Cinema and the Digital Age

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“Film has shaped the new media to accommodate it” -David Bordwell, Kirsten Thompson, p.730. Since the introduction of Digital Cinema in the late 90’s, it is fair to say that we are well and truly immersed in a new digital age for film. Despite some filmmaker’s objection to the introduction of digital cinema, and an overall wariness of the conversion from traditional films to digital, nowadays, the majority of films that we see in the cinema are digitally made. “The next ten years may witness the almost complete disappearance of celluloid film stock as a recording, distribution, and exhibition medium.” (Roderick. The Virtual Life of Film (2007)) Furthermore, many classic films such as Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” (1937) and Stephen Spielberg’s “Jaws” (1975) have been digitally remastered to improve our viewing quality and experience. In this essay, I aim to illustrate how film has shaped the new media to accommodate it, and also discuss how the advent of digital technologies are reworking the role of images. With Digital Cinema, it is possible to watch movies anywhere, anytime, and pretty much on whatever device you wish. This idea seems extremely appropriate with the pace at which the world is moving at the moment. Almost everyone you meet has some form of android or smart phone, iPod, iPad or other portable device in which they can watch a film on. “iPods are the latest digital device to enable audio-visual imagery to go mobile, allowing viewers to watch and listen in almost any context, provided they have first downloaded their tunes and podcasts” (Wood, Aylish; Digital Encounters. 2007) In being able to watch a movie on the go, on your phone or tablet is certainly one way in which “Film has shaped th... ... middle of paper ... ... But I also look forward to what technologies will be developed next to reshape film and the new media. Bibliography Roderick, D.N., 2007. The virtual life of film. London: Harvard University Press. Belton, J., 2012. “Digital 3D cinema: Digital cinema’s missing novelty phase.” Film History, Volume 24. Indiana: Indiana University Press. Prince, S., 1996. “True lies, perceptual realism, digital images and film theory”. Film Quarterly, volume 49. California: University of California Press. Thompson, K., Bordwell, D., 2010. Film history: An introduction (third edition). Singapore: McGraw Hill. Wood, A., 2007. Digital Encounters. New York: Routledge. Willis, H., 2005. New digital cinema; reinventing the moving image. London: Wallflower. Manovich, L., 1999. What is digital cinema? http://www.manovich.net/TEXT/digital-cinema.html. Accessed on 19/12/2013.

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