Evolutions and adjustments have always taken place in all creative, literary or figurative fields that incorporate or anticipate what happens and what could happen around them. The subjects, the forms of expression, the languages, the techniques change and, in the same way, the interests, preferences and methods of use by the public evolve and change. This whole set of processes simply belongs to the normal dialectic of evolution and leads directly to the heart of what we want to deal with in this last chapter: the future of cinema.
In the ABìCinema section we have, albeit summarily, reported names, titles, topics that have been part of the history of the seventh art. Since the end of the XNUMXth century, cinema has undergone great changes: from the first black and white images to the most sophisticated shooting and projection technological innovations. It was, in many respects, a golden century where every genre, every production line, on almost every continent, found its fortune. The public has largely rewarded this market and has participated in the development process of an economic sector of all respect for the amount of capital invested.
The "belle timeHowever, for some years now cinema has begun to undergo a significant transformation. A landmark date can be taken with the introduction of magnetic tape recording. It was the year 1976 and the Japanese JVC (at the expense of Sony) launched the VHS format on the market with which it made it possible to pour a significant amount of images onto a small cassette, equivalent to those of a film. The quality wasn't the best and for a long time it was debated whether the other format, Betamax, favored by Sony, was better. The fact is that video cassettes have marked the watershed between the cinema shown in theaters and the private and personal viewing of films. The primacy of VHS did not last long and, in fact, within two decades, in 1995, a new medium was imposed: the DVD video, different from the audio DVD which in turn replaced the CD Rom. In both cases , both for VHS and for DVD, it was a matter of a radical shift in the mechanisms of production and diffusion of cinematographic works which, before then, lived mainly on the income deriving from cinemas and, for a residual quota, from television passages . The revolution therefore concerned the market from the output side, towards all that part of the production process downstream of the making of the film.
At the same time, digital technological innovation has also invested the entire upstream part of the shooting, editing and use of special effects mechanisms. The epochal transition occurred with the introduction of video cameras instead of film cameras, when we moved from 36 mm celluloid film to bit memories. From analog editing we moved on to computer graphics. From subjective shots to those made through drones. In cinemas the old projector and reels have been replaced by files sent via the Web.
This does not mean that the previous way of making cinema has been completely abandoned, on the contrary. The comedy genre, for example, strongly resists technological innovation as it does not necessarily require the use of particularly sophisticated filming tools.
As they say: it is not the only tool that makes the artist appreciated as much as it is the proposal, the idea, the work he creates. There are many who argue that technology kills cinema, makes it more aseptic, impersonal, mechanical. Others, on the other hand, argue exactly the opposite: it allows you to broaden your horizons, your expressive methods. One could think, for example, of what happens with the use of cell phone video cameras: small or large films are made which have parts of dignity compared to a traditional "film".
A completely different matter concerns some of the fundamental pillars of cinematic narration: the subjects and the actor's profession.
Let's see, in order, the various sectors in which the future of cinema can be glimpsed.
recovery. The purists of the camera (Quentin Tarantino shot his last film, The hateful heights in 70 mm and, before him in this format was filmed 2001 A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick)) argue that film quality cannot be replaced by digital. The depth, color rendering, brilliance of colors and sharpness of detail still appear largely to the advantage of celluloid. Often, to make the concept clear, the case of is cited Lawrence of Arabia, the famous film by David Lean from 1962 starring Peter O'Toole. In many sequences it is only thanks to the film that two shooting planes can be kept in focus: one very close up and one in the background, on the horizon. Research in this sector is entirely concentrated on trying to bring the two worlds ever closer, that of traditional film and that of digital. To obtain appreciable results, however, there is a risk of going beyond the limits of the visual perception of the human eye, both in terms of frame per second (FPS) and in terms of color range. Digital motion picture cameras in many respects have long since reached technical levels almost equivalent to traditional 35 mm film cameras. And there are many who manage to produce excellent results using semi-professional quality machines.
However, at the moment it remains an undisputed domain of digital shooting and, on the market, there are cameras with high performance. Vittorio Storaro, well-known three-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer, defined the flagship model in this sector, the Sony Cinealta F65 as “the ultimate expression of the art of digital cinematography … it allows you to shoot images without compromise and with colour, depth and detail breathtaking". Together with other well-known brands, such as Canon, JVC and Panasonic, they compete for an ever-expanding market aimed at improving image quality (from 4 to 8K).
Projection. Around 2010 the switch off took place which marked the transition from the projection of films in the traditional 35 mm format, the same with which most of the shooting was done, to the new digital format DCP (Digital Cinema Package). At the same time, the major film manufacturers, Kodak and Fuji, following the advent of digital technology, were closing their doors. At that moment the "romantic" phase of the screenings in theaters with the "reels" and the gigantic projectors that poured the cinematographic images onto the big screen ended. Since then, the films arrive directly to cinema managers through ultra-fast connections (up to 70 Mbps) and in spectacular formats such as HD and 3D. Projection machines have passed rapidly from the old models with very strong luminescence lamps to modern laser devices. Other technologies that affect projection concern the quality of the sheets: it was presented in 2016
Ultimate Screen, a new generation shaped screen capable of making a very high luminous efficiency.
But the aspect related to projection that most interests users is the quality of the cinemas, today understood more and more as a place of complex entertainment, where watching a film is only part of the interest and experience that the public requires. In fact, for some time together with the progressive and devastating closure of the many small cinemas in the neighbourhood, we have witnessed the spread of enormous multiplexes, often located in the center of large shopping centres.
