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Digital Cinema breaks the seal between reality and the fantasy/digitalisation in film. Realism films tell and show a story that would be completely realistic to have happen in our lives – so no talking animals, fantasy worlds or fairy tale creatures – and usually without any huge digitalisation or visual effects. Digitalisation in films include computer generated imagery and visual effects such as the changing of background of certain scenes, and the play through of unrealistic scenes that are made possible by digitalisation.

For instance, Zombieland is a film which was released in 2009 and bent the rules in the Digital Cinema world. Zombieland is a film set in Southwestern USA about a college student and three strangers who come together to combat a situation the world is being faced with. Sounds pretty realistic, right? Nope – not when the situation is a zombie apocalypse and they may be the only survivors, fighting for their lives and killing zombies all day.

The last scene of Zombieland is a great example of digital cinema, and a great cross between realism and digitalisation of film. The four main characters of the film find themselves stuck in a carnival and separated for the most part, and being flooded by zombies.  The scene starts out with the movie’s designated “badass” character, Tallahassee, trapped in a tiny carnival booth and surrounded by zombies. He then pulls out his guns and shoots every single one until he is no longer being attacked, showing off his gun skills in the process. The two girl characters, Wichita and Little Rock, find themselves stuck in a roller coaster with zombies attacking their feet. Lastly, Columbus – the college student – is seen running out of a building with a string of zombies running frantically after him.

Surprisingly, Tallahassee, Wichita, Little Rock and Columbus all survived their individual zombie attacks. As a viewer, this may seem unrealistic, as the build-up of the music and the scenes lead the viewer to believe that they may not make it out, but just maybe this could become realistic within the movie’s world. But what would not be passible as realistic is the scene of Columbus escaping from zombies. You see one of the carnival rides swing down, and Columbus running past it. The ride then swings back down, and completely wipes out the zombies that were running behind him – this was a digitalised moment of the film as this is not a scene that actors could realistically act out without any harm being done, so with the use of technology, the scene came to life.

To summarise, Zombieland is a film that is hugely enhanced by digitalisation and visual effects, and a great example of digital cinema.

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Zombieland (2009) Shooting Scene Uncut HD

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Tallahassee shooting off zombies in Zombieland (2009).

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Reading: If film is dead, what is cinema? John Belton

John Belton’s essay “If film is dead, what is cinema?” is just as sporadic and as interesting as the history of cinema and film. He starts off the essay with a huge statement, saying “The cinema is dead,” but as you read through, you find out this may not be the case. The first main key idea Belton mentions throughout this essay is the kneel or decay of cinema. Specifically, in the 1920’s, there were a range of new technologies which were a threat to Hollywood and cinema such as film, television, radio along with sound, colour and more. Hollywood even saw the introduction of the video cassette recorder in 1976 by Sony and Betamax as so much of a threat, they attempted to sue these companies for copyright infringement – which was later put to rest and declared as “fair use” (Dan Ackerman, 2001).

Throughout the essay, Belton mentions many times - possibly too many times, how many different occasions cinema was threatened and declared “dead”, and different opinions about the subject. This seems to be repetitive once the reader gets halfway through the essay. Although, it is informative on the timeline of cinema and the introduction to new technologies. For instance, in 2014, Paramount became the first studio to stop releasing movies on film in the United States (Boxofficepro, 2014).

The second main key idea is on the apparatus theory, which Belton introduces three quarters of the way through this essay, with a misleading start to the sentence “The focus of my essay here is primary on…” If there was any sentence to be introducing what the essay was about, it belongs at the beginning of the essay. Belton explains the French words “l’appereil” and “le dispositif" behind the apparatus theory in-depth. Further down from the explanation of the apparatus theory, Belton states that cinema began somewhere around 1895 to 1896 – this would be an interesting fact to put in the introduction, not almost at the end of the essay.

