SXSWORLD

ingrained in us from the time we are very young and is very different to our senses than reading on a screen," reasons Sax.  Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review con- tributor and author of HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict and SXSW 2017 speaker, agrees: "Delving into a physical book is a more immersive experience than looking at a screen—it creates a separate space for your brain. Personally, I spend so much of my day staring at screens that picking up a book is a relief."  In the film world, though there has undoubt- edly been a move toward more widespread use of digital cameras and screening on digital formats, many filmmakers continue to shoot and develop their projects on tried-and-true celluloid film, just like their predecessors did a century ago. Last year at SXSW, no movies were screened using celluloid prints, but in 2017, five titles arrived in old-school film canisters and took advantage of the film projection capabilities of three Austin theaters.  One of those films, Most Beautiful Island, (directed by its writer and star Ana Asensio), won the Grand Jury Prize in the 2017 SXSW Film Awards' Narrative Feature competition. According to both Asensio and cinematographer Noah Greenberg, the choice of using film was made to evoke the look and feel of classic New York City-set films from the 1970s.  "At a foundational level with film, there's the look of the grain and the color that happens organ- ically in a different way because it's a mechanical process," explains Greenberg. "There's an aes- thetic appeal to that that isn't found in digital, and that in very subtle ways makes you feel like it's more cinematic."  "Something is lost when you see something digitally," says Gabe Klinger, director of Porto, another of SXSW 2017's celluloid films. "It's like a reproduction of a painting. It's just not the same thing ... We didn't have to do any kind of elabo- rate color correction to really get the images to pop. The results are there. With digital, you have to do a lot of tinkering, a lot of experimenting."  "I don't look at things the same way on a com- puter," says Noel Wells, director, writer and star of Mr. Roosevelt, which was shot on film and brought home two 2017 SXSW Film Awards. "I don't care about them as much, and I want things to matter. I think people feel like it's nostalgia, but I think it just literally feels better."  Still, analog devotion requires a commitment on the part of creators to overcome its added costs and inconveniences. Linna describes the extensive waits she has had to recently endure for pressing plants to deliver Norton's releases, due to backlogs caused by vinyl's increased demand. Because of the closing of most film labs, Dustin Defa, director of Person to Person, explained that he had to have a crew member physically drive the film twice a week from New York City to Baltimore to be processed. But despite these hur- dles, analog's advocates remain devoted to the personal aspect of their chosen formats.  "I think the more things transition to com- puters, the more anxious and confused I am as a person," says Wells. "When I start doing things that are physical, and I can touch them, it just makes more sense to me."  "Creativity is not always the most efficient thing," explains Sax. "Sometimes the way to achieve it makes you work a little harder, make certain sacrifices ... whether it's shooting on film, or creating something that can't be instan- taneously shared. Sometimes that's more lasting because it connects with people and is more meaningful." T he innovation superhighway is littered with forgotten media formats and devices. With the continuing advances in digital technology promising the convenience of being able to store and access one's entire media library on one small device, the future seems destined to be written on screens.  When the first iPhones and similar devices started becoming commonplace roughly a decade ago, the chorus of public opinion quickly predicted that single unit, stand-alone media formats such as records or books would soon join 8-tracks, DATs and Betamax videotapes in the dustbin of history. Yet, instead of shriveling up and blowing away during the ensuing years, the tried-and- true analog formats are holding on, and even surging in popularity compared to their digital counterparts.  In the music realm, digital downloads and compact discs have both experienced double-digit declines in recent sales years. On the contrary, alongside the rising popularity of paid streaming services, sales of vinyl LPs are burgeoning.  According to the Nielsen Music Year-End Report, vinyl sales in 2016 rose to 13 million units sold (compared to fewer than one million units sold in 2007), which marked an increase for the 11th consecutive year. For 2017, vinyl sales are projected to approach the $1 billion mark for the first time since the 1980s. In the U.K., vinyl sales (as compiled by British Phonographic Industry) reached a 25-year high in 2016, with consumers spending more on records than digital downloads. So what is driving this trend?  "Audiophiles will say there's a 'warmer' sound to vinyl which is a good word for it, but to me there's a way that a real record sounds that's familiar ... close and personal," says Miriam Linna, co-founder and operator of the Norton Records label, which has continually released vinyl since 1986. But although there have always been vinyl devotees and audiophiles long arguing the merits of LPs and 45s, the sharp increase in sales is also being fueled by younger listeners.  "Most people under 25 have listened to music on some kind of handheld device for their entire lives. They have access to all the music they own on that device, but at some point it just becomes wallpaper," explains Greg Ellis, owner and oper- ator of Austin's Groovers' Paradise Record Shop, and a veteran of the record retail and distribution business for more than 40 years. "Vinyl doesn't allow you that luxury. Every 20 minutes or so, you have to make a decision … are you going to flip that record over or pick another or do some- thing else? And you become more engaged with music than you have been your whole life, and once you become engaged with music, it's got you."  "If you go around to music festivals and ask the 20-something-year-olds, a significant number of them own a turntable," says journalist David Sax, who spoke at SXSW 2016 and is author of the book The Revenge of Analog. "They're going to physical records not out of a sense of nostalgia, but on their own merits, and as a complement to the streaming services that they all listen to."  But the renewed interest isn't just in music. On the publishing front, the eBook revolution that was supposed to render printed books and maga- zines useless has stalled. According to data from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Nielsen BookScan, eBook sales have dropped more than 10% since 2013, while print sales have risen each of the last three years. And tellingly, the steepest drop in eBooks has been in the chil- dren's and young adult categories, indicating that younger readers still prefer print.  "The experience of reading on the page is so Obsolescence Deferred as Analog Rises Again By anDy sMitH

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