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Discuss the technological impact on film theory and the advantages and disadvantages of the invasion of the digital world.

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Films are one of the most popular media in the modern world, watched by hundreds of millions of people all around the world. Films began in the late 19th century as a technological novelty, transferring to a new means of presentation and distribution an older tradition of "entertainment, offering stories, spectacles, music, drama, humour and technical tricks for popular consumption." (McQuail, 1983) And, as with any popular media, people began to talk and write about it, and film theory arose from these writings.

Why the need for film theory? Because in watching a film, the spectator is not merely a passive receptacle being filled with the film 's meaning, but is engaged in a series of interpretations which depend on a whole set of …show more content…

The work of the camera or the film stock are no longer as essential in determining the end product, or the way films eventually look Digital technologies such as computer enhancement, imaging and editing have shifted the production balance increasingly towards the postproduction phase, thus further reducing the need for photographic accuracy. Not only can mistakes made during shooting be corrected, and recording effects be maximized, live action images and sounds can be generated independently of the outside world.

The advent of the digital age has affected not only the production and postproduction of the films, but also the cinema and post-cinema aspects as well. Cinemas now have features like THX or Dolby surround sound, enhancing the cinematic experience, and the IMAX 3D projection system, which has two camera lenses to project two different images simultaneously, simulating a 3d effect, which results in an extremely immersive and engaging experience for the viewer.

In post-cinema, new digital formats like the laser disc, video compact disc and the digital video disc, known as the LD, VCD and DVD allowed for higher quality home releases of films. That, coupled with increasingly advanced technology in the fields of televisions, home sound

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