Has Your Video Hobby Affected Your "Art Appreciation"??

[GMaq]

Hi,
Perhaps I'm just losing my mind, but as someone like many of you who enjoy playing around with video as a hobby, are you able to watch your video "creations" objectively as "art" (whatever that means to each individual) or are you distracted by knowing the steps of the creation process. I find it difficult now to just "watch" a movie for the sheer enjoyment and entertainment value. I have always been a sucker for the Get-the-most-from-the-least formats starting with xVCD's and currently at all flavours of MPEG-4. Now I am watching for any flaws or marvelling at "Wow look at that picture quality and only 700kbps!!" and many times am paying little or no attention to the superficial things, you know like plot and storyline etc.!! I was just wondering if I am alone in this or whether any of my fellow addicts er... members feel the same way? Discuss

P.S> Since this post pertains to video, I opted to not place it in the "Off Topic" forum. Apologies in advance to MODs.

[zakman]

GMaq,

I can relate! My hobby comes in the form of editing Hollywood movies (for personal use only). So I spend a lot of time trying to make the scenes look smooth and I try to pay close attention to continuity. But sometimes I look at the scenes/cuts of a movie and think "that was really bad. I could have done better than that!". On one occasion, my family was watching a movie I edited and they complained about one of the cuts. As it turns out, it was not my cut, but the professional's! Now, when I watch a movie, I have to work a little harder to enjoy the movie instead of paying attention to the continuity.

[GMaq]

Movie directors must have a hell of a time keeping their objectivity, on the other hand I think many of them don't, look at how many mediocre films that are out there!! Not to say that it's easy in the least to produce a good one or otherwise.

[TheFamilyMan]

Now that I've done my fair share of DVD projects, I can spot MPEG2 noise from a mile away. Because of this, when I see supposedly HD broadcasts of sports, I see all these compression or possibly upsampling artifacts (especially on the really big screens) and think "man, this picture really sucks if this is the state of the art". When HD is good, it's gorgeous; when it's not, it's twice as bad as good ol' NTSC on a non-HD TV. That's one of the reasons why I'm waiting until I'm forced to go to digital television.

[GTRBudda]

For me, sometimes after I review a finished project, I'm happy that I can forget the steps it took to get there The bigger problem for me is if I take too much time to examine the video or audio, it looses it's freshness. It effectivly becomes a re-run, and I just can't watch it for a while. Maybe that says something about the original content....

[Nitemare]

I can't stop tinkering with my projects. I keep improving/adding stuff, re-doing the things that I didn't like the first time, etc. I can still watch other movies without thinking TOO far into them, but sometimes I think I can (or have done) better than a certain scene or shot.

I also agree with TheFamilyMan ... I remain unimpressed with digital and HD tv formats ... I've yet to see a football field that isn't riddled with MPEG noise. It's distracting.

[Bjs]

Nope ... enjoy every step it takes to reach the final project ... and watch it knowing everything that went into it was from scratch and not a simple copy from elsewhere .

As for loosing objectivity ... that's why you make home brew , and sit back and watch the thunderbirds ... and flake out till the next job need's to be finished ... or until the pc has completed the running task .

A true artist is never finished ... nor statisfied the work is complete ... but I'm not fussy ... close enough is generally acceptable , but often exceeded .

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As for digital tv ... we'll have to see if they fix the foul up's before the analog cutout date ... if not , they'll now about it ...

Analog is omni-dirrectional ... digital is not ... should have heard the stink at wagga wagga ... half the town couldnt get the new signal .

[GMaq]

I recently made the leap to HDTV, In Canada OTA HD is virtually non existent, I don't watch much in the way of sports and that seems to be where the artifacts etc. are most noticeable, maybe sports fans complain more!! On the other hand about 75% of the programming on my Satellite Receiver is still NTSC and most of it looks pretty good, it does vary greatly from network to network and program to program. There is something to be said for good ole 525 line NTSC though even VCD can look decent on it! I made the jump to HDTV because I got sick of 2.35:1 DVD in a 4:3 letterbox.

[edDV]

Anyone trained in video or film production skills has difficulty "suspending disbelief" and sees the production for what it is, warts and all. I have learned to shut up about technical incompetence, continuity errors or dialog out of order. A bad edge on an effect will draw the eye spoiling the effect.

People in the biz have difficulty watching this stuff unless it gets so bad it becomes comic.

That said, when someone breaks the rules and is truly creative even in a small detail, that tape gets circulated and much internal praise goes to that individual or organization. Most of the production crafts or technical communities have their own awards for greatest accomplishment.

Most people don't realize there is a separate Emmy award event in New York each year for technical accomplishment. These don't get aired.

http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/advmedia_nom_release.html