David Kreps Blog

VideoPoetry

Do you know what the problem with television is? There's too much of it. There are no limits. Too many possibilities. So what happens? All the resources already dedicated to quantity, few - or at least not enough - are dedicated to quality. This is not to eulogise a heyday of four - three - or even two national channels when the competition between 'venue' brought the very best out of the pioneers. But who would deny that most TV these days is awful?

The best paintings/stills are simple: portrait, stil life, landcape.
The best music obeys the strictest of accepted forms: concerto, symphony, song, 12bar..... even jingle.
All the very best in literature - the art of the written word - is in carefully crafted poetic form: the haiku, the sonnet.

The moving image combined with music and the spoken word has given us some of the greatest works of history: the shamanic dance; the transubstantiation mass; jacobean tragedy. That its launch onto the celluloid stage has struggled at times with form, born as it has been in a time of play with form, is perhaps not to be wondered at, in such early days.

The very best in film, right now, is the short : sometimes driven by a commercial intent that funds it, yet from which constraints its liberating parameters are born, the advert is the haiku of film; at its very best mimicking the style but with something different to sell.....

Here's an example of the best........ (more)

14 02 08 - 21:26 - da5idk - default| one comment - § ¶ Share on Facebook