Digital technology has brought about a huge change to how the entire
film industry operates. Digital technology has allowed films to be made for
less money, has made films much easier to make by many more people and has
allowed marketing and distribution to come a lot easier. This has also come
with the ability for consumers to much more easily transport, view and share
their films which is excellent for the consumer but can lead to difficulties
for the film studios such as with the ease at which one can pirate films.
Until the ‘50s, films could only be viewed in the cinema. This meant
that the entire revenue of a film had to come from cinema admissions. In the
1950s televisions became popular and widespread, allowing film studios to sell
their films to television channels to be broadcast after the film has stopped
showing in cinemas. However, the popularity of television led to a problem,
that being that people may stop going to the cinema if they could watch films and
TV shows in their own home. Thus, many gimmicks were developed such as an early
form of 3D in order to draw people back into cinemas.
These proved to be unsuccessful though and by the late 60s VHS was
available and people could have copies of films to watch at home whenever they
pleased. Like television, this allowed a new ‘release window’ to open for
films. Large technology companies caught on to this and began developing large
televisions and surround sound systems for the home so that one could replicate
the cinema experience in their own living room. Technology also moved on from
VHS to DVD in order to allow better quality pictures and wider aspect ratios. These
DVDs also offered multiple extras which encouraged people to buy them even if
they already owned the film on VHS.
In the late 90s the internet began to become increasingly widespread and
popular and was used as a marketing tool by putting adverts up on websites and
creating trailers and videos for the film and encouraging people to share them
in emails etc. Eventually, internet speeds became fast enough that films could
be downloaded relatively quickly. This meant that film studios could sell their
films as a download, opening up yet another ‘release window’ in which to sell
their film and make further profits. Of course, if the film companies are
allowing people to buy digital copies of their films then these copies can be
copied and shared with others, leaving the actual purchase unnecessary for
anybody else. This is a problem film studios have attempted to tackle by
creating anti-piracy measures such as security protected files and by suing
websites such as http://thepiratebay.se which host multiple pirated film files
for downloading.
One way in which film studios can stop people downloading files
illegally is by offering their files through easy-to-use on demand services
such as Love Film, Netflix and iTunes in high-definition and on servers that
can allow the consumer to download the file as fast as possible. This at least
provides an experience worth paying for as illegally downloaded files are often
low-quality and slow to download. Unfortunately for the film studios, internet
speeds are becoming faster and faster and these days it is not difficult obtain
a broadband connection which allows one to upload or download an HD movie from
a file sharing site so quickly that they can watch the movie instantly as it downloads.
More developments have also been made with physical copies of films with
the advent of Blu-Ray which offers extremely high-quality 1080p full-HD video
and 7.1 audio. Furthermore, as Blu-Rays are generally able to hold about 50GB of
data which means even more extras can be put on BDs than on DVDs, further encouraging
consumers to purchase BDs even if they own the film on other media. 3D Blu-Ray
discs have also been created which allow consumers to watch films in 3D and HD
on their 3D-enabled TV at home. This provides the benefit to the audience of
being able to bring a technology previously only available in cinemas to their
home. It also encourages more people to buy the film than download it as illegally
shared 3D HD files are hard to come by on the internet and tend to be huge and
difficult to download. But while the
film studios profit from the sales of 3D BDs, people become less inclined to
visit the cinema, as they can have the same experience without leaving the house.
But digital technology also helps with this issue, as the continually
progressing technology used in films allows films to be more cinematic (and
thus more likely to draw people into cinemas), cheaper to make (which allows
more money to be spent on marketing, making people so excited about the film
that they want to see it as soon as it comes out in the cinema) and allows for
more films to be made (providing more choice to the consumer and guaranteeing a
visit to the cinema to be an enjoyable experience). One way in which this has
been made possible is through the increasing use of DV cameras to make films. With
DV cameras, one does not have to pay for celluloid, lighting is a lot more
easily managed and the cameras are more manoeuvrable. An example of where
inexpensive DV cameras have been used to shoot a film to great effect is David
Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006). He shot the
entire film on a moderately priced standard definition Sony camcorder which
allowed him more freedom with his shots and less budget pressure, especially
helpful as he was literally making up the script as he went along.
CGI technologies have also helped to increase consumption of film as CGI
is now cheap and extremely advanced and can draw in bigger audiences who wish
to experience something that they don’t get out of real life when they go to
the cinema. This teamed with cinemas such as the IMAX in which the screen fills
the whole of the audience’s eyeline and peripheral vision and the audience is
completely surrounded by speakers combines to make experiences that not only
make audiences want to consume more film but to visit the cinema also and
really immerse themselves in films. Film studios are now also able to make more
money through cinemas as, with digital prints of films rather than celluloid,
they don’t have to pay large amounts of money to have the film printed multiple
times and distributed to different cinemas, rather they can just copy the film
and send it digitally.
In conclusion, digital technology advances have led to a great deal more
ease when it comes to making, distributing and watching film. While this
primarily provides benefits for the audience who now find it easier than ever
to watch a huge variety of films whenever they want, it can also be exploited
by film companies who can charge consumers for providing this ease of use when
it comes to watching films. However, copyright theft loses the UK
