Week 4 Lecture Notes and Spark

Big Screen to Small

This week we talked about digital technology and its impact upon filmmaking. Even though the web offers few benefits for the art and craft of filmmaking, the web allows filmmakers to publish and express their vision to a tolerant and wide audience; the ‘population of the web’. Cheap technology allows easier and more accessible production. However, the level of quality is no longer the same; poorly made and no meaning what so ever-films dominates the web, whereas most of them won’t ever get seen. Even though availability is a good thing and the fact that any up and coming filmmaker can get their chance on the web is a good thing, with all its badly written, badly shot and badly produced films, the web sort of takes the ‘fame from the game’; on the web anyone can call themselves a ‘filmmaker

TuteSpark

1.Where and when did usable online video start? (provide some refs. and an example if possible)
Usable online video was created by the web’s first online video sharing company ShareYourWorld, funded by Chase Norlin.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/chase

2. In the lecture we heard about technological innovations that were used by the studios to lure audiences. (mostly to combat the popularity of TV)
Even though it’s far from a new invention (it’s been around since 1952), 3D (with provided 3Dglases!!) seems to be a popular way of luring the audience out of their chair and to the cinemas.

3. Are short films still being made? Why? Who pays for them to be made?

Even though it’s doubtful that shortfilms will find their way back to the commercial cinema, shortfilms are still being made. In fact it has never been easier and cheaper to make and distribute shortfilms; with the internet, YouTube and video streaming the shortfilm is far from dead. The production of shortfilms are either funded by the filmmakers themselves or sites and funds such as www.virginmediashorts.com, a website supporting up and coming film talents, ran by executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose.

4.The term viral is thrown about adhoc but what does it mean in film/movie arena? Give some examples.
A viral video, is a video that become popular trough internet sharing, for example a youtube clip such as ‘Christian the lion’