Dirty Old New York aka Fun City, Part I (2013, Jonathan Hertzberg)

Dirty Old New York is a multi-part series–presumably always intended by editor Jonathan Hertzberg to be a multi-part series. The project has Hertzberg cutting together clips of seventies and early eighties New York City.

Hertzberg creates a narrative, sometimes just between two or three clips and those times usually for humor (he succeeds with those). He does not succeed when trying too hard with the narrative editing–there's one lengthy phone sequence in this installment and, even after the constant phone shots is getting tiresome, Hertzberg edits conversations together.

There are two more technical issues and both seem to be technology related. Hertzberg pauses shots before they fade to other shots or fade out; it's understandable (to avoid the fade) but it's too jarring. And the footage he's using has varying aspect ratios–he doesn't unify them. It too is jarring.

Dirty is fun, but Hertzberg never manages to make it sublime.

Not Recommended

CREDITS

Edited by Jonathan Hertzberg.