Volume 18 2008
eyecandy.ucsc.edu Cinematic Revolution
New Contracts, New Media, and New Television: A Retrospective on the 2007/08 WGA Strike
The Last Frontier: and
Clinging to the Physical: Laserdisc versus Digital Technology
Volume 18 Winter 2008 A UC Santa Crux, Film & Digital Media Publication William Hoschele Roberto Alexander Santos
Drew Todd, Ph.D.
BUSINESS MANAGER Roberto A. Santos ADVERTISING COORDINATOR William Hoschele ADVERTISING ASST. Alexander Olson ADVERTISING ASST. Marcus Zepeda
DVD PRODUCER Adrian Syben FORMATTING SUPERVISOR Ryan McDuffie TITLING Mark Sanfilippo PRODUCTION ASST. Matthew Longoria FACILITY COORDINATOR Adam Tenney FACILITY ASST. Nick Alioto
SENIOR LAYOUT EDITOR Megg Sicotte-Kelly DESIGN CONSULTANT Denise González LAYOUT EDITOR Daniel James Scott LAYOUT EDITOR Jessica Stokes LAYOUT EDITOR Sydney MacLean COPY EDITOR Jillian Q. Johnson
LEAD WEB DESIGNER Justin Rimando LEAD WEB DESIGNER Aaron Joseph WEB CONTRIBUTER Alejandro Quan-Madrid
Chris Alexander
EyeCandy Film Journal proudly thanks the benefactors of Volume 18
A u d i o b e e z Media Council CAO/Provost Fund Merrill Student Government Core Council Mixonic, Inc. Cowell Senate Oakes Senate Crown Student Senate Stevenson Senate Kresge Parliament Tacos Moreno
http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 FEATURING...
Film is Dead, What Moves Lives Yet As the movie industry makes its transition from film to digital media, is the term “film” still appropriate? BY WILLIAM HOSCHELE 3 : Cinematic Revolution With the release of Bungie’s new video game sensation, Halo 3, 5 gamers can create high-quality digital videos for personal use and Internet distribution. No experience necessary. BY ALEJANDRO QUAN-MADRID
New Contracts, New Media, and New Television: A Retrospective on the 2007/08 WGA Strike A look back on the recent Writer’s Guild of America strike. Why did it happen, what were the issues, and how has it already begun to change television as we know it? BY MEGG SICOTTE-KELLY 7 The Last Frontier: and
Fatalism and nihilism feature in Oscar-winning films No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. 10 BY DANIEL JAMES SCOTT Stumble into Mumblecore Find out about the newest DIY movement in amateur filmmaking that does not require big cameras and budgets. 14 BY MATTHEW LONGORIA
Clinging to the Physical: Laserdisc versus Digital Technology How do changing formats alter our relationship with film? Is the 16 immateriality of digital media taking something away from the pleasure of collecting? BY ALEX OLSON Requiem for the Del Mar: Trying to Find Hope in the Age of Multitasking Spectatorship Is new technology destroying the pleasure of spectatorship? How much of the theatrical experience is lost to iPods and streaming downloads? Is this the beginning of the end of cinema? BY ROBERTO A. SANTOS 19 Volume 18 Winter 2008 1 A LETTER FROM THE EDITORS... Dear Readers,
The number 18 means a great deal in American culture. It represents the achievement of adult- hood and the moment when most begin their education in self-dependency. Eighteen is when one begins to redefine who they are as an adult, taking a stance as a new individual—with this in mind that we began to reshape Eyecandy toward a new design. However, soon after committing ourselves as editors, a most intimidating question arose: what exactly should Volume 18 discuss? Several nights of pacing and cups of coffee later, we finally found our answer. Eyecandy has long been a site where the students of UCSC can meet on common ground in a dis- cussion of film and digital media. Many cultural and media critics have already staked their claim as to what our generation most desires, most anticipates, and most understands. But how many examples exist of GenY authors having the chance to speak for themselves? Our primary goal is relevance. As the journal’s editors, we have sought to design an issue that allows us to deeply analyze our changing media culture. We seek to take our readers further afield — to explore new practices in spectatorship, filmmaking, and visual media study that most pertain to our generation. Volume 18 shall serve as a time capsule — each author speaking of his or her most pressing interests and anxieties of the moment, together creating what we believe is the most important volume in Eyecandy’s young history. In addition, this year’s staff has worked diligently with us in creating a web publication that does not exist separately from print, as was the case in previous volumes, but rather in tandem. Many of the print pieces in Volume 18 have supplemental content, including streaming video, on the redesigned website. For the third consecutive year, Eyecandy includes a complimentary DVD showcasing some of the finest student films from the UCSC community. As editors, we hope that Volume 18 creates a mediaphile out of every reader. Our love for visual media is why we have worked so hard. Hopefully, that same passion will take root within yourself and compel you to ask questions similar to those addressed in the following pages. For many of the pieces you are about to read, the dust has yet to settle; we are still in the infancy of the new millennium and our devel- opment as scholars has just begun. Volume 18 is a first, honest attempt to look forward and to predict what visual culture will look like in the years and decades to come.
Roberto Alexander Santos & William Hoschele Editors-in-Chief
The Film and Digital Media Department at UC Santa Cruz has long prided itself — and rightfully so — on bringing together critical studies and production, theory and praxis. Here student filmmakers benefit from analyzing the history, aesthetics, and theory of film/media, while critical studies majors get hands-on experience in the craft they are taught to study. Volume 18 of Eyecandy perfectly illustrates the Department’s marriage of critical studies and pro- duction. The editors and staff have richly combined scholarship with journalism, text with graphic design, virtual and digital media with print, and film/industry analysis with filmmaking. The result is an edition that informs and entertains us, even as it illustrates and negotiates the changing media landscape that surrounds us.
Enjoy, Drew Todd
2 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 Film is Dead, But What Moves Lives Yet
WHEN I WRITE that film is dead, I am not referring to the medium of film; instead I want to call attention to the use of the term ‘film’ as a means of description. When the term came into use,it accurately described the medium — movies were photographed, edited, and projected on celluloid film. Describing the medium previously was not difficult because the medium was its production material, film. However, movies are no longer photographed on film, and in some cases the use of photography is completely absent, as is the case with computer-generated image (CGI) films.
