Digital Fanaticism OR Digital Fascism???

[Alex]

I talked to someone tonight who I always thought would be a film guy. It was near the end of our discussion that I discovered he had gone over to the "dark side".

He thought George Lucas had kicked everyone's arse by making "Attack of the Cons" in digital.

I was surprised, I thought the only thing George Lucas had proved was that if one is obstinate enough, they can get their way.

So what.

I still believe that film origination, digital destination, should be embraced as a very viable and logical avenue for the majority of big budget productions. The idea that it must be all about digital, from inception to projection, leaves me distrustful of the digi-heads.

I believe digital democracy is a myth. Corporate love for all things digital should send a red flag up. Digital activism by the downtrodden filmmakers of the world has made for strange bedfellows between the artistic side and the corporate side.

The current corporate insider trading fiasco that has recently been spotlighted by the U.S. Media the past couple of months, and Digital propoganda share many similar characteristics, or should I say flaws.

Digital is loved because one can surreptiously and invisibly change content material. This is similar to what various accountants have done by falsifying business revenue documents so that businesses would garner a higher stock value for their company's stocks.

The trail of falsifyed data could have been digitally altered, if not for the dreaded analog nemesis, paper! All would be heaven in the corporate digital world If only paper had been done away with! The only good paper document is a SHREDDED paper document, the digital fanatics cry out.

The truth be digitally damned! The Digital Powers that be can make everyone FEEL warm and fuzzy via digital deception! If Digital Deception makes us FEEL good, then darn it, if we look good and we ARE good!

(Your actual results may vary.)

Film is ridiculed by the digi-heads because it is not a one step process. One needs emulsion, developing centers, and all that goo to make images come out properly.

That's no way to run a digital empire! Digital MUST control every facet and every aspect of it's business interest with an iron fist! This iron fist will maximize profits and keep the business impenetrable from it's foes!

Interdependence! That's no way to maximize profits!

Change must be instant when necessary, and deceptive when required to slay forces that don't agree with the Digiteers! Change plus deception equals Digital.

Digital empowers Harvard grad bean counters who now count their own beans so fast, they grow bored. These Harvard grad bean counters quickly look elsewhere to justify their existence. From the ones and zeros of digital boredom they turn to everyone elses way of life, and with a wave of their magic digital wand, turn other people's lifestyle into DIGITAL BEANS!

It's "Soylent Green" the movie, digitally remastered just for you!

"If we can't control it, we must destroy it!" That is the battlecry of the corporate world gone digital. They just can't help themselves.

Is there even one of you out there who owns a digital answering machine that actually records your voice without making you sound like a chipmunk operating a jackhammer? Ah, but that's a digital chipmunk operating a jackhammer, and that makes all the difference!

Indeed.

Is there one of you who has not wasted vast amounts of time trying to navigate a menu driven digital device?

Did you know that CDR's can be destroyed by simply affixing scotch tape to the outer disc layer and pulling off this flimsy layer!

Do you want to replace your gas pedal, brake pedal and steering wheel with a digital voice activated system? Why not? Perhaps because you are at ground zero and you know if the voice activation fails, you may die!

Did you know that without a big assist from digital greed, the two planes that crashed into the twin towers might have been thwarted.

Apparently the digital bean counters set up the airplane cell phones to ONLY WORK with a valid credit card number!

The television journalist on board the first plane to crash into the twin towers called her husband, a high ranking white house official, but spent most of her time trying to get a working outside phone line.

Why?

Because digital bean counters had determined that there is no such thing as an emergency unless one relenquishes their credit card number, first!

This poor women spent agonizing minutes, perhaps as much as one half of an hour, fighting the cell phone company's "automated" airline cell phone protocol as her hijacked plane was being piloted toward it's evil destiny.

Some bean counter determined that it was not in their company's best interest to relay emergency calls without first receiving a proper credit card number. 911 might have been prevented if not for the digital wizards that "programmed" cell phone usuage protocol to be human emergency resistant.

A vote for digital is a lost vote for the voice of the people. It takes days and years to undo the damage digital can do in an instant.

Oh humanity, thy name is NOT digital.

