The drastic changes of cinema digitalization
The digitalization of cinema brought with it a drastic change in the way the movies were recorded, distributed and projected. In the 90s of the last century, the cinematographer began a support transition process, but the definitive jump survived with the great blockbusters of the beginning of the year 2000 and the introduction of the Sony HD 24p camera at the end of the year 1999.
Standard definition migration (SD) to high definition (HD) took almost 10 years and is still an ongoing transition in many countries. In the film industry the change of resolution of HD to 2K and 4K happened in less than half of that time;The filmmakers were the first who adopted these digital formats of greater resolution in search of better results and new qualities for the big screen.
Currently digital technologies have invaded and displaced the 35 mm film not only in images of high resolutions and color depths, but to provide important benefits such as immediate access to the stockings filmed even during the filming itself. Another of the great feats of digital technology is the democratization of film production and the abolition of economic barriers when making a film.
The impact of digitalization on the narrative and expressive orders of the works is also notorious. Thus Andrew Darley, professor of aesthetics at the University of Barcelona, has pointed out that digital cinema, along with other genres characteristic of postmodernity that he groups under the name of "Digital Visual Culture", shows a tendency "to elaborate forms of productiontextual built on intensification and an increase in the combination or assembly modes of images ”.
In that sense, for some time to date, indications of alterations in the film style have been detected in film production;Alterations that curiously involve the recovery of some features that characterized the cinematographic discourse in their primitive period, in a circular trajectory that would lead to contemporary cinema, inserted in postmodern dynamics, to link with the "attraction cinema".
The photochemical film was the only format used to capture, project and store moving images for more than 100 years;Its composition is given by an emulsion that contains grains formed by silver halides crystals that chemically react to contact with light and transform into metal silver into the development. After a day of filming in classic cinema, the 35 mm movie went to the laboratory, revealed during the night, positivated and the next day was that he was finally ready for reproduction. The final result was an unknown, because during the filming process you could not know exactly how the film would look and blindly trust the director of photography, a reason that always generated tension in which they worked this specialty and at the same time it was theMain source of photographers’s talent.
A digital camera does not wear 35 mm movie. Instead, it has an electronic sensor located behind the objective that consists of millions of photosensitive receptors called photositos. When the light crosses the lens and comes into contact with the sensor, produces in each photosyte a weak electrical signal that is amplified and converted into digital information such as binary digit chains. These data are represented as individualized squares called pixels which make up the digital photographic image.
With the help of monitors connected to digital cameras, exactly what is being recorded in the filming set can be evaluated. Unlike 35 mm cameras, it does not take a day to appreciate the result of the recording, in addition the storage capacity is 100 times higher than the old format, which allowed to roll a maximum of 10 minutes in each celluloid roll. All this entails a great saving of money and time;In addition the difference in weight and comfort of the digital camera is unmatched to the 35 mm analog.
The editor’s work was also greatly facilitated with the digitalization of technology, since before the assembly involved cutting and sticking pieces of film physically. Another important point is the color correction to give the desired appearance to the film before its pass in the movie theaters. In the traditional photochemical method the negative was revealed and positive in the laboratory, then the only possible adjustments were the balance of colors between red, green and blue and brightness.
Digital color correction goes further, it is possible to apply any change: in a nutshell it is possible to isolate a certain area of the frame and give it the tonality that is desired.
In terms of distribution, the main advantage of the digital is that while the consecutive pass of the copies in 35 mm generates dust, stripes, dirt and decompensation;In the digital exhibition system the image remains perfect every time that is projected. According to Jorge Carrasco, professor of media technology at the University of Barcelona: "higher quality, greater flexibility and significant savings in the circulation and distribution of copies".
Currently the effective resolution in both formats (35 mm and digital) is the same, being much more clear in the case of digital projection that also allows the reproduction of stereoscopic 3D formats, giving a plus to the show that means today, going toCinema in the developed world.
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