• Video by Kevin B. Lee
• Text by Steven Boone
German Expressionism, Soviet Montage, Italian Neo-Realism, the French New Wave , the Japanese New Wave, the Australian New Wave, Cinema Novo, the New American Cinema, Cinema du Look, the Black Pack, Dogme 95, mumblecore...
In the cinema world, film "waves"--movements of like minded filmmakers bound by generation, nationality, stylistic tendencies or social/political position--rise, crest and fall away every decade. But the latest wave is something different.
The Digital Do It Yourself (DDIY) Wave has been cresting since 2006, when an explosion of homegrown talent really started asserting itself on then-one year old YouTube. It continues on the filmmaker-friendly site Vimeo. And there's no indication that the wave is ready to break. These are the "Garage Kubricks" that sci-fi author William Gibson heralded in a famous Wired article.
In traditional waves, we can count on two hands the significant filmmakers, the central figures. With the DDIY Wave, there's no telling. Tonight, tomorrow, or five minutes from now, someone somewhere might upload a masterpiece. They are out there, all over the globe, armed with Flip cameras, DSLRs and 24P camcorders. They don't have to wait for a distributor or festival to get their work in front of you. Whereas many film movements traditionally arose out of film schools, collectives, studios or government programs, the DDIY Wave filmmakers are bound only by a universal impulse: to say something in pictures and sound, right now. It's as strong and invisible a bond as that of religious believers across continents.
It was always there, but corporate power over the means of production and distribution traditionally kept filmmaking out of the hands of those who didn't have access to its networks. For an artist who didn't know how to play ball, there was no real audience. Those days are over.
I suspect the DDIY Wave will never break. It is the Last Wave (apologies to Peter Weir). The major studios and other large business concerns worldwide will continue to reap the only real profits from movies, but so many of the DDIY set are not in it for the money. They want an audience, and the Web , along with all these wonderfully proliferating digital tools, now insures them one. The only limits are the filmmaker's talent, his or her ingenuity, and self-promotion skills.
New York-based DSLR shooter Jamie Stuart leapt to the front of the movement overnight last holiday season, just by emailing a link to his short film "Man in a Blizzard" to Roger Ebert. He had shot, edited and uploaded the film (which visually riffs on a colossal winter storm in the playful style of Dziga Vertov's silent classic "Man with a Movie Camera") in a matter of hours. Ebert liked the film and blogged that it deserved an Academy Award. So far, the YouTube upload has earned over a half a million views and heaps of praise.
I'll bet that Hollywood has come calling for Mr. Stuart as a result. That's the way it works. But I hope that, upon "graduating" to films with ten thousand times the budget of his "Man in a Blizzard," he remembers what made this one so charming and entertaining . It's the same wish I have for all gifted DDIY filmmakers who suddenly find themselves in favor with the big movie oligarchs, and it, too, is a universal, timeless cry: Don't forget where you came from, brother.
"Cinematic Blizzard," edited by Kevin B. Lee, narrated by Steven Boone. A video essay on the tradition of city symphonies. Cross-posted with Fandor.com:
Kevin B. Lee is editor of Fandor.com, a service delivering hand-picked specialty films online. He has a page where you can watch all the videos referenced in the essay in their entirety.
Steven Boone is a film critic, filmmaker and video artist based in New York City. He champions big ideas and small budgets at Big Media Vandalism. He writes about essential films at Keyframe.
Photo at top: David Lynch filming "Inland Empire." Found at outnow.
Love the video essay Steven and Kevin. Just superb!
Big studios may no longer have the means to keep moviemaking out of the hands of DIY filmmakers but there are new threats from new quarters. Ever since the final decades of the last century media companies have been accumulating the legal tools -- chiefly unconscionable extensions of copyright law -- by which they can inhibit the distribution of the works of "garage Kubricks". Artists cannot rely on their intuitions of "fair use" since the ground keeps shifting, as ever-more-aggressive litigations make it more and more costly to draw on what should be our shared culture. Works that might have once been acceptable have been redefined as copyright-infringing (see the case the Civil Rights documentary "Eyes On The Prize", for example). In fiction, today's "homage" is tomorrow's "theft". The specialized law firms dedicated to copyright takedowns (and shakedowns) are growing in number and in size and are increasingly willing to accomplish with threats of expensive litigation suppressions they would not win in court. DIY filmmaking will prove to have been a brief historical bubble if the juggernaut of copyright expansion isn't quickly and decisively cut down to size.
I'm part of this movement, but just getting started. I need an audience. I'm learning as I go. It's exciting.
'Point A', my first short film, was shot last August and now lives on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ZjeoedIaY
As I lack the tools to create my own musical score, I repurposed Hans Zimmer's work for 'Inception'. Is it a legal gray area? Yes - but what I'm doing is in the spirit of amateur fan films, a way of paying tribute to filmmakers I respect as I teach myself the trade.
This article and video montage makes me want to rent a bunch of silent movies, study their techniques, buy a video camera, and start filming.
This is the best advertisement I can think of in favor of film preservation and appreciation.
Great job, Kevin and Steven!
Oh, I hear you, Barry, but they're an easily disregarded enemy once you realize that, for the studios, it's purely about money. Let the legal battles rage on for those who can afford to fight back. But the filmmakers I respect most will just find other ways to create something beautiful and even opulent from what they have in hand or can get from the corner store. This sounds like rhetoric, but it's as true as the notion that most great bands start out (and often do their best work) in the wilderness beyond corporate towers. Some bands even stay free the whole way through, growing in ability and vision and deepening their relationship with a relatively small but devoted following.
Isn't that what a real filmmaker would want?
Meanwhile, we have so many people out there offering themselves up as deputies of the studios, trashing "amateur" (usually meaning low-budget) efforts and upholding "professional" (obscenely expensive) standards. The emperor isn't naked so much as overdressed, wearing full-length furs in summertime.
And as he slumbers, the insurgency grows (cue revolutionary anthem):
http://vimeo.com/11149183
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrYgtbWUs2U
And thank you, Grace. Thrilled that you liked it so much.
Cool, James, keep going. In the process of paying homage and honing your skills, I think you'll find your own voice.
Well, alright! That's my whole reason for writing about this kind of stuff, to spur filmmakers (myself included) into action.
It is now July 17, 2011. I return to this post and to the video which is its subject and what do I find? It is silent. No soundtrack. So I go to the YouTube original posting and find this notice:
"NOTICE This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled. More about copyright."
[this last is a link which I will not provide; please go, instead, to http://questioncopyright.org to learn more about the threat such measures pose to our culture and to http://techdirt.com to read daily postings about the increasing incidence of takedowns (or partial takedowns) such as this.]
It seems that WMG was determined to make the point of my original comment for me.
I like your joker's calm 'Missed me' review while Ted almost hits him.