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"Captured live" but shown on different days. I believe the ballet films in cinemas to be pre-recorded (live) and edited but I do not know for sure to be honest.

When they're shown on tape delay it's still a live edit, so what you would see in the live cinemacast would be the same that you would see in the pre-recorded. Ultimately, from theater to cinema there are a number of locations where errors could happen, so it could be the theater, it could be the camera work, it could be everything in between, and a small error early in the delivery chain will be amplified by the time the performance reaches it's destination. If you ever get a chance to see Mark Schubin speak about the logistics of delivering the Met Live broadcasts, you will be impressed.

The live cinemacast?

I think there are at least two issues here:

1.) Film festivals definitely have huge variances in projection equipment, from full blown digital projections to people playing dvds off a laptop. It just depends on the quality of the festival and the screening environment.

2.) Digital projection/delivery is very unforgiving of production flaws, and if there are shortcuts taken in the editing suite, which happens often when there are budgetary constraints (I can not speak anything that did or did not happen with this particular film), those shortcuts could also be quite evident in what is seen on a big screen. For example, archival material is often includes film comprising a number of different formats (interlace v. progressive, film v. video, frame rates, aspect ratios, etc)that are not always handled properly in post. These flaws could be virtually invisible in a broadcast environment or a dvd, but blow up the image, or deliver digitally, and it could get rather ugly.

What was the ballet film with the blurriness?

All,

I am happy to reveal that we are going to be making 40 Years of One Night Stands available for digital download (purchase and rental) in the US and Canada later this year. Other countries to follow.

This will be the full "theatrical version" of the documentary, not the abridged version made for broadcast television.

Best,

Marc

Perhaps "distribute on demand" via iTunes (for a fair price, of course) is an analogous solution for films and videos. At least, I hope so!

We're going to be bringing a handful of more recent titles to iTunes before the end of the year. Older works are going to be tricky, however, as both the back clearances require too much heavy lifting to make it worthwhile. Also, master recordings may have decayed as well.

Hmmm.... I think I have access to a master recording of this. Let me see what I can do as far as making it available via some sort of mechanism that isn't low grade youtube.

An incomplete list:

...

Hollywood's The Gay Parisian (Gaîté Parisienne)

...

While rummaging around on YouTube for something completely unrelated, I ran across this. Since this thread seems to be the most recent to mention 'The Gay Parisian', I'll post these two clips here. Apparently, this is the complete version referred to elsewhere as being issued on DVD in the last few years. Film quality isn't very good, but the Technicolor is pretty, and Massine, Franklin, Krassovska and Mladova are terrific, although the latter isn't really a substitute for Danilova; but then, who would be?

The Gay Parisian

Part 1

Part 2

We've added quite a few interviews over the last few weeks, including Maria Kochetkova, Daniil Simkin, Trey McIntyre, Prince Credell, Tiler Peck and Muriel Maffre.

You can find them at http://www.dancepulp.com, or at hulu.com/dancepulp.

Enjoy!

Marc

Thanks! Obviously, this was rather thrilling and unexpected, and we're happy that we're finally getting on everyone's radar.

New DancePulp this week features ABT Principal David Hallberg, who is performing this week at Jacob's Pillow with Jacoby & Pronk, and later this summer at the Vail International Dance Festival: http://is.gd/dzuX9

My question about You Tube broadcasts is more to the question as to when extraneous elements -- the shaky photography, extremely oblique angles, the occlusionary shadows -- add a value and signature, albeit unintended, that creates a new original. Juan Gris repainted several of Cezanne's paintings, faithfully following the original compositions, but his own style flattens some aspects of the original and gives an very un-Cezannean elegance to others and creates a new work of art. Ann Barzel's films certainly bear her signature. It seems that at some point that such "degraded" videos are no threat to the owner or trustee of the original choreography.

You've perhaps answered this in your example about removing the scratches (though here it's the equivalent of generating them).

Actually, I haven't. What you're talking about is the transformational aspect of the use, which is the first test of fair use (http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html). The big case study these days is the famous Shepard Fairey Obama "Hope" poster, which was based on a photo from the AP. Although a verdict wasn't/hasn't been issued, it wasn't looking good for Fairey.

For the record, my position on copyright is that it is something to be respected. However, I also think the current duration of copyright is beyond excessive.

To answer a few of the questions:

"Would Ann Barzel’s bootlegged Kodachrome films of Ballet Russes performances & early Balanchine be off limits?"

