on the increasingly complex, not to say convoluted, video/film matter, Don Larsson coments: "> Maybe we need to step back, take a few deep breaths, and check our > vocabularies.The following words are getting tossed around (by me included) and > seem to > cover a range of meanings: > > TEXT--work, object, narrative line, thematic core, visual/aural content, > perfomance > > READ--experience, understand, analyze, interpret, see > > To tie this problem of usage to the original question about film and video > (and address Mike Frank's frustration about the film-as-text), we can say > the larger problem here is one of emphasis in our approaches to film: > > Film is an artistic medium > > Film is a social/commercial medium" and adds that: "Certainly, we address non-aesthetic questions fairly well with video, > and video may serve for certain aesthetic issues, less well for others. > But then, if we talk about ideological implications of the apparatus or > placement of the subject, the quality of the image may become more important." > i find his comments very welcome, adding another important axis of discrimination to the discussion . . . but i'm afraid it won't in itself resolve the central question because i [in principle if not inevitably in practice, total purity being as rare here as everywhere else] am absolutely committed to dealing with film as "an artistic medium" and not as either a commercial medium or as a technological medium . . . and i'm convinced that the other regular participants in these exchanges are equally intent on seeing (that word used quite intentionally) on seeing film as an artistic medium . . . just maybe a useful notion here is in that apparently simple term: "seeing film AS" -- for if mitchell and berger and gombrich and sol worth et al are to be believed, we never see anything in itself . . . we only see it AS . . . but then again maybe this road is one that should be less taken mike frank ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]