Kennemer Dunes, today. Walk it [ talk it ]

Min/max temperature: 6°C/12°C; humidity: 83%; precipitation: 0 mm, sea level pressure: 1015 hPa; wind WNW 15.9 km/h; visibility: 10.0 kilometres; Clouds few 670 m.

"I believe that the processes of autoregulation are as stable and as capable of providing the same importance in any formation as heredity itself. [ As ] a rule, autoregulation in the organism limits itself to preserving a certain state of equilibrium and, in the case of deviation or of new formation, to bringing it back to its initial state; whereas, on the contrary, autoregulation in the realm of behaviours constantly pushes the organism -- or the subject, if a cognitive behaviour is involved -- towards new extensions. The physiological organism has no reason to change; […] there is no "necessity" in evolutionary changes. Conservation is the supreme rule for physiological equilibrium. Whereas [ in ] the field of behaviour [ …] two goals are pursued: [ 1 ] the extension of the environment, […] the surpassing of that environment which now encompasses the organism, trough explorations and research in new environments; [ 2 ] the reinforcement of the organism's power over that environment. An autoregulation that is capable of preserving the past as well as constantly surpassing itself trough the double end of extending the environment and reinforcing the organism's power […] when we are dealing with behaviours and cognitive processes, [ are ] a much more fundamental mechanism than heredity itself."

Jean Piaget in 'Language and Learning; The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky', page 61, edited by Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini, first published in 1979 in France. English translation by Harvard University Press, USA

"[…] Hawthorne […] once remarked, "We certainly do need a new revelation -- a new system -- for there seems to be no life in the old one." […] Whatever the complaint sound or the vision proffered, [ the artist is ] revolting against the prevailing official culture, and the revolt usually consists in an escape from a place they don't like to someplace elsewhere. […] In most instances […] the artist's journey at least crosses trough some kind of wilderness, and that also takes many forms. […] Emerson gives us the first clue when he says in Nature that to know nature is to know yourself, […] what is found in nature [ corresponds with ] what is found in the mind, the point of transcendence being to liberate yourself from the constrictions imposed by habit, routine, dogma, education […] by society, so […] the true self […] can emerge. […] In Death in the afternoon[ Ernest ] Hemmingway moves himself as self to centre stage, he enunciates his famous credo: moral is what makes you feel good afterward and immoral is what makes you feel bad afterwards. In the same section Hemmingway identifies the three most difficult problems of writing as "knowing truly what you really felt, rather than what you where supposed to feel, and had been taught to feel"; putting "down what really happened in action," "what the actual things were which produced the emotion that you experienced"; and then finding "the real thing, the sequence of motion and fact which made the emotion." [ When ] people "have learned to appreciate values trough experiencewhat they seek is honesty and true, not tricked, emotion and always classicism and the purity of execution." Near the beginning of The Wild Bunch there is a seemingly innocuous line, spoken by an anonymous character, which goes, "it's not what you meant to do, it's what you did I don't like" -- a line that is, in many ways, a paraphrase of Hemmingway's credo."

Paul Seydor in 'Peckinpah, the Western Films, A Reconsideration', page 314, 315, 316, first published in 1980 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, USA

"To count in advance on success, […] to calculate or foresee communication with the spectator, seems to me infinitely more risky than fidelity to oneself."

Andrei Tarkovski, 'Andrei Rublev', page xii, introduction to the original Kino roman by Philip Strick, first published in 1991 by Faber Faber Limited, London

Kennemer Dunes, today (1/3). Break it [ make it ] 

Min/max temperature: 4°C/7°C; humidity: 99%; precipitation: 0 mm, sea level pressure: 1026 hPa; wind from SSE 8.0 km/h; Clouds: Few 152 m, Scattered Clouds 213 m, Mostly Cloudy 274 m; visibility: 5.0  kilometres

