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Two things you could do this week: Go see the movie “Concerto” and join the Sinulog Photo Contest.
“Concerto,” a highly-acclaimed independent movie, opens at Cinema 6 in SM City Cebu starting January 14. There will be a special screening at 2 p.m. on January 17, sponsored by the University of the Philippines-Cebu’s Student Council, with the support of Pablo John Garcia. The commercial run is supported through advertisements by Cebu Daily News.
I saw the special preview of this movie last year. It is a very artistic film and would be a big relief for those who may have had to bear with the Manila Film Festival fare that dominated the theaters all Christmas season. The film comes out rather slow at first but it more than makes up for it with its highly-dramatic content, provocative visual imagery, and quality of acting. This is not an ordinary war film. One will walk away from the theater rather nicely surprised at the end of the show. I’ll reserve a more substantial critical review till after you’ve seen the movie.
Better be ready for new rules if you’re planning to join the Sinulog Photo Contest this year. This year will be the first time this annual photo contest deals frontally with issues raised by the availability of new digital imaging technology. This year, the organizers want to be very clear this is a photography contest instead of a digital imagery competition.
This means that the only photos acceptable are those which have been edited only to such an extent as could be done in an analog dark room. You can dodge and burn and crop. You can make monochrome prints but you will not be allowed to cut and paste nor use other functions found inside the menu of functions of Adobe Photoshop and similar software. The point of all these is to make clear the distinctions between photography and digital imaging.
Indeed, digital imaging includes the whole universe of imagery one can produce now using the mix of photography and graphic arts. New technology has made all things possible where image production is concerned. This does not mean anybody can now make good artistic imagery. It simply means anybody with a good computer and the right program can now do it. Doing it well is another matter entirely.
But then there is the concept of “traditional” analog photography seen as a discipline that might be practiced now using the latest digital cameras. Quite obviously the purpose of doing the contest this way is simply to validate and conserve this sort of “photography” as a discipline of image production. Some will admittedly call it old fashioned but my own bias leans towards the more traditionalist view of photography. After all, this is a contest and when you have “anything goes” as part of the contest rules it will be quite impossible to correctly judge the entries for quality.
Contest rules now require the contestant to provide the “raw file” of the photograph where this is possible in the case of advanced SLR (single lens reflex) cameras. In the case of less-advanced cameras having JPEG files only, the contestant will have to provide in the entry forms the make, model and year of the camera.
This would all seem a bit cumbersome at first. But do not worry. Come with your camera to the outlets where the entry forms will be handed out. There will be people to explain the rules more clearly to you and answer additional questions. I heard we have a good set of judges this year and everyone is assured a good chance of winning.
