Reply to Royal Brown

Turner is also the hero behind many of the glories appearing under the MGM/ UA aegis. Few if any of these color-restored, retrieved-footage, proper (or nearly proper)-aspect-ratioed movies will make it to 16mm, no matter how many financially harried administrators are urged to up rental budgets (a major problem well before video came along). The 16mm industry will continue to rent, lease, and sell fewer and fewer titles in worse and worse condition until finally it goes the way of the dinosaur. That, of course, is a shame, since, as "Statement" implies, 16mm, particularly had the technology continued to improve, could and should have been the ideal compromise medium for film study. But that is no longer in the cards. Indeed, I will encourage Queens College's Film Library to buy up 16mm prints as they become available as long as they are of reasonable quality (we had to send back one or two used prints purchased from a major distributor because of their poor color and/or condition). Because, as they say, once they're gone, they're gone. But I will also encourage the purchase of highquality monitors and more laser disc hardand software in order to be able to fully take advantage of visual, audio, and textual splendors I never dared dream of only a short time ago. I will wait with bated breath for H.D.T.V. And I will continue to encourage, through letters and phone calls of support and complaint, the video industry to persevere in the positive directions it has already begun to establish.