WEEK 4 LECTURE - BIG SCREEN TO SMALL

In the week 4 lecture we explored the history of the cinema from the point of view of the cinema patron. We started off in France where cinema was born on December 28, 1895 and went all the way to today, where cinema is undergoing a technoligical reimagining.

In my limited experience with the cinema, which solely is based on what type of movies are out at the moment rather than the technological or art side of things. In the same respect as the exponential growth of computers, it is hard to believe the growth in the cinema I have seen in my life time. Moving from movies shot on normal film to films shot entirely using state of the art computer generated technology. For example films such as Tron, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Toy Story all these films show the progression of computer generated technology in recent films. Whether this obsession with technology is a good or bad thing for movies is probably grounded in personal opinion.

A good example is the fact everyone was surprised when Avatar James Cameron's hugely successful 3D epic about blue aliens lost out to the Hurt Locker for Best Picture at the 2010 academy awards. The film that basically broke every box office record imaginable was supposed to be a shoo-in for the Best Film award. But if you strip away the impressive ground breaking technology (that the script apparently had to wait 15 years for) is the movie still as good as previously thought. With it's basis solely in the love the environment theme, we have seen the core story millions of times before. One could also ask if Avatar would have knocked off Titanic (another James Cameron movie) to become the highest grossing picture of all time without the special effects.

Another trend in hollywood at the moment is re-releasing old classic films with the film and sound being upgraded to digital quality. Does this new technology make these classic films any better movies, the short answer is no. As an article on the website TG Daily states, 'Technology is no substitute for a great story and script, proper characterizations, skilled direction and cinematography'.

REFERENCE LIST

• Ebert, R. (2010). Why I Hate 3D Movies. Retrieved August 26, 2010, from http://www.newsweek.com/2010/04/30/why-i-hate-3-d-and-you-should-too.html
• Techsource. (2010). The Technology Behind Avatar (Movie). Retrieved August 25, 2010, from http://www.junauza.com/2010/01/technology-behind-avatar-movie.html
• Thomas, A. (2010). Avatar is Bad News for Movie Lovers. Retrieved August 25, 2010, from http://www.tgdaily.com/unbalanced/48209-avatar-is-bad-news-for-movie-lovers