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We are looking at two key areas for study: the history of film and censorship in NZ For a start -HERE ARE SOME RULES 1. You must sign all entries with at least your first name or 'monicker' - eg Huntox!. Perhaps even just a letter or 2 No anonymous postings please. 2. Nothing abusive or insulting.To or about anyone. This is not the place for that. 3. Keep your language to quality classroom standards. Remember anyone can read this wiki.
 * Welcome Scholars - I'd like to try having a discussion online as part of the prep for Scholarship Media.**

We are starting with **film history** and where the developments in this medium are happening. I think the key focus should be on the digital revolution in production, post-production, distribution/broadcast. You you will be given a stack of material to read and I propose when you have distilled some of this material that you precis it here. For example, in the printout from editor Walter Murch, he uses an in interesting analogy as to the way our speculations on how the future will happen can only be just that: speculation. The development of the nickelodeon as a populist, 'low-brow' entertainment form 100 years ago, could have hardly been seen as a rival to the theatre/opera.

What film had over other traditional entertainment forms was its potential for widespread distribution. From the first screening of the Lumiere Brothers in Paris and Edison in the USA in 1896, film was being screened in every corner of the world within a year - NZ included! The ability to reprint film meant that it could be screened in a variety of places at once, and repeatedly. It was a cheap and accessible form of entertainment for the masses. [Interesting to note that the Lumiere's saw no future in this new medium, other than as a novelty.]

What would be worth looking at are the key moments in technological development and the impact of such development. Off the top of my head here's a list of some: sound synch - 1927 colour technology 'solid state' technology - transisters replacing valves digital technology - in capturing image, editing and broadcasting

What intrigues me is the new way we will receive movies - their distribution - is this the death of cinemas? Predicted when TV came about - didn't happen.Film took a hit but rebounded - modified itself - via novelties like 3-D vision, new formats like Cinemascope and technical advancements like Technicolour [same arg. when the internet cranked up - death of print... but... the opposite happened - explosion of mags/papers etc.]

Is it the death of dvds and dvd stores[again like music] as broadband technology potentially will allow us to get high definition image/sound online, and home theatre systems recreate the 'movie-going' experience. Some movies already being given simultaneous theatre and DVD release...[Murch says that movie theatres create an 'intimate space' that allows us to fully focus on 'the experience' - no distractions...].

What is worth thinking about, and perhaps researching a bit is the way that the major players in the film industry are working to re-invent the way they make money from this new entertainment environment. One thing that has been happening in the past 30 years anyway is the creation of mega-companies that have their fingers in all aspects of the media/entertainment industry - Sony, Time/Warner etc have arms in distribution, broadcast, production, even hardware for screening like projection units for the domestic market. The bottom line is they are scrambling to combat the de-regulated free-for-all that is the internet and their method is either through ownership of the technology or to develop new, superior technologies to continue to keep ahead of the game

What about Blu Ray...? Is this a response by the industry to keep audiences buying product.The battle between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD to create the standard High Definition formatting standard is much like the VHS/Beta war from 20 years ago. Lots of internet chat on this topic...

Read and chat! Add any thoughts - lets hear of any choice quotes you come across...

Another thought about the nature of change in film, raised by Nadia last year- trends in film are nothing new - by their nature film companies are conservative -they find something that works and rehash it until the next thing comes along - eg, screwball comedies in the 1930s, film noir in the 40s etc.