This is an unusual event in the change the term used to define it in keeping Today digital cameras rival once standard history of the arts. Rarely, if ever, has a with the new wealth of technological film cameras, while the personal computer medium changed so significantly as to advancements. Star Wars director George has evolved into a home-editing suite. require a new description in order to identify Lucas, who advocates for Hollywood and Despite Lucas’s belief that digital it. When sculpting shifted from carving filmmakers to fully embrace the digital cinema is the wave of the future, there are figures out of granite to shaping them revolution, stated, “In the 20th century, filmmakers who still grasp onto celluloid as from soft clay, was this not still sculpting? cinema was celluloid; the cinema of the 21st their means of artistic expression. Steven Does the stage no longer host theatrical century will be digital…Film is going to be Spielberg, Lucas’s collaborator on the performances? When painting alternated photographed and projected digitally…We Indiana Jones series, is one such person. In from paints to oils to watercolors, was the made it through the silent era to the sound an interview with Time magazine, Spielberg final product not still a painting? Putting a era and from the black-and-white era to the stressed his preference for film and his pen to paper or typing on a keyboard does color era, and I’m sure we’ll make it through reluctance to join the digital revolution: not change the term we use to describe the to the digital era…the creator’s palette has “I’m too nostalgic to make my movies process. While these changes may have been continually widened.”1 Lucas’s view digitally. I’m the last person in Hollywood influenced the artists, altering the means by of film as an old medium and digital as who cuts his film on film. I still love cutting which they were able to express themselves, the next stage in evolution underscores the on film. The greatest films ever made in our the final product was not a change for us, reality that digital technology is here and history were cut on film and I’m tenaciously the spectator/reader. is becoming an increasingly viable solution hanging on to the process.”2 The process Film is no longer simply film. to the costly expense of celluloid. of making film is an arduous task in and Today, there is an increase in the use of One of of itself; making digital video used in live-action movies the reasons that celluloid from raw such as Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Hollywood cornered stock, shooting, of the Sith (George Lucas, 2005, USA) the movie market was developing the film, and Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, usually a function of and distributing 2000, Denmark), as well as the release of economics. It has the product play completely CGI blockbuster movies such been able to afford heavily in the as Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007, USA) and the ever-rising cost decisions of many Shrek (Andrew Adamson, 2001, USA). of celluloid film, the studios to pursue However, this begs the question, are these chemical processing, alternative, more movies any less important to the medium the editing tables, and affordable means simply because they lack the physicality of the distribution – and you cannot. That is, of filmmaking. Despite his objections, celluloid? before the time of the video camera, which even Spielberg admits that “Sadly, it’s the This essay is not a condemnation put the ability to make movies, even low- inevitable medium. I think that certainly of older methods; I do not wish to banish quality ones, in the hands of everyone. it is right around the corner. Dreamworks the use of film stock as a means of Home videotape movies, however, never certainly recognizes the tens of millions cinematic expression. Instead, I seek to went anywhere outside of the living room. of dollars that will be saved in distribution
Volume 18 Winter 2008 3 costs in not having to make five, six, seven similar to animation: “A particular case of form of contemporary times because it is thousand 35mm prints, just in the domestic animation which uses live-action footage a medium that vividly reflects, engages, market, for a big-event movie.”3 as one of its many elements.”4 We now and negotiates changing society. Lacking Director Steven Soderbergh come back to the initial problem, what term current and appropriate terminology to finds a middle ground between the two best defines the art of motion pictures in the discuss, describe, and otherwise define juggernaut film moguls, alternating present day? such a medium takes something away from between filming high-end blockbusters The answer is already in use. It is its message. such as Ocean’s 11 (2001, USA) on film strange, but one does not need to invent a and smaller independent projects such as new term to create a new definition. What we WILLIAM HOSCHELE Bubble (2005, USA) on digital. Soderbergh require in this age is a name to encompass ([email protected]), co-editor- also experimented in Full Frontal (2002, everything that involves, and revolves in-chief, is a senior undergraduate Film USA) by combining the mediums. The around, the moving image — and that name & Digital Media Student with a Critical result is a film that uses the mediums in an ought to be cinema. The term ‘cinema’ is Studies emphasis. This is his second year experimental way to analyze the spectator’s as old as the increasingly anachronistic with Eyecandy Film Journal. interpretation between what they perceive ‘film,’ and yet it still works. Cinema does as documentary footage and fictional not exclude the currently evolving digital narrative when it is all actually fiction. revolution, nor does it disqualify movies 1 John Belton, “Digital Cinema: A False Even the industry is calling the whose source springs from the matrix of Revolution” from Film Theory and newest addition to the cinematic family a computer. The cinema is a location, but Criticism (Oxford University Press, New ‘digital film,’ but the term is clearly an what do we see at the cinema? Cinema. York. 2004) 905. oxymoron. Film is a physical element; one The cinema describes motion pictures 2 Time Magazine. 14 Mar 2006. can touch it, feel its grain. But something and the industry that creates them.5 This http://www.time.com/time/arts/ that is digital lacks substance, it appears term encompasses that which we strain article/0,8599,1173367,00.html. only as material perceived through the to grasp verbally and conceptually. While 3 Time, ibid. manipulation of pixels and computer code. cinema does not specifically describe the 4 Lev Manovich “What is Cinema?” That which is digital is not physical. It individual contours of the medium, this is http://hipercubo.uniandes.edu.co/redes03/ can become so by transferring to another of little concern. In such an instance, we pdf/manovich/digital_cinema.pdf. medium, but by itself it is not tangible. In still have the previous means of description 5 Merriam Webster Online Dictionary. his essay, “What is Digital Cinema?,” Lev to fall back on. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/cinema. Manovich describes digital filmmaking as Cinema is the most important art
MORE Features, MORE Articles, MORE Eyecandy
4 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 Halo 3: Cinematic Revolution
AT SOME POINT in 2007, hearing about Halo 3 (Bungie Studios, Xbox 360, 2007) was participant who not only plays but also unavoidable. Perhaps it was the financial news pundits predicting massive consumer sales, watches, edits, and shares this content. These st based solely on the pre-launch hype; or the local news affiliates’ coverage of sleepless are the virtual action figures for the 21 herds of line-waiters, anxiously perched outside of a nearby video game store; or you had century. Before looking too far into the to have noticed your nephews or cousins playing incessantly at the last family get-together. implications of this new variety of digital Halo 3 was ubiquitous in 2007, whether you knew anything about video games or not. media, however, a close analysis of how it What’s the big deal? After all, it’s just a video game, right? Yet a game as successful, came about is necessary. Roughly a year and high-budget, and influential asHalo 3 sets the bar for other game developers both in terms a half after the original Halo (Bungie Studios, of quality and features. Among those features are a few aimed at the hardcore gamers, Xbox, 2001) was released, the Rooster Teeth but this game has something for anybody with a couple buddies and a little imagination. production group7 began making Red vs. Blue With an in-game editor to create and alter backgrounds, a free-moving camera that (Rooster Teeth, 2003-2007), a situational records all the action in a match, a few friends to perform as digital puppeteers, and comedy using the game’s multiplayer the internet just waiting to freely distribute and provide virtually instant feedback, the mode. A group of digital puppeteers would digital torch and pitchfork are all in hand for Halo 3 to stage a cinematic revolution. simply manipulate each of their respective characters based upon a loose script, and Halo 3 currently holds the record for stage for reflection on the human psyche for then the dialogue track would be added the highest-grossing entertainment product consumers of this digital multimedia. “Halo during postproduction. The players would in a 24-hour period.1 Granted, a $60 game 3’s” gamer-spectator practice brings to mind alternate camera duty, which was simply a (for the non-special edition) already has a a rather comedic, yet relevant sequence from particular player’s in-game screen, based off price-per-unit advantage over a $10 movie a past episode of The Simpsons, in which of whoever was not in the shot. Then, through ticket, though $170 million in a day2 is an Bart Simpson manages to get a video of a clever use of heavy letterboxing, most of impressive feat. To date, the game has also sister Lisa breaking Ralph Wiggum’s heart the typical game displays were hidden in pushed over eight million units globally,3 on national television. He seeks to “pinpoint the final videos, which subsequently gave making