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Trailers
Don la Fontaine populrided the marketing of films with the now iconic “In a world…” line from the hundreds of trailers he lent his voice to. Trailers immediately allow the audience to connect with whatever the film is about.It was a stroke of genius. Since then, film trailers have become an industry of their own as it’s almost impossible to inamgine the full cinema experinace without the accompanying trailers. -
Advanced Camera's
Development on digital technology to capture motion pictures has resulted in the reduction to the need for raw film to be used for film making. However films were still transferred across to 35mm stock once edited and produced, ready for the big screens. Faster rushes, less chances of failure, and for the most part pretty decent imagery when held against film, digital cinema has become one of the more significant developments in the shooting and projection of films across the industry. -
Cinematic Sound
Sound technology in cinemas really came of age during the late 70′s, with Star Wars in 1977. Dolby’s late 80′s “Spectral Recording”, a precursor to what we now call surround sound, enabled greater fidelity and crosstalk between channels of sound within the industry. During the 80′s and early 90′s, this “pro logic” effect was transformed in 1992 and 1993 with twin digital channal formats. -
Animated CGI
Perhaps the most significant advance in cinema has been the rise of CGI animated feature films, beginning with Toy Story in 1995. Since this, film studios have been falling over each other to bring you the latest and greatest advance in animation technology. CGI animation, as opposed to digital special effects, is where the entire film is crafted within a computer and animated to behave like a live-action film. CGI animation is perhaps the single biggest revolution for cinema since sound. -
Special Effects
Nowadays, almost every film made contains some kind of digital effect: from scene reconstruction, background modifications, digital stuntmen and even entire sequences made in a computer. Producers would argue that the freedom offered by digital effects is virtually unlimited. Where digital effects serve the best cause, however, is undeniably in bringing things to the screen that could not otherwise be done either practically or safely. -
Phyiscal Formats
1) In the beggining, there was the VHS tape. Then came DVD, before BluRay for the viewers 'Cinema experinace at home'. Now, the big push is on for digital downloads to take over, While hard-core film fans will probably always prefer tangible media to buy and store on a shelf, a larger proportion of film fans now simply download their favorite films and stream directly to their TV's. Yes, the digital age is born and is evloving rapidly. -
The World Wide Web
From promotion, to discussion, to statistics and even illegal downloads, the internet is by far the largest promotional tool for the the film industry. Torrent sites, where pirates and those who support them can download, upload illegally copied material across the web itself, are the bane of the film industry for lost profits; when used legitimately, the internet is the single biggest tool for both big budget films and small indie arthouse fare to gain some traction in the community. -
IMAX
IMAX technology is created by an enormous screen and incredibly powerful sound system, fully enveloping the viewer in both sound and picture. Initially the domain of documentary filmmakers, due to the expense of IMAX film stock, size of cameras, and prohibitive production costs, directors like Robert Zemeckis paved the way for more and more features to come to IMAX – Christopher Nolan famously shot portions of The Dark Knight in IMAX, the results of which can be seen on BluRay. -
The 3D experinace
The added dimension of image, designed to enhance the visual experience, has allowed cinemas to charge more for auidnace members to see their films: James Cameron’s Avatar is what has led to the popularity of 3D technology in 2009. 3D allows studios to ensure a profit from their product, even at the expense of the quality itself. There is no denying that the technology to enhance viewing films on screen in 3D has become a significant industry unto itself.
