Cinematization - Text 6
Despite the differences between them, both an opera fragment like the one from Quartet from Rigoletto produced in 1927, and any given opera at the Met when transmitted live to movie theatres, subscribe to the continuity system: temporal and visual continuity for the former (as it was shot in a single long “sequence shot”) and temporal continuity only for the latter (which appears in fragmented form to the film viewer, because the action has been cut up into successive always-already continuous segments by definition, unless there is a breakdown in satellite transmission).
In light of the contrast made here between a degree zero of cinematization and cinematization on a large scale, along with the analysis we have offered, one might be tempted to situate in an intermediary space somewhere between shooting and filming the phenomenon of digital transmission of an opera captured live. In fact live transmission of operas is more a mixture of the two categories: their intention is shooting, their execution is filming.
It appears that the promoters at the Met and at other establishments producing live transmissions would “naturally” be inclined to privilege shooting, given their propensity for making audiences believe that the technical set-up pressed into service is there only to serve as a simple transmitter of the stage show. But this recourse to technical equipment for putting into images (the multiple-camera set-up, the shooting script of switching points of view, etc.) quickly and squarely pulled the execution of the capturing to the side of filming while at the same time giving the illusion, as much as this is possible, of capturing the action on tip-toe (“you have to do it really artfully but also invisibly,”[11] Barbara Willis Sweete remarks). In short, audiences have been led to believe that the transmitting function remains dominant and that all the cameras do is to document calmly, to the benefit of the film viewer, the performance unfolding on stage. And, finally, that there is not superimposed on the world recorded by the camera another layer of meaning by means of a second-level plastic interpretation. Willis Sweete, once again, explains it this way: “It’s got to be all about increasing the impact and also serving the vision of the composer, make the storyline clearer, protecting the singers who are not always good at close-ups.”[12] Simply put, one must emphasize what is shown. In this sense, live transmission is a date-stamped archive of a show, but one that has been heavily cinematized.
