Gaffer Tape said:I doubt I have anything new to add at the moment, so I guess I'll just lay my own opinions on the line. For me, film preservation is a no-brainer. Yes, keep the grain! No, don't colorize! No, don't try to force something made decades ago to fit current, popular aesthetics. Don't alter aspect ratios to fit the sizes of TVs, whether that ratio is the 4:3 of SD TVs or the 16:9 of new TVs. It's all ridiculous and is going to continually be a bone of contention between people who know better and the "average consumer." And, for some reason, the average consumer is never going to be convinced to be educated.
I agree with this 100%. I still have trouble convincing people that the "black bars" are suppose to be there. And now the same thing is happening with grain. If it's suppose to be there, then I have no problem with it. Hell, I use to be one of those uneducated consumers that didn't know about widescreen. Once I did find out though, that's all I wanted. Once I learned the difference between "widescreen" and anamorphic widescreen, the black bars didn't bother me at all (when I first same them on my widescreen TV, I was pissed).
It took years to educate the public about how much better widescreen is. It's going to take years and many a screwed up release to educate them that the grain they're seeing is suppose to be there and isn't dirt.
As for the succession of technology, I consider that much more of a gray area. I've only ever done digital editing. I'd love the chance to try out editing on actual film. However, part of me wonders, like lordjedi, if the trade-off does allow for comparable results with much less fuss. It seems, especially with this digital shift in medium, that there is always some sort of trade-off, and it usually seems to be quality for ease. Some people see it as being worth it. Others don't. I'm on the fence. However, it seems that most people here agree that, ultimately, technology will win out, for better or for worse. If that is the case, and digital is ever able to provide a comparable image, I suppose it will have to come down to aesthetics, where digital provides a certain-looking image while film provides another style.
I've spliced home videos together. Personally, I don't ever want to have to do it again. I was only repairing a broken real, but it was a pain in the ass. I've spliced VHS movies together too, same pain in the ass. I would much rather do digital editing than have to painstakingly edit together reals of film into a usable product. That's mostly because I can see the actual results as I'm working and it's much quicker to zoom in on a frame of video and find the scene change. I can't imagine splicing film together though, that would be a nightmare (to me) for anything more than a simple repair.