Film vs. Digital

While browsing through the latest issue of Reverse Shot, which smartly places the focus away from the ‘relevance of critics’ navel-gazing in the recent media to the more interesting cinematic issue of the analogue to digital transition that has been taking place for decades in filmmaking, but really coming to fruition lately. In conjunction with Marina’s mention of the new media and the way media is consumed, this very detailed analysis (which is written Reverse Shot’s across continuum of writers) of form and content as it pertains to construction of film, across auteurist filmmakers (David Lynch, Terrance Malick, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh, etc.) changing from analogue to digital filmmaking is about the meatiest cinema article I’ve come across in ages.

A quick glance at my Top 10 films from 2007 reveals that the Top 3 films on that list (Zodiac, Inland Empire, and Paprika) were pretty much 100% digital in construction. The use of the new digital aesthetic towards a rich and probing film experience, rather than a simple cost-cutting or framing device, is probably the attraction to this new cinema. Particularly striking was the first experience seeing Michael Mann’s Collateral and falling in love with the cinematography, this was further underscored with Haneke’s widely praised Caché and hit a zenith with ridiculously underrated Miami Vice and the criminally un-awarded Zodiac.

If you are interested in the intersection of form in how it functions as thematic and dramatic content, the Reverse Shot article is a must-read. Bring your thoughts back here if you are so inclined.