How is new technology changing the way that
the audience consume film?
-The Evolution of film viewing.
The 20th and 21st century was subject to what’s known as the technological revolution. It was a surge of development in the technological industry. New developments such as the desktop computer, the laptop, the smart phone, innovations in the design of television have made the film industry much more accessible for all generations.
Starting with the rise of the TV in the 30s, 40s and 50s, black and white TV was used to broadcast news, early advertisement and old film. As TV developed further through the decades, more and more films made their way onto the small screen; a wide variety of genre and film was broadcasted. This encouraged a decline in people going out to cinema viewings. Suddenly, there was a new way to watch films, why would they need to spend money and go out? Film was now available on a whole new market, a whole new medium accessible for everyone. TV was becoming common place in most households across the world meaning everyone had the direct or indirect access to watch film.
Another major breakthrough was with VHS. VHS was the Video Home System, developed in Japan. It operates with an analogue recording on a videotape based cassette. The cassette was wound and read off a video player, much like a projector would have, by winding the tape and reading off the film. The 1970s was a period where video tape recording became a big part to the television and film industry. The demand for film outside the cinema was forever growing. Now, people had the chance to own the films for themselves, to watch on demand. This is a big breakthrough – film is now no longer reliant upon broadcasting companies or cinema previews – the public have the ability to watch film whenever they wish.
In the 90s, a new technological phenomenon was to be adopted. The development of the CD (Compact Disk) meant that greater quantities of external digital memory could be saved or stored with greater ease and convenience. The Compact Disk was read with a laser against infrared wavelengths from a disk. From this, came the DVD. The Digital Video Disk is an adaptation of the CD ROM. It offers much higher storage space than the CD. The slow and gradual transfer from VHS to DVD as preferred method of film viewing happened through the 90s and early 2000. It was a much more marketable method, the disks were smaller, the packaging was smaller and it was more interactive. The DVD was much more versatile; it could be played on games consoles, in specially developed DVD players, and also on computer.
Renting DVDs and Video has always been a popular method of experiencing film. Companies like Blockbuster pioneered the rental side of the film industry by making it accessible cheaply, allowing lengthy rental times and putting a brand idea behind it. Customers simply rent a film, watching a film, and return said film within a time period. The popularity of Blockbuster and similar companies would due to the fact that they held a huge variety of film, from all genres, off and online.
The steady development of computer has been a major landmark for the film industry, both negatively and positively. Whilst making DVDs available for viewing on computer is a new way of viewing, the internet has provided a massive market for film.
Internet has revolutionized the film industry indefinitely; it’s now accessible on so many mediums. Companies like play.com have emerged at the top of online sales for DVDs, by offering considerably cheap films with free postage, prices only just above trade price.
With the internet shopping market booming way above high street markets, originally cheap companies like HMV and Zavvi who were the main distributors of DVD are put on more pressure as people turn to online methods of getting their films, as they do not have to move anywhere.
The biggest negative of the internet for the film industry is Piracy. Piracy on a whole is generally a illegitimate copy or version of a product. Piracy has evolved just as much as film has.
original ‘Boot Leg’ VHS’s that were essentially copied tapes of the video, to badly obtained pirate copies; Pirate copy being a re-written DVD Rom in a printed DVD case, or an amateur camera man filming the entire film from the back row of a cinema viewing and copying the result. In the internet era, the download market is more prominent than the DVD sale market. Films are available from the more legitimate download market such as iTunes, but more illegal methods are available, for example, online streaming means that you can watch a film off of a website for free, at anytime. Other methods include P2P download. Peer to Peer download is the sharing of media from a host computer, via upload and download through an internet connection and a file sharing website to the recipient computer. Websites like BitTorrent, MegaUpload, Limewire and MediaFire are all huge figures in the illegal download market, and have all been dealt with legally in court accordingly.
In the current day, it’s difficult to avoid film. Constant advertisement during day to day life keep different films constantly embedded in our subconscious; TV, poster, radio and magazine advertisements entice people into the cinema. DVDs are often the perfect gift – at around £10 for a title, they are easy to hand out to people.
Sky, Freeview and many popular broadcasting companies constantly air films as easy time consumers in their schedule. Developments like 3D TV, Surround Sound and Blu-Ray (HD DVD) enhance the entire film viewing experience for the viewer, making home the home cinematic experience more enjoyable.
So, in essence, new technology has changed the way that we, the audience consume film massively; making it accessible for all sorts of generations and occasions.
