The other day I came across a video that really made me think. It’s from YouTuber “Dark Corners Reviews” and it deals with something we really need to think about today: lost films. Here’s that video if you want to get caught up:
This particular video talks mostly about films made before 1930 that are culturally significant. Movies themselves started becoming common in the late 19th century and that means that about 40 years of film history is being represented by a very small number of films that still exist. Those films, even if they’re bad or culturally insensitive, still give us a window into a culture that’s long gone.
Before the invention of cinema, it was literally impossible to save a moving record of something. That means we have no moving records of anything that happened in all of human history before about 1890. That’s 40,000 years of content lost. And then, all of a sudden, you could make a movie, but the materials used then were flammable and mostly people threw away films because they thought no one would care about them.
Let’s be honest here. There is no shortage of video footage of things as they are today. I don’t have exact numbers but if I had to guess, people create as much video content every 10 minutes as they did in an entire year back in 1950. When something really culturally significant happens, it’s possible to create entire 3D timelines by combining footage taken by people at the scene. It seems absurd that we would lose any documentation of life today because there’s just so darn much of it out there.
But that’s just what’s happening. First of all, people lose stuff from their phones all the time. Sometimes, it’s important stuff like someone’s first steps. Sometimes it’s just silly stuff, but it’s still part of our lives.
Then add to that all the mischief coming from the streaming services. Complete movies like Batgirl are shelved simply because the company wants a tax break. Content that was available on streaming for years is being pulled because, well I don’t know why — is server space so expensive? But it’s happening, and parts of our culture are disappearing.
Now, we record so much video that it’s a safe bet that most of it will survive as long as we need it to. But that doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to wholesale losses of content.
Folks like Snapchat specifically because nothing is saved. You can record a video or take a picture, and it disappears quickly. You can save it if you’re fast enough, but the whole appeal of the app is that you can post what you want and there is little or no trail of it. I personally find this odd considering how much other stuff people leave online and what it means to their lives in the future. But hey, you do you. Just know that by leaving no trail you’re also potentially losing out on documenting things. But that’s your decision.
The other thing to think about is how some filmmakers literally rewrite cinema history over and over. As films migrate to new media, filmmakers remaster them. Most of the time this is done with an eye to keeping what’s there. But, some filmmakers just can’t help playing around with things as they transfer. George Lucas’ remastering of the original Star Wars is a really good example of this. Not only did Lucas change special effects (in many ways making them worse) but actually changed key plot points of his original film. An approach like this robs people of the ability to see films as they were first presented. It may not seem like a big deal but it is.
We should be careful to preserve our visual history. After all, it’s barely been 100 years that we’ve even had a way to preserve motion, and we should think carefully before discarding such a wonderful thing.
The post FUN FRIDAY: Top Ten Lost Films appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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This particular video talks mostly about films made before 1930 that are culturally significant. Movies themselves started becoming common in the late 19th century and that means that about 40 years of film history is being represented by a very small number of films that still exist. Those films, even if they’re bad or culturally insensitive, still give us a window into a culture that’s long gone.
Before the invention of cinema, it was literally impossible to save a moving record of something. That means we have no moving records of anything that happened in all of human history before about 1890. That’s 40,000 years of content lost. And then, all of a sudden, you could make a movie, but the materials used then were flammable and mostly people threw away films because they thought no one would care about them.
Fast forward to today
Let’s be honest here. There is no shortage of video footage of things as they are today. I don’t have exact numbers but if I had to guess, people create as much video content every 10 minutes as they did in an entire year back in 1950. When something really culturally significant happens, it’s possible to create entire 3D timelines by combining footage taken by people at the scene. It seems absurd that we would lose any documentation of life today because there’s just so darn much of it out there.
But that’s just what’s happening. First of all, people lose stuff from their phones all the time. Sometimes, it’s important stuff like someone’s first steps. Sometimes it’s just silly stuff, but it’s still part of our lives.
Then add to that all the mischief coming from the streaming services. Complete movies like Batgirl are shelved simply because the company wants a tax break. Content that was available on streaming for years is being pulled because, well I don’t know why — is server space so expensive? But it’s happening, and parts of our culture are disappearing.
Now, we record so much video that it’s a safe bet that most of it will survive as long as we need it to. But that doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to wholesale losses of content.
And then there’s Snapchat
Folks like Snapchat specifically because nothing is saved. You can record a video or take a picture, and it disappears quickly. You can save it if you’re fast enough, but the whole appeal of the app is that you can post what you want and there is little or no trail of it. I personally find this odd considering how much other stuff people leave online and what it means to their lives in the future. But hey, you do you. Just know that by leaving no trail you’re also potentially losing out on documenting things. But that’s your decision.
Finally, the “Lucas problem.”
The other thing to think about is how some filmmakers literally rewrite cinema history over and over. As films migrate to new media, filmmakers remaster them. Most of the time this is done with an eye to keeping what’s there. But, some filmmakers just can’t help playing around with things as they transfer. George Lucas’ remastering of the original Star Wars is a really good example of this. Not only did Lucas change special effects (in many ways making them worse) but actually changed key plot points of his original film. An approach like this robs people of the ability to see films as they were first presented. It may not seem like a big deal but it is.
We should be careful to preserve our visual history. After all, it’s barely been 100 years that we’ve even had a way to preserve motion, and we should think carefully before discarding such a wonderful thing.
The post FUN FRIDAY: Top Ten Lost Films appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
Continue reading...
