An Introduction to Film

passes through the lens onto the surface of the film);
the resolution(the capacity of the camera lens,
film stock, and processing to provide fine detail in
an image); the instructions provided to the pro-
cessing laboratory, including special effects; and in
the postproduction effort, possible involvement in
the editing process.
Professional motion-picture photography is a
complex, time-consuming, and expensive process,
but many filmmakers think it’s worth it because
it is the only way they can achieve the rich “look”
that we traditionally associate with the movies.
However, as we shall discuss below, film and digital
images are now virtually indistinguishable, one fac-
tor spurring the momentum with which the entire
process of making feature movies is moving toward
a conversion to digital technology.

Video Technology

Although television was feasible in 1931, it was not
until after the Second World War that the U.S. tele -
vision industry began its rapid growth and trans-
formation of American culture. The word videois
used to describe the visual and audio components
of television, but its technology, before today’s digi-
tal revolution, also played a noteworthy role in
moviemaking after the 1950s. Unlike the photo-
graphic image, the video image consists of pixels
(short for “picture elements”), the small dots that
make up the image on a video screen. Think of these
pixels as being similar to the individual pieces that
constitute a jigsaw picture puzzle—alone, they are
meaningless, but arranged in order on a table, they
form a picture. When electronic technology puts
these pixels together, they make up the picture that
is recorded on videotape (later, digital videotape)
and that we see on a video monitor. Newspaper and
magazine photographs are similarly composed of
thousands of dots (each containing a bit of informa-
tion), which our eyes see as a total photograph.
However, the low picture quality of video images
never matched the quality of images shot on film,
and editing videotape was actually more difficult
than editing film. Video’s only strengths were that
the stock was cheap and did not need processing.

Even though video technology became highly digi-

tized (and today continues to be used in amateur

filmmaking, low-budget documentary production,

and other areas), it is rarely used by the film indus-

try to make feature-length movies.

Digital Technology

Digitaltechnology involves an electronic process

that creates its images through a numbered system

of pixels (which we can think of as the binary num-

bers 0 and 1). Unlike the analog image, these do not

have a physical relationship to the original. Indeed,

they are not exactly images but rather thousands of

digits stored on a flash cardor a computer hard

drive. These digits are reconstructed into visual

images each time the movie is edited or shown and,

unlike film stock, can be manipulated endlessly.

For example, filmmakers can make many differ-

ent versions of any scene in search of the perfect

arrangement or timing of shots as well as adjust

and manipulate the light, color, and quality of the

image. Furthermore, digital technology is easier to

use than film technology. It uses less light than film

technology, and like video, there is no processing

involved. Overall, digital is much more versatile,

easier, and (beyond the initial investment in new

equipment) cheaper to work with than film. Film is

fragile and disintegrates over time; digital copies

(such as DVDs) can be scratched, but compared to

a film print, they are easily duplicated and virtually

indestructible under normal conditions.

Although clearly superior to video, digital technol-

ogy’s image resolution was not comparable to film’s

fine-grained resolution until very recently. But as

computer technology has progressed rapidly after

the turn of the century, new, lightweight, and more

affordable digital cameras (such as the Red One) are

beginning to match the resolution of 35mm film stock

so that the projected image is virtually indistinguish-

able from film. And ironically, digital technology is

also being used to save and restore damaged or

decaying film prints, a major benefit for the study of

film history. But to give you an idea of the competition

by manufacturers for the film industry’s business,

concurrent improvements are also being made in

FILM, VIDEO, AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES: AN OVERVIEW 489