it difficult to deny the reach and the second when [Ralph’s] heart rips in half” Red Vs. Blue its signature look. As a result influence of Halo 3. To see the impact of the and he succeeds6: rewind, frame-by-frame of the series’s popularity, Bungie Studios not title on gamers, you need not actually play slow motion, and pause. only embraced the series, but also made it or watch someone else play the game; nor Not too distant are videos that possible in “Halo 3” for players to not hold do you need to look at the sheer volume of hoodlums make when causing mischief to a weapon, leaving their arms down at their matches being played nightly on Xbox Live, ward off the monotony of the suburbs. They sides, giving the characters the option of a Microsoft’s online gaming service. You are able to watch and relive the moment the more natural standing position. Furthermore, simply need run a search for “Halo 3” on tenth mailbox was knocked down or when even though the saved video function allows YouTube.com. the joggers fell victim to a drive-by super- for a team of Halo 3 players to work on its Halo 3 is groundbreaking in that it soaking. The difference, perhaps, is that the strategy and tactics, realistically it blows the provides two features that ensure a unique Halo videos can more closely reflect the door for machinima (machine cinema) wide experience each time the online multiplayer imagination of the creator and are in high open. mode is played: the saved video and Forge definition. It is important to remember, functions.4 The saved video function allows These videos contain all the elements nonetheless, that even though Red vs. Blue every match to be replayed afterwards by the of Sam Peckinpah’s (The Wild Bunch, 1969, and other Halo videos out on the Internet player, who has control over the playback USA) ballistic balletics, complete with bullet certainly have a do-it-yourself aesthetic, speed, perspective, direction, camera angle trajectories made visible vis-à-vis lines of there are still some barriers to entry. Besides and movement, and more. The footage can dust, light, and blood. The difference is that the cost of the game and game console, a then be uploaded to Bungie’s server for other these videos can do that 360° pan around a few different hardware options to capture the players to download and watch. This is made subject in the perfect frame, reminiscent of video into an editable data format can run possible by special programming that records The Matrix (The Wachowskis, 1999, USA). the code of what happened where in the match Comparisons can definitely be made to instead of the actual High Definition (HD) television and action films of the past, and video, creating smaller file sizes and simple inspiration is likely to have been taken from instructions for video recreation that can be them. Furthermore, the stylized violence in easily transferred to other Xbox 360s. This Halo 3 could not be possible without the method also makes possible for the camera contributions to visual media by the world’s to move around freely post-match. The Forge television and filmmakers. However, neither mode lets the player customize multiplayer of those mediums, nor any other, allows for maps with items, boxes, weapons, and this type of customizable experience under vehicles to give levels a more personal the name of a specific product. No other touch.5 media has the power to create an active These two functions further set the Promotional poster for Red vs. Blue Volume 18 Winter 2008 5 another couple hundred dollars, which also soldiers and that the props are primarily at least not any time soon. It is also difficult assumes that the Spielberg-in-the-making weapons — do not work out too well for a to classify this new media. It stems from knows how to use the proper editing and romantic comedy, which is fine. It was never traditional video games and is marketed as compression software. However, it is still stated that Halo 3 is a filmmaker’s dream such, but it is capable of transcending its relatively affordable on a consumer level. video game, but rather it stands as an agent own medium and format. Even though all of Then again, by default there is that can influence many other games to follow the new features common in contemporary still the option to upload saved videos to suit in providing the tools for user-generated games typically have some connection to Bungie.net, straight from the user’s Xbox, to content and videos. Additionally, it has the their respective game realms and modes be shared with other Halo 3 players — but potential to act as a catalyst that can inspire of game-play, in actuality they are pushing this limits user accessibility. Despite this and challenge both gamers and potential the envelope of what a video game can be, limitation of distribution and creative control filmmakers to take a couple of feet when an integrating all different forms of new media. inch or two is given. The level of creativity this new media inspires Keep in mind the lines that are being and provides truly speaks volumes, the likes drawn with some of this language. I feel it of which have only begun to be tapped. is important when thinking about cinema, and where it is headed, to note distinctions ALEJANDRO QUAN-MADRID between traditional cinema (digital or film) (quan [email protected]), a graduating senior and this new digital multimedia. The level in the Film & Digital Media department. This is of immersion, not just in the media but time his second year writing for Eyecandy. He has spent within the game world, already says written freelance for 1up.com. something about comparisons between games and cinema. Whereas a cinematic experience typically lasts around two hours, a game with 1 Tor Thorsen. “Halo 3’s First-Day US Haul = $170M,” 2007, CNET Networks/San Francisco, 26 Sep. 2007 an online multiplayer mode can be played http://au.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/halo3/news. virtually infinitely. From there, when the html?sid=6179914. gamer desires a break from the game element, 2 Thorsen, Ibid. Gamers play Halo 3 at a local 3 Brendon Sinclair, “MS: 17.7 Million 360s Sold,” convention she/he can remain in the game realm, create 2008, CNET Networks/San Francisco, 3 Jan.2008 a video, and then go online to watch other http://www.gamespot.com/news/6184291.html. (since without using a computer there are few machinima that gamers are creating. Finally, 4 ‘Frankie,’ “Halo 3 How-to: Saved Films, New ViDOC,” 2007, Bungie, 20 Sept. 2007 http://www. options to edit the footage before uploading), the lot of them can comment, rate, and bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link= the videos would be reaching their most niche ultimately dictate what the market prefers, h3savedfilms. audience. From there, thanks to the nature of which is unique, even in this age, when 5 ‘Frankie,’ Ibid. 6 “I Love Lisa.” The Simpsons. Fox. 11 Feb 1993. the video being more data than video, the user compared to that of the blockbuster movie 7 Rooster Teeth Production’s history can be found who downloads it can manipulate it as she/he focus group. via their company’s website. http://www.roosterteeth. so desires. Imagine watching a film in which Despite the growing potential for com. 8 Some of the earliest machinima examples can the events happen at one point in space, but cinematic revolution, neither Halo 3 nor be found at the following website: http://www. you can re-play them frame by frame, pause machinima will replace traditional cinema, machinima.com. the action, and move the camera virtually anywhere in the movie world while the event is happening — it would be comparable to a high-definition, feature-length diorama that played itself out. In actuality, interaction like this is a demand of the revolution. A practice in which the participant — and I say participant over viewer or gamer because she/he is much more than that — has control over the content playing, whether it is self-produced or not, is where the future of digital multimedia lies. Though consumers have been producing machinima since 1996,8 giving such powerful tools to the everyday user who is perhaps not as technically savvy, especially on a console video game (compared to a computer game where user- made modifications are more commonplace), is what is worth noting. Likewise, to create a computer-generated image (CGI) film from the ground up would be a much more expensive, time-consuming, and intimidating task, but again, the artist would have more control. To compare and contrast further, consider how creating machinima with digital puppeteers frees the director from having to deal with actors, costumes, and, other production variables (such as weather and time of day). One of the major downsides, however, at least for Halo 3, is that all of the characters look like colorful Imperial Stormtrooper soldiers. From here, a majority of filmmakers might look at Halo 3 and think that the drawbacks — namely all of the characters
