Mission to Earth

Using “Mission to Earth” as an example, note what is new or different about digital cinema compared to traditional filmmaking? Consider the story and appearance of the film.
What other art forms (eg film, digital art, painting, websites etc) does this film remind you of? Explain the similarity.

This kind of new digital cinema has a lot of differences compared to traditional filmmaking. As Christian Metz stated that most films shot by traditional filmmaking, whether it is good, original, commercial, they tell a story. Filmmaking can be a kind of new art form and also a genre. "Mission to Earth" has its story, just like other traditional films.But it seems that the meaning behind the film is more important than the story. The charateristic of this film is the persentation and the artistic effects exhibit on the screen. It found a totally new art form for film making. Soft Cinema expands a field of making film with computers and datebase. It is a sort of super-genre.

The story is about a women living in the earth who is not a human. The story doesn't have many obvious difference with the traditional fiction films. However, the only difference I recognised  is the voice over. The voice over tells us the story with the random clips. Without the voice over, I would not understand the story.

The appearance of the film is unique and simple. It  has a soft tone colors and adds some simple pattern and lines for the background. The presentation of the screen is also different from the traditional filmmaking. It divides the screen into at least 3 frames with sqaure shape.Each frame is playing a different clips. By contrast, traditional  filmmaking cannot do that because all clips are recorded into plates. So, traditional filmmaking has no post production, every clip is shot in front of the lens. However, As Lev Manovich 's essay about principles of digtal filmmaking, pointed out that all visual elements are made from the same material, "pixels". Pixels makes all visual elements to be played, included all 3D grahics, videos and images etc. It is a great technique that only digital cinema can achieve. It combines all visual elements into a same frame.

 What is more, the appearance of this film reminds me of Romanesque art in the 11-13 century. Such as "Morgan Leaf", is a painting related to a religion story. The frame with pattern is for decoration. Every square has different pictures, it seems similar with "Mission to earth"'s frames. Although these frames represents different scenes, the theme is same and united.














The "Morgan Leaf", detached from the Winchester Bible of 1160-75. Scenes from the life of David.

Digital VS Analog technology

Using digital camera for taking photos, the environmental restraints are less important than analog technology.Photos can record by a piece of memory card, so that, the number of photos that you can take is no to be a limitation.Also, photos can be adjusted by digital technology,.included color, hue, luminosity, image size, texture etc. We can change any parts of the photographic easily as long as using some computer softwares, such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.

It is an amendment of photo by Photoshop.

The characteristic of analog photography is based on chemical process, like using plates and developing photos from plates. Using the gelatin-silver process makes images to be visible and insensitive to light. Those plates can be recorded but can not be amended.

 A photo taken by analog camera

We should admit that some photographic techniques that can only be done using digital technology. So that, it is what a big advantage that digital technology is common nowadays and develop so quick.

Digital technology can modify any parts of the photos that you dissatisfy. You can change it to be what you want. However, using analog technology as taking photographic, you can't delete some photos that u don't like, but digital technology can.

It is also easy to combine two or more objects into a picture. It makes impossible to be possible in digital world.

Digital cameras which we are using today, are automatic and user friendly. Most functions are already set into cameras. Their functions includes many new and interesting filters. People need not to arrange any properties or change the environment to suit the photography effect that you want.

A lovely dog

After

Before

Wikipedia or Brittanica?

I would choose Wikipedia, an open-source online encyclopaedia. To be honest, I am not really recognize the advantages and disadvantages about encyclopaedia Brittanica. Wikipedia is my first choice when I want to search information on the Internet. Wikipedia is a totally free encyclopaedis on the Internet. It is open for everyone. All people are allowed to copy it, modify it and edit it. It is free and no restrain for users. Also, it is open to the international and welcome different knowledge and information from different people over the world. Moreover, Wikipedia is an undoubtedly successful encyclopaedia to create a place for people to exchange and communicate knowledge with others who you never meet.

On the contrary, Brittanica is not open to everyone. It just allow people who are experts or scholars. Although those information maybe more convincing than Wikipedia, it doesn't mean that experts or scholars are 100% convincing.  Some knowledge may be specialized that experts or scholars do not know. However, professionals may not be right every times.If this open to the public, everyone can participate in adding information that they know. It encourages people to discuss and discover some new ideas from knowledge.

What is more, Wikipedia is a totally free encyclopaedia for users to add or update any information. However, Brittanica just accepts some customers who had paid the costs, to add or read some advanced level information. Therefore, anyone who wants to share some more detail and deeper knowledge, he/she must pay the fees first. It seems trouble and obviously dividing users into rich and poor classes. So that, there are reasons to explain my thought.

Modern Times

In this clip, "Modern Times", we know that Chaplin is a labour in a factory. His work is regular nonstop and boring. He just acts  like a mechine. It is very poor that Chaplin always work and work, but he only gains few time for taking a rest. His boss keeps blaming and shouting to him. He must keep working and speed up. Unfortuntely, he can't control himself to stop working with a regular motion. Finally, his body gets a physical problem. He hurts others and brings lots of trouble to others also.

The film is meaningful and full of irony. Although it has a bit exaggerated, it conveys a messege to us that the negative influences under that period. The boss is the only one who benefits by the new technologies.

However,  I am aslo a new genaration in the modern century. Everyday, we spend a lot of time on computers and Interent. Our living is surrounded by digital technologies. Nowaday, almost each children and student has their own computer. It is so common to find that children and students are indulged in playing computer games and chatting with others by computers. I am also not an exception. I spend about4-6 hours on using computer for chatting, visiting website and forums. It is somehow wasting time for doing nothing. But it becomes a part of my life. It is impossible to live without technologies in this century.

Hey! Guys! Conroy is here!

I am Conroy Chu, a year 2 student of Visual Studies! It's nice to meet you all!