63
many series of ‘memory pictures’ described by Einstein. (Houltn On Scientic inking p. 380)
is in turn recalls Pryluck and Arnheim on the imbedded meaning of moving image documents,
in part, by the sequencing of images "ambiguous precisely as a consequence of their specicity.’"
Pryluck (1976, ) and Arnheim (1974, p. 246)
We look at our model as something of a topographic map showing the terrain of a lmic
document—here meaning a small number of frames, an entire production, a collection of produc-
tions, and all the derivative lms such as trailers, reviews, and fan re-edits. Such a map may serve
as a guide to a particular lm, as a picture of the lay of the land of similar lmic documents, or as
an orienteering or exploring map suggesting possible paths and features but no particular target
or goal.
We share Mamber’s notion of providing spatial and visual access points—indeed O’Connor
and Augst produced a digital interface to e Birds not dissimilar from Mamber’s. Both interfaces
have the appearance of inuence from Bellour’s analysis of key frames in the Bodega Bay sequence
from the lm. e key frames were "eyeballed" so the work was tedious and, more importantly,
subject to aws of human interpretation. Bellour and Mamber both rely on “the shot” as the unit
of measure and the unit of meaning. is is not a fundamental problem so long as one is dealing
only with classic Hollywood narrative lms; however, once one steps out of that realm changes in
the data stream can occur without well-dened markers of change. Even within Hitchcock’s e
Birds the entry of the sea gull that strikes the heroine is not marked for change at the frame when
the gull actually appears or the frame in which it actually exits. Rorvig noted that NASA was once
wrestling with the problem of how to analyze long-take data streams of space exploration with as
many as two dozen cameras running continuously how many eyes would it take to look at hours
of almost the same scene watching for the rst sign of a crack in a hull or (as he joked) the three
frames with little green aliens waving (Rorvig, Personal Communication, 1999).
ere is a fundamental problem with the “shot”—the denition is “endlessly bifurcated” in
Bonitzer’s terms. ere is no universally applicable standard of just how long a shot is, what denes
its beginning and end, or how much should be contained within a shot. is is why we look at the
data stream and its changes over time at the pixel level. is is where analysis of viewer reactions to
stimuli and providing tools for nding and understanding overlap.
3.4 PROVOCATIONS
At the time of O’Connor’s initial research in the early 1980s there were no print catalogs of doc-
umentary or educational lms that had even one frame from each and every lm in the catalog.
Today, images derived from videos abound in web-based interfaces to collections of lms. Here we
have just two samples to raise the issue of "just where to jump." e issue is nowhere near so vexing
3.4 PROVOCATIONS
64 3. CODA: PROVOCATIONS ON FILMIC RETRIEVAL, HUNTING, et al.
as it was in the days of analog lm prints, when simply acquiring a print and threading it into a
projector were enormously time consuming compared to clicking on a YouTube or Vimeo link and
seeing within seconds whether or not the document is likely to be satisfactory. Still the "where to
jump" issue has not entirely disappeared in a world of billions of videos.
e frames in the Vimeo interface (Figure 3.1) were automatically extracted from a default
point in each piece approximately 1/10th of the playing time of the whole document. us, the
frame for Strong CityXP720 comes a few minutes into the piece originally made to run 28 minutes
on television, following establishing shots of the rodeo grounds and the rodeo parade. e frame
from Practice is from less than one minute into the seven-minute piece, following an abstract se-
quence of one gymnast then a title card. e frame from Horse Pulling is from the rst image frames
of the lm, but the lm is a video duplicate of a 16 mm print and has all the leader material includ-
ing the countdown numbers and the title card. All the frames representing videos in the YouTube
interface are simply the middle frames of each respective piece. How one is to know just what is in
the frames on either side of the interface frames is unknown, unshown.
65
Strong CityXP720
Brian O’Connor | 2plays
Scraps
Brian O’Connor | 13 plays
Practice
Brian O’Connor | 119 plays
No Place To Go
Brian O’Connor | 8plays
Running Film
Brian O’Connor | 25 plays
Horse Pulling
Brian O’Connor | 65 plays
Manchester Heartbreak HEVC NOV 20
Brian O’Connor | 189 plays
Proximity & Anecdata: Enhancing Understanding of Sc
h…
Brian O’Connor | 8plays
Figure 3.1: Vimeo interface frames from O’Connor collection.
3.4 PROVOCATIONS
66 3. CODA: PROVOCATIONS ON FILMIC RETRIEVAL, HUNTING, et al.
David & Brian exercise New Hampshire style
Add description
Manchester Heartbreak NOV 20
Add description
Manchester Heartbreak NOV 19
Add description
Born to Run
Add description
Electric Boat Launch
Add description
Practice 1
1974 elite gymnasts work out at UC Berkeley
Dance 7
Exercise in recreating a dance
Costa Noa beach
Add description
Hornets
Add description
Run Wildcat
1977 I ran through Wildcat Canyon in California carrying an 8-pound Canon Sc
oopic 16mm
movie camera to see what the images would be like - simply recording whatever came in…
SCRAPS 1
SCRAPS is just that - a short lm made up of scraps from other projects between 1966
and 1971. Stan Brakhage is the inspiration but I make no claim to having his talent…
Ella story 1
A brief look at the life of one mill girl - my grandmother. is is a draft, an abstract, and a
provocation.
Burrito and blue grass
A fragment made with an iPhone - more possibilities than shooting with a 16 mm sound rig
- BUT I never had a 16 mm shot stopped by an “incoming call” on the Arriex!
Figure 3.2: YouTube interface frames from O’Connor channel.
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