Carroll County Times Articles
More Movies Because of High Tech
by Matt Kohn – July 31, 2005
Did you notice that there are more movies being pumped out by Hollywood these days? It's not a coincidence that Movies and High Tech have merged for good. Let's look back and understand how movies used to be made.
Writers would handwrite their script. Actors needed to be cast and crews needed to be assembled to shoot film. Back in the old days, movies would take up to a year to shoot, sometimes more. Once the film was shot, it fell in the editor's lap. But, it didn't take just one editor to splice miles of film to get the job done. It took a room of splicers. Once that was accomplished, the film then got reproduced and shipped all over the nation to local theaters. Times have changed and it is amazing what can be done with technology.
Yes, we still need the writers, but they don't write on yellow pads of paper and then get someone to type it up. No, they write directly into their laptop computers using a special script writing program. Then, casting uses the Internet and their special photographic databases to find their actors and crew. Once all the folks are assembled, shooting begins - straight to digital photography. With the best lenses and cameras, a cameraman will use digital video tape to store his images, often onto a hard drive.
Next step, editing. No more rooms full of editors. A full length movie can now be edited by just a couple of people. Programs such as “Final Cut Pro” allow editors to load all the images shot on location into one measly little computer. Like shuffling cards on a table, editors can move around clips, shorten them and even add special effects, right on that one computer. Now that everything is shuffled in the right order, the editor simply “renders” the final film. At this point, the hundreds of people it took to make a film in the old days has dwindled, probably to less than a quarter of the original crew.
This is the amazing part. As technology has progressed on the Internet, movie makers will no longer have to reproduce thousands of film reels and send them to local theaters. Using new technology, movie distributors will send their films digitally over the Internet to local movie houses. The movie theaters will then project a digital image on the screen. It's just like the little video projectors we see in schools and businesses. A bit more powerful, though.
Movies can be created in a fraction of the time it used to take and with far less production costs. You could even make your own movies using the same software the pro's use.
See you in the movies.
About the Author
Matt Kohn is Vice President of Kohn Creative and an Advisor for the Carroll Technology Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating businesses, government and residents about technology issues. Questions are welcomed and may be addressed in future articles. E-mail Matt Kohn at matt@kohncreative.com, or go to www.carrolltechcouncil.org for a list of other Advisor categories.
