Mentor Paper

James Klapper ART 333-01 Colby Caldwell Inspiration Behind “BLADE” For my personal project, I set out to create a book that would illustrate my passion for video editing. Initially, I was unsure of how this could even work. Because the process of putting together a film involves moving around multiple interfaces, it seemed like it would be incredibly difficult to express in still photographs. To help me determine the visual style that I wanted for my project, I looked at Robert Frank’s The Americans and Harvey Shaman’s The View Camera: Operations and Techniques.

The Americans was one of the first photo books that we looked at in class. This publication was released in 1959 and was met with sharp criticism from professional photographers. Popular Photography, a well-known magazine, requested several writers to look at Frank’s book and offer a critique. Nearly every single review turned out to be negative.

Critics regarded the book as “a sad poem by a very sick man.” Part of the reason for such disapproval was because during the 1950s, the general consensus was that photography should be clean, well exposed, and sharp. Many people were displeased when they saw Frank’s work and claimed that his photographs were “flawed by meaningless blur grain, muddy exposure, drunken horizons, and general sloppiness.” In an interview with NPR, Frank mentions that the Museum of Modern Art even refused to sell the book, but the younger generation was a bit more accepting of his work. In terms of the content, Frank aimed to create a book that showed America in its true form. Some of his subjects were clearly not living the American dream, including factory workers in Detroit, transvestites in New York, and black passengers on a

segregated bus in New Orleans. His book was presented as a kind of documentary that explored many living conditions across the country.

While flipping through the pages of this book, I was very impressed with the simple and clean design of the pages. I noticed that on the left side of every spread, a small line of descriptive text was printed on the bottom, and on the right side, a black and white image was placed perfectly in the center. I particularly liked how the white space formed a border around the content and allowed the images to stand on their own as powerful works of art. Overall, the book looks professional and sophisticated with a clear sense of purpose. The way the images are sequenced is intentional. As the reader moves through the book, a story is slowly revealed that reflects the way Frank felt about his photos. I wanted my book to operate in a similar fashion where each spread would be arranged to show a part of the editing process. The current page should relate to the next page and the previous page.

The Americans helped me establish some of my design choices, but I also wanted to see something that was more geared towards film production to help me figure out the best way to illustrate my ideas. Video editing is an exciting, fast-paced, and creative endeavor that is highly visual, but I was worried that it would be difficult to translate into something that is flat and stationary. While The View Camera is technically not a photo book, I still found that it followed a similar framework for organizing its content. It is essentially an instructional manual with detailed explanations for how to operate a view camera. Text and image are equally important elements that work together to create meaning similar to the way a photo book works. Harvey Shaman (the author) is a professional photographer who specializes in editorial, advertising, industrial, and aerial photography. With this book, I found that I had trouble understanding all of the technical information. However, a table of contents at the beginning made it clear that the

author organized the book in terms of camera features. I considered dividing my book up into sections, but decided that I wanted something more abstract in the end.

I liked the way that some of the diagrams were spread across two pages. The horizontal vectors are nice because they allow the eye to move across the pages easily. Often times, Shaman places images in roughly the same place, which demonstrates a keen sense of organization. The photos are black and white and sizes vary by page. Sometimes, there is just one image on a page and other times as many as six. Another feature I thought was interesting was the way that the text was incorporated into the design. Often times, there would be small blurbs or numbers placed next to the image, which explained what was happening in the picture.

This made it easier to follow since some of the diagrams could be quite complicated. I admired the sheer amount of detail found in this book as well as how the content was divided up into sections. In the end, I was inspired to organize my book into a sequence that would show the process of editing from start to finish.

My goal was to create something visually engaging while keeping it fairly simple. I really wanted my book to be more accessible to people who do not possess any audio/video experience. Video editing can be an incredibly complex, time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating experience. But that wasn’t my focus – I didn’t want to burden the reader with too many details because that can end up being confusing or utterly boring to look through. What I wanted was to share the essence of what I do, the excitement and beauty of constructing a film from start to finish. By making my book more inviting, I hoped to show people that pretty much anyone could understand video just by looking at the interface and playing around with all of the tools available. So when you look at my book, you can simply enjoy it for its visual style or you can look at it as a way of learning basic editing techniques.

Bibliography Burdick, Alan. “Looking in on The Americans.” American History Feb. 2010: 42-49. Print.

— A magazine article that provided some insight on The Americans. It details the history behind the publication and discusses some of the idea present in the book.

Cole, Tom. “‘Americans’: The Book That Changed Photography.” NPR.org. National Public Radio, 13 Nov. 2009. Web. 29 April 2013.

— An article on NPR that explores the ways in which The Americans impacted the world of photography. Some brief history is discusses and parts of Robert Frank’s interview are included.

Frank, Robert. The Americans. Steidl: Germany, 2008. Print.

— I was inspired by the simple and clean design of this photo book. I also liked the way that the author created a seamless narrative through the sequencing of images.

Kunkes, Michael. “Munich, Mentoring & Moviolas: The Michael Kahn Interview.” Editors Guild Magazine Feb. 2006. Web. — I was looking for some other thoughts on video editing when deciding what my book should focus on. This interview with film editor Michael Kahn provided some professional insight into the world of Hollywood editing and why he loves his work.

Shaman, Harvey. The View Camera: Operations and Techniques. American Photographic Book Publishing Co., Inc.: New York, 1977. Print.

— This was one of the books that inspired me to create my photo book. Photographs, diagrams, and text make this more of an instructional manual. I was interested in the way that the author illustrates the process of using the view camera.