6 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 has continued until today, with DVDs eventually replacing videocassettes.9 In practical terms, this means that for every $19.99 DVD sold, the writer receives only four cents,10 a number considerably less than the 50 cents it costs to make and distribute those same DVDs.11 Nearly 20 years later, new technologies have rekindled old arguments, and on Nov. 5, 2007, the WGA went on strike once again. With this most recent strike, the WGA challenged the AMPTP in an attempt to stake a claim in what many see as the future of television. With the emergence and spread of time-shifting technologies, such as TiVo and DirecTV, the viewer is able to watch television at their convenience, skipping commercials altogether, leaving studios and advertisers searching for alternative methods of distribution and profit. Like TiVo, the Internet also allows for the convenience of time shifting. However, on streaming New Contracts, New Media, sites such as ABC.com or Hulu.com this new model allows ads to be embedded or and New Television: displayed alongside the video. Viewers can also pay to download episodes from A Retrospective on the 2007/08 WGA Strike providers such as iTunes, with video entertainment spreading to personal LITTLE CAN POLARIZE the American public faster than a strike. When that strike devices such as iPods and cell phones. This affects a national pastime as vital to the American lifestyle as television, people take burgeoning market is known collectively notice. While public opinion is surprisingly favorable toward the Writer’s Guild of as “New Media,” and is a revenue source expected to reap $4.6 billion in profits over America (WGA), most viewers are more concerned with the return of their favorite 12 1 the next three years. Although this new shows to broadcast than the issues behind the strike. In spite of this, the 2007/08 WGA market shows the potential to be highly strike will have a lasting impact on both the production and reception of television. lucrative, it was not until weeks into the In essence, the strike boils down understood at the time that this cut would strike that the AMPTP agreed to talk about 13 to a fight over residuals. Like novelists and be only temporary, and that once the home changing the current model of residuals. songwriters, screenwriters are paid a flat video market was stable residuals would It is important when looking at fee for the rights to produce and distribute return to an appropriate amount.5 In 1988, the WGA strike to understand just what their work. Added to this standard fee residuals still had not been increased from the AMPTP is and how it functions. On its is an agreement that they will receive a their reduced rate. Meanwhile, the industry website, the AMPTP claims to represent percentage of the distributor’s gross each landscape was drastically changing due “over 350 motion picture and television 14 time their work is broadcast, screened to the increasing role of the home video producers.” However, many independent or sold after its initial airing. Different market. producers have written to publications from the original flat fee, a residual is the On March 7, 1988, the longest such as Variety in an attempt to remind payment a writer receives every time their WGA strike in history began. Lasting for 22 work is shown on TV, whether in prime- weeks, the strike is estimated to have cost time or syndication, or sold to home video. the entertainment industry upwards of $500 As freelancers, 48% of WGA million collectively.6 The negative impact, members are unemployed at any given however, was not simply limited to a loss time.2 During these times, writers depend of profits. Delayed by six weeks, the 1988 on residuals to maintain a living. This television season resulted in a significant industry practice, however, has not always loss of network audiences to cable due to been in effect. the work stoppage.7 This loss was never Film and television residuals were to be recouped, with over 9% of audience established in the early 1950s,3 but it was not members leaving broadcast television for until the WGA’s first major strike in 1960 good.8 WGA Strike of 1988 that writers were paid residuals for airings In addition to this stretch of beyond the initial screenings.4 This system unemployment, a burgeoning home video journalists not to associate them with the worked fairly well until the mid-1980s, market allowed for the Alliance of Motion AMPTP by referring to it as “the producers;” when the WGA agreed to an 80% cut in Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and commenting further “The Alliance the residuals they would receive, designed to convince the WGA to a lower residual represents the studios, the networks, and to help a burgeoning new market expand rate of 0.3% for the first million grossed the international conglomerates that own 15 its profits — home video. The writers and 0.36% thereafter. This agreement them, not working producers.” Among the
Volume 18 Winter 2008 7 most prominent members of the AMPTP television download from iTunes, the In spite of mixed reactions towards are General Electric (owners of NBC and writer receives a whopping half of a cent. the tentative agreement, many would argue Universal), the Walt Disney Company, Ideally, the WGA had hoped to change the that the outcome was better than had Time Warner (owners of Warner Brothers current download residuals from the DVD been expected, since at least “the writers and partial owners of the CW network), rate of 0.3% to the 2.5% writers would got their foot in the door” in respects to Viacom (owners of Paramount and partial have received for a television airing of the New Media.27 While the provisions of the owners of the CW network), the CBS same episode.20 agreement do not include the withdrawn Corporation and New Corporation (owners However, the practice of legal requests for an increase in DVD residuals of FOX).16 downloading is but one of the many ways and WGA jurisdiction over reality and to watch television online. Many major animation writers, public opinion seems to networks, including NBC, ABC, and be that the WGA was able to “wrest a major FOX, provide full episodes of their current concession” from the AMPTP by “winning shows on their websites at absolutely a piece of digital revenues.”28 Under the new no cost to the viewer, and no benefit to contract, residuals for Internet downloads the writer. Although the AMPTP claims have nearly doubled, going from 0.3% per these streaming episodes are online as download to about 0.7%. This increase “promotional” material only and that they does not take effect, however, until after “don’t know if it’s going to replace other the first 50,000 downloads of a feature markets or enhance other markets,”21 film and the first 100,000 downloads of a networks and studios are collecting profits television show. due to ad sales.22 In fact, Leslie Moonves, The residual model for streaming CEO of CBS, went so far as to call New television is somewhat different, with Media a “profit machine.”23 Under the old writers receiving around $1,300 per episode MBA contract, none of this profit was to per year after an initial promotional window be passed along to the writers. One of the of up to 24 days of free streaming. A year WGA’s aims was to change that 0% residual after the expiration of the initial window, rate to the 2.5% they have established for the residual would increase to 2% of the New Media sales and distribution.24 distributor’s gross. In the third year of the Striker and child at a WGA protest After months of unemployment new contract, this 2% would go into effect By contrast, the WGA is comprised and dozens of picket lines, the WGA strike immediately after the end of the promotional of two cooperative labor unions, the WGA finally ended on Feb. 12, 2008, itsth 100 period. However, this model only applies West and East, which represent television day. Although the three-year contract is to network prime-time television shows. and film writers in Southern California still tentative, reactions to the strike’s Writers of shows produced for cable and around New York City, respectively. resolution are mixed. WGA negotiating will receive a fixed sum, an agreement These unions were established to protect committee member Howard Michael Gould comparable to that established for the first the interests of screenwriters and currently reflected, “In the end, though, I think we year of streaming broadcast shows. One of to oversee healthcare and pension plans.17 did it damned well. And the happy result the most important provisions of the new Under the most recent contract with the was the deal that we needed.”25 However, contract establishes separate rights for the AMPTP, however, the WGA does not many guild members seem to disagree with creators of content for New Media. As has have jurisdiction over the writers of reality this sentiment. Some, such as science- been the case for writers of television and television or animation.18 This exclusion fiction writer Harlan Ellison, go so far film, writers for the Internet will retain was one of the many issues the WGA hoped as to say, “after months on the line… we rights over any characters they create, as to rectify when their current Minimum rushed headlong into a shabby, scabrous, well as the rights to adapt the work for Basic Agreement (MBA) contract with the underfed shovelfulla [sic] shit clutched to another medium.29 AMPTP expired on midnight of Oct. 31, the affections of toss-in-the-towel summer The strike may have ended, 2007. After three months of negotiations soldiers trembling before the Awe of the but its effects are far from over. With the with the AMPTP, a resolution had yet to Alliance.”26 strike lasting over three months, most be achieved. On the final day, the contract negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP collapsed. The following Monday the WGA strike began. In addition to the inclusion of animation and reality television writers, the WGA had initially hoped to negotiate a new contract with the AMPTP that would finally increase DVD residuals from 0.3% to 0.6% (effectively increasing that four cents per DVD to eight cents). In spite of statements by the AMPTP and the common misconception that the strike is all about DVDs,19 the WGA’s most important goal is tied to establishing the residual model for New Media. Currently, writers receive the DVD residual rate on all Internet downloads. That means for every $1.99 The Farmer Wants a Wife (2007-Present, CWTV), a new reality show on the CW Network
8 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 studios have run out of stockpiled scripts, 1 “The WGA Strike and Public Opinion.” Film.com. 2008
Volume 18 Winter 2008 9 The Last Frontier: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood
