Films in Digital Age - Coursework Example

Films in Digital Age Name Course Lecturer Date 1. Films in the Digital Age include „worlds‟ that are highly imaginative (e.g. Harry Potter films). Films are sometimes conceived in a literary form and then turned into a script and a film. Films since the 1920s and into the 21st century have used physical models and stage properties of some kind (e.g. Metropolis, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Harry Potter). In the digital age, visual effects are created by composite images and ongoing production techniques, practices and narratives. Discuss. Essay plan Films are creation of events in a highly imaginative and creative ways. They are developed from literal understanding of the world, and then developed to capture the most interesting and exiting thoughts at the time. The films in the Digital age have not completely deviated from past notions of performance and film properties. Most of its aspects, in terms of performance have only undergone improvements without swerving from original formalities. However, with a more sophisticated and highly converged technology, the current films capture more and perhaps spectacular visual effects. Technology development has played a vital role in incorporating these aspects, creating a synchronized innovative outcome. The limitations of predecessor technology, begets improvements of its successor to incorporate the most fascinating phenomena. The continuous changes in the world demands modernization of other aspects, of which, the film is central not only by its development but also changing the most aspects of life. The genre involved with the new media also undergoes a continuous improvement to cover ‘new’ experiences to its audience. In most cases, the narratives are created though fantasies, imaginations and future expectation of society. Through these processes films remains relevant, not only at time of their production, but also in the future. The process of technological development and creation has created unending production and reproduction of characters, interesting subjects and experiences. This is because; films serve a significant role in every stage of its development. They are created to serve consumers various contexts. This is enabled by an ongoing production techniques, practices and narratives. Consequently, a detailed viewpoint of the current films with their enabling technology is critical in analysis of films development. The historical, social and technological analysis of films and media technology reveals an ongoing remediation, convergence and social needs that shape the films. Films in the Digital Age include „worlds‟ that are highly imaginative (e.g. Harry Potter films). As Hargittai & Walejko, (2008) argues, films are interesting components of the society, particularly in the digital age. They serve and ensure an effective representation of economic, educational, cultural, political and social aspects to its audience. The purpose has currently become apparent that, they are not limited at the home of production but extend geographical location out of demand. This has enabled some countries to become a global hub in film production in digital age. Films in the digital age encompass the world’s most diverse, imaginative and vibrant culture which is in most cases underpinned by the flourishing and competitive film industry. The common aims of most films are to build creativity and skills. The purposes add value to what would have seemed normal and obvious to the audience. As the production is enabled to cover more aspects of voice, picture, motions and performance, a film incorporates the most interesting of such skills. This is factor behind the potential of film to flourish as it has never been before. Digital technology has started to transform the financing, production, distribution and consumption of moving images and films. With the crash down of many historical barriers which made it difficult for most audiences to gain the access of wider range films, knowledge and skills have improved (Wright, 2008). According to Hargittai & Walejko (2008), to cater for wider and diverse audiences, film making in digital age, stimulate greater choice. This can be seen through the coverage of real life experiences, fantastic movies, documentaries and sessions. The content includes natural, historical, social and varieties of aspects that interest different audiences. Diversity and inclusion, partnership and collaboration have played a significant role in film making and development. To bring higher resolution, and diversity, public figures, senior industry, screen agencies, culture directors, media and sports personalities are immensely covered. As a profession, film making involves the work and advice of the national or international board of directors, expert advice to deliver public value and economic benefit. A central role of film in encouraging participation and other learning opportunities has and continue to play a significant role. Most abstract notions of learning, issues and things that are absent in geographical, physical and current times are demonstrated through sophisticated imagination to fills the desire of a futuristic society. The enabled technologies allow immediate feedback bringing the audiences and the producer together in developing and improving films. The digital age technology with its efficient, faster communication stimulates sharing of ideas and experiences. Through the convergence of technology film makers have ensured that there are less barriers of accessing the materials and publications. People in need of large print, audiotape versions of films and Braille disc are also catered for. Films must be highly imaginative to survive in the digital age. Most are adapted work that appeals to a producer gaining his interest by the way it is popular and the underlying reasons for such popularity. Encounter with film work sparks imagination which is applied in other media or genre. The concepts, story, characters, action and dialogue are some dimensions that require high imagination and this is extremely rare event. In most cases, getting an original story that can function well on all necessary dimensions is rare. They catch attention of the audiences through design. Most importantly reasons that most producers adapt other work is the less risk involved. Adapted work, created with imaginations poses