Digital filmmaking is the modern filmmaking process binding computer, digital technology and film creative. Digital film started from 1980th. In the history of film developing, digital technology is the most fleetly that separated to all aspects of filmmaking.
Until recently, Hollywood studios were the only ones who had the money to pay for digital tools and for the labor involved in producing digital effects. However, the shift to digital media affects not just Hollywood, but filmmaking as a whole. As traditional film technology is universally being replaced by digital technology, the logic of the filmmaking process is being redefined.
Someone defined digital filmmaking in this way: Live action footage is now only raw material to be manipulated by hand: animated, combined with 3-D computer generated scenes and painted over. The final images are constructed manually from different elements; and all the elements are either created entirely from scratch or modified by hand. (What is Digital Cinema?)
The earliest use of moving pictures was an outgrowth of magic lanterns and similar optical devices, which could be used to display a sequence of still images in such a way that the eye would perceive the images as being in motion. With the development of photography, film became possible to record moving pictures as well. The use of film also made it more feasible to use a projection system to display images for audiences, when other techniques sometimes required the individual to look into the device to see the pictures.
In 1999, Digital cinema demonstrations to the public begin. On June 19th in four theatres, two on the West coast and two on the East coast. Lucas Films and 20th Century Fox debuted Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace as the first major motion picture theatrically exhibited as digital cinema using a Pluto digital storage system in the D-5 compression format. In 2000, February, digital cinema demonstrations go international with two theaters equipped in London, England, one Manchester, England, one in Brussels, Belgium, one in Paris, France and one in Tokyo, Japan for all digital showings of Toy Story 2. In 2001, January, Japan opens the first totally digital cinema theatre. In 2002, As of March 1st digital cinema technology has now been exposed to over four million movie-goers throughout the world. These digital cinema demonstrations began on June 18th 1999. Since that time, over 30 movies have been released in an all-digital form, including: The Perfect Storm, Spy Kids, Shrek, Final Fantasy and The Spirits Within. (A Brief History of Film and Digital Cinema)
Digital Film - DTS (Digital Theater System)
Digital Film - Film and Director
Digital Cinema: A Technology History
What is Digital Cinema? http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/film/6110/2.html [Accessed 27 Oct, 2004]
Jim Mendrala A Brief History of Film and Digital Cinema http://www.tech-notes.tv/Dig-Cine/Digitalcinema.html [Accessed 27 Oct, 2004]
Dancyger, Ken. (1997) The Technique of Film and Video Editing: Theory and Practice Second Edition, Focal Press, ISBN 0-240-80255-1.
Marcus Gillezeau (2004) Hands on - A practical guide to production and technology in film, TV and new media Sydney: Currency Press, ISBN 0-86819-682-7.
--Hao Zhang 18:29, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
