Digital Media Technology Essay

What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences?

To a certain extent, the development of digital media technology has allowed media institutions to connect and branch out to their specific target audiences. In a way, it allows the media institutions to promote the film on a smaller scale- and budget- and creates more excitement for the film among the target audience and therefore creates a bigger buzz in the run up to the films release date.

One example of when digital media technology being used in a successful film was in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film ‘Prometheus’. Digital media technology was used in both the production and the promotion when the film from the ‘Alien’ franchise was released. It was shot using 3D cameras and was released in 2D, 3D (in selected cinemas) and, in one cinema in Mexico City, even 4D. 4D is where physical effects in the cinema allow the audiences to feel as if they are in the film by including motion in the seats and sometimes smell-o-vision which is where smells are released in the cinema. ‘Prometheus’ was released in a 4DX cinema which allowed the viewers of the films to feel motion in their seats as well as having a feature which released and allowed then to feel the mist, wind, fog and smell which the characters in the film experienced.

Ridley Scott’s film production company teamed up with Brandywine productions (a production company which has worked on all of the films from the ‘Alien’ franchise) and 20^th Century Fox, one of the ‘big six’ Hollywood production companies in order to come up with a budget for the promotion. They came up with $50 million ($30 million of which came from promotional partners such as Amazon) which paid for a huge advertising campaign. The advertisement budget allowed a series of videos which were created and released on the internet in order to be shown all over the world. One of the virals was of Peter Weyland- a character in the film played by Guy Pearce- doing a futuristic style TED talk about the basic plot of the film in front of thousands of people. This viral was released a few months before the films release. The growing use of media technology meant that a website was created especially for this reason. As well as this, a Weyland industries website was created as a fake website for the fictional company in the film owned by the TED taker Peter Weyland.

As well as the TED talk, at WonderCon- a science fiction convention- the film panel (people who attended the convention) were given a business card which directed them to a website which featured a video advertisement for the ‘David 8’ robot (played by Michael Fassbender) which is featured in the film. Later in the year (and closer to the films release date) an extended version of the video was released listing all of the qualities and functions of ‘David’. As a free method of promotion, a twitter account was created for David which allowed twitter users to ask the character/robot questions and get to know more about the character.

Also, two more videos; one of Rapace starring as scientist Shaw and the other of the ships captain Jack preparing for a mission were all released consecutively in order to create excitement about the film.

However digital media technology was not only used in the promotion of the film, it was also used throughout the production of the actual film. As the film was released in 3D, it was shot in 3D as it is easier and was better for when the footage was being edited. Scott was focusing on the 3D footage as he said it added the ‘illusion of depth’ showing that the continuing growth of digital media technology is not only good for promotion but also makes the quality of films a lot better for audiences.

Also, a lot of special effects were used in the film which required CGI. This would only have been able to happen due to the growth of digital media technology. For example, in ‘Prometheus’ a lot of alien creatures are used, most of which required some form of CGI, in order to make them seem realistic. Neal Scanlan and Connor O’Sullivan developed the alien creature trying to make them all seem to have a logical biological function and purpose. The ‘Engineers’ were created to resemble Roman Gods and were created by the application of bulky, full body prosthetics to the actors- whose facial features were diminished by the material and were later digitally enhanced to portray a god-like perfection. Another snake-like alien called the ‘Hammerpede’ was created through a mixture of CGI and practical effects after the practical puppet wires were removed.

As well as alien creatures, sets and vehicles required lots of special effects to create a realistic effect for the film. Arthur Max, the set and vehicle designer, used digital 3D models and miniature replicas of each set to allow designers/makers to know where the CGI elements would be inserted. The realistic look of the ships and the vehicles would not have been conveyed as well as they were without the use of digital and CGI which is all a direct result of the growth and advances in digital media technology.

