Digital Film Research Articles

New Media and Film Festivals in the Middle East

This paper is about two things. On the one hand it tries to observe some of the changes after the digital revolution, changes that had an impact on film festivals. The digital projection and acceptance of digital films to film festivals have been achieved. Yet an aspect of this digitization is under attack. The film submissions through digital portals. The second aspect is often neglected and an under the other topic: short film festivals, especially for and by the young.

Language, Copyright and Geographic Segmentation in the EU Digital Single Market for Music and Film

The EU seeks to create a seamless online Digital Single Market for media products such as digital music and film. The territoriality of the copyright regime is often perceived as an obstacle that induces geographical segmentation. This paper provides empirical evidence on the extent of market segmentation in the EU on the supply and demand side and measures the contribution of several drivers of this market segmentation. We use data from the Apple iTunes country stores in 27 EU Member States to measure geographical market segmentation in supply (availability), demand (sales) and prices across the EU for downloadable digital music and film. We find that availability of EU media products across country stores in the EU is close to 80% for music and 40% for films but only 27% for EU-produced films. Recent industry initiatives to reduce the transaction costs of making digital music available across borders result in a reasonably wide availability though still short of the 100% mark. Vertical agreements in the supply chain of films remain an obstacle for wider availability of digital films. Consumer preference variables such as cultural proximity, a shared language or border and inherent preferences for home market products are the main drivers for the observed geographical market segmentation in supply and demand patterns. Supply side factors including copyright-related trade costs probably still play a role though we can only infer this indirectly in the absence of data on copyright licensing arrangements at product level. Commercial strategies in general and competition-restricting territorial agreements in film distribution in particular will also reduce availability. We also find evidence of price differentiation across iTunes EU country stores, correlated with overall country price levels.

Future Proof: The Transition to Digital at IFI Archive

Informed by research over the past two years and the work of colleagues in peer institutions, the IFI Irish Film Archive developed a six-year Digital Preservation and Access strategy which launched in 2014. Fundamental to this Strategy was the design and installation of digital archive tools for long term preservation and the redesign of workflow practices to facilitate accession and management of high resolution digital film and broadcast assets and associated metadata. This article outlines the steps taken and standards applied in developing a future proof digital audiovisual archive.

Analysis on the dynamic deformations of the images from digital film sequences

Abstract Image sequences, in particular digital video sequences, are characterised by the features which result in their high potential as measurement data. However, as early as at the stage of visual assessment of digital film images, originating, in particular, from amateur cameras, occurrence of some deformations may be observed, which may highly influence the results of measurements performed using these images; such deformations differ from deformations occurred in the case of static photographic images. It results both, by the method of image recording, using an electronic shutter and interlaced or progressive scanning, as well as the method of file recording and compression. It is worth to notice the systematic nature of such deformations, which highly depend on mutual motions of a camera and recorded objects. The objective of presented research works was to develop the mathematical description of image deformations, as a function of motion parameters. This would allow for adaptation of the camera calibration process to the demands of sequential imaging, as well as for modification of algorithms of measurements using self-calibration, and, as a result, minimisation of deformations. Another objective was to analyse the influence of deformations, typical for digital film images, on the results of measurements performed using these images, by means of series of experiments, which were based on multiple calibration of static and a moving camera, also with the use of a spatial test field. The first part was made by developing formulas based on some geometric relations, using some simplifications. On the stage of experimental research a certain degree of compatibility of experimental results and theoretical assumptions were confirmed.

AN IMPROVED GEO-ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM IN LOCATION BASED SERVICES

Wireless technology is used in many applications with location based data encryption techniques to secure the communication. The use of knowledge of the mobile user's location called Geo-encryption, produces more secure systems that can be used in different mobile applications. Location Based Data Encryption Methods (LBDEM) is a technique used to enhance the security of such applications called as Location Based Services (LBS). It collects position, time, latitude coordinates and longitude coordinates of mobile nodes and uses for the encryption and decryption process. Geo-encryption plays an important role to raise the security of LBS. Different Geo-protocols have been developed in the same area to add security with better throughput. The Advanced Encryption Standard in Geo-encryption with Dynamic Tolerance Distance (AES-GEDTD) is an approach which gives higher security with a great throughput. This approach mainly uses the AES algorithm, symmetric key encryption algorithm. But applying this algorithm to more complex data like images, videos, etc. like in Digital Film Distribution, we might face the problem of computational overhead. To overcome this problem, we analyze AES and modify it, to reduce the computational overhead. In the modified AES algorithm (M-AES), we omit the calculation of mix column operations and hence the M-AES-GEDTD is a fast and lightweight algorithm for multimedia data.

