The Impact of the Technology of Filmmaking on the Audience - Essay Example

To begin with, we receive a great amount of information through films - historical moments, biographies, feelings of the main characters, the attitude of society to the problem, and a great array of other problems. With visual and acoustic forms of presentation of the main idea of the film, people assimilate the information better. Feature films, of course, carry a lower burden of meaning, making the audience feel simple emotions - joy, anger, or fear. The historical and documentary films, on the other hand, help to learn new information about different countries, events and phenomena. From the first sound films to Technicolor and Dolby Surround Sound all the way to digital animation technology innovation in the movies had a strong impact on the audience around the world.

Digital technologies are the elements of a new artistic reality, which have a significant impact on the psychology of art perception. Cinema is a mirror, reflecting each era. The advent of computer technology created truly limitless possibilities to the makers of the movies and video games, as virtual reality implemented in mass consciousness, and the Internet have greatly moved apart the possibility of communications, had an especially essential impact on the film industry, both technically and aesthetically (Grodal, 2009). Since its inception, the cinema has been a high-tech art; it sought to use the newest technological advances. For many years, the main technical means include a film movie camera, film projector and a film strip that are continuously improved. Filming new models of devices with automatic mechanism influx and a pulsating frame apparatus for micro shooting and high-speed filming for shooting and projection of films on 16 mm film (Brett, 2010).

Movie Camera records the phase of the object on film as a series of successive still images (moving picture frames). Then, these images are projected onto the screen. The frame rate of the old black-and-white film is 1000 frames per minute (16⅔ frames per second) (Brett, 2010). It was later found experimentally that a person begins to perceive the movement as smooth starting around 24 frames (motion phase) per second, and has become the standard for shooting in almost the whole twentieth century (Grodal, 2009). In modern cinema projection, a minimum frequency is 48 flashes per second, which is 24 frames per second with a double flashing of the shutter (Hardy, 2014).

The visual image is psychologically perceived at a conscious level, and the sound is most often thought of as a natural property. That is why the extraordinary expansion of the acoustic space in the new stereo leads to psychological expansion of the visual space (Grodal, 2009). For the viewer the use of such technologies become more noticeable with the advent of special effects, which are developed on the computer. New digital technologies form a new artistic reality, which in turn has a significant impact on the psychology of art perception (Brett, 2010). The advent of computer technology has given endless possibilities the film industry, and now the lack of such technology in the video dramatically reduces its rating, respectively, and the popularity that the detrimental effect on the company as a whole.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the development of digital image recording technology, the notion of "digital cinema" or "Digital Video" has emerged (Scott, 2012). It is defined as a new type of filming, when images are recorded with a digital camera directly to a digital storage medium. In this case, a film strip becomes unnecessary in the filming process, and the projector is replaced with a digital projector, or by laser recorders that manufactured high quality digital intermediate for printing film copies (Scott, 2012). Modern digital cameras provide very high image resolution, good color reproduction and wide, inaccessible until recently, range of manipulations with the color gamut of the image (Brett, 2010). Digital technology also provides great opportunities for video graphics and special effects in movies. However, until now the standard motion picture film (35 mm) exceeds the resolution of all commercially available digital cameras for film production companies “Panavision” and “Sony” (Hardy, 2014).

Even if 15 frames per second are enough to create an illusion of movement, in order to create the "immersion effect," more staff are needed (Hardy, 2014). Visual studies have shown that even if the viewer cannot distinguish the individual images, the frame rate of the order of 60-80 makes the video more realistic, increasing clarity and fluidity of movement. HFR reduces the amount of visual motion artifacts - especially noticeable when viewed in a movie (Brett, 2010). Moving objects can be perceived, for example, with the stroboscopic effect, that is, the emergence of the visual illusion of immobility or imaginary subject movement when intermittent (at regular intervals) visual observation.

HFR can make watching videos more comfortable by reducing eye strain and fatigue. Because visual system of human perception is designed so that non-stop analyzing the information it receives, the intermittent video when viewed for prolonged periods can be very tedious - as well as your eyes get tired with the blink of CRT monitors or fluoride lamps (Poh, 2016). 3D technology is the most advanced method for reproducing the visual and sound in the world. The action of coming out of the usual plane unfolding right in front of the audience with the help of special 3D-glasses and projectors (Poh, 2016). The format of 3D is a new type of cinema, which affects the viewer, not only emotionally, but also on the physical level, representing not only the film, but also a spectacular attraction (Poh, 2016). The audience is so immersed in the film that are direct participants in the events.

Even in 1838, the Englishman Charles Wheatstone invented a demo unit, based on the difference in the perception of the image left and right eye, which theoretically allowed to see different items are not flat, but in volume (Poh, 2016). Fifteen years later, the London Stereoscopic Company struck viewers with three-dimensional views of the Niagara River, and by the mid 30-ies of the twentieth century, the stereo was available and moving images. However, the peak of cinematic stereo boom came in the 1950s, when cinema was seeking any means to win the fierce competition with television. On the effect of 3D in particular, viewing is accompanied by eye fatigue and is one of the main reasons why a number of directors do not make films in 3D.