possibilities of enormous financial gains. This is due to the fact that, it has attracted following, appeals to broader group and its author, title and characters are possible to franchise (Virdi, 2003). The appeals come from an interesting story and characters that do and say interesting things. Such movies have characters battling dragons and zombies in perhaps a created real life situations or in their minds. The purpose is to give and keep the audience from reassuring themselves that the play can't hurt them. The design in most posters, font choice, title sequence cases are enticing. A trend of designers and artists pay homage of films and designing with novel features. Wondrous fantasy, love struck personalities, mysterious experiences; mythical heroes are portrayed with vivid imagination. The lines between the reality and fiction revolutionize the advances of the film imagination experiences. Most other films demonstrate world of gods, monsters, hell, wonderland, witches and where human change into animals and other creatures. As Brown, (2002) discusses, Harry Potter films, are a good example of films that use magical scenes and contents like wizards and witches. Children enhance their creativity by watching these films, as it has been confirmed by researchers. Magical thinking enables creation of fantastic imaginary worlds enhancing people capacity in viewing their world so as to act upon it in multiple perspectives. This expands the audiences imagination helping them thinks more imaginatively. Harry Potter, through magical thinking believes in supernatural events including animals speaking like humans, a witch flying with a broomstick. The ability of constructing an alternative world requires many imaginations. The audience uses them not only for entertainment but also for divergent thinking and development of imagination. Other genres that are included in these films are fantasy, coming of age and elements of adventure, romance, thriller and mystery ads to references and cultural meanings. Other like the theme of immortality, oppression, survival, normality and overcoming imposing odds are prevalent aspects that inform imagination. Films are sometimes conceived in a literary form and then turned into a script and a film. Cartmell, Hunter & Whelehan, (2001), discusses that, the literary form of films, as seen in the teleplay and screenplay compares to that presented in the theatre. There are multiple literary elements in the films such as the setting, structure, characterization, irony, symbolism, theme and metaphor. The theme in every film is the unifying element without which the other elements cannot be defined. This makes some of its aspects hard to understand, for instance in the case of the use of metaphor which compares two seemingly unrelated events or things that are thematically related. Through literary adaptation, literary source such as novel, poem, short stories are adapted to another medium or genre such as film. This enables a purpose like working a smaller cast, venue and different demographic groups. The underlying reasons make the film gains popularity and increase interests. As Mamer, (2008) argues, film production follows different stages which can be conceived in a traditional ways of storytelling and stage performance. The discrete stages have been pronounced in the digital age, to include more action on each stage. The initial story develops out of a real experience, imagination or incorporation of different thoughts. The idea is developed through scriptwriting which was a primary and most sophisticated stage of production before the 18 th Century. Instead of the traditional stage performance, the digital age includes other significant stages which were impossible before the invention of a converged technology. The script is cast with other fine stages like shooting, editing, and screening done on the finished product. The product is released to the audience through exhibition and film release. Today, film making happens in various parts of the world to demonstrate a range of social, economic and political context. Through the use of variety technologies and techniques a number of people are included which may take some months or years to complete. In short, the three major stages apply to all the film making not only today but also in the past. These includes the pre-production; a stage where preparations are made. Film crew and cast are hired, locations selected and set build. The development creates the ideas, rights to play and books are bought and screenplay written before pre-production. The second stage is the production where the raw elements of finished film get recorded and finally the post-production which has been synonymous with digital age. This includes editing of the film, for dialogue, concurrently edited; music tracks are composed, then performed and recorded. Sound effects are recorded and designed with digitally adding of other computer-graphic and visual effects. After all the sound elements get mixed the stem is joined with the picture completing the film. Films since the 1920s and into the 21st century have used physical models and stage properties of some kind (e.g. Metropolis, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Harry Potter). The most important elements in film production are message and purpose. From 1920, the technical elements of film developed from simple to a more complex mechanism. The stage used to and still imposes physical limits of technology and size. It is not possible to make every illusion appear real as it happens on the movie screen today. However, significant phenomena are still manifest in the modern films due to the possibilities of synchronized digital technologies. Stages or theatrical properties or props have been used to set the mood, assist the actors and characters to portray their roles and establish various locations. There few props which are essential in the production of films, and additional props are used as desired or when available. By them, actors further the story or the plot of theatrical production. Larger props include the set decoration and prop such as a table and a chair. An item can be touched by a performer for reasons according to the script requirements (Sundaram & Chang, 2000, October). Film making in 20 th Century had special dominance of performers provided with specific attires and costumes. There were other special