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The Effects of Digital Video Technology on Modern Film a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty's of Drexel University by Kaichen Hu

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The Effects of Digital Video Technology on Modern Film a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty's of Drexel University by Kaichen Hu The Effects of Digital Video Technology On Modern Film A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty’s of Drexel University by Kaichen Hu in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Television Management May，2016 © Copyright 2016 Kaichen Hu. All Rights Reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge and express my deepest appreciation to my program director, Albert Tedesco, who offered his continuous advice and encouragement during the past two years. I would like to express my very sincere gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dave Culver who gave me valuable advice regarding this thesis. Without his guidance and help, this thesis would not have been possible. I would like to dedicate this to Mr. Gerald Hooper, for offering his insightful opinions and useful industry information that related to my topic during the interview. Also, I would like to appreciate Li Dan, the scholar of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Lily Mao, the former channel director of CCTV, Jiaran Wang, the assistant professor of Beijing Film Academy, and Jianfeng Du, the professor of Beijing Union University, for the generous help during the interviews. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................. ii LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................. v ABSTRACT......................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................ 1 1.1 Research Background............................................................................. 2 1.2 Definition of Digital Technology and Other Relevant Concepts........... 3 1.3 Purpose of the Study............................................................................... 4 1.4 Statement of Problems............................................................................ 4 1.5 Research Questions................................................................................. 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW PART I................................................ 7 2.1 Before the Sound.................................................................................... 7 2.2 Introduction of Sound Technology......................................................... 9 2.3 Vivid Color............................................................................................. 11 2.4 The Chaotic Time After Color................................................................ 13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW PART II............................................... 14 2.5 Influences on Shooting ........................................................................... 14 2.6 Influences on Post Production ................................................................ 17 2.7 Digital Special Effects............................................................................. 18 2.8 The Impact of Digital Technologies on Film Distribution ..................... 22 2.9 Production Cost and Efficiency.............................................................. 22 2.10 The Future of Digital Technology........................................................ 23 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY........................................................................ 28 3.1 Introduction............................................................................................. 28 3.2 Setting .................................................................................................... 29 iv 3.3 Sample .................................................................................................... 29 3.4 Data Analysis.......................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS...................................................................................... 31 4.1 What Are the Specific Impacts from Digital Technology to Films? ...... 31 4.2 What Qualitative Changes have happened in various Links of Film Production? .......................................................................................................... 32 4.3 Specific Influences of Digital Technology on Filming.......................... 33 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION................................................................................ 35 5.1 Introduction............................................................................................. 35 5.2 Limitations............................................................................................... 35 5.3 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 35 REFERENCES...................................................................................................... 37 APPENDIX A....................................................................................................... 40 v LIST OF FIGURES 1. Muybridge's The Horse in Motion...........................................................................7 2. The Kinetograph machine........................................................................................8 3. Vitaphone projection................................................................................................10 4. Historical Statistics from IMDB database...............................................................12 5. The Aeroscope camera.............................................................................................14 6. A super 8 film camera..............................................................................................14 7. Sony HD-900F camera.............................................................................................15 8. Pictures from 1933 King Kong film.........................................................................19 9. Pictures from 2005 King Kong film.........................................................................19 10. An optical motion capture system.........................................................................20 11. The special effects of Life of Pi.............................................................................21 12. Film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"........................................................................21 vi Abstract Film is an art, and it is also a product of the development of science and technology. Without science and technology, humans cannot have this magical art that can make our fantasies become reality. Throughout the history of film, every revolutionary technological advancement has dominated the development direction of film. However, since 1960s, with the emergence of digital technology, the whole film industry entered a new era. People all over the world can experience an unprecedented pleasant amazement and audio-visual experience when they are watching films. Meanwhile, digital technology has become a powerful tool, allowing many filmmakers who have the great passion to make their own movies easier than before. Now, everyone can make “films”. This paper studied the evolution of the film industry under the emergence of digital technology from the perspective of interviews of some professional practitioners, history of film development and film industry economics. First of all, the research addresses the current situation of film industry, which involves every link of the film industry such as production, distribution etc. We move then to find the fundamental changes hiding inside the industry to learn that what digital technology really means to film industry. Finally, the paper will address the impact of new digital technology on film industry. Key words: digital technology, film industry, film production and distribution 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The emergence of the film producing industry must pay tribute to technology, which offers opportunity for people to dream and presents moving pictures in front of our eyes. According to Jieyi Wang (2011), “It should be noted that the Lumière Family is considered as the inventor of film exactly because they offered technology that supports group watching, unlike the Kinetoscope by Edison that only allows one people to watch film alone” (p.1). After that, technological progress has had a progressively important impact on film: from silent film to sound film, black and white to color, followed by wide-screen, digital, huge-screen, and 3D films, even the revolutionary VR film. All these are products of technology in the field of film. Compared to film revolutions ignited by technological development, how digital technology shapes the movie from the 1960s is the most impressive. Current research efforts on the relationship between digital technology and film are concentrated on changes to film form, film production, digitalized distribution. This has not included an overall, in-depth analysis of how digital technology affects film from a perspective of industry. After digital technology reaches its maturity, what profound changes does the film industry experience? Is this a disruptive revolution? All these questions have not been answered in the literature so far. Advanced technology brings various possibilities to the future of the film, and studying the history of film industry, firstly, helps us to gain a full picture of digital technology, and secondly, promotes analysis of the new form of American film industry and even the world's film industry after total digitalization.
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