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Author Topic: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc  (Read 5285 times)

amolitor

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #20 on: January 01, 2019, 02:45:32 pm »

I have to say I am a bit hesitant about this particular piece. On the one hand, it is exactly the kind of thing I write.

On the other hand, it does have a couple typos, a sentence or two which don't necessarily make sense, and I am not certain that the whole thing hangs together coherently. Which, you know, is how these things go. It's hard to copy-edit your own work, and it's hard to make a think piece come out somewhere coherent. Sometimes, it just doesn't work.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I dunno, this is like a 7 or an 8, maybe.

I will make on concrete suggestion: copy-editing services can be had at quite reasonably rates, over the internet. If I were trying to lead a web site into a brave new world, with long-form writing, I would probably use such a service. Honestly, I'd probably develop a style guide and share that with both my contributors and my copy-editing service. These things could go a long ways toward raising the overall tone, at, I think, fairly modest cost.
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Patricia Sheley

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #21 on: January 01, 2019, 03:05:18 pm »

"I will make on concrete suggestion: copy-editing services can be had at quite reasonably rates, over the
 internet. "

(Example of their work?)
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amolitor

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #22 on: January 01, 2019, 03:20:43 pm »

I am not one of those copy-editing services, nor do i use them for my internet forum postings ;)
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JeffS

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #23 on: January 01, 2019, 04:51:59 pm »

Three articles now.  Not just typos, but grammatical errors, sentences unnecessarily running near 60 words, awkward phrasing, and more.  Michael Reichmann he is not.  Search any of Michael’s articles and the contrast is immediately apparent; in style, content, clarity and professionalism. I’m not encouraged.

Jeff
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Rob C

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #24 on: January 01, 2019, 04:54:45 pm »

Talk about going all anal!

It's a photography article, not a contribution to Emmerson's Essays! As far as I'm concerned, if the material is photographically cool, that's all it really needs to be.

Bailey didn't even get into art college because they wanted school certificates! Reminds me of my only night school course (supposedly obligatory) where the lecturer told me he'd give up photography if his work looked like Bailey's. I never went back. My employers apparently didn't give a damn because I kept right on being employed...

Let's be frank here: photography is about imagination and learning the techniques you need to know to get the job done. Grammar isn't a part of the deal, and even good diction has gone out of fashion - or so it seems, and why should that matter anyway in this context? I'd prefer reading something that reveals some real experience, perhaps not perfectly written, over the most wonderful prose that reeks of ignorance and is nothing more than a transcript of some theoretical bullshit read in a how-to manual somewhere.

It's silly to want working photographers to come across like school teachers. The job requires different skill sets.

:-)

Alan Goldhammer

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #25 on: January 01, 2019, 05:05:50 pm »


It's a photography article, not a contribution to Emmerson's Essays! As far as I'm concerned, if the material is photographically cool, that's all it really needs to be.
Then just run the pictures.  If one cannot write well he/she should not write for public consumption

Quote
Let's be frank here: photography is about imagination and learning the techniques you need to know to get the job done. Grammar isn't a part of the deal, and even good diction has gone out of fashion - or so it seems, and why should that matter anyway in this context? I'd prefer reading something that reveals some real experience, perhaps not perfectly written, over the most wonderful prose that reeks of ignorance and is nothing more than a transcript of some theoretical bullshit read in a how-to manual somewhere.

It's silly to want working photographers to come across like school teachers. The job requires different skill sets.

Working photographers and website owners have two different jobs.  Sometimes they can combine the jobs and sometimes not.  Back in the day  I was an instructor for the introductory chemistry course.  I was appalled when the first laboratory reports were turned in replete with spelling errors and poor grammar.  I announced at the next session that reports would be graded for spelling and grammar as well as scientific content.  I had no further problems with those students.  Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" is a short yet concise book on how to write correctly. 
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alainbriot

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #26 on: January 01, 2019, 05:13:13 pm »

"The Elements of Style"[/url] is a short yet concise book on how to write correctly.
On my night table, figuratively speaking (I don't read in bed).  It was required reading during my PhD studies. So is On Writing by Stephen King.  A fantastic book on the craft and the art of writing (not just fiction).
« Last Edit: January 01, 2019, 05:16:35 pm by alainbriot »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #27 on: January 01, 2019, 05:23:34 pm »

... It's silly to want working photographers to come across like school teachers...

Perhaps.

Especially relevant for great working photographers, where people can forgive the lack of proper grammar. The emphasis, however, is on three words. Great. Working. Photographer.

P.S. The irony is that the above quote comes from a great photographer with great writing skills.

amolitor

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #28 on: January 01, 2019, 05:41:21 pm »

If you want to write casually, then sure, whatever. If you want the web site you've recently assumed leadership of to have a casual, uneven, tone then by all means copy-edit yourself and don't have a style guide. That's fine, that is a perfectly legitimate tone to strike. There are lots of web sites that do that.

ETA: I maintain a blog myself, that has a lot of writing on it, and it hits exactly this note. It's uneven, casual, kinda sloppy. It works fine for my purposes. So, I am not kidding when I say "that's fine."
« Last Edit: January 01, 2019, 05:45:35 pm by amolitor »
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Rob C

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #29 on: January 02, 2019, 05:54:43 am »

Perhaps.

Especially relevant for great working photographers, where people can forgive the lack of proper grammar. The emphasis, however, is on three words. Great. Working. Photographer.

P.S. The irony is that the above quote comes from a great photographer with great writing skills.


Well, on the assumption that your comment about me might fit, then could that not also just add some point to what I was remarking? I do get a little disappointed reading badly composed stuff, but if the meaning and the content come through well enough, especially if, as you indicate, both are strong, then the faults in the writing become less than secondary - for me.

