the DV Aesthetic Responses

Responses to the DV Aesthetic Question:


Matt:

Simply put, Stu [and I'm not going to argue about it because I (a) have better things to do with my time and life and (b) have an assignment to do, which, by the way, is not the same thing as (a)] everything has an aesthetic. Some things have a more "beautiful" aesthetic than other things [whatever than means], but "aesthetic" isn't a synonym for "beauty," so I don't see what the trouble is. I'd much sooner shoot my short documentary fictions [Notes from the Arctic Circle, Mark and Katrina Go Boating] on DV than on film, and not for what you call the "pseudo-realism" look, which, as you say, is achievable with any format. I also choose to shoot them on one-chip cameras as opposed to three. Why? Because I like the one-chip's inability to handle certain colours and shades. I like the crisp-but-not-at-all-rich [i.e. not film] look, which you don't get to such an extreme, grating extent with Hi8 [which, if I may abstractly describe it in two words, is like long grass]. It is for this reason that I indeed take pleasure in the look of DV. Every format has its works of pleasure-giving -- if not "beautiful" -- aesthetic quality. And, even better, it's works of non-pleasure-giving aesthetic quality.

and Ghostboys (aka David's):

The principals of cinematography certainly do apply when using any format; ignoring them or (more pertinently) being unaware of them may in fact make your film look terrible and amateurish. But one should also take into consideration the medium being used, and use it to its fullest potential. Ellen Kuras, who shot Personal Velocity, has done some pretty boring work with DV, simply because she doesn't exploit it. It's not that her DV films look bad; it's just that they're rather boring. Compare her work to that of Anthony Dod Mantle - an extraordinary DP in any format, who became synonymous with DV thanks to his work with Von Trier and Vinterburg - who pushes DV to extremes that are exclusive to the format. julien-donkey boy, which is perhaps his most extreme project, is full of imagery that could be considered ugly - and yet, contextually, it is incredibly beautiful. And it's all imagery that one could not achieve on film, unless one is willing to go through extreme processing and a lot of hard work (basically, what Von Trier did on Breaking The Waves, in which he and Mantle tried to get the film stock to look as much like video as possible - by their next film, they just went ahead and shot DV).

Matt responded:

"Ellen Kuras, who shot Personal Velocity, has done some pretty boring work with DV, simply because she doesn't exploit it."

Ex-act-ly.

My comments to follow.