The Effects of Digital Communication in Cinema: ‘A New Film Language’

Abstract

Delving into the digital world and technical development beneath it, the applications on communication have appeared as a promising source for transformation. Rapid progressing internet technology has turned the previously underdeveloped visual communication into an important domain as it is a needed practice to consider the means of communication in conjunction with the content and as far as the image in visual media is concerned, the question of how digital visual communication process is effected emerges. Beginning in 2000s, developments in digital communication technologies have led to a change in the perception of the film language in cinema. Processes dedicated to film-making such as dramatization, visualization, editing and distribution have gone through significant transition. A major contributing fact, DV (Digital Video), has made filmmaking available to amateur shooters which had before been dominated solely by professionals. Amateur filmmakers have begun shooting films of reasonably low costs and sharing them through internet platforms such as Youtube and Vimeo . The unexpected recognition by the audience and considerably high box office earnings have drawn attention to the language used in those films. The experiences and developments in digital communication require academics to correctly interpret the recent changes in filmmaking. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to discuss the characteristics of the somewhat revolutionary ‘new film language’ introduced by amateur filmmakers and the effects of digital communication technologies in cinema.