Cinema and television have gone through a massive transformation over the years moving from analogue to digital technologies. you can be a filmmaker, a critic or someone who enjoys watching movies an you may notice how different things feel from how stories are told and made. while some will see this change revolutionary, others would argue it is a loss of something special. one thing i know for certain is that technology has reshaped production, exhibition and consumption in ways we wouldn’t possibly have imagined decades ago.

The journey from analogue to digital started back in the 1980s and 1990s, the changes were made with the arrival of digital cameras, editing software and CGI. these special tools opened up new creative tools new creative mindsets offering ways to push boundaries and break so-called “rules”. By 1990s and the 2000s the industry started to embrace digital formats, movies were shot and projected digitally. then in the mid-2000s, a big change happened again where streaming platforms were introduced like Youtube and Netflix changing the game for everyone.

In this Youtube video it delves deep into the message of film and digital movie, how each tells a great story but in different ways. there is no wrong or right answer but acknowledging the beauty of both sides and remembering where it all started.

There has been many debates about the shift to digital, media theorist like Lev Manovich and David Rodwick talks about how digital technologies are reshaping our relationship with cinema, which it is correct but it is not a bad change. In fact someone (me) who grew up around technologies sees the beauty in digital technologies and see why the changes were made i still do apricate film because growing up i have watched a lot of movies where it was shot on film and the story was portrayed beautifully along with the cinematography and mise-en-scene. Rodwick for instance sees the digital era as “the disappearance of film and photography as it was experienced 150 years” he argues that analogue images were capturing physical traces of reality having more of a emotional connection an emotional depth that digital images lack. I disagree to a certain extent, yes i agree film depending on the movie can capture so can digital; “The revenant” (2015) captured on a digital camera, “Roma” (2018) and “blade runner 2049” (2017).

To conclude, the digital transformation of cinema is not about erasing the analogue it is about reimaging storytelling. there is nostalgic and special about the nature of film stock but digital media has and brings its own strengthens to life such as flexibility, accessibility. whether analogue or digital cinema is about storytelling technology has changed on how we capture those stories and having the freedom to desire to connect and create meaning.

Amiga Harewood 33741415