Rough Brain Dump - Early Cinema/Writing Media

Free-journal of ideas to explore further

Project Based

I'm considering the notion of what it means to "give up control of the edit" in
composing for media. Particularly with authorship and how the edit plays into
readerly/writerly text that has a more push/pull notion of the reader/author binary.
An example of the edit is how "Penumbra" has the illusion of being exploratory
when it is really linear. In overall structure it is very "authored" but the reader
can open the eyes at any point to get a different perspective on the character's
outside world, thus change the text of their inside world and have the illusion of
exploratory control. We do not control the times they open the eyes (the edit).
Though the overarching background track is very linear and planned. However,
we can also force perspective on certain key dramatic moments by pretending the
story is continuing in the external world by creating an audio illusion that it is on the
internal world. In reality, the video is paused on what we want them to see, so that
when they next open the eyes, they see it. I could figure out how to relate this to
decoupage and montage in some way.


History Based

1. Parallel early cinema hype with VR hype. Based on work in CAVE for 8 years and Oliver Grau can compare the development of tech and hype of early cinema to claims anddevelopment of VR worlds. (Bazin 20)
2. Compare archiving of digital works with the panic of "death of flash" to panic over
   archiving silent films by cinephiles.
3. Talk about archiving panic for early cinema/90s web lit work. Connect Bazin above
   and page 85 with current trend in digital writing to draw attention to itself (not hide
   theatrical conventions). Page 93. Also talks about leveraging the specific capabilities
   of the camera to enhance theater...as digital enhances certain affordances of writing.
4. Bazin pg. 84point about cinema "emphasizing the theatrical character" 84 is similar to
   notions of digital literary works emphasizing the conventions of print/book/materiality
   in formal aspects.
5. use Bazin 83 to unpack arguments/opinions on if "electronic text" is completely new
   form rather than simply print recast in digital (a composite form) parallel to theater
   recast as cinema.
6. Role of Text as Shaping and Shaped in Cinema and Digital Lit. discussing the
   evolution of source text in shaping media (digital writing/cinema) and how the output
   of this actually feeds back into the original text. Shifting semantic meaning in re-
   appropriation. Talk about the cult of the author, perceived sacredness of text..then
   and now and how it shapes cinema in Bazin and current digital media.
7. Parallel thoughts on media specificity with early cinema and current digital writing.
   Could use Bazin's Section The Text! The Text! the Text! as a point of departure
   for multiple parallels that balance notions of media specificity in early cinema and
   contemporary digital-born writing.