Abstract

Desktop film or computer screen film is a film subgenre with all events and actions taking place on a screen of a computer and using the protagonist’s first-person perspective, exemplified by The Den (2013), Open Windows(2014), Unfriended (2014), Unfriended: Dark Web (2018), Profile (2018) and Searching(2018). This paper mainly focuses on the desktop films with the theoretical framework of “Media Ecology”, aiming to investigate how the desktop film evolves and interacts with new media, digital technology, while influencing communication and spectatorship. Firstly, this paper discusses the evolution of cinema, which evolves through the interaction, co-existence and convergence with other media, as well as corresponds to the anthropotropic trend. Secondly, this paper investigates the digital media and technology in desktop films. “Desktop films” create cyberspaces and reproduce people’s virtual lives, revealing the influences of media technology, which is considered as a double-edged sword. Thirdly, this paper analyzes how desktop film exerts impacts on cinematic communication, while reshaping the spectatorship and audience’s viewing mechanism. “Desktop films” are suitable to be watched on computer, thus making audiences become active and have more autonomy.

Highlights

  • With the further development of digital technology and media convergence, cinema industry has entered an era of “Post-Cinema” (DENSON; LEYDA, 2016)

  • This paper mainly focuses on the desktop film with the theoretical framework of “Media Ecology”, aiming to investigate how the desktop film evolves and interacts with new media, digital technology and human beings, while exerting influences on filmic communication and spectatorship

  • “desktop film”, that is based on computers, digital technology and Internet, creates a cyberspace, which accurately represents people’s lives of digitization, virtualization and mediatization, reflecting the influences exerted by the media on the environment and revealing the advantages and disadvantages of media technology towards people and society

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Summary

Introduction

With the further development of digital technology and media convergence, cinema industry has entered an era of “Post-Cinema” (DENSON; LEYDA, 2016). According to Timur Bekmambetov’s (2015) definition, desktop film, or termed as “screen movie”, is a new format of cinema in which all the events take place on a protagonist’s computer screen with the protagonist’s first-person perspective; all the actions take place in real time and are organized through in-frame montage without visible editing and transition; all the sounds originate from the computer. This sort of screen narrative pattern began with short film and advertisement around the year 2010, exemplified by Parisian Love (2010) produced by Google. Media Evolution, “Double-edged Sword” Technology and Active Spectatorship: investigating “Desktop Film” from media ecology perspective

Evolution of Cinema and Media Convergence
Cyberspace and Technology in Desktop Films
Communication and Spectatorship of Desktop Films
Conclusion
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