beyond magazine

How nice

Things can get a little tough here in the Beyond office. Posting has been light as we try to put together the Body issue and a few of us are struggling with life, stress, and body things. Ah timing. But today one of our sister's sent these birthday wishes and it cheered us right up. This is from Apoplectic Press and is listed under Weird Birthday Cards.

Heavy Hearts

It is with heavy hearts that we join the Alberta magazine community in remembering writer Amber Bowerman.

Our thoughts are with her family and friends.

Title sequences: continued

Our film writer Doug Cummings writes:

A few weeks ago, Karen posted an entry on Title Sequences, so I thought I'd flag a handsome new coffee table book, "Uncredited: Graphic Design & Opening Titles in Movies,"  that has been imported from Europe and reprinted in English via Index. 

Handsome it is, but its translation at times can be a bit clunky. Consider: "That being said, primitive-style title credits based on elementary concepts, and with infinite conceptual potential for that same reason, have manged to survive everything."  (If you know what that sentence really means, you should go into law.)  In general, however, the book makes interesting reading, particularly given the dearth of focused studies (graphical and cinematic) regarding title sequences.

The book insightfully divides titles into basic genres: White Over Black (Woody Allen, Adaptation), Titles as Logos (Casablanca, The Thing), Animation (The Adventures of Prince Achmed, The Pink Panther), Textural (The Birds, The English Patient), or Conceptual (Mon Oncle, Mothlight, Contempt).

The best feature of the book, however, is its many multi-frame reproductions of hundreds of title sequences, making it just as fun to flip through as to actually read.  The diversity of films considered is very impressive (mainstream Hollywood to European art films to avant-garde) and at times, the succinct commentary can be evocative: "In the apocalyptic world featured in [Francois Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451"], where the written word is persecuted, typographic titles would not make any sense."  (Instead, the title sequence presents vividly-tinted television antennas.)  My only complaint is that a few of the printed sequences (like Robert Bresson's "L'Argent") are much too dark on the page.

Lastly, one very fun feature is the book's inclusion of a CD-ROM containing decent Quicktime samples of many sequences discussed in the book.

Small and Round: Jeremiah Ketner

The cover of Beyond Issue 14: Possible Worlds is a thing of beauty - a front and back wrap around painting by Jeremiah Ketner.  I never get tired of looking at it. It makes me happy. His new Small and Round website is also a thing of beauty. Go. Look. 

Keeping Calm and Carrying on.

Inside the Editor-at-Large's office in Edmonton. Oh so neat and tidy.

Been a little behind here in the blogging bits and pieces but will be making up for it in fine form.

Spring Snow Break

If we had more time we could have created bunches of minions a la Calvin and Hobbes. Mailing or minions? Mailing or minions? Maybe later.

Now that's a big baby.

                            

Untitled (Head of a Baby)
Ron Mueck

I took these while visiting the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Since then the gallery has added another piece by Mueck called "A Girl".

More Mueck works here.

Can you tell we're thinking "Body" for the next issue?

Blurry of brain.

Hmm, a few posts ready to go that I thought were popping up here all shiny and new but were mistakenly put under draft. So a little flurry below.

Form/Content

I asked Doug some questions in response to his world animation series. I am increasingly frustrated with seeing things that are made for a certain format in an inferior format  - a film made for the theater seen on a computer monitor or television screen. I wonder sometimes if it is better to see these things through levels of windows darkly -like paintings reproduced in books - or not at all since form is content.

Doug responded:

I am a firm proponent of the very real aesthetic differences between film and video; no matter how good the quality of the latter, the texture, grain, greyscale and resolution does not compare. Also film displays via a shutter and video displays via scan lines, so the actual delivery of the image (and subliminal feel) is different.

That being said, I'm a proponent of watching movies however one can, with the implicit understanding that anything less than celluloid is inferior and if you really like the movie in question, you'll keep an eye out for a film projection of it. I go to a lot of film screenings here in Los Angeles of movies that I already own on DVD, just to see and experience them on celluloid, which is always a new--and often revelatory--experience. (Contrary to what you might expect, it's the slow, quiet, meditative films that suffer the most on small screens.)

Of course, there is a line to be drawn somewhere between quality and opportunity. Occasionally, I'll come across a DVD that I think is so sub-par that I really can't watch it in good conscience. On the other hand, I have a few ultra-rare movies on video that I know I will die before I ever get a chance to see them on film, so I slug through them, keeping in mind that I'm only seeing a rough facsimile and not an original.

You'll definitely get better resolution through a monitor rather than a standard TV. But video projectors are really coming down in prices, too, even though they can still be prohibitive. But some stores sell them with a built-in DVD players for around $800. Projectors won't increase the resolution, but they will totally amplify the atmosphere (and save space by getting the idiot box out of your living room).

I also asked about watching the subtitles rather than the English audio track.

As to subtitles, I always prefer subtitles because it preserves the original voices and nuances of the film in question. I myself don't feel like subtitles are a distraction, but I've watched well over a thousand subtitled films through the years, and I think my brain has adapted to the process pretty fluidly. Sometimes, I honestly can't recall if a film was subtitled or not. No doubt it's a learned skill.

But as I mention on the blog, I do appreciate good dubs for little kids who can't read or can't read fast enough. I do think kids should be exposed to subtitles early on, though, and hopefully accept them as a natural aesthetic. I still have fond memories of showing my four year old niece "Hedgehog in the Fog" and reading aloud the subtitles to her like a storybook. She loved it. My brother and his wife read the silent intertitles of "Prince Achmed" to their kids, and had a grand time. Every now and then, my niece stills asks me, "Uncle Doug, remember "Hedgehog in Fog"? She never says, "What was that weird movie you showed me with subtitles?"

Doug writes about film in our magazine and at his blog, Film Journey.

Monday, Monday: Here comes the sun.

It's a monochrome Monday outside the little Beyond offices with snowflakes slowly falling from an overcast sky. So it is with great relief that we post photos from Vancouver where a reader tells us she moved her "indoor source of sunshine" outside for a quick morning picture.

And a re-interpretation of our Verdant Green post. We love seeing our little Beyonds nestled  inside of reader homes. Too fun.