Well folks, lets kick this bad boy off bye starting on the first article we read, Digital Cinema and the History of the Moving Image. At 41 pages, this article is just brimming with all sorts of great info, but for me, the first 21 pages were the most interesting. I found it interesting that the article, as I understood it, begins by indicating that digital influence can shape film in ways more unimaginable then we first thought. It was also nice and refreshing to read the history of the moving image, starting with kinetoscope, cinemograph, zootrope, etc. We had kind of covered the topic of animations' origins sophomore year, but it was good to read about the history more in depth.
I also found it rather interesting that digital alterations to film were constantly compared to painting. The original footage acts as a canvas, allowing the artist to digitally alter, or paint, to enhance the film. This "painting" to film helped create the launch sequence in Apollo 13 as well as the floating feather in Forrest Gump. The process of digital painting was also applied to archive footage of J.F.K. to make his lips appear as though he was talking to Forrest Gump.
I also found these principles of digital film making rather nifty.
1. Rather then filming live action, it is possible to generate film like scenes with the computer.
2. Once live action footage is digitized it loses its privilege indexical relationship to prefilmic reality, rather becoming nothing more then pixels.
3. If any live action footage were left intact, it now functions for raw material to be used for compositing, animating, and morphing.
4. Editing and special effects are no longer separate activities.
From there the article began discussing the use a digital camera, and how it can be used to further create a 3 Dimensional environment. After that the article became more and more technical and difficult for me to understand and follow. I did notice however the references to video games, such as Goldeneye, and the possibility for the computer to create and ending, 3 Dimensional world where a character has limitless decisions it can make.
The next article we read was from an interview with film maker Robert Altman. Altman felt that films were still in their infancy, and had not even come close to reaching their full potential, mainly due to how linear they still are. He believed that linear film making does not truly reflect the real world, because the world acts in a non linear fashion. Instead, he felt that a films should not make things clear, and should leave audiences guessing as to what certain things were and meant.
Altman found much of his influences came from radio. In that regard he used sound as a way to create an atmosphere, as opposed to using music to tell the audience how to react to the situation going on on the screen.
In terms of creating an idea for a film, Altman felt that all films draw from the experiences and pasts of their makers. By that logic, he says that all film in essence are just recreations of ideas already seen and experienced, but still believes it is possible to create a totally original idea. He felt that if the plot was not obvious it was possible for the audience to draw from their own experiences and self conscious to try and understand what they were seeing, even if at times it meant mixing emotions. In short film making is about making the audience use all of their sensors to create a realistic experience.