The main trend in the development of the movie has always been the desire to "put" the viewer inside the film, making one a direct participant, not an observer outside the event (Holland, 2016). Attempts to make sound just as impressive as the images have been 6taken since the beginning of sound cinema. Working with mostly mono sound, sound engineers along with the filmmakers have taken the introduction of an attempt at cinema stereo, already known at that time in the recording. This immediately opened up more opportunities for creative expression. In this format, the sound is recorded and reproduced in two channels: it is the first time made the industry has made it possible to transfer the spatial impression that the conditions regarding the perception of sound is placing the viewer close to the natural conditions (Scott, 2012). Modern Dolby Digital system reached a new level, providing six channels of clear digital surround sound without noise and distortion. Additional channel of ultra-low frequency (LFE) adds heat of the action on the screen, fully passing the low-frequency air - "pumping" the premises; it gives the feeling of a powerful, enveloping the listener bass, as a kind of double bass in the orchestra of the speakers, reinforcing the impression of scenes of explosions and catastrophes (Grodal, 2009).

As far as in the 1950s, technological progress introduced the development and implementation of a magnetic recording and playback, as well as the creation and development of new kinds of cinema (panoramic, stereoscopic, multiscreen, and others). These technological advancements led to a significant improvement of the quality of films, and the creators started to talk about the "presence effect" of the viewer (Grodal, 2009). The impression was enhanced by a stereo sound reproduction, allowing one to create a "spatial sound future" - sounds as if it should be for the image of the source, causing the illusion of the reality of the sound source (Poh, 2016). Undoubtedly, all this is intended to enhance the viewer's depth of immersion into the atmosphere of viewing a movie.

The emergence of new multi-channel audio formats extends the capabilities of artistic expression in cinema. This process in the audio industry entails changes not only the process but also aesthetic nature (Poh, 2016). The rate, at which one replaces another format, encourages innovative thinking about the impact of means of artistic expression in the consciousness and subconsciousness of the recipient, on the threshold of his psychological adaptation (Brett, 2012). Mass viewer often sees new sound effects as another attraction, does not capture the essence of their aesthetic. In professional audience oversaturation of new technologies films, including sound, sometimes it causes psychological rejection that sometimes leads to a conscious rejection of innovationsю

The size of the subject on the screen significantly influences the overall impression of the viewer. If the director does not show a close-up of the hero, he will remain a stranger to the viewer (Hardy, 2014). However, on the other hand, if he starts the scene with a detailed plan for the correct orientation in the environment, it will need to increase the duration of the uninformative pictures, and thereby, tighten the scene. At first, wide-screen was a commercial step to attract viewers to theaters, as at that time, more and more people were hooked on TV (Holland, 2016). Many film directors resisted innovation, but as always after a certain time, they really appreciated this new canvas for them. The first wide screen movie was "Shane" in 1953 directed by George Stephenson.

Digital cinema has come to replace the outdated film. This allowed to reduce the cost of shooting in several times. For example, there was longer no need to employ the two-thousandth of a group of extras for certain shots (Grodal, 2009). That is, the director achieved the same effect in only ten times lower rate. The first among the commercial cinema titans who realized the revolutionary potential of the shooting to "figure" was George Lucas (Scott, 2012). In the second episode of "Star Wars", "Attack of the Clones," he proved that digital filmmaking exists "to realize almost any directorial plan", including simplifying the process of editing and creating special effects (Scott, 2012).

Scientists analyzing the role of digital technologies in film do not have a unified position. The first group of theorists consider them primarily as a tool to improve the special effects, expanding the capabilities of the artist to put their ideas on the screen (Poh, 2016). The second school is of the opinion that digital cinema is fundamentally different from non-numerical, not only in terms of visual and audio series, but also in terms of narrative, and the film-viewer relationship. The third group of researchers occupies an intermediate position (Brett, 2012). Historically, it turned out that academic theories arise to describe already established that formed the media.

Overall, the impact technology in filmmaking has on the viewer are tremendously significant. The language of cinema is primarily the installation. Now the intrinsic value of a particular frame is erased, spatial frames almost completely disappeared; to replace the installation space of prospects coming manipulate individual parts of static scenes. The technological revolution in the field of cinematic sound a response to global changes in the visual field. The viewer becomes physically present and psychologically deeply involved in the movie process. Expansion of the actual acoustic space cinematic compensated for the use of mega-visual items, expanding the possibilities of formal expressiveness screen - sound cinema has always manipulated the two-dimensional screen image and three-dimensional sound, fit in the space cinema.