Technology changes

The increase in hardware has improved the quality of production, benefitting genres in particular that utilise CGI and 3D.  Force Awakens used a combination of real life locations and computer generated images for some scenes. Force Awakens used the best technology in the Dolby vision format with a dynamic range of 2020 colour. The development of hardware has also impacted Avengers Assemble as more than 2200 special effects were used in creating the 2012 film. Films are able to create a new world for the audience in higher detail than ever before.  From the audience’s perspective this is a huge deal as they can enjoy a much better quality. Therefore, Films such as the Force Awakens and Avengers Assemble are more successful.  Mark Ruffalo used a motion capture suit in order to bring the hulk to life in a way that hasn’t been done before. The result in ever improving technology has allowed characters like the hulk to be more lifelike as we can now capture facial and body expressions, to give the character a personality an audience can enjoy.

Digital theatrical distribution has become a much more common way of transporting a film. Traditionally, film companies would have to send a reel to the cinemas for them to preview the film. This was done through horizontal integration as third party transporting companies would deliver the film to each cinema. However, in more recent times a film company does not need the distribution company to distribute films, they simply can just download it from the company. This has saved cost as film companies do not have to produce reels specifically designed for the cinemas. Also, it has increased efficiency as it is much quicker to download a film than to transport it. This has also helped with releases as film companies can decide when is the best time for cinemas to download their film. As well, if you have to deliver a film via a third party company to 12 different countries – the amount of countries Force Awakens was released in, then the reels may be delivered at different times around the world so to combat this, downloading a film is much better as it reaches the cinemas at the same time.   It is much better to have the film in the cinemas at the same time as it keeps the hype around the film. If the film is slowly integrated in to cinemas, then spoilers will ruin the films atmosphere.

Home entertainment needs of audiences are satisfied by increasing home streaming. As a result of online streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, there has been a decrease in DVD and blu ray sales by 16%. This clearly shows that audience prefer to download a film online. It is much quicker to download a film the it is to go out and purchase a disk copy. This is reinforced by the 30% increase of online streaming. Technology has increased vastly and is much more commercialised then it use to be.  The increase in 3D, 4K, ultra HD and curved TVs in the home gives a wider range of ways in which a person can watch a film, therefore people are more willing to pay extra for a high quality film.

Digital content has increased the amount of piracy and also the means in which larger conglomerates and distributors tackle this.  Technology has allowed people to easily pirate a film then it once was. Traditionally people would record the film on their phone a distribute via selling it on DVDs. However, cinemas now have infrared cameras to easily spot if this is happening, but now it is much harder to catch people pirating films and it is much easier to illegally watch them. Illegal streaming companies hack into film company’s servers and download the films. People can therefore just go online and steam it without having to pay for it. 45% of Americans admit to streaming illegally online and it increases to 70% of people for a younger audience. Pirating a film can impact a film greatly, The Wolf of Wall street was the most pirated film of 2014 with 30 million downloads. The film only grossed $117 million dollars meaning it lost a huge amount of profit.  

We can implement the increase in hardware and software changes into our final media product. This is because technology is more readily available as we have access to high resolution cameras and efficient software. Ewan owns a Cannon camera which is able to take High Definition videos and Matt had an iPhone 7 which had the latest technology for smartphone cameras and so we are able to take some cinematic pictures and videos. At school we have Apple macs which will allow us to edit our footage in the Final Cut Pro software. Without these essential pieces of technology we may not be able to create an effective opening sequence. Therefore, our film will not be successful as nobody will have an interest as we did not hook them which is our aim.