"The
coming of mechanical sound to the movies constituted the first
major technological change in the history of film."
(Douglas
Gomery)
Television
eventually became a household fixture that threatened to keep
theater-going audiences at home, thus TV became the main competitor
and the main reason theater sound companies engineered to create
a richer and more immersive theater sound experience that TV
could not replicate.
"The
movies did indeed attain the zenith of their popularity and influence
in the 1930s and 1940s, culminating in 1946, when motion-picture
attendance reached its all-time peak; but at the same time the
industry became more enmeshed in the struggles over power and
purpose in American society than ever before. The form that movie
culture assumed grew out of interrelations with other social and
economic institutions and with the state." (Robert Sklar)
Definition:
Film Gives Way to Video
In
a Nutshell: Film is the mother of video. Video is the technology
of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting,
and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes
in motion. Source
Film
encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an
art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are made up of
a series of individual images called frames. When these images
are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that
motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between
frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby
the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after
the source has been removed. A common name for film in the United
States is movie, while in Europe the term cinema is preferred.
Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen,
the silver screen, the cinema and the movies. Source
Video
technology was first developed for cathode ray tube television
systems, but several new technologies for video display devices
have since been invented. Standards for television sets and computer
monitors have tended to evolve independently, but advances in
computer performance and digital television broadcasting and recording
are resulting in a convergence of standards and use of content.
Computers can now display television and film-style video clips
and streaming media, encouraged by increased processor speed,
storage capacity, and broadband access to the Internet. Source
YouTube
is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share
videos. YouTube uses Adobe
Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated
video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos,
as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original
videos. Most of the content on YouTube
has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations
including CBS, the BBC, UMG and other organizations offer some
of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube
partnership program.
Here
is an example of one of the many music videos on YouTube:
The
Benefits of Online Video
The advent
of YouTube has connected
families who are scattered all over the globe.
Military
families benefit from YouTube videos of family events, in which
they are not physically able to attend.
Because
it is public and free, people can view "viral videos"
that produce popular cultural references. Those who have viewed
these popular videos can openly discuss the references and relate
to others who have seen it.
President
Obama's 2008 campaign used new media, and specifically online
video, to discuss his points and further his campaign. No president
before him had utilized the Internet in such a way as to connect
to the people.
Video can
be combined with a blogging format to create vlogging = video
+ blogging to connect to a niche audience.
A salient
form of self-expression, videos can be produced and uploaded
with little technical expertise.
With YouTube,
the site is searchable. For example, if a person is interested
in viewing videos of skydiving, all one need do is enter in
the search term.
The remixing
and repurposing of (non-copywritten) content makes for amusing
and creative projects for school or home.
Familiarity
with both viewing and creation of online video allows one to
become exposed to the terminology and technical jargon which
one can come to understand through practice.
Demonstration
videos and product demonstrations for business or practical
purposes can be educational.
The
Negatives
One has
to be careful what type of videos one records for online publishing
as embarrassment or humilation can ensue.
YouTube
will not accept pornography. While this is not necessarily a
negative, there are other forums where pornographic videos are
accepted.
If one
works wishes to create an extensive video of high production
value, the programs and time involved can be expensive and time-consuming.
On YouTube,
one's video (if chosen to be open to the public) can be the
unintended target of scrutiny and criticism as people are allowed
to comment on each video.
One must
sign up for an account with a username and password to upload
videos.
A plethora
of inscrutable, amateur or random videos with little viewing
value saturate YouTube.
One may have to "dig" to find videos in which they
find value.