Crisis of the Real - conversation series

I attended the discussion about the "Crisis of the Real" in media on Tuesday (4/19) evening. It was moderated by John Cantine, associate professor and Jess Weichler, head librarian at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  There were 2 other Filmmaker staff members and 3 students. It was a small group, but a very interesting discussion.

The talk was about digital manipulation in photography, film and video and how they relate to reality. The discussion mainly revolved around movies, talking about Avatar, the use of CGI in scary movies, the original King Kong vs the new release... how there was manipulation in films before the new technology made is simpler to do. 

There was talk about digital manipulation in photoshop vs what Ansel Adams did in the darkroom, which was manipulation of the image. He manipulated the image he took, vs adding elements that weren't there to begin with. Not unlike using Photoshop or Lightroom to bring out the lights and darks.

There was also talk of the 'original' being different when it is celluloid vs digital 0s and 1s. And how hard it is to keep track of the original.  It was a very interesting discussion, although I am not sure that any final consensus was reached.

Several books and videos were recommended:

A Film Unfinished (2010)

A film about an unfinished film which portrays the people behind and before the camera in the Warsaw Ghetto, exposing the extent of the cinematic manipulation forever changing the way we look at historic images.

Darby O'Gill and The Little People (1959)

For its use of different angles to manipulate the image.

Books:

The Virtual Life of Film

by D.N. Rodowick 

Reality TV: Remaking TV culture

by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette

Crisis of the Real:

Writings on Photography since 1974

by Andy Grunberg

The Burden of Representation

by John Tagg

The Disciplinary Frame

by John Tagg

Language of the New Media

by Lev Manovich

What is Cinema?

by Andre Bazin