Ultimately the question is: what is the status of the underlying rights? If all of the underlying rights are public domain, and the film itself is public domain, it's public domain. If some of the rights are still under copyright, then those would require permissions. Especially with material created in the 20's, the answer could go either way.

If an entity were to get a hold of the originals and remaster them, the remastering work would be subject to copyright protection. For example: if you have an early big band recording released on a 78 rpm record, and you were to digitize it, reduce the static and release it on CD you could claim copyright protection for that recording on the basis of that work (of course, it's also possible for anyone to get a copy of the same 78, do similar work, and release it into the public domain).

"As it stands the Balanchine organization that handles the Interpreters' Archive has not been too helpful in distributing study tapes to its member libraries, although I believe that is a part of their mission policy. I live near San Francisco Performing Arts Library and it seemed impossible to arrange an inter-library loan of a tape done with SF Ballet dancers."

This could be for a lot of reasons, and may have nothing to do with the Balanchine Trust. For example, the libraries themselves recognized a significant problem regarding fair use with their collections, interlibrary loans, etc. Last year, in an effort spearheaded by the Dance Heritage Coalition, they assembled an industry-wide policy covering these matters. (Some libraries were concerned that if they had illegal copies of copyrighted work that they had a legal obligation to destroy them... ack!)

So, if you're still having problems, download the .pdf from this link: http://www.danceheritage.org/publications/DHC_fair_use_statement.pdf and bring it to the library (although I'm fairly certain they're up to speed at this point).

"Regarding originally generated recordings of performances posted on You Tube, I was wondering how much of a threat of dilution to something like the Balanchine brand do they constitute. "

To reiterate... Balanchine Trust is one of many stakeholders here. Even if they're the only ones handling the practical aspects of enforcement, it doesn't mean they're the only one acting on some level.

Surely there must be ways that performances could be made available to the specialized audience of ballet fans that would help spread the work while keeping control over the quality AND making a little money along the way.

How about selling approved clips for downloading, as music companies do? There are also sorts of ways this could be packaged, analogous to selling individual songs under the heading of the Album name. I can imagine, for example, a series of clips from individual dancers . Or ballets. Or companies? Or themes? Why not?

Bart,

To answer your question: there are a lot of factors involved, and it is something we are working very closely on (if you're not familiar with my company, TenduTV, it may come as a positive surprise that we've got the distribution pipeline for exactly what you're talking about - 70 distribution partners capable of reaching 500 million devices in addition to computers). To release any particular ballet, there are a lot of deals that need to happen in order to get the approval that you seek. It's not just the ballet companies and the trusts, it's the music rights, the stagehands, the dancers, the ancillary rights holders (set design, costume design, lighting design). For some companies, these costs can exceed $1 million per program (not an easy sum to spend given the economy). All of these stakeholders are thinking the right way - but getting everyone to the table and getting the deals done is a very labor intensive, long and complex process (one company has seven unions with which they need to negotiate, plus the dancers). Over the next few years, you will see a transition take place. It's not all good news though - there are older performances and productions that are unlikely to see the light of day outside of a public library or preservation organization. Enforcement/takedowns of YouTube clips will also increase in their breadth and their speed.

But at the end of the day, you will see a wider variety of both high quality performances and viewing options.

Thank you. I just listened to Wendy Whelan and Lourdes Lopez interviews and enjoyed them very much. The advertising is really painless! Thank you so much.

You're very welcome! Lourdes's interview is a personal favorite of mine, and I would personally like to see a follow-up episode after Morphoses re-emerges into the market (we distribute but don't produce the show).

Today we began "Season 1.5" of DancePulp.

Interviews with Wendy Whelan (NYCB after Balanchine) and Safi Thomas from the Hip Hop conservatory are now available for US audiences at hulu.com/dancepulp

We're also going to make a formal announcement of international availability shortly...

The entertainment world can be very difficult, everything could be held up by the production company. Two excellent examples in film: James Bond Untitled movie and The Hobbit movie both held up by their production company fiscal straits in the midst of a failed merger and possible bankruptcy. Films get held up by these issues all the time, getting copyright approval on an old ballet from the 70's is no different.

Even when there is a clear path to get clearances, it's not always financially feasible. I was recently told of not- untypical situation where certain rights were being backcleared. When it came to the orchestra, the organization had to go back into its records and not only find out who was in the performance, but everyone who had participated in even a single rehearsal. Then each orchestra member (or their estate) had to be notified, paid, etc. For every $1 in payments, it cost $10 in expenses.

