The Evolution of the Silver Screen
Setting the Scene
A late night at the local movie theater: munching on popcorn while the projected screen lights up with the newest summer blockbuster, an experience and pastime that is loved by many. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic this recreational activity has nearly vanished from the scope of the public. Movie theaters have been forced to shut down and it is feared that their long-lasting reign in the film industry may be reaching its end soon. These changes, though accelerated by the pandemic, were bound to come eventually with how cinema has been evolving over the past few decades. As a source of entertainment that must always appeal to the people to stay alive, cinema has always been changing to withstand time. From its beginnings in silent film productions to digital imaging devices accessible on all modern-day smartphones, the future of cinema continues to evolve by expanding into streaming services, incorporating new film production technologies, and progressively increasing diversity on the silver screen.
Humble Beginnings
To envision where the future of cinema is going, firstly one must understand where it started. In the early 20th century, the first feature length films were garnering lots of popularity as recreational activities, thus leading to the creation of permanent movie theaters. These permanent theaters were referred to as Nickelodeons because admission usually costed only a nickel, making them highly accessible to people from varying social classes. In his article, “History of Film”, David Cook, a professor and director of the Film Studies Program at Emory University, writes, “The most immediate effect of the rapid rise of the distribution sector was the nickelodeon boom, the exponential growth of permanent film theaters in the United States from a mere handful in 1904 to between 8,000 and 10,000 by 1908.” Film theaters were becoming commonplace in most cities and towns across the nation as more looked towards watching movies as a form of entertainment.
With film finally being accessible to most people in the United States, there were concerns voiced that movies might lead to immoral behavior. Most films that were being made in the first two decades of the 20th century displayed inappropriate humor, violence, and were sexually provocative. Eventually censorship would be enforced on these films which would last for most of the 20th century. In her article, “Sex, Communism, Race, and Creative Freedom in Hollywood”, Kat Rosenfield, a culture writer and novelist, discusses the very beginnings of film censorship. She explains that “in 1927, a committee of studio execs, at the behest of a freshly anointed industry honcho named Will H. Hays, had already collaborated to publish a now-infamous list of ‘don’ts and be carefuls,’ a 37-item litany of topics that filmmakers agreed would be either approached with caution or avoided entirely.” This list would turn into the Motion Picture Production Code in 1934. Films would be censored of on-screen violence, sexual perversion, profanity, drug use, interracial dating, and other “taboos”. This Code eventually died in 1968 due to public outcry.
Keeping Up with Modern Times
Entering the current 21st century, films went through a dramatic technological advancement: digitalization. There has been a growing trend in making movies with digital technology rather than on traditional film reels. In “21st Century Film Making” the author, an administrator at the Seamedu School of Pro-Expressionism, asserts that “what was once a series of still images shown at 24 frames a second to create an illusion of motion is now a series of digital images stored in binary code and played through a computer program.” Digital imaging has been on the rise for film production for a variety of reasons. Digital cameras are a lot smaller than film cameras. Therefore, a lot of directors find them easier to use when shooting scenes that require working in small and crowded spaces or scenes that require lots of camera movement. Additionally, digital cameras are much cheaper than film cameras and they have the same footage quality to them, rendering it almost impossible to tell the two apart during viewing. Film reels are becoming a thing of the past as the film industry continues to use new technologies to create movies more efficiently.
The most recent event relating to cinema in modern times was the 93rd Academy Awards. This event was historic seeing that it had the most diverse nominees and winners in all the Academy’s history. It showed how in the modern age diversity is being more represented on screen than ever before in cinematic history. Almost half of the 20 nominees for awards such as Best Actor/Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress were people of color. Additionally, this is the first year the Academy has nominated two women for Best Director. Hunter Graves, a pop culture publicist for UWIRE, discusses the importance of such milestones for the Academy, voicing that “these improvements in the diversity of Oscar nominations is not only a result of the production of more diverse films but also due to the recognition of diverse films in general. The Academy has implemented many new measures to ensure a more representative voting body and a more diverse choice of films.” Diversity has always existed in cinema, with women and minorities working on films from the very beginning. It is not a new phenomenon but what is important is that after 93 years their hard work has finally been recognized and they are achieving equal status that they have been shunned from in the past. It is a step in the right direction for ensuring equality for all in cinema.