Lastly, Belton discusses cinema and new technologies currently, and introduces programs such as Hulu and Netflix, which are platforms in which users can stream movies and series in which these platforms host, and states some very interesting facts about them. For instance, Belton includes that during peak hour of internet use, Hulu and Netflix take up 60% of the user’s time (Chloe Albanesuis, 2011).

Belton ends the essay ultimately stating that “Our experience of motion picture will vary according to the size of the screen on which it is viewed”, and the true meaning of cinema via the apparatus theory – “The cinema is the projection on a screen of life-size – or bigger than life-size – images before an audience, everything else is movies”. So, is cinema dead? Belton’s conclusion doesn’t give a definite answer, but with the referencing back to apparatus theory, we can assume he doesn’t think so.

REFERENCE LIST

Dan Ackerman, Forbes.com. 2001. [online]  https://www.forbes.com/2001/08/17/0817topnews.html#544a06266081 (Accessed 5 August 2020)

Corcoran, P., 2014. Annual U.S./Canada Box Office Grosses. [online] NATO.
http://www.natoonline.org/data/boxoffice/ (Accessed 4 August 2020)

Albanesuis, C., 2020. Netflix Eats Up 32 Percent Of U.S. Bandwidth During Peak Times. [online] PCMAG. https://www.pcmag.com/archive/netflix-eats-up-32-percent-of-us-bandwidth-during-peak-times-289740 (Accessed 4 August 2020)

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The ride coming down and killing the zombies which were chasing Columbus in Zombieland (2009).

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Wichita and Little Rock kicking off zombies that are attacking them in Zombieland (2009).

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Throughout my childhood, movies were not something I was a fiend over. I believed there were more productive things I could be spending my time doing, or it was just easier to watch movies on other devices such as streaming on my phone, or watching on the television. There was never any “movie nights” at home, but I always remember seeing my parents watch movies on TV once I had gone to bed – the cinema was never an option for us. I was 15 when I started to visit the cinema with my friends from school, and still, I couldn’t appreciate it for what it was. I was happy to be hanging out with my friends and to be able to finally see what the fuss was about, but I still didn’t understand why people would waste their time and money. My local cinema had not been updated for quite some time at this point, and looking back, I can see how outdated it was for its time.

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Cinematreasures.org. 2020. Reading Cinemas Elizabeth In Elizabeth, AU - Cinema Treasures.

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MY LOVE FOR CINEMA AND DIGITALISATION OF FILM

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MY LOVE FOR CINEMA AND DIGITALISATION OF FILM

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This was until I went to my first gold class cinema in Marion with my partner in 2018. This was also the day I realised the importance of digitalisation in realistic films. My partner surprised me knowing that I was obsessed with musicals such as Grease, Moulin Rouge and especially Mamma Mia – with gold class tickets to the best cinema around for “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”. At the cinemas, while engulfed in the goodness of what cinema was, I realised how different it was to streaming at home – the surround sound, atmosphere around you such as the darkened, cool room, the larger screen - It was spectacular. I finally noticed the difference between television, mobile streaming and cinema – and cinema won by vote by far. Every detail can completely change the way you watch a movie - especially how big the screen and how high quality the sound was.

A week later, a “behind the scenes” video was released for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. This video revealed that the movie was filmed in front of a green screen, and all the backgrounds and some scenes were made up entirely of CGI – computer generated imagery. For a movie that seemed to be very realistic without any digitalisation, many viewers just like me were surprised by the computer-generated imagery.  This shocked me to know the whole Mamma Mia deserted island fantasy was computer generated, and there were no connections to the actual island while filming the movie. Overall, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again wouldn’t be as convincing without computer generated imagery and digitalisation as the visuals wouldn’t be as stunning.

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Mamma Mia! Here we go again | VFX Breakdown Reel

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PopBuzz. 2020. People Are Only Just Realising Mamma Mia 2 Used Green Screen And Everyone Is Losing It. [online] Available at:  [Accessed 15 August 2020].