Technology Notes

Moving Image Technology: From Zoetrope to Digital L. Enticknap 2005

  • the last analogue format, that was used by the mainstream, stopped being used in 2002 when Sony decided that they would no longer produce or use VTR’s in this format p.202
  • the digital still camera became one of the fastest selling consumer products of the first decade of the 21st century p.202
  • first use of digital imaging within film production was the use of computer generated images (CGI) (generating special effects) p.202
  • the use of cgi for special effects was marked by he release of Jurassic Park and Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1992 pp.202
  • by the end of 1990’s films were being edited entirely digitally and then transferred to 35mm film for it’s release p.202
  • digital techniques have been used in restoring archive footage since the early 1990’s but as the book was being written, 2005, it seemed as though economic factors would prevent computer-based techniques fully taking over cinema projection for quite a while p.202
  • digital editing and manipulation technology became more affordable as the 21st century came around p.203
  • analogue “records a direct representation of a continuous process of change” whereas digital “represents that process as information, or data” p.203
  • digital is called digital because the information recorded takes the form of numbers which is encoded by computers and then converted back into analogue so that it can be displayed on a screen or played through a speaker p.203
  • digital data has the benefit of being able to be copied 100% accurately whereas analogue cannot, copying analogue recordings leads to some of the quality or accuracy being lost p.203
  • copying digitally involves only copying the numbers that the picture or sound is encoded in p.204
  • this is a huge advantage since the film industry relies on being able to produce identical copies of the same product p.204
  • smallest unit of digital data is a bit (a zero or 1 (on or off)) p.204
  • bits can then be sequenced together to form larger numbers p.204
  • “the grouping of bits used by almost all modern computers as the working unit of data is a sequence of 8 (225 possibly states) known as a byte” p.204
  • kilobyte consists of 1,024 bytes and is referred to as k or kb p.204
  • the difference machine was arguably the first machine designed that could store data and carry out mathematical equations but it was too mechanically complex to be built at the time (however it was made in 1991 and was proven to be a successful design) p.205
  • mechanical devices for simple and repetitive actions and functions became useable at an industrial scale in the late 1800’s and, although these machines could not be deemed computers, they established the precedent for automated data processing p.205
  • these machines provided the basis for what would go on to be machinery capable of holding enough data to represent images and sounds p.205
  • the next step of development was machines that could perform full-scale data processing operations p.205
  • the “integrated circuit” (also known as the silicon chip or the microchip) was first produced in 1958 p.206
  • The first microporseccor (which combines most of the computer’s processing functions into a single chip was made in 1971 p.206
  • Moore’s Law refers to the phenomenon of the rapid increasing of the complexity of the complications performed by microchips over the 30 years since the first was developed p.206
  • the PC (personal computer) is what the microporseccor is primarily associated with. this computer combined all of the offline storage, the use interfaces, and the processor memory into one single unit p.206
  • It took twenty years of the rapid development of the microprocessor for the microprocessor to be sufficient to handle audio data being encoded as digital data with the same quality of an LP record p.206
  • took another 15 years after this for digital video to be manipulated on a computer at the same resolution as a transmission on a normal television set p.206
  • sound for video and film began to be recorded digitally in the mid-1980’s (the first element of moving image to be computerised) p.206
  • the amount of data needed to represent an audio waveform and the number of calculations needed to turn it into sound from data is far less than with video and film (this is why sound was able to be recorded digitally first) p.207
  • all media, that is encoded as digital data, has to undergo analogue to digital conversion (“this is the process whereby the representations of light and air pressure which are detected by the eye and the ear are turned into the ones and zeroes which can be stored and processed by a computer”) p.207
  • “a ‘moving’ image consists of multiple still photographs, exposed and projected in rapid succession” p.207
  • to digitalise a moving image you need to create digital versions of each frame and set the speed and duration of the images p.207
  • video frames are divided into individual pixels in order to be digitalised and the more pixels the higher the resolution of the image p.209
  • conventional DVD resolution is 720 (horizontal) and 576 (vertical) pixels p.209
  • the use of video tape for film made editing much easier and cheaper than using film so it made sense for video to be digitalised p.210
  • digitalising video took away a lot of the editing problems that occurred when using film (having to go through several generations of tape if wanting specific visual or text effects or sound dubbing) p.210
  • video followed sound as the second media to move to digitalisation and did so in the same way (in studios first and then developed the technology to sell to consumers) p.210
  • an issue with the digitalisation of media means that it is much easier to clone and steal (as the data is all just numbers) p.216
  • CDs and DVDs have data encoded as indentations on the surface of the disc and these are made in production lines p.216
  • Phillips produced a computer based CD writer in 1995 which meant that CDs could be made for less than their selling price (before this the technology to do this was too expensive for normal consumers to be able to afford) p.217
  • it wasn’t long after that that almost every computer has a CD and DVD writer or recorder p.217
  • the video CD developed and was very successful for pirates in China and the middle east but it did not develop in the western world because of the development that was already occurring on DVD and so Hollywood’s refusal to work with video CDs p.217
  • the industry put CSS (constent scrambling system) and Macrovision into DVDs in order to prevent DVDs being copied to VHS and to prevent the duplication of the digital data on the disk p.217
  • the same technology that was used for the CGI in Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 can be used when DVDs need to be archived and it can remove dirt and scratches from film or DVD p.228
  • very difficult to achieve footage that has never been physically stored p.229