PDA

View Full Version : A reflection



cinemabon
10-05-2004, 08:23 AM
I am constantly amazed at how the impact of technology has on each generation. For film, the stark contrast with my high school graduation and the current trend is so vastly different, I don’t believe its true influence on society will be realized for years to come.

When I graduated in 1970, the only mode with which to see film was in one of two ways. One was to watch it on a small screen (at the leisure of the broadcaster) with a resolution of 240 horizontal lines, and that was on a perfect day with a good antenna. The other was to see it in a revival theater (something new then and only in large cities); again at the whim of the owner who decided what it was they wanted to show.

Within ten years, all that changed. Cable television was introduced, and along with that, increased access to film. While resolution was still poor, you could at least see movies on channels that showed little else. A thing called the VCR was also introduced. Over night, people had invented a cottage industry, taping and exchanging video prints of films. That segued into films being released by studios as “pre-recorded” versions, which led to rentals. Why buy when you can just rent? Of course for film buffs, they wanted their own copy. Whole rooms had to be dedicated to storing your “tape” collections.

Within five years, the VCR was replaced by the videodisc for those with discriminating taste. The laserdisc offered for the first time, increased resolution and stereo sound. Despite its bulk and weight, the laserdisc was able to deliver a great advancement in film collector’s libraries. After a few years, there were thousands of titles to choose from. Along with sight, sound advanced, too. The CD quickly replaced cassette tapes (which had replaced 8 track a few years before, which replaced reel to reel tapes). Everyone who collected film was content. Soon, there were projectors that made your 250-resolution image large, although there were those lines going through everything. Still, with a doubler, it sort of blurred them and made the difference.

By the late 1990’s however, a revolution happened from which we can never look back. Simultaneously, several technological events took place, which will forever change the medium of film. The desktop computer took over from industrial computers as having the power and memory to store vast amounts of information. These computers could all join together on something called the Internet, where they could discuss film and other less interesting topics. Film itself went digital, now present on a medium called the DVD. Smaller, lighter, and more compact than ever before, the DVD, along with increased video resolution finally brought the movie going experience (as in going to a cinema) into the home of the common person. With enough money, anyone could duplicate a movie theater in their house.

Over the years, I have been privileged to meet, work with, and discuss film with many intelligent people. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever expect to have anything like this happen within our lifetime. While you who are twenty and under enjoy this new digital technology as being the state of how things are, we who are older gasp at the current level of technology with all its wonder.

Just think, no longer do I need some lab to send me back a black and white work print. No longer do I need to physically sit at a cutter and work with pieces of film, cut and splice them into A/B etc. rolls. No longer do I need to sit in a theater while a projectionist takes a physical film and runs it through a projector, scratching it, tearing it, and changing cuts by splicing it. Everything is now digital. I can even sent my film over telephone lines and the person at the other end can burn it on a hard drive or DVD and have a perfect copy. The impact of this concept is yet to be felt. But I foresee vast implications that this technology has yet perform.

I am glad to be here to see it. Unfortunately, many of my old friends are not so lucky. How funny it would be to have them come back and find that instead of waiting months to see a film that is on some list, all they had to do was “download it” or order it over the internet. A pristine copy would be in their hands within hours, not months, weeks, or even days. They could kickback in their home theater, put it in the player, and watch in widescreen glory, a print that would dazzle and make them alive again. That, of course, is not in the foreseeable future. But who knows?

JustaFied
10-12-2004, 06:14 PM
Wonderful reflections, cinemabon. My biggest concerns with the ever-evolving systems of technology is the effect it has on our attention spans. No longer do we have time to read a book, or see a thought-provoking film, or even to put our hand on our chin and think.

Have you noticed a deterioration in the mainstream tastes of our culture, such as the movies or books that are popular? I was born in the '70's, so I can only vicariously experience this "heyday" of American film. Do you think our mainstream culture has been dumbed down in the past 30-40 years, or has it always been this vapid and predictable? Maybe I'm just romanticizing a time and place that never really existed.

Johann
10-15-2004, 02:12 PM
You've given us a crash-course in format changes, and I also recognize the "progress" that film viewing has made.

I read a new bio of Jim Morrison recently and I was struck with how as a film student back in the sixties Jim had little choice for screenings, as you point out cinemabon.

Back then you saw a film once (or twice if you really liked it) and that was it. No home access or TV, as you correctly point out.
Vinyl records were collected, not videotapes.

So there was a historical importance to going to the cinemas. Roger Ebert is excellent at relaying how waiting in line for a Godard film was an event, and how seeing the uncut 2001: A Space Odyssey was tantamount to witnessing the birth of a new art form, not to mention his tale of watching The Third Man in a Paris theatre in the 60's and realizing the power of movies.

I take a similar stance. I believe that any true cinema enthusiast will take the big screen over televison any day. I use and endorse DVD's, home theatre, etc. but I'm definitely a purist when it comes to film. There is the collector aspect to DVD (which we can all see is being flaunted to the nth degree), but being in a well-built theatre with the right sound levels and with the cleanest print cannot compare to a home view.

Home viewing is more intimate and more suited for studying films.