How Film Technology Impacted Cinema’s Evolution Essay

Over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cinema technology advanced greatlyand with an ever-growing tarradiddle of movies from which to suckle reference, film-makers have increasingly approached productions from fresher perspectives, while always employing the most modern equipment, in order to better serve the audiences of their days. In resourcefulnesss Of Light, a series of interviews with directors and cinematographers explores how the ontogeny of microphones, lighting, film, staging, cameras and mounts has affected the translation of story into cinema in a variety of ways.When sound was first introduced, for instance, actors were forced to lean in closer to microphones that were hidden on the mountains, in order to be better heardthus affecting their physical impression on camera (Bailey, VL). Also, the advent of sound affected the mobility of camerasand it was years before directors began taking moving shots again. Only after technology improved, and the practice of a dding audio in post-production took hold, did cameras become fluid once much (Bailey, VL).In Visions Of Light, Zsigmond hitherto goes so far as to claim the advent of sound might have affected films ability to rise to a high form of art. Furthermore, in the early years, the onset of color film collided with the aesthetic prerogatives of directors from the black-and-white era of cinema. The dark-and-light stark contrasts of early film had always supplied directors with a fond foundation in a medium built on more abstract e frontsbeing more removed from reality, due to their lack of color (Daviau, VL).The knowledgeability of red, yellow and blues, however, gradually eroded that surreal nature of young cinemaand left film-makers with a new spectrum of visuals to explore that were more rooted in realityyet took away the artsier fare of the colorless picture (Daviau, VL). Finally, as the studios began to give way to more location shoots, and more independently ground-breaking and in ventive movie-making, more experimental cinematography began taking place, including the increased use of techniques adopted from unintended effect of technologyand instructional mistakes on set.Inventiveness and new cameras and lenses wedded to construct unprecedented waves of evolution in cinema. The more relaxed embracing of happy accidents, such as random camera flares for instanceand other unique lighting effects (Hall, VL), eventually led to the deeper medium today, where visual artisans have a centurys worth of rich and varied cinema to emulate, be inspired byand pay homage toin order to further expand upon the apparent human motion to improve the film experience.Visions Of Light is an inspiring look into the history of filmand a revelatory expose of the methods by which we attempt to translate our greatest tales into the constructs of cinemaand how technology and history have shaped the medium. By the epoch a movie is played on screen, one is witness to countless lifetime s of work, both in the perceived pieceas considerably as the undying sub-texts of cinema that came before it. The improvements of technology over time have both strengthened and handicapped cinema, enabling it to more accurately capture reality, while alike rarifying the more abstract forms of black-and-white film and silent pictures.Future directors, of course, may yet return to the black-and-white medium, in order to test the depths of their art still they may also find it more challenging than filming in color (Daviau, VL). Similarly, while sound changed movies from a purely visual form into a mixed disciplinedirectors who were to attempt to make a silent film today might find it more difficult to execute. Technology has allowed film to usher reality betterwhile also blunting or limiting its inherent ability to translate more basic human emotions, through less colouration or sound.Furthermore, as cameras have become more sophisticated and economicalthe increased use of an in dependent, hand-held approach pass on change the look-and-feel of film for the overture generations, lending to it a more reality-based frameand for that very same reason, a more difficult platform from which to craft the abstract. Overall, as technology advances, film evolves into a much different form from the shape it started out. It is now a fuller and more complex mediumalthough perhaps less of a straightforward one.With each(prenominal) mounting generation, directors have to grapple with the new and profound questions about how to approach the entertainment and education of an audience. They have to learn how to emulate the traditional paths of films prehistoric auteursbut also, and equally importantly, to test the limits of the undiscovered country and new technology in cinema. Film-making as an art-form is ever-evolving and re-engaging its audiences in newer and more gripping ways.The language of the motion picture, however, is fundamentally limited by the science which allows itand so, in order to direct most effectively, every last available trick of modern film-making must be employed, toward the end of showing people something they havent seen before, and creating a synthesis that succeeds in overwhelming the sum of its parts. Newer technologies and angles must be embraced, in order to chance on a more honest form of surprise and catharsis, so that audiences are finally moved and enlightened.For as technology evolves, so too does our tool set in the mediumproviding an endless art-form to perfect and exercise up to the heights of cinema, as modeled by Citizen Kane. No patterns from past directors can ever be totally relied on, of course, in order to achieve the freshest cutting edge of new cinemabut those who are willing to learn the trade as well as take risks and experiment in the non-traditional forms are the ones who will always create original and inspiring works.Thinkers and shapers who are keen to test tomorrows technologies and exploit their own mistakes are the ones who will consistently set the bar higherand allow the younger audiences to be livened up by the unexpected. Films suspension of disbelief, after all, dwells in the cameras ability to capture the world around usbut also, in the editing room, where unnecessary redundancies of past pictures are trimmed backand re-hashed tricks of the trade are left on the cutting floor. Only the bare bone advances of new cameras and exciting visual storytelling will seduce the eye and mind long enough to engage future audiences.Only the visionaries of light and sound will remind people of their daily existences profoundly enough to be enthralled by the verisimilitude of it allwhile simultaneously transporting them far enough away from themselves, that they will ultimately leave the theaters changed forever.Works CitedVision Of Light. Samuels, S. Glassman, A. McCarthy, T. Glassman, A.. Daviau, A. Almendros, N. Bailey, J. Hall, C. Kovacs, L. Nykvist, S. Storaro, V. Wexler, H. Willis, G. Zsigmond, V. DVD. CBS FOX, 1993.