items such as stage furniture, weapons and hand held devices which in most cases were company property. A mask was used by performers and is still a common symbol in theatre today for both comedy and tragic film production. In the past decades, live-performance practice used props to give actors, scenery, place, character and space specific period. They were traditional used in plays, comedy, public-speaking performances, circus and novelty. In the modern age, the term extends to film, electronic media, motion picture production and television. Props have been broadened in recent years to include valuable and prized collector’s items. Most of them are ordinary objects, but must be understood on-screen and look real to the audiences. Currently, real objects are highly adapted by changing their size and color under bright lights. The current technology allows designing of such objects to look like actual items or even more than a real objet may appear. In other cases, they are designed in a way that they can behave differently from real object for safety purposes. Some of special props used today include weapon such as stage gun or sword, burlap bag, breakaway objects and hero props. This is a significant area in modern film making. Since there is high imagination of most film contents, the ordinary objects undergoes sophisticated transformation to demonstrate a real time experience. Acquiring, construction and designing process requires working in coordination and the set designers for costume, sound, lighting positions overlap. This role is of greater importance in digital age of film production. Props have therefore become more specialized. All these stage properties augment the production. Special effects advances are essential in great science fiction films and movies. Metropolis, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey has remained in number on position of the science fiction films that are most popular. It is a Sci-fi masterpiece with awe-inspiring power (Gold, 2001). The same effects have been used for James Cameron’s; Avatar is another science fiction epic that recently turned into the biggest grossing movie of all time. The time difference between the two films and their popularity reveals the usefulness of physical models and stage properties to enhance aspects that are critically limited in natural film arena. These effects blend a new, complex and interesting characters, backgrounds and genres that serve audience desires in a less natural mode communicating a social theme. In the digital age, visual effects are created by composite images and ongoing production techniques, practices and narratives. As argued by Brinkmann, (2008), the digital age is dominated by creation and manipulation of imagery, outside live action shoot contexts. Visual effects are associated, particularly with motion film production. This has been enabled through visual effects involving various processes that integrate live action footage to generate this imagery and create environments that appear realistic. The reason behind the use of visual effects is that most of environments created and manipulated would rather be dangerous, costly and simply impossible for film to capture. There are computer generated imagery used to create imagery and manipulating it outside which is accessible to filmmakers through the affordable compositing and animation software. Often, visual effects are integral to movie appeal and story. Most visual effects are planned in pre-production and choreographed in production. They are then completed at post-production stage. Designing and editing is done through the use of modeling, graphic design, and animation with similar software in post-production. Special effects are also made on set including car chases, explosions and so on. To achieve the desired effects, film directors are involved from the onset to work closely to the production. According to Rauterberg, (2004), the processes of visual effects in entertainment industry include various visual effects practitioners such as artists, model makers, technologists, studio leaders, educators, supervisors, producers and RR/marketing specialists. Currently, due to the dominance of visual effects in film industry, all areas of entertainment including film, commercials, television, games and music videos rely on it. There are various categories of visual effects that produce the desired effects. The most common include models such as animatronics, miniature sets and stop motion animation. Live-action effects are enhanced by keying actors and models through green and bluescreening. Matte stills and paintings use traditional or digital photographs and paintings to serve as background plates for rotoscoped and keyed elements. Digital animation allows modeling, texturing, computer graphics lighting animating, and rigging and to render computer-generated 3D backgrounds, characters, digital sets and particle effects. Digital effects integrate still photography with computer generated imagery and create environments that appear realistic. References Brinkmann, R. (2008). The art and science of digital compositing: techniques for visual effects, animation and motion graphics. Morgan Kaufmann. Brown, S. (2002). Marketing for Muggles: The Harry Potter way to higher profits.Business Horizons, 45(1), 6-14. Cartmell, D., Hunter, I. Q., & Whelehan, I. (2001). Retrovisions: Reinventing the past in film and fiction. Pluto Press. Gold, J. R. (2001). Under darkened skies: the city in science-fiction film.Geography, 337-345. Hargittai, E., & Walejko, G. (2008). The Participation Divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age 1. Information, Community and Society,11(2), 239-256. Mamer, B. (2008). Film production technique: creating the accomplished image. Wadsworth Publishing Company. Rauterberg, M. (2004). Positive effects of entertainment technology on human behaviour. Building the Information Society, 51-58. Sundaram, H., & Chang, S. F. (2000, October). Determining computable scenes in films and their structures using audio-visual memory models. In ACM Multimedia (Vol. 2000). Virdi, J. (2003). The cinematic imagination: Indian popular films as social history. Rutgers University Press. Wright, C. (2008). Reconciling Cultural Diversity and Free Trade in the Digital Age: A Cultural Analysis of the International Trade in Content Items. Akron L. Rev., 41, 399. Read More