"The point in which content leaves off and technique begins is blurred, and yet they are so interdependent that one is impossible without the other. Above all, then, the filmmaker must not only be fully aware of both art and technique, but of technology as well. Film-making is a twentieth-centrury art born of science. [...] Consider ultra sensitive high-speed [ film ] that allows picture-taking under seemingly impossible light conditions, or transistors that make feasible vest-pocket synchronous units that record actual sound and speech anywhere. Such developments, which make possible so much more, may at times be an obstacle, because the temptation is so great, and so subtle, to concentrate on mastery of the technique. In the heady excitement of achieving effect or of bringing off a difficult tour de force, it is easy to find a pseudo artistic satisfaction that blinds one to the demands of a fully artistic piece of work. [...] Discipline is what is sorely needed. Often, the so-called depth and insight are in reality lots of smoke and little fire, emotionalism without substance. The […] filmmaker must clarify his substance by analysis and structure development, with close scrutiny of the causal relationships. […] In the making of a film, aside from creative effort, much is required of the film-maker in the way of technical knowledge and organisational know-how. Unfortunately, his mastery of these areas can lead to such sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that he may be trapped into forgetting why he initially set out to make a film. It is not unusual, for example, for him to become so absorbed in the technical aspects [ of lip synchronisation ] he overlooks what is being said. […] The film-maker needs, therefore, in addition to a solid technical foundation, an insight into those things involving ideas and values. He needs to know where his talents shape up best, whith what kind of material he functions most effectively, in what way he can set up a frame of reference within which to explore his material, and how to clarify his point of view. How he wants to say anything, let alone decide the most effective way to say it? To seek conscious and direct answers to these problems is next to impossible because they cannot be arrived at in the manner of mathematical equation. Rather, the answers will emerge to one degree or another, trough the actual making of the films. [...] The filmmaker has to constantly make films. The questions should be left to the critics, the scholars, and the analysts."

Haig P. Manoogian in 'The Film-makers Art', page 1, 2, 159, 247, first published in 1966 by Basic Books, Inc. New York, London

"Art comes out of craft. That's where the art comes from. Movies are craft, they're not art. Art comes out of craft. [You] may have a great idea for a painting. But can you paint? If you say "No," than your idea isn't worth a shit. […] Pretty photography is easy; it really is the easiest thing in the world. But photography that rounds a picture off, top to bottom, and holds the content together, is really the most beautiful. […] You try not to put the photography in front of the story; you try to make it part of the story."

Gordon Willis in 'Masters of Light', page 294, 302, by Dennis Scheafer and Larry Salvato, first published in 1984 by University of California Press, USA

"I want to always be free to not have to do something. I want to not have to take a picture for any other reason than because I want to […] I don't want to take a picture because I have to. That's how despair begins; when you don't have the freedom to say no to something that you don't want to do. Suddenly you get locked into not being free."

Conrad Hall in 'Masters of Light' , page 173 by Dennis Scheafer and Larry Salvato, first published in 1984 by University of California Press, USA

"Despair is the only unforgivable sin, and it's always reaching for us."

Sam Peckinpah in 'Peckinpah, the Western Films, A Reconsideration', introduction, by Paul Seydor, first published in 1980 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, USA

"Aesthetic and ethical decisions are seldom made from a position of cool intellectual neutrality; more often they are forged in discomfort and anxiety over conflicting moral obligations -- to actual people who know and trust you, on the one hand, or to truths whose importance may transcend any individual's passing discomfort, on the other. [...] Only with maturity can you identify the surrogates to your own values and temperament, and allow them to achieve a life of their own in a film. The discipline of such a process has its own rewards. Your work alters the way you see the fundamentals of your own life -- the very source from which your documentary process sprang. In this way, each film lays the foundations for the next."

Michael Rabiger in 'Directing the documentary (third edition)', page 364, published in 1998 by Butterworth-Heinemann, USA

"The best people know more."

David Ogilvy in 'Ogilvy on Advertising', page 21, first published in 1983 by Multimedia Publications (UK) Ltd.