Digital Film and Digital Distribution.

Digital Film• Digital film is film that is stored onto a type of digital medium such as: SD cards,

Recordable CD’s, external storage devices, ect...• The film will be written to the digital medium with a digital camera which uses a

digital sensor instead of running the film through the sensor.• Digital cameras in present time (2016) can record at up to 4K on average, 3840

× 2160, and have an average sensor of 24 megapixels.• In the recent years digital camera prices have dropped dramatically allowing

more people to access cinema quality technology and opens up film making to a much larger audience. This allows boosts the film community as more and more skilled directors and cinematographers are emerging through these means.

• In addition to digital camera prices decreasing there have also been things created such as renting a camera + camera equipment. This means that new film creators are able to stick to their low budgets while still being able to access 4K cameras and cine lenses.

• With the new way that film is being recorded and stored comes with new ways of editing the film. Now the computers are smaller, faster and can do much more in a fraction of the time it once took splicing together film on old computers and even by hand. Now hardware is becoming much easy and cheaper to acquire. “You can buy laptops better than the computers that ‘Jurassic Park’ was made on”.

What was Used Before Digital ?• Before digital film was created medium format film was used, this is

commonly referred to as ‘Film format’. This was a none rewritable medium that produced a picture when exposed to light through a lens. This film could not be viewed until it was developed in a dark room or taken to a certain shop to get developed/developed by the company.

• Film was commonly sold as 35mm rolls. This meant that the width of each film frame was 35mm and it was sold in large rolls of 12 to 36 pictures on one roll. This was mostly used in photography and commercial film cameras. However medium format film was used in big budget professional films as it allowed better quality picture that could allow up to nearly 400 megapixels, but typically only had 8 to 32 exposures on one roll of film before having to be changed out/added too.

• In cine cameras, the big budget type of film camera, they used 70mm film. This would give a sharper and higher resolution picture that would also allowed it to be shown on larger picture screens when distributed. This can also been seen in current times (2016) in places such as the IMAX.

Pro’s and Con’s of Digital Film

Pro’sDigital is much more convenient. You can shoot hours apon hours of footage and it only takes a minute to change out the storage cards (SD) this allows for no waist of time .Also for work being shared through the internet, digital cameras are ideal. The instant viewing of a shot and being able to pick out mistakes and improve apon a shot immediately after taking them is very useful for making a good film. The ability of being able to rewrite the storage medium and reuse it means that lots of money is being saved. Digital cameras are usually lighter and a single memory card can store lots more footage than many rolls of film. It is easy to import footage into editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro CC, and there will be no loss of image quality. This also means that there is no wasted film as it can just be viewed and reshot. Digital cameras are capable of higher speeds than film, so they perform better in low-light situations. Also, it is very easy to change speed on a digital camera whereas a film camera requires a completely new roll of film.Con’sDigital cameras do a horrid job of handling highlights sometimes and can cause an abrupt, rather than gradual, switch to white. While easy for film, long exposures are a real problem for digital. Digital image sensors have tiny bits of leakage which can add random white dots to your long-exposure photos and film. Also, long digital exposures can cause a noisier image than film. This can be countered to some extent by operating the camera at low temperatures, but this is not a shooting condition that can be controlled. You can lose years of photographic work from a computer crash if you haven’t backed up your files. This means all footage is lost and has to be reshot or may not even be able to achieve ever again. This can cause many problems and can often push back a film dramatically or cancel it all together. While film photographers have lost their entire body of work in the rare house fire, this is much rarer than a hard-drive crash. Most people eventually experience a computer crash. Digital cameras are generally more expensive than film cameras.

Digital DistributionDigital Distribution of Media Text• Digital distribution is the delivery or distribution of media content such as audio, video, software and

video games.• Distribution over an online delivery medium, such as the Internet, thus bypassing physical distribution

methods, such as paper, compact discs, and VHS videocassettes.• Content distributed online may be streamed or downloaded, and often consists of books, films and

television programs, music, software, and video games. Streaming involves downloading and using content at a user's request, or "on-demand", rather than allowing a user to store it permanently.

• Networks known as content delivery networks help distribute content over the Internet by ensuring both high availability and high performance. These can be websites such as: Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO GO and so on.

Digital Film Distribution• Film distribution is distribution of content through physical media, in opposition to distribution by analog

media such as photographic film and magnetic tape.• Distributing digital film is much more convenient and faster. This is because it can be transferred from

computer to computer or stored on a small disk or hard drive. None digital film was much harder to distribute, as they had to transport 20-25kg tins of film in the back of a van, and cost much more through transport costs and splicing and care of the film rolls. In addition it was much harder to distribute internationally with film rolls as they had to be shipped to different countries or copied to ship them.

• Now (2016) with the creation of DVD, solid state hard drives and the internet distribution has become much easier. Now the films are compressed onto small digital films on hard copied discs or drives to be transported around cinema theatres and international. The compressed and encrypted files will be downloaded, de-encrypted (unlocked) and opened as files for screening with digital projection equipment. In addition films can be put onto certain websites to be streamed for a fraction of buying the DVD or going to see it in the cinema. These can be websites such as: BT store, YouTube, Google play, ect…

• This new revolution is film distribution is providing a much easier way of viewing international films fro places such as: India, America, Japan and so on. With better access to these films and more people becoming interested in them it is stimulating the different international companies allowing for them to produce more money to make better and longer movies.