New Media Tech

1. Directors used to film movies on celluloid film, but with the invention of digital camcorders this may become a thing of the past. Although it does cost to store the footage, shooting digitally is a lot cheaper than shooting on celluloid. “A celluloid print runs costs of about £100,000, while for a digital distribution costs could be cut to one hundredth of that, around £1000.” BBC News. With the move to digital recorders, it will be much easier to shoot films, thus saving the companies even more money. Editing with celluloid film was a literal cut and paste job. Editors would cut out the frames not wanted and stick the film back together afterwards. This was a laborious task and took many hours. However with digital film it is much easier to get the film onto a computer and digitally edited in any way you wish. Computer aided special effects can be added in postproduction, for example CGI and green screening, which could never have been done before on celluloid.

2. Nowadays films aren't only watched in cinemas. Films can be rented from the nearest video rental store, they can be watched on TV, they can be watched or on demand services such as BT vision or Sky and they can be legally or illegally downloaded off the Internet. At the moment the majority of the cinemas in the UK are still using celluloid film projectors. It is due to the cost that the cinemas would have to pay to get digital film projectors, and also the threat of piracy. “At the start of 2005, there will around 300 cinemas in the world with digital projectors. By January 2006, it'll be 2000, and this is anticipated to grow dramatically into the future.” BBC News.

3. Cinema ticket prices are on the increase and this is making less people want to go to see movies in the cinema. At the same time as this increase of cinema ticket prices, the prices for home cinema systems are on the decrease. More and more people now are buying home cinema systems and watching films on them instead of going to see the films in the cinema. Now more than ever, it is easier to illegally download films off the Internet. This is crippling the movie industry and making film companies lose millions of pounds in profit.

BBC News source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4681859.stm