How Has New Technology Changed the Film Industry?

To some extent a film is only as successful as the technology it is made with and the money with which it is funded. Quality becomes somewhat irrelevant when the budget is big enough, take the examples of Michael Bay's Transformer movies and a film like Submarine or Kill List. It doesn't matter that the latter two independent films are by far the superior to Bay's monstrosities, but the fact that the Transformer films were made with superior effects, an almost endless budget and a high profile director immediately guarantees the film success.
            The last decade especially has been revolutionary for film production with the introduction of truly massive special effects in pioneering effects driven films like Independence Day and the Lord of the Rings trilogy both of which were box office smash hits and reinvigorated the cinema experience. Films like Avatar, that spearheaded the revival of 3D, had the same effect, helping cinema climb out of the low it had been in at the start of the decade and the mid 90’s. However, perhaps it is not surprising that effects films are now the highest grossers. It is now very easy to watch a film from the comfort of your own home and as a result cinema – and films you view at the cinema – have become something of an occasion again. As Matthew Vaughn, director of such high profile cult films as Layer Cake and Kick Ass, says “I’m a big believer that if you're going to pay your six quid, you're entitled to see a movie”. What Vaughn is actually saying here is that only certain types of genres are truly deserving of a cinematic touch. For example, to use recent releases, films like Skyfall and Paranormal Activity 4 are going to be more of an experience to see in the cinema than a slow moving drama such as Anna Karenina or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy. Of course there have been exceptions to this rule: independent films like Once and This Is England have enjoyed almost unbelievable levels of success and attention, but it’s wrong to sample these kinds of films and call them regular occurrences – it is still the high budget films that bring in the most profit.
            This change in the market has effectively separated films into one of two categories – you either have the huge budget films that are bursting with effects and an A-list cast, or you have small, independent films that instead rely on their script and their unique, quirky takes to pull in an audience. The middle ground where films like Memento, District 9 and Donnie Darko used to sit has effectively been destroyed by this polarisation of the industry.
            In addition to the obvious changes in audience taste, the film industry has changed too partly because of the temptation to experiment and try out new ways of filming and new, more ground breaking effects. In a way, films like Clash Of The Titans and various other action, fantasy and sci-fi have been created solely to showcase the development of effects – Avatar too if you apply the same ideas. Also it has to be said that it is more attractive to a cast and a director to make a huge budget film that perhaps sacrifices the script and authenticity for special effects and A-list directors as, after all, acting, like any profession, is still a job – money remaining the ultimate goal. It is this money driven circle that keeps this process going and makes films with a higher budget the most popular not just to see but also to act in.
            Yet production is not the only thing that has been affected by the changes in technology – distribution has also taken a game changing beating. With new technologies such as illegal downloads and streaming, it has become not only much more convenient but also much more common to illegally pirate a film instead of paying for it. People can now sometimes see films even before they are released. This threat from downloads has also changed the film industry: whereas before there would often be long waits for a DVD/VHS release of a film, the gap between cinema screening and physical release has shrunk down to often just a few months, if that.

Therefore, in conclusion new technologies have not only changed the film industry, but everything about it, from the actors involved in it to the date of its release.