Technology has impacted film since it’s very creation. When technology has improved, film has also improved. Technology has and always will have a direct impact on the film industry.
Film stock consists of a flammable substance, which due to the risk of a fire has had to be replaced. Originally films were shot and projected at a variety of different speeds using hand-cranked cameras and projectors. Research indicates that mostly films were shot between 16-23 frames and projected from 18 frames upward. However, in the late 1920s when sound film was introduced a constant speed was required in order to support the consistent sound. The speed chosen was 24 frames per second as it was the slowest and therefore the cheapest speed and it could support a sufficient sound quality.
Films now don’t essentially have to even have any filming done at all. Films today can all be created through computer graphic images (CGI). There are many examples now of films that have heavily used this technology and also films that have used only this technology. An example of this would be Resident Evil: Degeneration in 2008. This film entirely uses CGI to mimic the style of the video games and therefore no actual filming needed to take place. CGI has greatly increased and improved over the years to the point where films incorporate heavy CGI with filming as can be seen in the film Beowulf in 2007. This uses a blend of both real footage and CGI, it incorporates the actor’s image and movement to create CGI figures of them. Whole characters can be added through CGI such as in The Lord of The Rings trilogy with the character of “Gollum”. This character was created through CGI using an actor to voice the character and perform the basic movements. Then they would cut out the actor and replace him with the CGI character.
As computer technology has improved over the years it has had a direct impact on the production of film. It has made the editing process much faster and has increased the amount that film editors have to do. With the addition of digital editing film editors are responsible for various areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For example, in the past, picture editors dealt with just that, picture. Sound, music, and more recently visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common for the assistant editors or even the editor to cut in music, mock up visual effects, and add sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements by the sound, music, and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture.
As Toby Miller (2006) states "By looking at how culture is used and transformed by social groups, cultural studies see people not simply as consumers, but as potential producers of new social values and cultural language". New media such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger etc. is a classic example of consumers becoming producers and as Miller says 'potential producers of new social values and cultural language' because any individual can reach the mass audience. This will be applied to the production of my film trailer as in my trailer I will be performing all of the editing functions and this is where I will be adding appropriate sound effects and a soundtrack, along with any picture editing and visual effects. My editing process is made easier and has the potential to be created to a professional standard because I will be using an Apple Mac to create my trailer and this form of technology is one of the best around and is readily available to me. The camera I will also be using is a digital SLR Canon D600. This offers an extremely good quality, professional image and so will add to the quality of my filming.
