michael Moore, especially since Fahrenheit 9 / 11 (2004), the exploits of scatological Jackass: The Movie (2002) Jeff Tremaine American Dream reviewed by My Date with Drew (2004) by Jon Gunn, Brian Herzlinger, Brett Winn, and investigations of zany Religulous (2008) by Larry Charles, who also created Borat (2006).
TIME FOUND
No more shooting periods restricted limits uptake because of the length of the coils and the prohibitionist cost of the film, while the pixel gave back to the filmmakers the luxury of filming when they see fit, with Plans for a term that was unimaginable just a few years ago. Alexander Sokurov has understood very well with Russian Ark (2002), considered rightly as the first masterpiece of the digital cinema plan 99 minutes earned him the title of first feature film that did not require assembly, almost heresy in the land of Vertov and Eisenstein. Beyond its strict performance, the film took the opportunity of filming without film - the battery life of the camera is from here to push the new obstacle - to offer a unique experience of continuity plans, more importantly, a happy amalgam of eras according parts of the Hermitage.
Wang was able to turn to film between 1999 and 2001 the slow disintegration of a Chinese industrial sector declined in the triptych form In the West Rail (2003), a documentary work totaling more than 9 hours. The director has recently doubled the lead with The Journey of Crude Oil (2008), a film installation of more than 14 hours, although his original intention was to produce a work of 70 hours! Ever closer to the cinema and contemporary art, his compatriot Yang Fudong has imitated, in fiction at least, with the anthology of five features Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (2003-2007), who valued Venice and Sundance, were designed to be viewed in order or disorder.
IMAGES STOLEN
It should not overlook the contribution of digital video in the politicization of images, the equation between technology, light, almost clandestine, and a particular international context - see the incalculable number of films demonizing George W. Bush. This is how Michael Moore was able to shoot scenes intrusive or downright unbeknownst to his interlocutors, or, in a more highly commendable goal, Hugo Latulippe and François Prévost were able to capture the unofficial quest Kalsang Dolma to let his countrymen to speak freely before the camera, a gesture highly objectionable, about the Chinese occupation in Tibetan territory in What Remains of Us (2004). Others, like Lou Ye ( Spring Fever, 2009) were able to deal openly with homosexuality in the open Communist stronghold, and even more startling still, note the side of the operation of the perch Nile around Lake Victoria in the documentary horror Darwin's Nightmare (2004) by Austrian Huber Sauper. BIG PLANS
Digital cinema sees now broad, and rightly, that are already popping a new skill in Hollywood, of Attack of the Clones (2002) by George Lucas and Spy Kids 2 Robert Rodriguez - the first blockbuster shot in HD, until next Avatar (2009) by James Cameron, who will integrate the experience of high-definition gaming and stereoscopic (3D), and renewed life IMAX format since it reformats the guns to U.S. screens giants. Remains whether the debate will continue as the digital revolution or simply a matter of resolution ...
© 2009 Charles-Stéphane Roy
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