“Oil Derrick,” by Louise Chen. SOLITARY MEN WANDER the expanses of a Western frontier. Under skies of pale blue and mountains scorched-red, each deliberately adheres to his private agenda. One stumbles upon a suitcase full of money, the relic of a drug deal gone terribly wrong. He pries it out of the hands of a dead other, unaware of the maelstrom of violence that clings to him quietly. Another stares up at a patch of sky framed picturesquely within a gaping hole 50 feet below the ground. Half-submerged in oil, he smiles as the pulleys lift up bucket after bucket of the Earth’s sustenance. And another lies estranged in a desolate motel room, eyes glazed as he stoically nurtures the wounds from an earlier assault. Fulfilling their own self-interests, each figure plays a central role in perpetuating this godless game where harrowing opportunism and human fallibility can crystallize without interruption — all of this fittingly located in the unadorned West, where “the graces of civilization” are far-removed, and “men are men.”1 No Country for Old Men (Joel viewed as diametrically opposed. How- in which they were both produced and ex- and Ethan Coen, 2007, USA) and There ever, in truly understanding the workings hibited, that of a post-9/11 society forever Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, behind either of these two films, one should seeking means of closure and restitution, 2007, USA), both Oscar-nominated for notice the degrees of solidarity and interde- their senses of ambiguity and meaningless- Best Picture, offer unsettling meditations pendency that exist between them. ness have posed a wide-ranging list of cu- on humankind’s potential. With the ab- Set during different times in riosities, causing some to look to the film- sence of law and security a flimsy innova- American history — No Country for Old makers for resolution. tion, we see the motives of men as they are Men in the 1980s and There Will Be Blood If one hopes to find such resolu- carried out in an environment practically covering a 30-year span at the turn of the tion from the filmmakers, they might be devoid of limitations. Avarice and self- 20th century — both films invariably deal disappointed. When interviewed separately glorification consume the lands, cynicism with the fragility of human morality during (within a week of one another) on the Char- and competition flourish, while mortality times of transition. While the Coen broth- lie Rose Show, both the Coen brothers and and existence are so transient they seem ers’ work tends to focus more on the macro Anderson displayed a hazy sense of reti- interchangeable. Few have refrained from levels of critique — embodying the ‘battle cence toward acknowledging the political calling the films nihilistic and from analyz- field’ concept that has proven so effective and existential implications of their films. ing the motivations behind such tempera- (and so abundant) during times of war When asked why the Coen brothers chose ment. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago — Anderson’s picture concerns itself with to take on the project of adapting a Cormac Reader considered the objective behind No the varying capacities of the individual McCarthy novel, co-writer/director Ethan Country for Old Men to be simple “genre (i.e., the stark portrayal of a man in a state Coen cryptically remarked, “It seemed exercise.”2 Armond White of the New York of perpetual decline). Working alongside like promising material for a movie. It is Press supposed the intent behind There each other, these two films’ collective at- a chase, action, story, and something more Will Be Blood to be more politically rooted, titudes towards mortality, faith, humanity, than that. But... that.”4 Perhaps it is because a “post-Iraq War Termigant.”3 This duality and societal progression all create fatalistic viewer expectations are too high that some among viewer reactions has typically been expositions. And in the historical context have found the brothers to be anticlimactic
10 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 or unsatisfying in their self-commentary. It viewer in all movies, where the underlying Rosenbaum aptly put it: “We can allow dog is reasonable to think that the creators of meaning is amorphous and forever shifting collars to be used [on people] even while such consummate films would display a re- according to the spectator’s personal expe- we hypocritically shake our heads at the motely comparable sense of enthusiasm for rience. And in the cultural context of these sadness of it all.”8 The ineptitude that he their works. However, one cannot deny that films, where it is safe to suggest that the speaks of has made itself abundantly clear the Coen brothers make up for this in their audience pointed to is distinctly American, through the film industry’s proliferation of latest film, which fortunately speaks loud the assumption of political weariness is for- movies that seek to provide a sort of idyllic enough for both of them. ever in mind. The simple foundations of the world that desperately clings to the sinceri- As for Anderson, when asked of movies themselves certainly work to enact ties and authenticities of an earlier genera- his true intentions for making There Will Be such a notion. Given the fact that they are tion. Similar notions of idealism are sug- Blood (other than merely telling a story), both adaptations of novels written by au- gested in the filmsNo Country for Old Men he safely replied by fawning over Daniel thors who share heavily culture-conscious and There Will Be Blood through the iconic Day-Lewis: “The idea of collaboration perspectives — No Country for Old Men’s conventions of the American West — how- with people that you really love and people Cormac McCarthy, a biblical allegorist of ever, only in degrees of standardized ref- you like being around. […] It’s really plea- the King James Bible, and There Will Be erence. Overwhelming the traditional pan- surable work to do when it’s going well.”5 Blood’s Upton Sinclair, a socialist heavily oramic landscapes, the ceaseless horizons As the three (Anderson, Rose, Day-Lewis) immersed in the pitfalls of capitalism — it and the crimson-red sunsets, are the fires of talk about the film’s workings, they con- is no wonder the films bear a significant -de man’s transgressions: flaming oil derricks tinuously shy away from any inklings of gree of their social critiques. screaming at the heavens, billowing clouds potential unrest, and look to their sterling In his book Visions of the Apoca- of smoke emitting from pre-meditated ex- hero across the table. Although the element lypse, Wheeler Winston Dixon writes, “Not plosions, and cabins set alight by a sound- of performance is a key (if not the key) since the height of the 1950s Cold War hys- less boy’s caution. facet of There Will Be Blood, the responses teria has the United States lived in such an a Most resonant of our current conflict in of the filmmaker strangely deny the film’s atmosphere of fear and repression.”7 With the Middle East are these films’ added sense political content. innumerable cultures and religious sects of elusiveness, stemming from an unidenti- As Christian Metz reminds us, pitted against each other, our social con- fiable enemy who is able to take the form however, “The fact that must be under- dition has been viewed as one that is un- of non-combatants. He is forever looming, stood is that films are understood.”6 A lay- receptive and blandly opportunistic. In a quietly parasitic. In the Coen brothers’ No ered duality exists between filmmaker and review from the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Country for Old Men, the elusive enemy is manifest in the character of Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a merciless killer who has been repeatedly perceived in the wake of Hannibal Lecter. He bears a stoic expres- sion, a starkly coherent voice, and a unique physicality that is a rarity these days. How- ever, what makes Chigurh ultimately more terrifying than Lecter is neither his omni- science nor his twisted mentality, but his brooding presence and his frustrating un- attainability. He is very much among us throughout the entire course of the film. As he recklessly pursues a relic two million dollars from an abortive drug deal, he uses any and all means necessary. What is so troubling about An- ton’s character is the fact that his actions do not necessarily coincide with his agenda, namely the killing of numerous Good Sa- maritans who are completely incognizant of his program. The utter transience with which violence is portrayed — alternating between showing too much and showing virtually nothing at all — is formulaic of the Coen brothers’ attitudes toward mortal- ity in their work. Wherever Anton Chigurh goes, death is manifest; wherever he is des- tined to be, death is imminent. Some have referred to him as the ‘agent of fate,’ others prefer ‘death incarnate.’ However, ‘looming Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), “the elusive enemy.” manifestation of domestic terrorism’ is a la-
Volume 18 Winter 2008 11 bel that few have chosen to expound upon. violence. Loosely paying homage to the The name ‘Anton Chigurh,’ enigmatically Western through the generalized dynamics pronounced and seemingly self-ordained, of wilderness versus civilization, pragma- is entirely untraceable to any culture or tism versus idealism, and savagery versus background. He comes from nowhere, born humanity, the key component of the film from nothing. He bears not a single shred tends to stray further away into a struggle of remorse for humanity, and he resolutely between capitalism and religion. As Daniel adheres to his unremitting principles of prospects the fertile lands of the fictional mortality checks. In essence, his detach- town Little Boston, a system of one-up- ment is expressive of an outside contempt, manship arises when he runs into the likes one that is loudly resonant of a terrorist’s of a crooked evangelist named Eli Sunday agenda. The simple notion of a perpetra- (Paul Dano). From here on, we watch the tor among us, wreaking havoc across the effects of religion wear on a man who is crumbling expanses of the American West, fundamentally devoid of principles. If No is unsettling to say the least. Peter Travers Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh is of Rolling Stone remarked that No Country representative of a looming terrorist hys- for Old Men “carries in its bones the virus teria, then There Will Be Blood’s Daniel of what we’ve become.”9 Aside from the Plainview is expressive of the polar oppo- perpetuators of violence in the film — the site side of the equation — the pitfalls of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) sought-after Llewellyn Moss (Josh Bro- the American Dream. He is self-glorifying, lin), the hired gun Carson Wells (Woody egomaniacal, imperious, and utterly peril- climax between him and Eli in