Also - if you would like to curse someone broadly every time a work is withdrawn or unavailable, the target of your wrath should be Sonny Bono, not the Balanchine Trust.

I think there's an errant assumption being made - that it's always the ballet companies who are preventing materials from being made available. Often, this is not the case. Ten years ago, yes, but not today.

There is going to be a trade-off, however. Older video will be harder to come by, while new video will be much higher quality.

If I could throw my $.02 in, as someone who is working non-stop to make some of these very performances available:

There are a lot of different stakeholders that have to sign off on the clearances to make titles available, including dancers, musicians, choreographers, theaters, stagehands, lighting designers, costume designers, music publishers. As a result, unless its something posted by the dance company or dvd publisher directly, it's violating someone's contractual rights, and these should be taken down. Unfortunately, some permissions are so complicated as a practical matter, that many older performances will likely never see the light of day. As far as what is available on YouTube, assume that it's going to get worse (as far as what is available) before it gets better. Although this is no doubt disappointing to audiences in the short term, over the long term, the situation is improving, and you'll be able to experience performances as never before.

Cheers,

Marc

Two more interviews are now up:

Part 3 of our Andrea Schermoly series and a 1 part interview with former Het Nationale Ballet and Complexions dancer Rubi Pronk, who is on the cover of this year's Jacob's Pillow catalog and will be performing at the Pillow July 21-25.

Both can be found at hulu.com/dancepulp

Cheers,

Marc

Are there any specific titles you would like to see?

Yep, it's Friday... another new DancePulp is now available, this one a continuation of last week's Andrea Schermoly (NDT) interview.

Here's the synopsis: Nederlands Dans Theater's Andrea Schermoly on touring with NDT, the company's evolving repertory and resulting critical response, and the differences between dancing professionally in the United States and Europe.

This episode is a personal favorite, just because it begins to get fairly deep into the larger discussion about audiences in different parts of the world, and how the work to which they have access impacts their taste.

Here's the episode link: http://bit.ly/aOOFZ8

Enjoy!

Marc

The latest DancePulp is now available, featuring former Boston Ballet and Nederlans Dance Theater artist Andrea Schermoly. In this episode, she discusses her move from Boston Ballet to NDT, the road she took to get into the company, and the challenges it presented.

The episode is available at http://bit.ly/dpulp9

We're also going to be extending season 1 past the first 13 episodes, and the extension will have a heavy ballet focus. Details to come.

Best,

Marc

The newest episode is now available on Hulu at: http://bit.ly/dpulp8 or http://www.hulu.com/dancepulp

This week's DancePulp is the second of a two-part series featuring William Wingfield, a former So You Think You Can Dance contestant and Celine Dion backup dancer, who now has the role of Graffiti Pete in the musical "In the Heights".

DancePulp recently filmed a few more episodes, featuring ABT's Daniil Simkin and NYCB's Kathryn Morgan.

Enjoy!

Marc

The newest episode is now available on Hulu at: http://bit.ly/dCz3N0 or http://www.hulu.com/dancepulp

We've taken a shift towards the broadway/commercial work with this week's DancePulp: The first of a two-part series featuring William Wingfield, a former So You Think You Can Dance contestant and Celine Dion backup dancer, who now has the role of Graffiti Pete in the musical "In the Heights".

So, to make sure I keep this relevant to ballet, DancePulp just filmed two more future episodes, featuring Lucia Lacarra and Marlon Dino, principals at the Bayerisches Staatsballett.

Enjoy!

Marc

Hello again. I just wanted to let you all know that the next episode, featuring Jill Johnson is now live on Hulu: http://bit.ly/d5s47A.

One of the themes that recurs throughout many of the episodes in the first season is the differences (or perceptions) of the state of dance in the US vs. Europe. This interview begins that conversation (it's a conversation that is going to go on for some time, we suspect)

Again, I would love any feedback or thoughts you might have on the show., and am happy to answer any questions you might have.

Sincerely,

Marc

The broad answer is that for 3D, it really depends on how it's shot. The question is: do they shoot for the "wow" factor, and hit you in the face with the 3D, or do they try to provide a more subtle, lifelike experience. That being said, the added depth makes a huge difference in the experience.

Haven't been able to find any reviews of the Mariinsky gala to see how it went. It's quite possible given that 3D sets are just coming to market, that just about no one saw it!

Marc