Home Page: The world wide web on the brink of mainstream acceptance

Shot in 1996, Home Page covers a period of time where the web was finally understood to be the transformative communication medium we know today, and follows some pioneers of that era. It is also a deeply personal look into both the director and his main subject, which is somewhat polarizing; some critics viewed it as intimate, while others saw it as the clueless direction of anti-social misfits. Regardless, this is a historically significant work that should be viewed by anyone trying to understand the zeitgeist of the early world wide web, on the brink of its mainstream acceptance.

This piece is already available for commercial rent or purchase, and if you enjoy it, I encourage you to support the filmmaker in that way. The reason I'm uploading this version of the source material is because the director is only offering it in a poorly-converted form (24p, low-res, poor field handling, crushed blacks), a choice I strongly disagree with. The original piece was shot completely on home video cameras, and I feel that the media is so integral to understanding the time period and subject matter, that you cannot -- and should not -- separate the medium from the message. So, this is my transcoding of the original 480i material, retaining all fields and detail, crushing neither whites nor blacks.

The only restoration work I performed is noise reduction; the rest is as originally presented. (I may perform shot-by-shot color correction in the future if my results can be guaranteed not to be suppressed.) The aspect ratio changes throughout the film due to the mixture of cameras and regular vs. wide-angle lenses; I opted for an aspect ratio compromise when cropping. It shouldn't be noticeable, but if it is, apologies.

Despite a deliberately obscure title and description, it is extremely likely this upload will be stricken and removed. It may even result in the removal of this entire channel. I feel that this piece is so culturally and historically important to view *properly* that I am willfully taking that risk.

Видео Home Page: The world wide web on the brink of mainstream acceptance канала Generation X Video Archive