The Future of Film
Looking towards the future, there are big changes in development for the film industry. Over the past decade, streaming services have advanced greatly and are soon to be dominating cinema completely, in-person theaters becoming a thing of the past. Such services consist of platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBOMax and many others. In his article, “What’s Next: The Future of Film”, Lucas Hilderbrand, a University of California Irvine professor of film and media studies, discusses how cinema consumption is evolving considering the recent pandemic, suggesting that “the theater chains will be impacted more than anyone else in the industry, and we’ve begun to see chainwide closures and discussions of bankruptcy.” Hilderbrand believes that the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has sped up the process of theaters’ inevitable closure in the film industry. To recover from this, he goes on to say that it is necessary these theaters attempt to align with streaming platforms to distribute their films. In the next decade it is entirely possible that the majority of people consume the biggest blockbusters from their home, rather than on the big screen at the local move theater.
Due to the growth in streaming services, the future of cinema is evolving not only in distribution but what is also being presented on screen. As mentioned earlier, the Oscars have already acknowledged the need for diversity of minorities and women on screen. This growth in diversity is not random and instead has a direct correlation with the growth of streaming services and consumer demand. Hilderbrand confirms that this new era of melting-pot cinema is not going away any time soon, highlighting that “in many ways, the economics of the industry had already seriously marginalized independent, foreign, documentary, LGBTQ+ and other cinemas beyond blockbusters. Streaming platforms and cable networks have become venues for these.” Diversity in cinema has been dismissed for most of its history and through the privatization of streaming platforms it has become possible to be shown on screens that reach more audiences than ever before. Consumers demand streaming services not only for its accessibility but also for its ability to shine a light and recognize groups of marginalized people that have not been able to be represented in mainstream cinema.
Production costs are changing for actors and workers of the film industry because of the shift from theaters to streaming platforms. Though streaming services appear to bring lots of positives for cinema there has been some backlash when it comes to compensating the people who actually put in the work to make a film released for streaming. John Horn, a radio host for entertainment coverage for KPCC programming in Los Angeles, discusses how important this shift in compensation is for the members of the film industry, saying, “I was talking to somebody who works on scores for movies, and he said when one of his films goes to a streaming platform, he makes 10 cents on the dollar in terms of his royalty. His work is the same, but because it’s debuting on a streaming platform and not at the multiplex, he’s taking 90% pay cut in his royalties.” To make a movie, multiple roles are required from writers, to actors, cinematographers, and all types of other jobs necessary to bring a film to life. Someone who creates scores, no doubt a necessary role in cinema, has to worry about losing most of their pay because of the sudden distribution of their films on to streaming services. This has huge effects on thousands of workers who rely on these occupations to sustain their lives. If these workers decide to make money elsewhere, the film industry could find itself with a shortage of employees. However, since cinema as we know it is changing it is possible that the way film companies pay their employees will change too. Royalties can perhaps be tailored for streaming services in the future rather than relying on the typical box-office release of the past.
Roll Credits
Overall, cinema has evolved greatly over time and it will continue to change in the future through its expansion in streaming services as a means of distribution, its growing diversity on screen, and its shift in movie production based on new technologies. Some may choose to see all these changes as the end of cinema as we know it, with theaters being shut down due to the domination of streaming. However, change does not mean the end, instead it means a new beginning. Going to in-person theaters is an irreplaceable experience that no streaming service could ever capture, and streaming services provide a new world of opportunity that theaters lack in. For the future, I believe that not one will eliminate the other, but instead that both aspects of cinema will coexist to create a broader film industry than ever seen before, one that reaches far beyond the scope of its predecessor. The future for cinema is bright, and the world is watching.
Works Cited
Cook, David. “History of Film.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Feb. 2021, www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.
Graves, Hunter. “This year’s Oscar nominations were historic, here’s what to expect.” UWIRE Text, 30 Mar. 2021, p. 1. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A656781802/AONE?u=napl44696&sid=AONE&xid=61932c1f. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.
Hilderbrand, Lucas. “What’s Next: The Future of Film.” UCI News, 5 Dec. 2020, news.uci.edu/2020/11/30/whats-next-the-future-of-film/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.
Horn, John. “What Will The Film Industry Look Like Post COVID-19 Pandemic?” NPR, 21 Dec. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/12/21/948697829/what-will-the-film-industry-look-like-post-covid-19-pandemic. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.
Rosenfield, Kat. “Sex, Communism, Race, and Creative Freedom in Hollywood: Like The Hays Code and Waldorf Statement Before Sperling, Nicole, and Brooks Barnes. “Kindling the Fires of Diversity.” New York Times, 16 Mar. 2021, p. C1(L). Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A655213037/AONE?u=napl44696&sid=AONE&xid=bc7d1b7d. Accessed 7 Apr. 2021.
“21st Century Film Making: How We Embraced Digital Technology.” Seam, 11 Jan. 2020, www.seamedu.com/blog/21st-century-film-making-embraced-digital-technology/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.