Accuracy of templating the acetabular cup size in Total Hip Replacement using conventional acetate templates on digital radiographs.

Templating of the acetabular cup size in Total Hip Replacement (THR) is normally done using conventional radiographs. As these are being replaced by digital radiographs, it has become essential to create a technique of templating using digital films. We describe a technique that involves templating the digital films using the universally available acetate templates for THR without the use of special software. Preoperative digital radiographs of the pelvis were taken with a 30mm diameter spherical metal ball strapped over the greater trochanter. Using standard acetate templates provided by the implant company on magnified digital radiographs, the size of the metal ball (X mm) and acetabular cup (Y mm) were determined. The size of the acetabular cup to be implanted was estimated using the formula 30*Y/X. The estimated size was compared with the actual size of the cup used at surgery. Using this technique, it was possible to accurately predict the acetabular cup size in 28/40 (70%) of the hips. When the accuracy to within one size was considered, templating was correct in 90% (36/40). When assessed by two independent observers, there was good intra-observer and inter-observer reliability with intra-class correlation coefficient values greater than 0.8. It was possible to accurately and reliably predict the size of the acetabular cup, using acetate templates on digital films, without any digital templates.

On-Demand Culture: Digital Delivery and The Future of Movies By Chuck Tryon. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2013. 218 pp. $25.95 paper.

Chuck Tryon's timely book On-Demand Culture: Digital Delivery and the Future of Movies provides a solid industrial overview of on-demand film. Tryon previously wrote on digital film and popular cul...

Comparative study between cone-beam and digital lateral head film cephalometric measurements

Objective: The objective of the present study was to determine the differences between cephalometric measurements obtained by two different methods: cone-beam tomography and digital lateral head film. Material and methods: Measurements were performed (anterior facial height, mandibular length, upper incisor to the A-Pog line, lower incisor to the A-Pog line, ANS-PNS, ANB angle) on 30 patients by means of lateral digital radiography and cone-beam. The statistic test used was the t-Student. Results: The measurement that presented a statistically significant difference was the mandibular length (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Measurements performed in cone-beam scans for a 3D cephalometric analysis did not show evidence of being more effective or reliable in comparison with measurements performed in 2D. Key words: Cone-beam, lateral head film, cephalometry, reliability.

Report on the international workshop ‘Featuring Africa: Exploring the plurality of African digital film cultures’

Abstract

Introduction: Screening Embodiment

The idea for this special issue of Paragraph on the theme ‘Screening Embodiment’ emerged from our long-standing research interests regarding the interrelationships between film, gender and the body. The title of the issue aims to capture some of the varied ways in which these relationships can be conceived. Etymologically, the word ‘screen’ has roots in the Old High German term skrank which refers to a bar, barrier or fence. Film itself, as a photosensitive material and surface across which images are inscribed and through which light is projected, acts as a filter and forms a site of representation. It can be understood as a material that mediates the (real or imagined) world. From cinema, to video, to the interface of the World Wide Web, the concept of the ‘screen’ touches upon the ways in which the body is symbolized and imagined, sifting bodies into those deemed acceptable or unacceptable to put on view, constructing ideals of corporeality and bodily comportment. In this context, screen images are marked by the processes of mediation that accompany their production and reception, as they potentially both proffer and withhold bodies. In turn, films such as Decasia (Dir. Bill Morrison, USA, 2002) and Lyrical Nitrate (Dir. Peter Delpeut, Netherlands, 1991) employ found footage from silent cinema to draw attention to a carnal, sensual dimension to the medium that is often overlooked, seen through, screened out.1 Contemporary digital films and videos also possess a material substrate, a body, which is often disavowed.2 To screen any film, then, is always implicitly (or, rarely, explicitly) to broadcast embodied dimensions of the medium. The changing grain of film stock, manifested through phenomena such as chromatics and image clarity, embodies the history of motionpicture technology. Writing about film as a kind of embodiment, however, may act to screen this body even as it strives to describe it. Putting what is seen, heard, felt on screen into words is a significant challenge.