As the production is enabled to cover more aspects of voice, picture, motions and performance, a film incorporates the most interesting of such skills. This is factor behind the potential of film to flourish as it has never been before. Digital technology has started to transform the financing, production, distribution and consumption of moving images and films. With the crash down of many historical barriers which made it difficult for most audiences to gain the access of wider range films, knowledge and skills have improved (Wright, 2008).

According to Hargittai & Walejko (2008), to cater for wider and diverse audiences, film making in digital age, stimulate greater choice. This can be seen through the coverage of real life experiences, fantastic movies, documentaries and sessions. The content includes natural, historical, social and varieties of aspects that interest different audiences. Diversity and inclusion, partnership and collaboration have played a significant role in film making and development. To bring higher resolution, and diversity, public figures, senior industry, screen agencies, culture directors, media and sports personalities are immensely covered.

As a profession, film making involves the work and advice of the national or international board of directors, expert advice to deliver public value and economic benefit. A central role of film in encouraging participation and other learning opportunities has and continue to play a significant role. Most abstract notions of learning, issues and things that are absent in geographical, physical and current times are demonstrated through sophisticated imagination to fills the desire of a futuristic society.

The enabled technologies allow immediate feedback bringing the audiences and the producer together in developing and improving films. The digital age technology with its efficient, faster communication stimulates sharing of ideas and experiences. Through the convergence of technology film makers have ensured that there are less barriers of accessing the materials and publications. People in need of large print, audiotape versions of films and Braille disc are also catered for. Films must be highly imaginative to survive in the digital age.

Most are adapted work that appeals to a producer gaining his interest by the way it is popular and the underlying reasons for such popularity. Encounter with film work sparks imagination which is applied in other media or genre. The concepts, story, characters, action and dialogue are some dimensions that require high imagination and this is extremely rare event. In most cases, getting an original story that can function well on all necessary dimensions is rare. They catch attention of the audiences through design.

Most importantly reasons that most producers adapt other work is the less risk involved. Adapted work, created with imaginations poses possibilities of enormous financial gains. This is due to the fact that, it has attracted following, appeals to broader group and its author, title and characters are possible to franchise (Virdi, 2003). The appeals come from an interesting story and characters that do and say interesting things. Such movies have characters battling dragons and zombies in perhaps a created real life situations or in their minds.

 The purpose is to give and keep the audience from reassuring themselves that the play can't hurt them. The design in most posters, font choice, title sequence cases are enticing. A trend of designers and artists pay homage of films and designing with novel features. Wondrous fantasy, love struck personalities, mysterious experiences; mythical heroes are portrayed with vivid imagination. The lines between the reality and fiction revolutionize the advances of the film imagination experiences. Most other films demonstrate world of gods, monsters, hell, wonderland, witches and where human change into animals and other creatures.

As Brown, (2002) discusses, Harry Potter films, are a good example of films that use magical scenes and contents like wizards and witches.

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