LA B-11. The Art of Film

1. LA B-11. The Art of Film • For all inquiries and requests for information, your first contact should be the Head TF, Ally Field. • <afield@fas.harvard.edu>. • Please limit your emails to essentials. • Once sectioning has begun, your first point of contact will be your section leader.

2. LA B-11. The Art of Film • Be sure to hand in your lottery forms. • Lottery results should be available by midnight tonight (September 20). • All students will be informed of results by email. • Please be sure your email address is legible. • Any student not admitted who wishes to be placed on the wait list for this course should notify the Head TF, Ally Field, by e-mail: <afield@fas.harvard.edu>.

3. Film archives and the film study print • More than half the films produced before 1949 are lost. • Because of technological changes, we rarely see the films that remain • in their original forms, • or in their original contexts. • We must imagine way of viewing films historically. This means understanding • how films were made and what they looked like for their original audiences. • the differences between a 16mm or video version of a film, and variations in original 35mm versions (if an “original” still exists!).

4. Viewing films historically • What might it have been like to watch this film in its first release, with the audience for which it was originally intended? • What changes might have occurred in existing versions of the print? • How does the video version (or versions) differ from the photographic print version?

5. Film archives and the film study print • The differences between film and video copies of films. • Problems of lost films, corrupted versions of films, and historical differences in film viewing. • Compromises in restoring films for film study.

6. Cinematography mechanical chemical reproduction analog equivalent to 2300-3000 horizontal lines 12 million pixels/frame Video electronic magnetic media analog and digital NTSC = 525 lines 350,000 pixels Differences between film and video

8. Differences between film and video • When a film is transferred to video: • the image is less sharp, has less contrast, and produces less of a sense of depth; • the reproduction of color is different; • the scale of the image is different; • sense and power of motion is attenuated: • Film is recorded and projected at 24 frames per second. • Pal video at 25 fps • NTSC video at 30 fps • the shape of the frame is different; portions of the image are cut; • “panning and scanning”

10. Film and video

12. How silent film audiences saw and heard the films • The motion picture palace. • High standards of photographic beauty. • Tinting and toning. • No standard for shape of frame or speed of projection until after 1930. • Each performance unique.

14. The fragility of film and the work of FIAF • Before 1915, 85% lost • Between 1920-29, of 6,600 features produced, 75% lost • " 1930-39, 5,500 25% lost • " 1940-49 5,000 10% lost

15. The fragility of film and the work of FIAF • Destruction of individual copies through over-exploitation. • Destruction of prints because of assumed obsolescence. • After "primitive period." • After transition to sound. • Destruction of copies for safety reasons. • Destruction of prints to recover silver or nitrate from the chemical emulsion of the film. • Factors in deterioration of the copies, especially for film study. • Projectors as “film grinders.” • Deterioration through subsequent exploitation. • Censorship and reediting of films. • From Technicolor to Eastman color.

20. Archival compromises for preservation • Kemp Niver and the Paper Prints Collection at the Library of Congress. • Aesthetics of the dupe: • protects the original but each subsequent copy struck produces deterioration of focus, contrast, color. • Reediting for "aesthetic purposes.” • Problems of non-standardized aspect ratios and film speeds.