Ways of watching films

[SalParadise]

I though I would share something that I experienced a few years ago. I had a lot of spare time on my hands so I had to the opportunity to watch dozens of (mostly short CFB) films on 16mm at the state library of New South Wales. (that's Sydney, by the way). What was different was that I viewed the films on a Steenbeck flatbed editing suite. This is a really fascinating way to see film. You yourself handle the film, and start and stop easily with a lever. With this lever you can hold it to precisely adjust the speed of the film, and easily rewind forwards and backwards. The moment of epiphany came when I was watching Berlin: Symphony of a City. This film is a marvel to view in this manner. When slowing down and even stopping the motion to look in detail at, for example, two nuns casually passing buy a beggar, you understand so much more about this piece of vérité. I suppose this way of viewing is best for vérité documentaries like Berlin, but it also can be taken advantage for other films, (even Keaton!). If you have a library that offers an editing suite for viewing films I recommend you try this.

[MichaelB]

It's great fun at first, but if you have to do a lot of Steenbeck viewing (as I do at work), it becomes a royal pain very very quickly once the novelty of physically handling a 35mm or 16mm print wears off.

It's particularly annoying for features, as a reel change can take several minutes - and the sound is usually terrible.

[foggy eyes]

Bordwell has blogged on this. I must make the effort to do it at some point.

[MichaelB]

I suppose how much one values the Steenbeck experience depends on one's intentions with the film - in my case, it's usually viewing prints that haven't yet been telecined for VHS/DVD, often for the specific purpose of establishing whether or not they're worth pushing forwards in the telecine queue. But even for study purposes, I find DVD infinitely better - not least because you can easily jump forwards or backwards across the entire film (though I concede it's harder to nudge backwards on a frame-by-frame basis).

Just to give you an example of the drawbacks of using a Steenbeck to study a film, let's say you're partway through the film, spot something intriguing and want to rewind ten minutes. Easy on tape or DVD, but a royal pain on a Steenbeck if you want to "rewind" to an earlier reel. I've been in a situation on more than one occasion where I needed to check something towards the end of the previous reel, which involved finishing with the reel I was currently examining, rewinding the earlier reel, lacing that up again, fast-forwarding to near the end and then watching it. This process is going to take at least ten minutes as an absolute minimum, which plays havoc with concentration amongst the many other drawbacks.

[colinr0380]

Here's that extra from the Pickup On South Street disc in which Sam Fuller uses the Steenbeck to look over the opening scene.