Cinema In The Digital Age: Week 5, New Forms In World Cinema
This week we focused on how the evolution and accessibility of digital technology in cinema, has allowed countries that initially weren’t known for their filmmaking, to be able to develop their own national film industry.
It was especially the cheaper, portable digital cameras that allowed Nollywood to become so successful. Nollywood releases more films a year than any film industry and this is partly due to their cheap film equipment, cheap visual effects and occasionally casting non-actors. I love watching clips from Nollywood films as you can see the passion and fun that everyone involved making the film had. It just feels very warm and pleasant to watch, even if it is not as polished as western cinema.
We also looked at how now we can now use the cameras on our phones to make films. For example, This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2011) relies on Jafar Panahi to film on his phone as this is the only way he could make his film, due to being banned to shoot films by Iran. This was a great way for him to document his struggles against all the constraints and censorship and a fantastic format for filming documentaries that involve inconspicuous situations.
I have filmed several projects on my iPhone 6s and iPhone 8 and I thought the quality of the footage, when I shot in daylight, was phenomenal. Therefore, I love the idea of new or experimental filmmakers to shoot films on their phone. The quality of the footage is decent, its cheap and allows a lot more people to be able to create. However, I am against the idea of shooting on a phone, when all you do to advertise the film, is talk about it being shot on a phone, rather than advertising the actual story. Unfortunately all the films I’ve seen that have shot on an iPhone, have made that the main focus.
Don’t sacrifice the story and performance for the technology.