Now this may be conditioning: for years and years I used to buy French PHOTO, and though I did study the language in school, like many things, lack of use made it a very rusty skill indeed, resulting in it sinking to a similar level as my present Italian, which I spoke quite freely along with English until I started to go to school, at which time English obviously became the dominant voice. Then decades later, we settled in Spain. The upshot of that has been for the three continental languages to morph into one unreliable Mediterraneo, made even more complicated recently by the discovery of a little carry-out shop run by an Italian couple, which is where I now find my gnocchi. I speak to them in what I think is Italian and not Spanish, then discover that some of it is actually Veneto, an entirely different - but similar - northern Italian language of the 1800s. (I'm not sure why, but apparently it's not considered a dialect.) Yet, when that Italian couple speaks with me, it's as if they are both speaking English: I understand it all; the problem is that my own Italian, as my French, has become terribly passive and I find myself tongue-tied, which annoys the hell out of me! But the thing is, I still enjoyed French PHOTO and I don't think much of it went over my head; my wife and I were able to drive through France many times, find and check in to hotels en route, get fed, find whatever we wanted to find, all without even retaining the level of our school skills... and today I can buy gnocchi!

I suppose the thing is that unless you are working as a contracts lawyer, detail is largely gloss, and gold remains gold, so to speak.

Anyway, I had to bleach the rubbish bin before I came online: I noticed that the thing was looking a bit more speckled than normal, which I'd fondly though was its natural "look". On taking it outside into the sunlight, I realised that no, only parts of the thing were so detailed, so out came the bleach and now it's all blindingly white again. I hope my late wife forgives me for letting things reach such a sorry state! How do women manage to stretch time so elastically, accomplish so much all at once? Maybe they don't go online as much; mine never did.

Rob

Robert Roaldi

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #30 on: January 02, 2019, 08:40:17 am »

Grammatical errors can be an issue, especially when they result in ambiguity of meaning. But sometimes they don't matter at all. One good way of dealing with them is to send a note to the author suggesting improvements.

Complaining about the errors publicly, especially after another contentious thread about the changeover is winding down, seems a little petulant. Is the intent to point out or solve the problem, or is it to complain and embarrass the new guys?

The complaints are more or less meaningless unless one can show a deterioration from what was before. I don't remember this issue coming up before, but I could easily have missed it as I don't read everything on the site. For all I know, it's possible that the grammar has improved from what was before. I'm not saying it has, I'm saying I don't know because I never paid any attention to it. Has anyone else?

This is a molehill, not a mountain.
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FMueller

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #31 on: January 02, 2019, 08:50:44 am »

Excuse me?

Was I just advised that if I feel I have a “genuine voice” I should start reading (er, I mean *re-reading*?) New Age self-help books?
« Last Edit: January 02, 2019, 09:45:53 am by FMueller »
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Rob C

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #32 on: January 02, 2019, 09:43:35 am »

My voice is genuine: it can't make singing sounds.

Truth to tell, without two fingers in my mouth it can't even produce a whistle you'd hear across the road, never mind even enough volume to assault a politically correct lady passing by on the same pavement; she'd mistake it for an incipient seizure and perhaps ask if she should help call a doctor.

Apart from such little inconveniences, I might have been a singing star of stage, screen and the assorted airways.

;-(

Robert Roaldi

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #33 on: January 02, 2019, 09:54:12 am »

I speak to them in what I think is Italian and not Spanish, then discover that some of it is actually Veneto, an entirely different - but similar - northern Italian language of the 1800s. (I'm not sure why, but apparently it's not considered a dialect.)

Same with Sicilian, I believe, that is it's not considered a dialect of Italian. Is Welsh a dialect of English? Is Scot a dialect? (And of which English anyway, the BBC English, Cockney, American English?)

I don't know how the linguists decide what is a dialect or what is a separate language. Does it depend on how far back the root language goes or for how long they've diverged? I don't have any friends or acquaintances in the business. Maybe the Google knows.
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adias

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #34 on: January 02, 2019, 01:03:57 pm »

It's interesting to note that after direct posts pointing out grammatical errors, they are still there today...
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Rob C

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #35 on: January 02, 2019, 02:06:52 pm »

Same with Sicilian, I believe, that is it's not considered a dialect of Italian. Is Welsh a dialect of English? Is Scot a dialect? (And of which English anyway, the BBC English, Cockney, American English?)

I don't know how the linguists decide what is a dialect or what is a separate language. Does it depend on how far back the root language goes or for how long they've diverged? I don't have any friends or acquaintances in the business. Maybe the Google knows.

I'm currently watching Gomorrah which is a Neapolitan gang tale. I find that some of the guys speak a more straight Italian than others, and that a lot just goes in one and out t'other. For some reason, the females are more clear, which was also the case with Montalbano which was about the Sicilian police (rural, sometimes comedy? branch) and which has influenced the kind of diet that I try to provide myself with whenever I think seafood and pasta. Who would have thought?

In contrast, La Dolce Vita used very clear language and was a gift from above. La Grande Bellezza is another Roman movie with a great Roman setting that offers a mix of official and dialect language. Sadly, I can't access that one anymore. Wish I'd remembered how to work the video recorder; there's never a woman or a bright child around when you need one.


It just struck me: maybe the fault actually lies in my hearing. Sheesh!

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: The Still Life Of Cinema: Michael Leblanc
« Reply #36 on: January 02, 2019, 03:53:07 pm »

It just struck me: maybe the fault actually lies in my hearing. Sheesh!
My hearing has been bad for over 60 years, but I still love Montalbano. That is, the novels (in excellent English translation), not the TV series, which we can't get here.

If you feed yourself the way Montalbano's housekeeper feeds him, you'd better get some exercise now and then, so youll be able to keep on commenting on LuLa for many more years.

Cheers,
Eric
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