Luciferjones

“There is a misconception we are surrendering something of art to a technology that will do it for us. That is never the case, Cinema IS technology.”
Francis Ford Coppola

Whilst this statement has irrefutably always been true the digital age has made the distinction between Cinema Technology and broader categories of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) distinctly vague and indeed arguably irrelevant.

Simply put, where once the tools and technology of cinema production were unique and specialized they are now largely one and the same with those of a broad category of ICT. Essentially the same technology tools and concepts used to create and distribute cinematic media are the same tools and concepts used to build databases, control systems and all manner of other products that have nothing to do with either cinema or art.

Any Editor worth their salt in the 21st century is as well versed in RAID storage, Local Area Networks (LAN) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) as they are with EDL’s, Timecode and Video Formats.

With this in mind it stands to reason that the language by which we discuss, analyze and understand cinematic process has drawn ever closer, whether we want it to or not, to the common taxonomy and discourse of IT.

Whilst many who identify as Filmmakers or Artists will run away from this idea screaming in terror, I find I am drawn to the possibilities for re-defining what cinema is by shifting the language used to discuss and understand it.

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