Approximately 1,300 digital effects shots were used in ‘Prometheus’ meaning that most of the film was created through the use of digital which is also a direct result in the growth and advances in digital media technology. Studios including Movin Picture Company (MPC) created the shots, with the most complex effects being used for the orrey 3D digital map which contained over 80 million polygons within it, taking several weeks to render as a single, complete shot. This made the map look realistic and futuristic and would not have created the same effect if the advances in digital media technology hadn’t been as big.

Another science fiction film which used a lot of digital media technology was ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ directed by Rupert Wyatt. It was released in 2011 and had a budget of $93 million- less that ‘Prometheus’ which had an estimated budget of $130 million- which was financed by 20^th Century Fox and was a film following on from the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise.

Digital technology was used when creating the apes in the film. Originally, real apes were going to be used in the film rather than computer generated creatures; however the producers decided to use actors which would then be digitally transformed into the apes we see onscreen. Andy Serkis, the actor who played the role of lead ape Ceaser in the film, has had roles in films like this previously, such as King Kong in the 2005 film ‘King Kong’, and so is familiar in the ways in which the apes move and makes it look realistic.

The performance capture process begins with Serkis in a grey tracksuit with green stickers tracking his movements in an ape style way on set in Vancouver. When the producers are happy with the movement they send the footage over to the WETA digital studio base in Wellington, New Zealand where they create a more ape-like look by adding skin and fur. The end result is very realistic showing that digital technology is useful in the film industry. Without it, ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ wouldn’t have been nearly as good and wouldn’t have had such a realistic look.

Digital technology was also used on some of the sets of ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. The budget allowed the crew to have freedom when filming on set and it often led to them using exterior environments to shoot in. However, in some cases- such as the golden gates bridge scene- physical set was used with additional computer generated parts to create a scene of better quality.

The growing use of technology also meant that the adverts and promotional trailers were able to be shown/viewed worldwide. With the ever increasing use of smart phone technology, websites such as YouTube enable people to see film trailers and teasers on the go. This also means that if a film has its own website, it can ensure that a mobile phone version of the website will be created so that people can search for information on the film wherever they are rather than waiting until they get to the nearest computer.

Facebook and twitter pages and accounts were also made for ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes.’ This was used as a cheap method of promotion for the film as facebook has over 1 billion activated accounts and twitter has over 140 million users meaning that the pages would show to a huge amount of people. The more people that know about the film, the more chance a film has of success and so it was important that ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ branched out to a large audience. People use online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter every day so it is almost impossible for the dedicated film pages to not attract anyone to go and see the movie. It worked. ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ grossed over $480 million.

Without CGI and digital technology, ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ wouldn’t have been as good and wouldn’t have had the same effect on the viewer. The way the apes all looked so realistic meant the audience felt a connection with the character and made them more emotional when they watched it as all of the chimps actions and emotions were shown and created purely for that purpose.

CGI was also used in low budget British film ‘Attack the Block’ which was directed by Joe Cornish when creating the aliens. The CGI effects were used to create the glowing teeth of the monsters which made them original and scary. The addition of fur was also added by the digital effects team and the overall effect wowed critics, some of whom said that the creatures were what made attack the block so good.

IMAX (Image Maximum) is a motion picture film format and a form of digital media technology. It improves the quality of display images up to a greater size and resolution which ultimately ends up in having a film with a better quality image. Since 2002, some feature films have been upgraded to the IMAX format purely for display in IMAX theatres and some films have been partially shot in IMAX.

The IMAX conversion with Warner Brothers (WB), one of the Hollywood ‘big six’ film production companies, means that, as well as increasing the worldwide popularity of the IMAX experience, the quality of the 20 films WB plan to release in IMAX will be much better and will be more pleasing for the audience to watch. Since the decision to release various films in the new format, massively successful films such as ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ have been released by WB in IMAX and gained incredible reviews proving that this huge advance in digital media technology makes the film industry more enjoyable and overall more exciting for the audience

Overall, the growth and advances in digital media technology mean that the quality of the films released in the future will be much better. The idea of things such as IMAX and 4D cinema experiences makes the film experience much more enjoyable and more exciting for the movie audiences and aims to create a boost in the number of people going to the cinema and supporting the film industry.