“What has been communicated (message) has been less important… than the particular medium which people communicate” – Marshall McLuhan
As someone who’s just spent a week physically editing film – let me tell you – it’s not easy. Not to mention the sheer enormity of the process (just picture metres and metres of film rolls while you try and find a nice place to make a cut). But, with such advanced editing technology readily available to me, I never considered how technological advancements of a medium affect its message.
So, this week I made a meme-gif which aims to explore the transition from analogue to digital media and what that meant for the Cinematic world.
Advancements to the filmic medium meant that more visually and thematically complex stories could be told. For example, let’s compare a car chase from Mad Max (1979) to Mad Max Fury Road. How do they differ? What messages do each carry – are they different? Or are they the same? How has a change in medium resulted in an altered message?
And finally, here’s a history of film editing, which briefly explains how cinematic advancements allowed for more complex stories to be told, thus changing the message transmitted through the cinematic medium:
Can you think of any other film re-boots which carry different messages due to their altered mediums? Comment below.
Cover image source: http://christylemire.com/mad-max-fury-road/
Another prime example of how the message changes based on the medium is the Michael Bay “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” reboot in comparison with the original films back from the early 90’s. Although the originals were (subjectively) never great to begin with, they were played by real people inside suits which gave the entire movie a puppet/power-rangers over-the-top aesthetic. The humanizing element of the TMNT reboot and its inclusion of modern CGI I feel disrupted the intended message and representation of the characters.
If you’re interested in other failed reboots, this list covers some interesting ones however with most list articles, its very subjective so take it all with a grain of salt.
http://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-755-bad-remakes-side-by-side-with-originals/
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Oh god I almost forgot about the TMNT reboot. They scare the crap out of me. Interesting article though – thanks for sharing it.
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Another reboot could be the Jurassic Park movies. At one point they were made with animatronic dinosaurs and now the reboot is with cgi.
I talked with my parents about this a little and they think that the new movies have lost touch with the original series because they are done with cgi. I very much agree, the animatronics added that little bit of magic to the film. So in this sense I think the change in medium changed the way the new films were and still are being received
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