Digital divides? UK Film Council strategy and the digital screen network

Abstract In retrospect it is easy to identify digital technology and the disruptive nature of the Internet as two key factors shaping the broader screen landscape over the last decade or so, but how did organizations deal with that process at the time? This article examines the role that digitization and its wider ramification across the UK film industry’s patterns of distribution and exhibition played in both the strategic thinking and the operational practice of the UK Film Council (UKFC) during its lifetime (2000–2011). It draws on interviews with key policy shapers and asks whether the UKFC was too slow to identify the transformative impact that digital would have on all areas of the film industry. By focusing on the origins and implementation of the Digital Screen Network, this article examines the impact of this programme on the UK film industry. It also offers insight into the organizational challenges of shaping digital film policy in an international industry.

Hybrid Image, Hybrid Montage: Film Analytical Parameters for Live Action/Animation Hybrids

The typology proposed in this article comprehensively illuminates the formal characteristics of live action/animation hybrid films. By reference to six film analytical categories, the interplay of animation and live action film is explored within single images as well as on the level of montage, and is illustrated by means of examples from a wide variety of films. The flexible and adaptable set of parameters comprises all animation techniques and is applicable to whole films as well as to longer or shorter sequences. A further goal is to disintegrate the boundary that is often drawn between so-called mélange films and digital hybrid films. The only requirement is that the disparity between animation and live action film must be discernible to the viewers. Ideally, the application of the proposed typology will lead to a new historical positioning of hybrid tendencies within film history.

Hispanism's Digital Turn

This essay focuses on the interface between praxis and theory in Hispanism in the twenty-first century. The author describes the ways in which his experience making documentary films at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in San Antonio de los Baños in Cuba led him to re-evaluate the way in which he taught theoretical and historical film courses at University College London. This led him, for example, to introduce a filmmaking exercise based on the Kuleshov Effect which provides the students with a better understanding of the mechanics of editing, or montage, within a given film. The essay turns to a discussion of difference between analogue and digital film and concludes with a comparison between Carl Dreyer's Ordet (1955) Carlos Reygadas' Stellet licht (2007).

Concurrent Velocimetry and Flash X-ray Characterization of Impact and Penetration in an Armor Ceramic

We present a methodology for concurrent Photon Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) and in-situ flash X-ray imaging during ballistic impact of metallic penetrators into monolithic armor grade ceramic targets. Tungsten heavy alloy long rod penetrators were launched from a smooth bore cannon into silicon carbide targets at velocities of 0.753 and 1.403mm/μs. Penetrator lengths and penetration depths were measured as a function of time using an array of four 450kV flash X-ray sources and digital film. A four channel PDV system coupled to a 16GHz oscilloscope was used to measure the velocity history of the penetrator and at three positions on the back surface of the target. This experimental technique shows great promise for measurements of the dwell time, penetration velocity, and the time of final break-out from the back of the target.

Discussion on the Digital Cinema Technology and its Development Trends

With the rapid development of modern science and technology, the development of digital movie is increasingly fast, digital film technology has gradually become the mainstream trend in the development of film technology.And its significance for regulating the film industry and promoting the sustainable development of the film industry is very important.The standards of digital cinema technology and traditional film technology are different, and grasp the full digital film technology standards, to fully improve on it and in the practice of the implementation is very important for the development of digital film. Therefore, we must attach great importance to the digital film technology, to enhance the capability of independent innovation of our country, and constantly improve after repeated practice, make contribution to the promotion of China's movie industry prosperity

