What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences?
The continuing development of digital media technology has extreme significance for media institutions and audiences, because without it, several production, marketing and distribution techniques could not possibly be used, thus lowering profit dramatically. A successful film is successful because of the technology that they used within production, post-production, marketing and distribution.
Production- The camera effects used within the film Mad Max were new ways of digital media because the camera could take 300 frames per second, this was the Phantom camera. The shots will look cleaner and more detailed increasing the quality. Originally film cameras were mechanical which means that the film had to be changed every shot or so. The new cameras such as this one are developed in the way that the footage is saved on a digital hard drive, allowing them to film for longer at new camera angles. This advance in digital media technology allows film makers to get better shots at more angles quicker then they would have beforehand. The mechanical cameras could have not coped with the dust from the desert so it would of had to be filmed in a different location. Another advanced pieces of camera equipment was the edge arm that was also used shows synergy within the film. It cost $500,000 and they used it to film 95% of the footage. The edge arm allows 360 rotation so that the shots flowed more. It also allows the audience to easily follow the shot more, an example of this being used is when they are looking at Nux's car, they were able to do close up shot of max to a medium shot of Nux to a long shot of his war boy. This would have not been able to be done with older digital technology. The film was also filmed in 2D although it was originally planned to be filmed in 3D, before this technology wouldn't have been able to use because it was not as widely available. In Ex Machina to do the drawing on of Ava's body that they wanted to do in the editing stages they had to film everything twice. Film originally cost £1000 per roll so it would have cost them £2000 but now they are able to do it on a hard rive it took less time and crucially, less money.
Post-Production- The section of film making has developed massively in digital media technology as this is where all the editing occurs. The development can be shown by the CGI that is now used in almost all blockbusters. CGI allows films to have detailed explosions that look 'realistic.' Before CGI films used one thing to portray another an example of this is in wizard of oz they made the tornado by just a twisted silk stocking being hit by the wind from a fan. When close-ups were needed, they instead used a burlap bag that emitted a massive cloud of dust. Mad Max use CGI when blowing up of the car that had war boys inside they would have not been able to do this if the digital technology wasn't so evolved. The furious weather of the Mad Max film was also put in after by Eric Whipp, they shot everything in the day then Whipp created the graphic style for the films day and night scenes with detailed sky replacements. This has developed very recently so it can include details around each character and the dust storms, twisters etc. The editing that was done on the robot Ava in the film Ex Machina is called rota scoping. It allows the editors to draw he robot body over the actor as they have filmed in twice in the production stages. This is very effect and could not have been done without the development in digital media technology. They were also able to use the green screen technique on Furiosa's arm in Mad Max, this prevented Charlize Theron form wearing a heavy mechanical arm through filming would stop her movement. If she didn't want to do that they would have to hire an actor without an arm but they still would have to wear the metal contraption. But because of green screen it is easy to add the arm after filming.
Marketing- The big development to the marketing side of digital media technology is the increase and use of viral marketing. Viral marketing is marketing that is free to use and is spread whilst putting on the internet. This is can be successful for a film as although it does not cost much it is very effective as the new generations use the internet every day as it is widely available to them through phones, computers etc. An example of a film that based manily all of their marketing through viral marketing was Ex Machina. They made a tinder account and then spoke to men at a sci-fi event in Texas, when the men asked to meet Ava they were sent to the films instagram page. This method had not been done before as dating apps such as tinder were only recently invented. They also made a website called Avasessions.com in which Ava would draw a picture of the audience looking on through a webcam. This could not have happened before digital development because wifi was not readily avalible and the public did not always own a technological device that had a camera on it. Various types of social media helps the marketing of films through accidentle synergy. An example of this is the new trailer had 9 million views on the second day of its release on youtube and social media networks such as twitter let the audience re-tweet the trailier. The more people that re-tweet it the more people come aware, IMAX twitter page re-tweeted it to their millions of followers increasing awareness. A few years before the social media uprises this would have not been possible as they were not invented. Mad Max Fury Road spent $7 million on just TV adverts alone, without these their film may not have made so much at ox office then it did. When film was first made TVs were very new but they were in black and white, the quality was also very poor. Now TV is a social thing that most families watch because of the digital technology developments making it bigger and better quality. Simple posters that are put on billboards and buses can now be photoshopped and cut to show the best aspects of them film, before photoshop they would of had to take just one shot from the film.
Distribution- The distribution of films has changed dramatically over the years as we are now able to watch films over and over again by DVD. Before the audiences could not view them again unless they were played in the cinema but now they can purchase the DVD and watch it over and over again. It also has been increased in quality over time with added blu-ray, blu-ray and DVDs increase the amount of money films make, this would have not been able to happen before the development. With certain DVDs they give free downloads so that the buyer can watch it on mobile devices at any tie, not only does this make it better for the buyer but it is cheaper for the consumer provider. Also things like netflix prevent illegal downloads that slowly kill the film industry. Illegal downloads are quite new because the digital technology has just been developed and websites like putlocker allow audiences to stream films for free even though they own no rights to the film. Netflix prevents this has the audience know that the film is genuine and they have loads of films on their fingertips with just a smaller price per month.
In conclusion I believe that the development of digital media technology has had a large positive impact on media institutions.
