DESPAIR NOT, SET ASIDE REMORSE … WE SHALL MAKE OUR CAVEAT AND REJOICE
Some of us, faint-hearted chocolate-cream soldiers of Cinema, feel that, yes, there was a time when one could discern aromas & bouquets of a maturing wine that was Cinema …film form has soured up, they say, with Rate Of Acceleration Of Change, Digital Tsunami plus of course, mercantile interest of maximizing profit. Do you also feel like that? Dear reader? I’m sure not, because if you did you won’t be reading this.
Tell me what happens to the idea of “Cinematic Object” if you are using Mitchell BNC, an Arriflex SR, or a digi-palm-corder with a chip that is better than fine grain, pre-fogged Ectachrome? I’d say nothing happens to it; and in terms of construction we have yet to arrive at Poetry, Dance and Symphonic Musical Orchestrations. Now consider for a moment as to how long would it have taken for say Iambic Pentameter, Bharat Nattyam or Stradivarius violin, an Oboe and a Bassoon fuge to cause visions of musical forms in side the head of a J.S.Bach? not generations and eons; dance , music & painting have probably been with Human Beings for the better part of our entire Evolutionary period.
Cinema, like Automobile is gifted to us by mechanical / industrial era, not much older than steam engine; internal combustion engine, gears, pulleys, fluid heads, chemistry & optics are but three hundred years old. Digital technology has already made all that obsolete. We shall soon have cars running on Water, emitting Oxygen as waste, but the Film Frame, like a stable marriage shall continue to stay. We shall have to discover aesthetic resolutions and accommodate ease of operation without diluting essentials of what we have built thus far, our understanding and praxis in the field of Cinema Art Practice.
The next point is that cheap imitation and plagiarism will die a natural death. It will just not do to physically lift dance, drama, songs, music and the rest of it and hope that if a producer puts in lots of “Desi Ghee” and “Mughal Masalas” she will have a hit…!! It is simply ridiculous to hope in Bolly, Tolly or even Whistling Woods. Some one is sure to blow a whistle on all of them sooner or later.
Cinema art practitioners will have to imbibe, internalize the many aesthetics and creativities like training of an Artist used to require in Schools of Chinese Art. So you create an “Artist” at the end of training; who would then go live a life, may cook soups & steep tea, meditate, paint, write haikus or make pottery, make films may be but his entire, evolved aesthetic consciousness shall be present active and energizing his creative act, his shoots will not require special dance directors, fight composers and Music Directors, Actors, story writers, script & dialogue writers; he will not need lighting cameramen; he will just look at light and say yes…yes…nor will his sounds be echoing, base heavy phony, pressure selling lies & falsehoods. No…that shall not do…all that shall fall away like scabs somewhere along the way of Cinematic enlightenment, during evolution of Film Form, through Cinema Art Practice done by you & me, that done by our ancestors, mentors and teachers and Grand Masters whom we have not met but have seen and studied.
We shall thank digital cameras and advent of instant special effects as well as pain free digital editing procedures for they make our work so much free and un-encumbered. We no longer have to carry a whole cross section of society with us when we decide to go out filming. We can pay greater attention to what we want to do. And I think, you & I know, “What Is It That Want To Do…”
Rahatavalokit
Cacareadings#1174
Some of us, faint-hearted chocolate-cream soldiers of Cinema, feel that, yes, there was a time when one could discern aromas & bouquets of a maturing wine that was Cinema …film form has soured up, they say, with Rate Of Acceleration Of Change, Digital Tsunami plus of course, mercantile interest of maximizing profit. Do you also feel like that? Dear reader? I’m sure not, because if you did you won’t be reading this.
Tell me what happens to the idea of “Cinematic Object” if you are using Mitchell BNC, an Arriflex SR, or a digi-palm-corder with a chip that is better than fine grain, pre-fogged Ectachrome? I’d say nothing happens to it; and in terms of construction we have yet to arrive at Poetry, Dance and Symphonic Musical Orchestrations. Now consider for a moment as to how long would it have taken for say Iambic Pentameter, Bharat Nattyam or Stradivarius violin, an Oboe and a Bassoon fuge to cause visions of musical forms in side the head of a J.S.Bach? not generations and eons; dance , music & painting have probably been with Human Beings for the better part of our entire Evolutionary period.
Cinema, like Automobile is gifted to us by mechanical / industrial era, not much older than steam engine; internal combustion engine, gears, pulleys, fluid heads, chemistry & optics are but three hundred years old. Digital technology has already made all that obsolete. We shall soon have cars running on Water, emitting Oxygen as waste, but the Film Frame, like a stable marriage shall continue to stay. We shall have to discover aesthetic resolutions and accommodate ease of operation without diluting essentials of what we have built thus far, our understanding and praxis in the field of Cinema Art Practice.
The next point is that cheap imitation and plagiarism will die a natural death. It will just not do to physically lift dance, drama, songs, music and the rest of it and hope that if a producer puts in lots of “Desi Ghee” and “Mughal Masalas” she will have a hit…!! It is simply ridiculous to hope in Bolly, Tolly or even Whistling Woods. Some one is sure to blow a whistle on all of them sooner or later.
Cinema art practitioners will have to imbibe, internalize the many aesthetics and creativities like training of an Artist used to require in Schools of Chinese Art. So you create an “Artist” at the end of training; who would then go live a life, may cook soups & steep tea, meditate, paint, write haikus or make pottery, make films may be but his entire, evolved aesthetic consciousness shall be present active and energizing his creative act, his shoots will not require special dance directors, fight composers and Music Directors, Actors, story writers, script & dialogue writers; he will not need lighting cameramen; he will just look at light and say yes…yes…nor will his sounds be echoing, base heavy phony, pressure selling lies & falsehoods. No…that shall not do…all that shall fall away like scabs somewhere along the way of Cinematic enlightenment, during evolution of Film Form, through Cinema Art Practice done by you & me, that done by our ancestors, mentors and teachers and Grand Masters whom we have not met but have seen and studied.
We shall thank digital cameras and advent of instant special effects as well as pain free digital editing procedures for they make our work so much free and un-encumbered. We no longer have to carry a whole cross section of society with us when we decide to go out filming. We can pay greater attention to what we want to do. And I think, you & I know, “What Is It That Want To Do…”
Rahatavalokit
Cacareadings#1174
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