The Nerd is the Word: The Future of Movies

Welcome back to another exciting issue of The Nerd is the Word: Winter Soldier. In this issue, our hero’s body has been taken over by the consciousness of his mortal enemy.

So this issue will serve as a sort of “spiritual sequel” to the issue from a couple weeks ago about 3D movies. Over the break I watched a very interesting documentary called “Side by Side” which looks at the evolution of digital film making in Hollywood and the “film vs. digital” debate that is happening in the industry.

When it comes to movies, there will always be purists that say things like “Film looks better” or what have you. But when it comes to the way that the film is presented, the production method doesn’t really matter. If the theater presents the movie with a digital projector, you won’t be able to tell the difference between a movie produced on film and a movie produced digitally.

This debate is not one that I have really paid any attention to before watching the documentary, but the viewing gave me some things to think about in regards to digital movie making. I now firmly believe that the future of major motion pictures lies in digital image capture.

One of the major advantages to digital comes with the size of the camera. In the documentary, David Fincher talks about the filming of “The Social Network”, specifically in an early scene where the Winklevoss twins are rowing during an early morning crew practice. The camera is in front of them, perched on the boat. Fincher talks about how easy it would be for a heavy camera to tip that boat. With the light Red digital camera, he could attach it to the boat to get the amazing shots that helped garner eight Academy Award nominations.

The size of these cameras are great for documentary film makers who have to set up shots on the fly. The lack of film also cuts down on the cost for budding movie makers to get their start. The cheaper and easier the use of the cameras become, the more movie makers will try to make their way into the business. Sure, there will be more bad productions, but I also believe that those who have a unique vision will be more apt to try their hand if they weren’t thinking about it before.

Robert Rodriguez also owes his adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel, “Sin City”, to digital technology. He makes the claim that, without digital technology, he couldn’t have made as faithful an adaptation in the visual aspects of the movie. The digital technology allowed him to give the movie the comic book look that it needed to be adapted faithfully.

The debate will probably continue, but film cameras are no longer being produced by the major camera companies so the debate can only go on for so long. However, for as long as they can, directors and cinematographers like Christopher Nolan and Wally Pfister will continue to shun digital technology.

Of course, my comments about digital movie making are my own, do the research and make your own assessments. The more knowledgeable about the technology people are, the better the debate will be.

Now, let’s move on to the pull list (for Jan. 16)

Batgirl #16 (DC): Batgirl has been a fantastic book since it started 15 issues ago. Gail Simone is one of the best writers working in the industry today (in my opinion). Batgirl fans had a moment of fear recently when Simone was fired off the book for very unclear reasons. However, we received relief when she was replaced by….herself. The “Death of the Family” story line in all of the Bat books is one of the most compelling stories I’ve read. Batgirl’s story is my favorite of them. Pick up the book for the craziest wedding in comics, Barbara Gordon and The Joker.

Daredevil #22 (Marvel): Here we have it, the first meeting of the Man Without Fear and the brand new Superior Spider-Man. If you haven’t been reading Amazing Spider-Man, or the first issue of Superior Spider-Man, I won’t spoil for you what has happened, but what I will say is that you need to read that. This is partially my Spider-plug since I was off during the weeks that the final Amazing Spider-Man and the first Superior Spider-Man would be promoted. Daredevil has been absolved of wrong doing and mental instability in the eyes of his law partner Foggy Nelson, but now he will have to deal with the new Superior Spider-Man (with the final panels of DD #21 being the craziest things coming out of web head’s mouth in recent history).

Over the break, Ian Hand slipped off his toilet seat while hanging a picture and hit his head. When he woke up, he designed the Flux Capacitor, which is what makes time travel possible. Read all about it on Twitter @IanHand253.

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