Breakdown of Movie Making in the digital age

In “ Movie-making in the new media age”, particular attention is paid to digital film or DV and its relevance to the internet (this being the digital distribution, production and consumption of digital film on the internet). With respect to Roberts, his article was written prior to the opening of YouTube (in 2006), that has to some extent seen the manifestation of this predicament by Kim Howells:

"One of the most interesting aspects of digital technology is the possibilities it presents. Films could be seen at the same time all over the world, in different types of venue or in places where there is no easy access to cinema at present. "
(Department for Culture Media and Sport, 2002: 3)

This also ties into user-generated content and the issue of distribution and copyright. In the case of distribution, the advent of the DVD and its “extra features” utility did bring a deeper dimension to the film experience in terms of interactivity and supporting features (“documentaries, director profiles” etc). For example we can see this most clearly on another film Roberts quotes later, that being Time Code (2000). It was a movie filmed on DV with four hand held cameras in one long shot, with four narratives running simultaneously on a quartered screen. Throughout the film, we are led indirectly (through lighting, sound, camera composition and screen juxtaposition etc) to pay attention to a certain screen at a certain time. Nevertheless, if one watches the DVD version, the interactive element gives the viewer control over what screen he/she wishes to watch. In effect, by giving the viewer/user more control over the content, it changes how they experience the film with less linear emphasis on the plot that the original tried to create.

When this distributive utility is applied to the web, Roberts complains that even after the “Napsterization” of video into online file sharing format, it took him 5 hours to download Martin Scorese’s “Casino”. Today it would take you less than 20 minutes (“legalized”) and in a few years to come, with the replacement of broadband, it will take less than a nanosecond, as our experiences of “download times” (and physical distribution of film itself) become mere artifacts of nostalgia.

When we consider the web in relation to digital film production, the case of “The Blair Witch Project”(1999) stands out with its innovative use of viral marketing and small budget hand held DV cameras. We are reminded that the web provides a wealth of resources to the independent film maker, in terms of community and technical help on the movie industry (we could link David Gauntlet’s theory of collaboration and Henry Jenkins’s notion of a participatory culture here). Even so, Roberts urges caution in regard to the possibilities of digital technology as a substitute to the craft of film making itself (digital or not), as good film-making still requires “talent, inspiration, knowledge, expertise and skills”. Or as Hitchcock had put it: “a great script, a great script and a great script”. (think about the documentary “capturing avatar” and what Henry Jenkins would describe as the blending of old and new media to create a different consumer experience)

Information taken and adapted from "Writing in the Digital Age"