The digital Revelution (Blog Five)

Technology has brought film and the way we experience it into an entirely new dimension. Like most technological developments, film technology has advanced exponentially. In the early years of film production new innovations such as Technicolor, would take decades to become mainstream. In today’s digital world however, it seems there is a new way to experience film introduced every year.

Probably the single most influential invention to the film industry, the television became a fixture in most American households in the 50’s and 60’s. With a large portion of its audience staying at home, the film industry had to reinvent itself. Younger filmmakers were brought to the table to satisfy a young generation of “Baby Boomers,” hungry for something new. This led to the “New Hollywood” era of the 60’s.

In the 70’s we saw the advent of the VCR. Like most new technologies of the 1900’s, it took quite a while for the VCR to become commonplace in the American home. Before films were available for rent or purchase, movies were an event. Like other events, a plan was laid and brought to fruition. It might take a family days or even weeks before actually seeing a film they planned to see. As the VHS cassette players became more affordable and the cassettes readily available, going from the planning stage to the watching stage went from weeks/days to hours. Also, before home video ownership became mainstream most people were left with only the memory of a film. It was more like the folk tales human’s have been passing on since our beginning.

The VCR held it own against the introduction of the Laserdisc and the VCD in the 1980’s. Although revolutionary, neither invention took hold in the U.S. They were quite popular in Japan and other affluent parts of the world. The LD and VCD did however, lead to the eventual introduction of DVD technology. This grand new technology was introduced in 1995 by Sony, Phillips, Toshiba and Time Warner. Its success was due to several factors: Its storage capacity, an entire film on one disk! The remarkable improvement of sound and video quality. Its longevity (if handled properly) due to the fact that nothing actually touched the disk inside the player. Finally its compact size. Although gaining extreme popularity in the late 90’s the DVD did have some competition not long after its inception. Also in the late 90’s We saw the emergence of the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). The DVR’s ability to record, replay, pause, fast forward & rewind live television made it quite popular. While some early DVR models were swooped up by consumers, it was not until the cable TV companies started distributing them with their service package that they became commonplace in many homes.

Although the popularity of DVD and DVR players changed the way we experience movies/TV, The invention with the greatest impact on how we experience audio/video since the television is without a doubt, the internet. Netflix was established in 1997 and brought a unique DVD subscription service to the market. The company soon became the biggest player in the market, eventually driving video rental stores, such as Blockbuster and Hollywood video out of business. Netflix is now embracing mediumless video distribution! For the first time ever we are watching movies without film or disk. Welcome to the Digital Revolution.

Now in 2010 we are watching films and shows on our computers. I am a huge fan of movies and TV shows and I have not owned a TV for about five years. Instead I get all my news and entertainment from my computer. Although its becoming easier and easier to find content on the Internet, its been possible for several years now. The Internet has brought immediate gratification to our fingertips. The challenge I see for the future of film making is keeping up with the audience’s urgent need for this immediate gratification.