“My story”—HIV positive adolescents tell their story through film

The global commitment to universal access for people in need of antiretroviral therapy has transformed the lives of adolescents with HIV. In contrast, there has been limited commitment at policy or service level to the need for effective therapeutic interventions which can help them to cope with their life experiences. It is imperative that the scale up of antiretroviral therapy programmes is accompanied by evidence-based therapeutic approaches if we are to assist adolescents to make informed treatment and secondary prevention decisions and to enjoy happy, fulfilled lives. This pilot study sought to evaluate the digital storytelling process as a therapeutic intervention for 12 HIV positive adolescents and young people within Africaid's Zvandiri programme in Harare, Zimbabwe. Drawing on narrative therapy, each storyteller created a digital film in which they narrated their life experiences and dominant themes in their lives. Storytellers found the process therapeutic as it helped them to move away from the negative themes which dominated their lives to a newer, richer perspective of their lives in which they had overcome challenges. Their films have provided caregivers and programmers with new insights into the challenges they faced and appropriate interventions for other adolescents living with HIV.

Protecting into emotion: therapeutic enactments with military veterans transitioning back into civilian life

Over 18.5% of military personnel returning from war zones to civilian life suffer mental health issues, which can lead to family breakdown, homelessness and other problems. Almost 4000 Australian soldiers have returned home from active service in the last decade suffering from combat stress and mental health conditions. A 2009 Australian independent government review warned that a new generation of veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severe mental health disorders will emerge in the next five years, with as many as one in four likely to need mental health treatment. The Difficult Return: arts-based approaches to mental health literacy and building resilience with recently returned military personnel and their families is a three-year Australian Research Council funded arts project aimed at supporting the mental health and well-being of recently returned veterans in Australia, USA and Canada. The project combines a range of arts-based strategies to help returning veterans, including online digital films to improve awareness and help seeking motivation, a performance project with ex-soldiers and actors, and a process-based group work programme. The paper will focus specifically on the development of the Veterans Transition Programme (VTP) a partnership between Griffith University and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. The VTP leverages the resilience and resources of veterans, providing help to participants attempting to better understand the impact of military experience on their lives. It draws on a range of psycho-educational and action-based approaches, including life review and drama enactments to engage participants in ways of dealing with disturbing events from their lives. The paper will describe and reflect on a number of the strategies used in the VTP, for example, how the drama enactments help to integrate emotion, cognition and embodied awareness, the significance of contact when working with trauma, and the importance of a therapeutic milieu in constructing ‘units’ of support for the veterans.

Vision-Based Industrial X-Ray Film Digitizing and Automatic Identification System

In this paper, a set of industrial X-ray film digitizing and automatic identification system is established with machine vision equipment. With this system, the industrial film can be digitalized rapidly and in high space resolution reaching to 860 DPI. The machine vision equipment includes linear CCD, light source, lens, aperture and film-moving machine. The controller is a master-slave mode, which includes a PC as the upper computer and an embedded system as the lower computer. The embedded system is composed by ARM and FPGA modules, which can control four axis motors and transmit an external trigger signals to the CCD in real-time. At last, a series of image processing algorithm is also developed in this paper to identify an industrial film that is captured to test coupling alignment of the casing pipes. The testing accuracy is 0.06mm.

The New Language of the Digital Film

:The language of the digital film entails an intermediation process between new technological capacities that provide the infinite potential to control cinematic manifestations, and new expressive intentions on the part of the digital filmmaker to produce an invented realism that suggests an auratic power. The unique aesthetics of the digital film reflect this power, expressing the ways digital filmmakers envision or shape invented worlds rather than striving to reproduce an actual and physical world. The characters in digital action films reveal this new determination in ways that have been equated with avatars in the video game context. The journey of the digital heroic action-body through spectacles of physical endurance evidences his manipulation from a position of control and mastery aimed mainly at heightening the impact of the action and functions on an expressive rather than a realist level.

A New/Old Ontology of Film

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ontological effects of digital technology, and determine whether digital films, traditional films, and pre-traditional motion pictures belong to the same category. I begin by defining the parameters of my inquiry, and then consider the two most significant consequences of the new technology. §2 proposes a decisive refutation of the causal relationship between reality and photography. §3 identifies an end to the dominance of photorealistic film over animation, and argues for an inversion of that relationship, whereby animation is paramount. Finally, I consider the implications of these consequences for film ontology, compare theories, and conclude in favour of Berys Gaut, for whom digital film is the latest incarnation of a history of moving pictures that stretches back for centuries.