Technical changes essay

A massive change has occurred in terms of the way technology has advanced, also changing the way we now consume media. Possibly technology's greatest effect in the modern era is likely felt in new cameras used by photographers to shoot video in a much higher definition. Technology as a whole is currently driving whole parts of film, making things in movies possible that weren't possible before. Here are a few examples that have made film making a lot easier through technology.

Over time technology has become more advanced and changed the way media is made and watched. One of the biggest changes, however, was probably the switch from film, to a digital camera. In the past, the only way to film was to use a film camera which were these big machine like cameras that were very expensive as well, meaning it was not widely used for just anything but rather just for big productions and movie sets, just to name a few examples. You would have to put massive amounts of these rolls of film which usually could only film for about 10 minutes or so. Mistakes had to be few, as you could not just delete a scene that didn't span out well because it was seen to be a waste of film and the actors' time. Also, there was no watching back the scenes that had happened, so filming was a very specified job meaning the person controlling it had to make it as near to perfect as possible with as minimal as possible mistakes so that they did not have to reshoot when they had watched it back later on. When it has all been filmed it is sent to someone to become developed so it can be looked at the next day. Also like I mentioned before if the filming didn't go well, they didn't get the finished product they wanted, they would have to do it all again and wait to see if they did it right the second time, this caused the actors to become quite good at their acting which meant they didn't have to keep redoing shots again that didn't work out the first time. At first, when digital cameras came out in the early 90s the first models didn't even compare to the quality of the original film camera. This allowed the cast and crew to re-watch the clips back and took away the need to all watch it later the next day, which they called daily's as they could just watch it from the camera, this was revolutionary. Also, the need to buy large rolls of film was no longer needed as they could just be electronically stored, this meant budgets didn't have to be as big because there were no big, bulky, expensive cameras, or film, there were only the digital cameras. Along with the fact they were more compact and smaller, it also made it easier that it was handheld and more mobile, meaning they could make the movements more realistic. Also, the digital camera could film for extended periods of time compared to the film cameras meaning they only had to do an easy and fast changeover which would last them a few hours, rather than the film cameras which could only film for about 10 minutes on average and took longer to swap out the rolls. 

Post-production was also affected in a positive way. Before the days of computer edited movies, they used to have to carefully cut each little piece of film and place it and tape in the right order, so that the movie had a good flow-on effect. Editing the film also included color grading some of the shots which meant they would have to cut out those shots and color them separately, putting them in order. This more often than not took longer than the actual filming of the movie. In our day and age, all we need are different computer programs that do essentially what the old filmmakers used to do but faster and better with more options and effects, also making it easier with the ability to just delete and redo with the touch of buttons, whereas it would have taken the filmmakers in the past ages to redo and fix any mistakes they made. Also, the addition of special effects greatly benefitted the movie industry, making the movies look better and more realistic in the cases of explosion etc...

Back in the days of film cameras, they used to try and get the movies into the cinemas and then release it on videotape, but this idea was mostly scrapped, besides from the attempts to get their movies into the cinemas, because people still go because of the experience although they have to go out of their way to go and watch it whereas they could just stay at home and watch the movie later on online streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Disney +., also they want to go to the cinemas when a movie is newly released because they are able to see it before others do on these streaming platforms. This is why a lot of production companies do not bother spending money on creating physical copies of a movie because it is a waste of time trying to compete against the multi-million subscribed to streaming sites that make mega millions from the people who are subscribing daily. As well as this there are free platforms like youtube, that allow you to constantly upload for free to billions of people around the world who are active daily, and social media sites like Facebook, and Instagram where you can freely advertise your product so millions and billions of people can see your advert about your upcoming movie. Although this is all well and good with the new invention of streaming services, it does make it easier and more likely that films become pirated and illegally downloading movies is easier than ever with 100s of websites selling the product, that people have spend lots of money on, for free which is very sad and unfortunate. 

This shows how much technology has changed over a very short span of time and it is always growing better and more efficient, what will technology be doing for the media in 10 years time?  i guess well just have to find out.