the bowling Harrelson), and of course the killer Anton ous. Yet, even still, Daniel partially fits the alley, one sees an insurmountable degree Chigurh — the faults of the people we truly traditional Western hero trope. of absurdity not only in the performance relate with, those passers-by who serve as According to film critic Robert of the Western hero, but also in the situa- accessories to the landscape, are only sug- Warshow’s criteria, “[the Western hero] is tion itself. This one-upmanship alluded to gestive of an over-complacency. If this is without culture, without manners, without earlier, between religion and capitalism, the virus we have become, then the film leisure, or at any rate his leisure is likely is essentially reduced to an individualistic works to counteract this notion with the ut- to be spent in debauchery so compulsively level of understanding. In the context of a most degree of deliberation. aggressive as to seem only another aspect capitalistic society, even God is reduced to Meanwhile, Anderson’s filmThere of his ‘work.’”10 Warshow continues, “The “another piece of competition.” And when Will Be Blood has been read as an allegory Westerner at his best exhibits a moral am- Daniel gives Eli the final screw, so to speak, for the current ‘blood-for-oil’ conflict in biguity which darkens his image and saves the end result is one that not only confirms the Middle East. We follow the protago- him from absurdity.”11 One can partially his disavowal of God, but one that also so- nist Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) agree with the first portion of Warshow’s lidifies his absolute triumph in the face of through the Western frontier as he works description, but in the context of There Will harrowing opportunism. to control turn-of-the-century California Be Blood, to say that the Western hero is Nearing the end of No Country for oil fields. As he becomes increasingly ob- saved from absurdity is fairly irrational. Old Men, the retiring Sheriff Ed Tom Bell sessed with power and competition, we If one is to map Daniel’s eventual rise to (Tommy Lee Jones) says, “I always figured watch his gradual descent into delusion and power to the point of the much talked-about when I got older, God would sort of come into my life somehow. And he didn’t.” This sense of godlessness, and the venge- ful abandon with which the characters go about their daily routines, is expressive of a state of complete resignation. We watch these characters try to contain the mess they have inherited, the mess they have uncon- sciously perpetuated, and because they are so caught up in the whirlwind of their own madness, the prospect of a feasible solution is naturally evasive. In this dying Ameri- can West, where the landscape is no longer evocative of the “freedom and expansive- ness of frontier life,” but of its “limita- tions” and its “material bareness,”12 men no longer ride into glorious sunsets with feelings of triumph and victory; they now charge full-fledged into electrical storms, fleeing the bullets of ruthless drug runners. They seek refuge in desolate motels, stoi- “The Pitfalls of the American Dream.” cally nurturing wounds in bathtubs full of
12 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 murky water. They stand with their faces lit cial regression. The Oscar nominations of search?q=joel+coen&searchTopic=-1&searc up by a night sky hellishly illuminated by their films would demonstrate a significant hFromMonth=MM&searchFromDay=DD& flaming oil derricks. degree of our cultural awareness. However, searchFromYear=YY&searchToMonth=MM &searchToDay=DD&searchToYear=YY&se In the apocalyptic West of both of beyond the mere feat of waving a caution- archFilter=joel+coen&searchType=guest>. these movies, man acts the way he does, ary flag, the notion of a lasting solution still 5 Anderson, Paul T. Interview with Charlie selfish and incognizant, because he irratio- remains as elusive as the endings of both Rose. www.charlierose.com. 21 Dec. 2007. nally blames an omnipotent figure whose films. 18 Feb. 2008 “Satchel” by Louise Chen Volume 18 Winter 2008 13 Despite it being a purely 21st century practice, there are two historical filmmaking movements from which these young mumblers have drawn inspiration. The first is the rise of American independent film with John Cassavetes’s first feature Shadows (1959, USA), which, like Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation (2005, USA), also focuses on young characters, their problematic relationships, and incomplete reconciliations in New York City. If Shadows, which was filmed over two years with a cast of friends and used improvised dialogue, had been made in the early 21st century, it may be considered Mumblecore due to its structure and similar modes of production. Matt Dentler, program director for the South by Southwest Film and Music Festival, a venue that has Seung-Min Lee and Justice Rice of Mutual Appreciation (Bujalski, 2005, USA). launched many Mumblecore films to a larger audience, describes them as “slices Stumble into Mumblecore of life in a way, almost inspired by cinema 3 IT MAY HAVE the most peculiar of names, writes, “Generally these films are severely verite in a sense.” but Mumblecore is a filmmaking movement naturalistic portraits of the life and loves of Mumblecore also owes a debt to that has been garnering media attention artistic twentysomethings.”1 In the larger Dogme 95 — created in 1995 by Danish throughout the past two years. Outside of view of a filmmaking movement, it would filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas film festivals, it has been rather difficult be a disservice to enact such a simplistic Vinterberg. This movement rebelled against to view most of these films in theaters, view of these films. There is something else growing budgets and limited narrative but with recent releases on DVD and on to Mumblecore that one cannot recognize risks of Hollywood productions. Dogme specialty cable TV stations such as IFC, the just by reading about them. The only way filmmakers established a goal to create opportunity for one to view Mumblecore to completely experience Mumblecore is to films made on low budgets, relying more films has expanded with increased view the films themselves. on dialogue and character relationships to availability. In turn, a small but growing The key filmmakers of the progress its narratives, rather than movie 4 young audience is forming. Mumblecore movement are Bujalski, Aaron Katz, Joe stars and special effects. Cassavetes films are typically made outside of a studio Swanberg, and the Duplass brothers. Among and Dogme 95 are clear inspirations for by un-established filmmakers and on these four, eight of their films are available Mumblecore filmmakers, partially due extremely low budgets. They tend to focus on DVD. At this year’s Sundance Film on dialogue instead of action to drive the Festival, Sony Pictures Classics purchased narrative. Oddly enough, an independent the Duplass brothers’ most recent effort, film movement that is relatively unknown Baghead (2008, USA).2 enjoys the benefit of being tagged as the Categorizing these films into a future of cinema — the onscreen voice of single movement, however, is made difficult our generation. However, do low production upon close readings. Each filmmaker has values and young characters alone make his own distinctive style, so there is not the movement worthy of such promotion, a definitive aesthetic that connects them or is Mumblecore all talk? or their films. The primary reason they The film commonly heralded have been grouped together is because of as the beginning of the Mumblecore their approach to filmmaking. It is hard movement is Andrew Bujalski’s Funny Ha to find a three-act structure when viewing Ha (2002, USA). The plot unfolds much these films because they are slices of the like a standard romantic comedy, yet with filmmakers’ lives themselves. Mumblecore its own unique wrinkles, including a fairly films are not addressing groundbreaking open ending. The film follows a 23-year-old themes — finding love in New York City, recent college graduate trying to find love. for example, is hardly new. Rather, it Relationships and human connections are is Mumblecore’s approach to story that common Mumblecore themes, but it is too explains why it is receiving attention. The easy to group them together simply because lack of resources has forced the filmmakers they are films made by twentysomethings, to rely on dialogue rather than action. The about twentysomethings, and for results are films that feel authentic and Movie poster for Aaron Katz’s Quiet City twentysomethings. Alicia Van Couvering natural. (2007, USA). 14 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 to the fact that each rejects Hollywood’s generation will finally be able to determine favoring of spectacle and style over for itself whether or not Mumblecore truly substance. With the exception of Bujalski’s speaks for it. two offerings, all are shot on Digital Video with micro-budgets, so they genuinely feel MATTHEW LONGORIA raw and sharp around the edges. The term ([email protected]), a fourth- ‘Mumblecore’ refers to the muddy audio year Film and Digital Media student at quality of the films — credited to sound UCSC. His work consists of an assortment mixer Eric Masunaga, who coined the term of productions, including found footage, while working on one of Bujalski’s films.5 documentary, and narrative short films. Mumblecore is a young and exciting film movement that is taking place across the country, with Bujalski and Katz based in Brooklyn, Swanberg in Chicago, 1 Van Couvering, Alicia. “What I Meant to the Duplass brothers in Austin, as well as a Say” from Filmmaker. 2007 Spring. http:// rapidly growing community that is spreading www.filmmakermagazine.com/spring2007/ west. The filmmakers are active, with films features/mumblecore.php. 2 Billington, Alex. “Sundance: Baghead and being released every year, and there is Jay Duplass filming a scene forThe Puffy Wackness Bought by Sony Pictures Classics” Chair (2005, USA). new talent to be discovered. Mumblecore 26 January 2008. http://www.firstshowing. was born out of inexpensive Digital Video net/2008/01/26/sundance-baghead-and- technologies, because for the first time wackness-bought-by-sony-pictures-classics/. 