Output details
36 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
University of the West of England, Bristol
'Digital Decay'
Growing out of an earlier practice-based research project documenting the impact of digital technologies on all aspects of the feature film industry (Cinema:Digital, DVD, 2006) the article draws on original interview material with key personnel at many of the major UK film-industry stake holders: Jeff Allen, Managing Director of Panavision UK; Lionel Runkel, Technicolor Film Services; Clive Ogden, Kodak Entertainment Imaging Division; Maurice Thornton, retired projectionist and curator of the Curzon Collection of Cinema Technology which took place in 2006.
Published in 2008, the article was the first of its kind, dealing with the pressing issue of digital conversion which is now fully upon us – with film “cut–off” imminent and the very real threat of “digital shortfall” affecting many small independent “revival” cinemas around the world (see Julia Marchese’s petition to the major Hollywood studios to maintain 35mm release prints: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/fight-for-35mm/). The “digital dilemma” identified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remains unresolved.
The article was initially of intense interest to those involved in film preservation, storage and archiving. Moving Image is the peer-reviewed journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, published by the University of Minnesota Press, and the article is still listed on the journal’s Frequently Downloaded articles list on the Project Muse website: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_moving_image/ [date accessed 12 Sept 2012].
It has more recently been taken up by well-known figures within “mainstream” film studies, eg David Bordwell (2012) Pandora’s Digital Box: Films, Files, and the Future of Movies; Sarah Street (2012) ‘Digital Britain and the Spectre/Spectacle of New Technologies’, Journal of British Cinema and Television, Volume 9, Number 3, pp. 377-399; and Karen F. Gracy and Miriam B. Khan (2012), ‘Preservation in the Digital Age: A Review of Preservation Literature 2009-10 ‘ in Library Resources and Technical Services, Volume 56, Number 1.
