Connections by James Burke (1978)
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Connections by James Burke (1978)
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Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#2Good childhood memories of this program. A thoroughly engaging view of how ideas cascade through time, how small changes can evolve into large ones. It was a big influence on how I lecture.
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#3I see a lot of similar stuff on Youtube these days.
A recent Economics Explained walked through wealth inequality in some Scandinavian countries (TL;DR: it's high). This is different from income inequality, which is quite low. It walked through the wealth of Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, who has a net worth of $13B, by virtue of having inherited Heineken. Her family bought (not founded) Heineken 200 years ago, and the family fortune dates back a half-millennium.
There are really neat documentary channels like that. I'm not downplaying Burke, who was brilliant, but two bits of progress:
- In 1978, he didn't have the Internet. Research is much easier today.
- In 2020, anyone can produce high-quality documentaries. In 1978, you needed a massive investment.
I'm not trying to imply it's easy, but we've gone from where you need a video editing studies, reels of film, and a research team, to where you just need to spend a few years as a super-nerd to pick up the requisite skills, and drop perhaps $2000 on cameras and microphones. Indeed, if you're scrappy, you can do pro-quality with just a better cell phone and computer, with a lot more work.
I'd guess a lot of channels were inspired by Connections.
I know Mechanical Universe inspired a lot of (now better) Youtube channels, like 3Blue1Brown. So these early documentaries were pivotal, but we've also come a long ways from there.
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#4I see a lot of similar stuff on Youtube these days. A recent Economics Explained walked through wealth inequality in some Scandinavian countries (TL;DR: it's high). This is different from income inequality, which is quite low. It walked through the wealth of Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, who has a net worth of $13B, by virtue of having inherited Heineken. Her family bought (not founded) Heineken 200 years ago, and t…
It's like his claim continues to ring true even through his own works.
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#5I see a lot of similar stuff on Youtube these days. A recent Economics Explained walked through wealth inequality in some Scandinavian countries (TL;DR: it's high). This is different from income inequality, which is quite low. It walked through the wealth of Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, who has a net worth of $13B, by virtue of having inherited Heineken. Her family bought (not founded) Heineken 200 years ago, and t…
If I am not mistaken, you are saying that technical entry barriers into documentary filmmaking are much, much lower today than in 1978, and therefore it is much easier to create such a series today. The former is definitely true, but consider the following:
- "Connections" used a substantial amount of acted historical scenes. Creating them in such a quality (and not some sketchy animation or a re-cut of existing work) is still a challenge today. You need half-decent actors.
- Technical quality is secondary to content. "Connections" is not just a collection of interesting and well-made bits about how technology evolved, there is an entire and compelling theory behind it, which Burke tries to bring accross. Such aspirations, executed with such intellectual and inspirational confidence, need something more than just technical ability and financial resources. Just because paper and ink got much cheaper since the 16th century, we didn't suddenly produce a Shakespeare every 2 years.
So far, I haven't seen any historical documentation on YouTube which even compares to the depth and width of "Connections".
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#6Connections, Connections 2, and Connections 3 are gold-mines of information. The information density is incredible, and it's enjoyable to watch.
The show holds up very well given it's age, but the image quality is especially difficult to watch on modern LCD screens.
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#7Connections, Connections 2, and Connections 3 are gold-mines of information. The information density is incredible, and it's enjoyable to watch. The show holds up very well given it's age, but the image quality is especially difficult to watch on modern LCD screens.
I wonder if it was produced on film. This would allow a remastering, similar to Seinfeld [0].
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#8Connections, Connections 2, and Connections 3 are gold-mines of information. The information density is incredible, and it's enjoyable to watch. The show holds up very well given it's age, but the image quality is especially difficult to watch on modern LCD screens.
I wonder if it was produced on film. This would allow a remastering, similar to Seinfeld [0]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFIrsitJW5M
In that era typically only things recorded in studios would be video, the rest would be film. So Connections could certainly he remastered, and I hope the BBC does so. Some of their older documentaries, like Ascent of Man, already got that treatment.
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#9Full seasons of this show are available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke/
I've been meaning to watch more of them...maybe I'll get around to it over the holiday weekend. :)
Re: Connections by James Burke (1978)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if it was produced on film. This would allow a remastering, similar to Seinfeld [0]. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFIrsitJW5M
In that era typically only things recorded in studios would be video, the rest would be film. So Connections could certainly he remastered, and I hope the BBC does so. Some of their older documentaries, like Ascent of Man, already got that treatment.
I fear that another BBC favorite of mine, How Buildings Learn [0], is too modern (90ies) to have been produced on film...