NTSC, the movie

[Alan Sondheim]

NTSC, the movie

http://www.asondheim.org/ntsc.mov
I spent hours creating at least thirty generations of intermediary steps
to arrive at this small segment imitating the look and feel of the Toaster
software operative a decade or so ago, early digitized effects created on
an analog base. What is the point? That noisy lunacy reigned from Young-
blood's Expanded Cinema, even decades earlier, all the way to the advent
of the purified digitized image. Youngblood was not the first, but he
described the nexus of video manipulation, influencing at least two gen-
erations of young video- and film-makers. Now granularity in the image is
reverse-engineered, low-frequency color blooming is added, posterization
is manipulated in any number of ways, and feedback itself is distorted as
if there were analog delays and colorization technology in the image
chain. I no longer yearn for those days, but I do miss the ability to man-
ipulate video signals on the fundamental levels of pedestal, bandwidth,
and so forth, as if the signals were _signals,_ rough derivations of the
real world. This short tape is a paean to those days. Enjoy; the sun is
setting on our eyes and minds.