Richland Digital Video Spring 2019

I liked this reading by Hito Steryl regarding the actual nature of poor image. This can be through distribution or mass production. It can end up affecting the artist and their image of them self. I thought this excerpt was interesting. "The poor image has been uploaded, downloaded, shared, reformatted, and reedited. It transforms quality into accessibility, exhibition value into cult value, films into clips, contemplation into distraction. The image is liberated from the vaults of cinemas and archives and thrust into digital uncertainty, at the expense of its own substance. The poor image tends towards abstraction: it is a visual idea in its very becoming."

This excerpt explains what a poor image is, and to my understanding, it can be some kind of media that gets reproduced by someone other than the original artist and loses some of it's quality along the way. Therefore, if this cycle continues, the media in question loses a lot of it's original quality which makes it a poor image. This is my understanding of what a poor image is, whether it's right or wrong, I'm not sure.

Although I understand that this excerpt was to explain montages in a way that compares them to music, I personally think it was overly technical or, in lack of better terms, very wordy. (I feel like I say this about every excerpt, so I don't know if it's a problem with everyone or just me not being academically advanced enough to comprehend these readings.) However, it makes sense that montages are made in a rhythmic beat so to say, because just like with music, it makes the subject more interesting and well-paced for the audience.

This text differs from other works we have read. Steyerl wrote this in what seems to be the late 2000's. He begins by defining 'poor image' as a modern photo that has essentially been abused by reposts. The first point is the image resolution, which is related to sharpness. Resolution did not exist with film, but it has now taken an important spot because it contributes to the richness of an image. The second point is resurrection which is primarily related to the commercialization of footage. This involves the exclusion of some forms because they do not make money, and also the redistribution of cinema. The third point jumps off this last point with privatization and piracy. Poor images are not assigned value, and making cinema private encourages piracy and causes a rise in poor images being circulated. The fourth idea is that of imperfect cinema. Imperfect cinema is more accepting than perfect cinema because there are fewer rules. This is related to poor images because po

In Defense of the Poor Image  by  Hito  Steyerl This discusses the nature of poor image. According to author Hito  Steyerl , poor image arises because of mass reproduction and distribution of work. These poor images are distributed with less quality and more emphasize on quantity.  And if this happens, the artists usually get litter or no credit with the piece that is being distributed. The author made an example of a poor image using video as an example medium.  In video, it loses its value as it is distributed to public such as in the illegal means of piracy. And this is very rampant now with the use of social media sites were there is excessive use of poor image. This is quite true with images and videos taken from smart phones with low resolution and lack of meaningful content.  Some of these videos and images only exists to get a good laugh  but not to create a long-lasting impression. There are also some images that were distorted with the use of computer software to make

Montaign first spoke about how after one dies, they expect their obligations to also falter away with them, how some try to even amend things in their will with others. Or, even worse, as Montaign says, "when a man who has concealed some spiteful feelings against a neighbor for the whole of his life gives vent to them in his last will." That even after one is gone, they are still bitter. The quote that I really liked and feel that many should go by, is when Montaign says that one's death should make no statement that their life has not already made.

This reading really caught my attentions because I've never even think of death or what will happen after I die. I've always think I won't experience death for another very long time so why bother but that's just according to age but death can happen at any time. I really like it when he talks about how we should think about contributing towards our death instead of worrying and not getting things done. I feel like a lot of people that are sick and worry about dyeing so they stopped doing things that want and lose that precious time.

Eisenstein was basically connecting music with film. When doing a film music can change the whole tone of the story. For example a after war scene you wouldn't have happy music you would want sad music to highlight the destruction that was left behind. The tone is everything when producing something because it helps you get your point out without a misunderstanding. Montages as Eisenstein have a certain rhythm to them that keeps it from going into complete chaos. Just like music without rhythm can you really call it music?  Film and music together just allow everything to flow better together and allow the emotion to shine through of what is being pictured.

Montaign in this reading spoke about what happens to your obligations once death occurs. This captures my interest because I never really thought about in the way he explained his opinion. He went on to explain that we are not responsible for anything beyond our strength such as death and the only thing that we have control over is our own will. I somewhat agree but also have questions with this due to other outside reasonings. Like death does happen but what if we contribute towards it like refusing treatment for an illness. Also it made me think on my opinion with the whole obligations after death. What really happens after we die and what happens to all the things that were our obligations. Who's obligation does it become and is it just as important to them than it was to me.

The main thing that got from this reading was that Vertov makes a comparison with the human eye and the camera. The human eye only can see so much and can not be changed. The camera can be perfected and find more than meets the eye. Vertov uses examples of shots of dancers or a boxing match that provide support that a camera is superior to a human eye.The eye can capture everything happening all at once while the camera captures everything in sequences. The sequences such as the example of the dancers, the camera can capture all the parts with extreme focus on the arms or the legs. The human eye just sees everything all together rather than it being broken down.

He gets more in-depth about how editing and music get along with the right time frame jumps going with the music. The video editing needs to flow with the rhythm of the music. If you have a dramatic film and the music is upbeat and happy it won't go together, but depending on the editing you can make it go together.

We do tend to measure "film" for as long as the physical film is. Musical metaphors are similarly to film metaphors too. So when we talk about montage in music we could be thinking about montage the same way in film. In the different rhythmic structures of music, there are different levels. Eisenstein was really comparing music with film and editing.. In montage, when the image changes, you feel a beat.... kind of like in music. However in narrative film making you do not want the audience to feel the beat. In metric montage the cut is everything, and that is the most important thing.

Eisenstein begins by posing a question about the relationship between overtonal montage and the whole of montage. Eisenstein continues to describe the different types of montage beginning with metric montage. The main idea of this is that the shots are arranged by their length, and then repeats like musical measures. Tension can be created by shortening the length of each shot, Eisenstein says the shortening can me arithmetic, or orderly, or irregular and seemingly random. Eisenstein claims that the orderly one has a better effect on the viewer because humans prefer simple relationships. Like other authors, Eisenstein relates cinema to other forms of art. The effect on viewers does not have to be perceived as mathematical, although it can be measured, but instead gives a "pulsing" feeling to the film. Overdoing this effect causes chaos. Rhythmic montage is the next type of montage, where the content of the shot is considered as well. This method uses perceived length instead

The whole kino-eye concept thing was quite confusing for me in the beginning but as I keep reading I was starting to understand what the author was trying to show us. What I understand is that the kino-eye is very good at capturing things but the author said that there are things which the kino-eye is not capable of capturing it. So instead of just do the same thing as the kino-eye the author try to give the audience a whole new perspective. Things that human eye not normally see are what's creating the difference.

One of the main focuses of this excerpt revolved around the idea that memory contributes to whether a person lies or tells an untruth and how this can affect their lives. Personally having bad memory issues, this really interested me. When someone has false memory recollections about a subject, they end up telling untruths rather than flat out lies because they do believe what they say to be the truth; whereas lies are completely knowingly fabricated. Having also told lies and untruths (unknowingly), the explanation Montaign gives of how and why some people do both makes a lot of sense to me and I can relate.

The overall excerpt was a little confusing, but the concept of kino-eye was interesting. At first, I didn't understand what kino-eye was or meant, but with the examples I think I understand it a little better. To my understanding, kino-eye is basically trying to replicate what someone sees with their own eyes but also adds new perspectives that one person may not have seen but another did. I'm not sure if I'm right, but that was what I could grasp about the idea of kino-eye. All in all, the excerpt may not have been crystal clear to me, but I think the concepts are interesting to think about when filming anything.