Response 4 - Skye Nguyen
April 10, 2018, by Skye
Compared to Downtown 81, it was much harder to recognize where the film was taking place in Blank City. This is mostly because a large portion of the shots were taken indoors, or they were interviews, unlike Downtown 81, where we could see certain landmarks and tie them to a specific location. We only know where the film is taking place because they talk about the Lower East Side often, but other than that, I’m not sure where anything is. Then again, I don’t spend that much time in LES, so it makes sense that I don’t know where anything is. Again, like Downtown 81, it was cool to see how different things were just 20-ish years ago compared to today. It was also cool to see Downtown 81 featured in this film.
Watching this film makes me wonder if I asked someone today that lived through this time of art and creativity, would they think that even though things have obviously changed, are things still somewhat similar? Are people still as creative, but in a different way? I feel like Blank City is what NYU film is like, minus the speed, and maybe a little toned down, but then again, I don’t personally know anyone in the film program at NYU. Or maybe Parsons? I think I feel this way because this “scene” in the Lower East Side is pretty counterculture and against the norm, and I feel like NYU film students are the same. Usually, the more different things are, the better. Film has clearly changed over the years and the film we see today is very different compared to how film from this time period was depicted in Blank City, but what aspects changed? The film scene in the Lower East Side was “an era of experimentation,” but I don’t know much more than that or all that much about film today either.
In my Print and Typography class, we talked a lot about how typewriters aren’t really in use anymore because of advancement in technology, and how the only typewriters you’ll see around are in old collections or if someone’s trying to be quirky with their old, vintage-ish stuff. Seeing the older cameras used in Blank City made me think about typewriters and made me wonder if people have these cameras today, and if they just use them to seem artsy and quirky. It also makes me think of how people will use a typewriter typeface, like Courier New, for the same effect and it reminds me of the apps or filters on Snapchat and Instagram that give the same effect of old and vintage-ish. Are people using these apps and filters to seem cool? Do they know anything about Super 8 cameras and other cameras used during this time period? It’s like Polaroid cameras too— they’re popular again, but in a weird new way and aren’t actually real Polaroid cameras. The Polaroids that people often use today are Instashot cameras that just print out photos immediately that sort of look like old Polaroids, but aren’t actually the same.