March 23, 2006

EN: What have others to say about Live Cinema? Part 1.

When you put "live-cinema" into the google universe you get not that many usefull links. Apart from reviews about the book that I mentioned a couple of times there seems to be only one other link that pops up throughout the search entries. Its live-cinema.org. Rather then a typical .org its just a personal website about a one mans perspective on live cinema and some blatant selfpromotion under the umbrella of a "magazine".
Yet I actually did enjoy reading the interview (why are people trying subversive advertisements all the time when their content speaks for them anyways? different topic so...) written by Jan Hiddink with Hans Beekman.
The interview reads pretty much exactly as my first assessment of the situation on this blog a couple of days ago.

--There needs to be a kind of openness of material, soundwise and in terms of visuals, at the base of a live cinema performance?

Yes. This is not to say you should throw two different artists on stage and see whatever comes out in real time. Performing out of the blue very rarely makes for a good time. You best compare it with live improvisation in music: You need a direction, you need to agree on things, you need a start and finish. You work within a schedule. Like with jazz -there's structure, there's elements you have agreed on, but there's also space to improvise.

Just as I said before I do think its time to actual do some rehearsals and "pre-script" your performance into boundaries - especially if you are doing narratives this pre-scripting is needed to make any obvious sense to the audience. Even so in my earlier "narrative VJing" experiments people did get that a narrative is playing the impact was quite limited and I attribute it to the fact of all "improvisation without consent".


And above all, live cinema is a matter of collaboration between artists. That's crucial.

Well nothing to add here, true reflection of my sentiment, its exactly why VJing does need a new kind of umbrella and new kind of directives because that is exactly what will never happen again in the "club/dancefloor/DJ" setting.

They (DUMB and Cut Up collective) hinted towards a new development, beyond the dj and vj-culture as it was. Unfortunately, very little was done with it. It got incorporated into mainstream clubculture and very soon turned into a formatted, dull affair.

Like everything happening under the "VJ" umbrella - interesting to see others seeing it the same way.

If you look at what is possible with machines like G5 and sortlike...there's is little limitations left. Live editing has become possible, in a few years also on harddisk level. At the same time, artists start to work within self-imposed limitations, that's also a development. They're no longer searching for the extremes of what is possible technically. Thankfullly, I must say. It lead to unsatisfying results, consisting of work that only seemed to showcase what could be done technically.

Well - I quite disagree that the "search for what is possible has ended" and with it its horrible implications on technological works - just look at vjforums today and you see that most newcomers and lots of the regulars are talking about technicalities and "what could be projected with this kind of tech and that kind of tech" - the result is that there are still lots of horrible technoshowcases for the latest gear out there with little merit to the content.

The only trouble I have is, basically, audience. We need some sort of openness -you're not witnissing a concert, you're not watching a movie, but something in between. That's an experience hard to tell and hard to sell.

Yes re:branding, re:marketing and most important re:defining the art away from the "vj" metapher away from the "cinema" thinking and into a "new kind of concert" is a way to go about it - with about three "live - cinema" artists in the world today and about zero pure live cinema productions that could even get close to the most underfunded indy-film productions its absolutely not surprising that the audience doesnīt know what you are talking about. Live - Cinema as a word is already much more catchy then "vjing" and more accessible to the general population that might not go into a nightclub but the name itself ainīt selling any tickets and so everyone embracing this new artform must work to promote it - just like the "vjs" started doing not even ten years ago. Then again it doesnīt seem there are lot of artists out there who would go by "live-cinema". Most just want to be called "vj" - so it is an uphill struggle which just has started - i would say about last year - give it ten and we are talking again.

So, I hope that Live Cinema stimulates a dynamic discours in visual culture.

So do I and I hope it leads to more meaning on the screen and better reception in the audience.

Posted by fALk at March 23, 2006 02:30 PM | TrackMeBack
Comments

Good points. Live cinema is the future I want to be part of. Want to link up with us on http://remixablefilms.multiply.com
?

.M.

Posted by: .M. at April 12, 2006 11:08 PM
Post a comment

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)










Remember personal info?