3 young filmmakers had the opportunity to Hernandez, Eugene. IndieWire. http://www. Please visit this column’s make feature films on a miniscule budget. indiewire.com/ots/2007/03/sxsw_07_daily_d_ With the advent of social networking 3.html. supplemental web page at websites such as Myspace and Facebook, 4 See: http://www.dogme95.dk/menu/menuset. eyecandy.ucsc.edu word of mouth is playing a significant role htm. 5 Lim, Dennis. “A Generation Finds Its for additional information and in helping to popularize this up-and-coming Mumble.” New York Times. 19 August 2007. related media clips. film movement. As Mumblecore becomes http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/movies/ increasingly accessible, perhaps our 19lim.html. Volume 18 Winter 2008 15 Clinging to the Physical: Laserdisc versus Digital Technology TOUCH IS ESSENTIAL to the collector. Having the physical presence of a does not necessarily outperform everything collectible adds to the dimension that makes the item worth having. It can be the older product did. Rather, it contains displayed, picked up, examined, etc. With the growing dominance of digital new aspects that the listener/viewer technologies, in which movies, music, and photographs are stored, that tactile subjectively compares to older products. Such comparisons may lead the spectator/ love of something is increasingly lost. I will examine the smallest demographic listener to judging the new product as more of this culture of collection in order to explore the psychology and mythos behind streamlined due, in part, to its strangeness it, that is, the laserdisc collecting community. I will provide a brief history of the rather than to an objectively higher degree laserdisc format as well as the difference between the quality provided by this of quality. The mere familiarity the form of technology compared both to newer modes of technology and modes spectator has with contemporary forms of concurrent with the laserdisc’s time. I will also draw a few analogies between technology renders older media formats as audio recording equipment that will further expand the examination of the culture lacking. These older forms of media can, of nostalgia. New media, namely non-physical digital media, alters the way in however, be rediscovered to possess certain which the spectator relates to his or her temporality. The near infinite access the qualities that newer forms of media fail user has to digital forms of media subverts their own sense of finitude and thus to replicate. For our generation, the vinyl record has made an unprecedented return incurs a sense of profound existential angst. Finally, I hope to make a case for in the market. Similarly, cassette mix-tapes physical forms of media, namely the laserdisc. are gaining in popularity, and I speculate From vinyl to retro-digital that the laserdisc could become revived products, audiophiles and cinephiles seek through cultural trend (rather than technical out ‘dated’ forms of technology in order capability) to some degree. At the same to add to their ever-growing collections. time, one cannot deny that newer forms of Typically, the reasoning behind acquiring technology do provide improvements to allegedly obsolete forms of technology certain aspects of picture and audio quality is a preference of the supposed aesthetic — improvements not possible decades or quality of the object. Audiophiles tend to even years before. claim that a vinyl record provides a warmer, Consumer preference for older more intimate sound than the sleeker digital forms of media technology partially stems format. According to the Laserdisc Database from other cultural phenomena, not as easily (lddb.com), the old mode of technology explained as those previously addressed. is immune to macroblocking (a term that Use of so-called obsolete technology is details the tendency for digital formats to a consumer reaction to a growing media have blocky pixellated images during high culture bombarded by newer modes of motion scenes).1 These collectors claim seem scratchy or fuzzy to some. Similarly, technology. Clinging to a particular form that new forms of technology may leave like many forms of analog technology, the of media allows the user to feel at place behind some qualities that older forms had laserdisc is dependent on the quality of its in a cultural tradition that will continue previously perfected. decoder (or player), a necessity that does beyond the user’s own limited life span. In These justifications, however, are not pertain to the DVD. Objective quality, the midst of a world increasingly filled with highly suspect and in the end are merely an then, is something of a myth when it comes non-physical media, consumers seek out opinion held by an individual in regard to to media technology — both sides have a physical artifacts that give the user a sense a particular media technology. The ‘warm, point. New technology may function more of historical context through the tactile. intimate’ sound of a vinyl record can also efficiently, but as it is a different product, it That society is being bombarded by new 16 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 technology is not the only factor, however, laserdiscs are more bulky and awkward for back into fashion as a collector’s item? I in converting large groups of people to favor viewers to handle than the more compact personally know a handful of cinephiles dated over modern formats. This culture is VHS. Once again the physicality of a media who collect the discs and claim the same also deeply materialistic, not in a Marxian object determines its consumption by the technical justifications as outlined above, false consciousness sense, but in the sense public. Despite the obvious higher picture for their purchase. Maybe it is the same that it starves for physical artifacts in an quality of the laserdisc, its cumbersome reason all retro media come back into age of virtuality. The individuals within shape was enough to turn individuals away fashion, their cult, retro appeal. I believe this kind of culture have a sense of relation from the product. Furthermore, perhaps it is also their physicality and, oddly between themselves and the physical even more disastrously, the laserdisc was enough, even their cumbersomeness; the objects they possess. Consumers are what marketed at a higher price than VHS, large covers provide more artwork and they own, and if their objects become more despite its lower manufacturing costs. The are considered aesthetically pleasing in and more obsolete, then so does their sense VHS quickly dominated the laserdisc from this time of small discs and noncorporeal of self. nearly the outset of the latter’s existence. digital media. To put it more colloquially, Clashing Media: Competition Among Despite its problematic nature, laserdiscs just look (and feel) cool. Film Formats and the History of laserdisc media technology persevered To justify this claim about a Laserdisc subculture that is reacting to ACCORDING TO THE Laserdisc dominant modes of media FAQ, David Paul Gregg invented technology, I will draw upon laserdisc technology in 1958 by an example of mainstream utilizing a transparent disc to commercialism. In his book record analog data.2 In 1969, the Mythologies, Roland Barthes Phillips Corporation improved examines the physical nature of upon the technology by using a detergent products and how they reflective disc, the same material are advertised toward consumer used for CDs and DVDs. In culture.5 Barthes posits that 1972, the Music Corporation of powdered detergent, which is America, which at the time owned conceived of as more coarse and the most film rights of any media abrasive than its liquid variation, recording company, decided to is more often marketed toward cooperate with Phillips to begin cleaning clothing and fabrics. manufacturing laserdiscs for He believes that this is because public consumption. Five years consumers believe that stains later, the laserdisc entered the on clothes and fabrics generally American home-video market.3 through the years. It was still being sold need a vigorous washing. The coarseness The main competitor at the time for in select retail stores scattered across the perceived in the grainy powdered detergent the laserdisc was the VHS tape. Laserdisc country, before dying off with the rise of will somehow be more forceful in cleaning had a number of advantages over the VHS a new format, the Digital Versatile Disc. the laundry. On the contrary, liquid soap is format: laserdiscs have nearly twice the DVDs are essentially laserdiscs but more marketed toward personal hygiene because resolution capacity and thus the picture compact in size and able to hold more data. it is perceived as gentler on the skin. Yet was considered much sharper; laserdiscs Laserdiscs can only hold from 30 to 60 when both come into contact with water, were cheaper to manufacture — VHS minutes per side. Most of them required the both surfactants produce the same reaction. tapes contained moving parts and required user to manually flip the disc onto its other Thus the consumer relates differently to significant amounts of plastic material; side, much like a vinyl record, halfway products that have nearly the same result. and laserdiscs are also read optically, so through the film. Once again, physicality The physical appearance of the products playback does not wear the disc down. becomes integral to the use and relevance is the only source of their difference, yet VHS, meanwhile, is not as durable. The of media formats. As important, there is a the user experiences the two products tape in the VHS has a magnetic coating that near consensus among film viewers that the differently.6 contains all the information and touches DVD is of higher quality than the laserdisc. I seek to invert this analogy in the spools during every use. With repeated Some proponents of the laserdisc claim that regard to my claim about laserdiscs. The use, VHS tapes tend to have a shorter DVDs have a higher rate of contrast banding continuous barrage of nascent forms of lifespan than the more durable laserdisc.4 (lines showing up in gradient areas) as well technology, combined with