Video and film

Giorgio Buccellati – March 2011

The nature of the distinction

The terms “video” and “film” refer in the first instance to the technique with which images are captured, whether electronically (video) or on a thin sheet that is treated chemically (film).
By extension, they may be taken to refer to the structure of the visual segment that is shown in motion. This distinction may be said to arise partly from the ease with which presentable (video) clips can be shot with any digital camera, whereas the segments of a “film” have been “cut”, assembled and edited.

In this website, we use “video” to refer to an unedited clip (so-called “raw footage” in documentary parlance), and “film” to refer to the edited sequences, even when the component parts are in fact digital in nature.

The use of clips

The website favors the use of short, self-contained segments to illustrate, with the benefit of action, specific points developed in the argument. These clips are listed together in a special section of the Mozan Sitewide digital book. They are integrated through a variety of hyperlinks into the fabric of the website.

Documentary function

In selecting the clips we pay special attention to the documentary function of visuals.

It can certainly be said that any visual does in fact document something or other, but ultimately the full value of the evidence is a correlative of the specific link that can be established with other data and with specific points of the argumentation, in line with the fundamental importance of the coherence factor.

The special value of documentary evidence understood in this sense may be illustrated with reference to the way in which television channels use “amateur videos” in their news coverage. Take the case of urban riots: video clips showing instances of assembled crowds, or, worse, of snipers shooting at these crowds, have a compelling visual impact. But they can be said to have full documentary value only when they are clearly linked to specific phenomena such as places, dates, or persons’ names.

In a similar manner, video clips shot at Mozan, and especially film clips (in the sense defined above), acquire specific documentary value when they are explicitly linked to particular data and arguments developed within the website and the UGR. Thus a video clip of a sandstorm can be linked to remarks about conservation and about deposition, besides generically and impressionistically conveying, through motion and sound, the sense of this powerful meteorological phenomenon.