-Felix
-The Evolution of film viewing.
The 20th and 21st century was subject to what’s known as the technological revolution. It was a surge of development in the technological industry. New developments such as the desktop computer, the laptop, the smart phone, innovations in the design of television have made the film industry much more accessible for all generations.
Starting with the rise of the TV in the 30s, 40s and 50s, black and white TV was used to broadcast news, early advertisement and old film. As TV developed further through the decades, more and more films made their way onto the small screen; a wide variety of genre and film was broadcasted. This encouraged a decline in people going out to cinema viewings. Suddenly, there was a new way to watch films, why would they need to spend money and go out? Film was now available on a whole new market, a whole new medium accessible for everyone. TV was becoming common place in most households across the world meaning everyone had the direct or indirect access to watch film.
Another major breakthrough was with VHS. VHS was the Video Home System, developed in Japan. It operates with an analogue recording on a videotape based cassette. The cassette was wound and read off a video player, much like a projector would have, by winding the tape and reading off the film. The 1970s was a period where video tape recording became a big part to the television and film industry. The demand for film outside the cinema was forever growing. Now, people had the chance to own the films for themselves, to watch on demand. This is a big breakthrough – film is now no longer reliant upon broadcasting companies or cinema previews – the public have the ability to watch film whenever they wish.
In the 90s, a new technological phenomenon was to be adopted. The development of the CD (Compact Disk) meant that greater quantities of external digital memory could be saved or stored with greater ease and convenience. The Compact Disk was read with a laser against infrared wavelengths from a disk. From this, came the DVD. The Digital Video Disk is an adaptation of the CD ROM. It offers much higher storage space than the CD. The slow and gradual transfer from VHS to DVD as preferred method of film viewing happened through the 90s and early 2000. It was a much more marketable method, the disks were smaller, the packaging was smaller and it was more interactive. The DVD was much more versatile; it could be played on games consoles, in specially developed DVD players, and also on computer.
Renting DVDs and Video has always been a popular method of experiencing film. Companies like Blockbuster pioneered the rental side of the film industry by making it accessible cheaply, allowing lengthy rental times and putting a brand idea behind it. Customers simply rent a film, watching a film, and return said film within a time period. The popularity of Blockbuster and similar companies would due to the fact that they held a huge variety of film, from all genres, off and online.
The steady development of computer has been a major landmark for the film industry, both negatively and positively. Whilst making DVDs available for viewing on computer is a new way of viewing, the internet has provided a massive market for film.
Internet has revolutionized the film industry indefinitely; it’s now accessible on so many mediums. Companies like play.com have emerged at the top of online sales for DVDs, by offering considerably cheap films with free postage, prices only just above trade price.
With the internet shopping market booming way above high street markets, originally cheap companies like HMV and Zavvi who were the main distributors of DVD are put on more pressure as people turn to online methods of getting their films, as they do not have to move anywhere.
The biggest negative of the internet for the film industry is Piracy. Piracy on a whole is generally a illegitimate copy or version of a product. Piracy has evolved just as much as film has.
original ‘Boot Leg’ VHS’s that were essentially copied tapes of the video, to badly obtained pirate copies; Pirate copy being a re-written DVD Rom in a printed DVD case, or an amateur camera man filming the entire film from the back row of a cinema viewing and copying the result. In the internet era, the download market is more prominent than the DVD sale market. Films are available from the more legitimate download market such as iTunes, but more illegal methods are available, for example, online streaming means that you can watch a film off of a website for free, at anytime. Other methods include P2P download. Peer to Peer download is the sharing of media from a host computer, via upload and download through an internet connection and a file sharing website to the recipient computer. Websites like BitTorrent, MegaUpload, Limewire and MediaFire are all huge figures in the illegal download market, and have all been dealt with legally in court accordingly.
In the current day, it’s difficult to avoid film. Constant advertisement during day to day life keep different films constantly embedded in our subconscious; TV, poster, radio and magazine advertisements entice people into the cinema. DVDs are often the perfect gift – at around £10 for a title, they are easy to hand out to people.
Sky, Freeview and many popular broadcasting companies constantly air films as easy time consumers in their schedule. Developments like 3D TV, Surround Sound and Blu-Ray (HD DVD) enhance the entire film viewing experience for the viewer, making home the home cinematic experience more enjoyable.
So, in essence, new technology has changed the way that we, the audience consume film massively; making it accessible for all sorts of generations and occasions.
-Felix