the feelings Furthermore, laserdiscs are able to store as the above-mentioned macroblocking. of alienation attendant to nonphysical multiple audio tracks, with special-edition These pro-laserdisc claims aside, the DVD media formats, such as the MP3, makes discs sold with popular features such as has a sharper image resolution, can store some consumers feel disconnected from director’s commentary. more extras and special features, is more mainstream media technologies. As such, There are, however, some obvious compact, and does not need to be flipped media users seek out physical objects, disadvantages to the laserdisc. The first is over. forms of media that are larger and are thus its size. The discs are thirty centimeters in Mythos and Media: Barthes and perceived as more indestructible, in order diameter, or one foot in length, roughly the Marketing Physicality to connect with the media they consume. same as a vinyl record. Needless to say, WHY, THEN, IS the laserdisc coming Much like the consumer who related Volume 18 Winter 2008 17 differently to the two forms in which soap further insight to the film, or some other out this form of media as more individuals took, so does the collector of physical visual kind of merchandise that appeals to the become technologically adept. These media relate to their environment through spectator. These resources have yet to be individuals who only know media as an a product. This collector seeks to form a tapped. If laserdisc manufacturers were to infinite resource will experience existential corporeal collection of artifacts that can include some of these added materials, I anxiety as they seek to connect to films be counted on to exist for long periods of feel that there could still be a market for in a nonphysical way. Consciously or time and which can be both controlled and laserdiscs in the 21st century. The physical unconsciously, spectators will experience archived physically. This type of individual size of the laserdisc, which was once its their own finitude in contrast to the infinite does not trust invisible, digital media greatest flaw, can now be exploited to nature of the binary media they use, thus placed on a hard drive to last indefinitely. appeal to new markets. straining the notion of the self within an Viruses, crashes, or any other number of historical context. This sense of anxiety uncontrollable, nonphysical problems can is clearly symptomatic of our generation, hazard digital media. The physicality of one that imbues physical media with an the laserdisc or the vinyl record gives the sense of cultural ‘trendiness.’ This cultural owner a sense of tactile authenticity and fascination and revisiting of older forms security through touch. of media allow the spectator to feel some My Generation: Anxiety and connection with his or her place in history. Intangibility Rather than giving the spectator a sense of OUR GENERATION, popularly referred the infinite, physical forms of media allow to as “Generation Y,” is perhaps the most for the viewer to make sense of the world. susceptible to this symptom of cultural In the age of digital evolution, it seems that nostalgia. We, more than any other physical forms of media are one of the few generation before, see multiple updates of ways to keep us connected with our own media within the span of a year. Before, humanity. technology lasted for a decade if not longer. Currently a flood of new products ALEX OLSON ([email protected]), is jeopardizes our ability to connect with a fourth-year Literature student at UC and to relate to a single media technology Santa Cruz. This is his first time writing for collectively. Despite my increased use Eyecandy Film Journal. of digital media, I still struggle to decide between shifting files to my external hard A Conclusion Without an End — The drive or acquiring new memory so that Continuing Evolution of Technology I can download more music and film. THIS PHENOMENON, however, is not 1 Meanwhile, I much prefer to use and to exactly new. In her essay “The End of Julien Wilk, “LaserDisc Database,” add to my record collection. I feel more Cinema: Multimedia and Technological 2002, Wilk, 16 Feb. 2008. 18 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 Requiem for the Del Mar: RIDING ROUTE 15 into town, I sat next my attention was now devoted to a two- when spectatorship occurs via a 20-inch to a fellow student of cinema — the co- inch screen more than 10 feet away, ceased screen, often populated with a plethora editor of this journal, no less — skillfully speaking. Making our way to the theater, of information/conversation windows. pretending to listen to what he had to say. the two of us sat in silence. Thanks to the Stationed in front of a computer, we are My lack of investment in the conversation latest developments in consumer telecom- vulnerable to media multitasking. In fact, it had actually little to do with the particular video convergence, pre- and post-movie is the very nature of this device.2 Assuming topics at hand. Indeed, my friend’s reasons conversation would never be the same. that most computer spectatorship occurs for conversion to Judaism usually would Outside the Del Mar Theater, I within the domestic sphere, itself laden with have been given my undivided attention. began thinking less about cellular phones distractions, this practice achieves an apex I felt bad. I felt like a jerk. The poor guy and more about the greater 21st-century of uncertainty. How many interruptions ran as fast as he could across crowded threat to cinephilia. Gazing at the 3:10 to would inflict the diegesis of 3:10 to Yuma, intersections, just so that we could see Yuma (James Mangold, 2007, USA) poster, given that my response is obligated for the movie together at the Del Mar. He I remember having passed up the chance to the automatic pop-ups of instant messages understands, as I do, that spectatorship see the film before it ever arrived in theaters. (IM), breaking Iraq War updates or new is best suited to be shared with others, in Today, one need not physically travel to email alerts? In the midst of rapid spectator public exhibition. their local theater just to watch a Western evolution, I question whether or not one is As this one-sided bus ride remake, let alone wait for its premier date. still the “all-perceiving subject,”3 as Metz conversation continued, I found myself Modern filmgoers, or film-no-goers, can so describes, when the screen becomes too concerned with other developments taking simply download a few billion lines of small and divided to perceive anything at place around me. Across the aisle to my left, a binary code and within hours will have the all? trio of young Santa Cruzans were recording pleasure of watching Hollywood’s latest The reason for my anxiety is their own minute-length documentary and offerings in the solitary comfort of their simple: I am aware of an alternative. For then reviewing their project in playback own desk chair, free of charge. future generations of spectators, however, — all made possible by a single cell phone Putting aside the ethical the same cannot be guaranteed. Recent and its digital video abilities. As of last year, dilemmas of digital piracy, this spectator studies point to GenY’s (the very coinage half the world’s population is connected practice still leaves much to be desired. A itself influenced by IM speak) dependence to a cellular network, myself included, computer monitor does not complement upon simultaneous media usage.4 With each progressively altering the common means my peripheral vision as the Del Mar’s division of a spectator’s attention span, the by which visual medias are watched and projection screen does. More importantly, quality of their perception decreases. The produced. 1 My friend, having realized I am never detached from the world apparatus-spectator cooperation, which Volume 18 Winter 2008 19 has been painstakingly developed over movie. A teenager walking in front of me Imaginary Signifier,” reprinted from Screen, Vol. 16, the past four centuries, is falling victim to has one of those handless, Bluetooth cell No 2 (1975). 4 Foehr, Ibid. 5 progress and modernization. The ability phone receivers properly attached behind 5 David Robinson. From Peep Show to Palace: to comprehend on-screen signs, symbols, his ear. Switching the device on from its The Birth of American Film (New York: Columbia and meanings has been facilitated by deactivated state, he was immediately University Press, 1996) 3, 4. Robinson posits, “the most apparent antecedent of the cinema centuries of spectator education. By our reconnected to the world at large. His projector is the magic lantern.” Dutch physicist refusal to disconnect from the rest of the electronic conversation featured him Christiaan Huygens is credited with the device’s first ongoing world, we are essentially losing convincing a friend to see 3:10 to Yuma documented exhibition in 1659. 6 Katie McCall, “New Device Lets You Report Noisy the connection to our very history with in person at their local theater. For once, it Audience Members,” 2007 CBS Broadcasting/ cinema. seemed there was a glimmer of hope, both Chicago, 29 May 2007 Visit this column’s page at During these midday escapisms, I for myself and for all the Del Mars of the eyecandy.film.ucsc.edu to watch McCall’s report on new counter-cell phone technology used by American try to forget said concerns. Halfway through world. This spectator, who needs not use theaters. the movie, I felt like shaking hands with the a single primitive limb to talk on a phone, 7 Linda Stone coined “continuous partial attention” Del Mar for yet another job well done. We had ventured to the Del Mar and was even in 1998. She co-founded and directed Microsoft’s Virtual Worlds Group/Social Computing make a good team — each of us providing encouraging others to go, too — but will Group, researching online social life and virtual meaning for the other’s existence. If not for they? communities. 1 Tarmo Virki, “Global Cellphone Penetration Reaches 50 pct,” 2007 Reuters/London, 29 Nov. Please visit this column’s 2007, ed by Quentin Bryar. 20 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18 Volume 18 Winter 2008 http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu Volume 18