Digital Flaws

Analog has tested the effects of time over a vast number of years and is responsible for our consumption of various media, but in the process has paved the way to an all-digital culture that is quickly becoming a one-way trip.  Analog 

has been shunned aside to make way for the ‘better’ and cheaper distribution of digital media as we now fully commit ourselves to digitization.  The primary issue with this, is a distinct loss in quality.

Manovich argues Mitchells point that, “in reality, there is actually much more degradation and loss of information between digital images than between…traditional photographs.” (Manovich 2002: 70)  A photo typically contains millions of pixels but is susceptible even in the digital world to an indefinite loss of quality.  This situation escalates quicker with the compression of different media files be it movies, games, or photographs to be stored on our personal computers for our own convenience.  In a digital decade where we as a society have grown to appreciate and maintain a constant need for media content, we can receive a copy of almost anything we want through the Internet.  A particular emphasis is on the word ‘copy’ as what we receive can be regarded as a downgrade dependent, “…on the level of compression, from barely noticeable to quite pronounced.” (Manovich 2002: 70)

Studios have expressed their distaste in continuing movie production on 35mm and many have ceased to use them as they switch to digital.  Unfortunately this switch will be on a rapid incline as many see the benefits to be gained, mostly involving cost effectiveness.  The situation has become so problematic that one of Hollywoods finest Directors Christopher Nolan organized a short pre-screening of his latest film ‘Dark Knight Rises’ filmed entirely on celluloid, and invited other well-respected Directors such as Duncan Jones and Michael Bay.  His invitation involved an ulterior motive that was to make a plea for 35mm film and warnings that it, “…will be stamped out by the studios unless people – people like them – insist otherwise.” (Gendy Alimurung)

It is important that we proceed with digital as it has great benefits but the key should be to grow and develop with new and existing technologies, not cast one aside to make room for another.  Digital is not flawless and in many respects can be easily corrupted or lost.  This is especially true for Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 2’ which was almost erased by someone who hit the delete key sequence on a Linux machine and the only reason it was saved was because the Visual Arts Director had the only copy to work on at home.  While Digital presents us with new benefits it also brings flaws and we should not be so quick to scrap old technology to bridge the digital divide.

Bibliography

Manovich, Lev (2002) The Language of New Media

Alimurung, Gendy ‘The Death of Film: Movie Studios are Forcing Hollywood to Abandon 35mm film’, Laweekly, 2012.

 http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-12/film-tv/35-mm-film-digital-Hollywood/full/

Filmography

‘Batman The Dark Knight Rises, USA, 2012, Christopher Nolan.

‘Toy Story 2’, USA, 1999, John Lasseter.