The End of Cinema

Anne Friedberg discusses how the new development of technology has diminished the differences between types of media, such as movies televisions, and computers. The movie scree, home television screen, and computer screen can now all display the same content,  losing their medium-based specificity. So much  the defined 'film studies' definition must evolve to include different viewing screens such as the television and computer screens. The introduction of new technologies in the 1970s/19080s -- such as the television remote control and the VCR -- began to alter both television and cinema viewing. With the VCR brings new aspects of 'time-shifting' to the viewing experience, fast forwarding sections or rewinding. The VCR also brings the ability to re-watch films, allowing a new analysis of the media in the second viewing. I found the invention of the VCR to be most relevant to our film studies through its use of rewinding. I usually cannot appreciate the use of formal elements, such as lighting and motifs, upon the first viewing. I recognize the use of lighting or repeated elements during my second viewing of a film. With the invented use of VCR, I believe that critics were able to analysis a film using a different quality of understanding.