[Mike Buckles]

I agree with your "film origination, digital destination" stance. Film transferred to video looks better than video produced programs. That's not to say I haven't welcomed the advances in technology...the DVD's I buy are soooo much better quality than the VHS fodder they use to throw at us...I can, in my livingroom, in the dark, get a picture that is close to perfect, with wonderful prints and sound. And digital NLE editing and special effect programs have taken my level of expertise from acceptable to wonderful! (at times!) But I do believe film and video must work in harmony, not one replace the other. I really enjoy the "do-I-know-what-I'm-doing" experience of film, and the surprise of watching the film when I get it back. Plus, I believe if a generation of newbies are taught at schools on video only, you will see a sharp drop off in quality when they move on to jobs in the movie industry.

[Scott Spears]

I just love the way people are jumping on the digital bandwagon like lemmings. Don't get me wrong, Digital has it's role and is a great tool for the right project(i.e. documentaries and cinema verite stuff), but in my opinion, film is still the best way to originate a project. Digital is becoming the way for post.

Until somebody presents a chip that can surpass the resolution and contrast ratio of 35mm film, I wish they would stop trying to ram digital down our throats.

I do have a great idea for digital. Digital toilet paper. It samples my fecal matter 60 times a second.

Scott

[kator]

Yep, this has been bothering me a lot recently too-and I came from a younger generation that was already exposed to computers and other digital products. Keep in mind, DVD's are pretty nifty compared to VHS, but analog laserdiscs are pretty close, and have been around for more than 20 years. Most people come from the marketing/hype machine that has catipulted DVD sales to such heights. Lucas seems to be the only one set on the whole digital process. Kodak's better system they are developing stresses that film origination is still the best. I think that outside of the indie world, digital hype has been receeding, because of the economic realities of the system. I get really ticked when I read a stupid misinformed article in the media about this technlogy, most of the figures are hyped and exxagerated. Just last month, Credit Suisse did a report on the economic cost of digital cinema. They found that film stock prices quoted by digital advocates were wildly exxagerated. Also, they concluded that even if digital projector prices dropped to $50,000, there still would be little economic benefit over film, with all of the extra hidden costs involved. These were conservative estimates as well. Also, people state 35mm as the absolute film reference for theatre quality-theres no reason not to improve it besides economic reasons. If you've heard about MaxiVison48, it promises to siginificantly improve 35mm film past what anything can offer, but has been mostly ignored so far because of all the digital hype. Go to www.mv48.com to read about it.

[Mike Buckles]

I have both Laserdisc and DVD, and while I will keep my player and Laserdiscs, the cost of movies on dvd is much less expensive..plus unfortunately, not many laserdiscs are being made anymore. Lucas is not totally "digital", as he has refused to release the first 3 star wars movies on dvd until his entire saga has been in the theater...not sure why...? According to a demonstration given to the media and public comparing digital cinema with traditional film, the reviewer found that the digital presentation won hands down, giving a much better picture, better detail, and showing shadows and contrast that were muddy in the film version....c'mon...you know that had to have been "fixed"....they probably underexposed the film scene...and lots can be done in the lab to change or sabotage the look....they should have had someone who knew what they were doing make the film version,then it would have beat out the digital version...oh....but that wasn't the goal, was it? mike

[GREATwarEAGLE]

Like everyone else above, I prefer film as origination. But film and video need to co-exist. I definitely don't want film to ever become obsolete. Nor do I want video to go away. Plain and simple - It's nice to have choices.

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wooden, aluminum

HOCKEY
roller, ice

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salt water, fresh water

GROCERY SHOPPING BAGS
paper, plastic [img]wink.gif[/img]

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[TA152]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 28, 2003 11:00 PM: Message edited by: S8 Booster ]</font>

[wahiba]

[img]wink.gif[/img] <h3>

Yesterday was the golden age


Today technology is terrible


Tomorrow the grass will be greener</h3> [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Alex]

Macintosh versus Windows equals film versus digital.

I believe that even if film becomes like Macintosh, so what! Macintosh may only have 3-5% of of the market, yet it is Macintosh's Final Cut Pro that is giving the digiheads confidence to believe that film can be replaced.

I find that ironic!

[TA152]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 28, 2003 11:00 PM: Message edited by: S8 Booster ]</font>