Digital Media has clearly left a large impact on the Film Industry. Interacting through Social Networking has changed the industry a lot.
We can define the term ‘interact’ as “to become involved in communication or social activity (1). Film fans, film critics and film makers can now communicate with each other through digital technologies and most important the craze of the internet and social networking. I believe that this has encouraged my enthusiasm for films as I feel like I can really get involved.
Twitter has developed a craze where you are now able to tweet your favourite film stars and filmmakers. The director, Chris Weitz (2), has a twitter account to act as a Q & A service to communicate with fans (3).Most celebrity twitter users infrequently reply to fans but Weitz responds to questions on a daily basis.
The use of conducting online interviews is another opportunity to interact. Recently I have seen MTV ask on Twitter for questions to use to interview a film star. This gives the opportunity for fans to ask exactly what they want to know. Online webchats are similar to this but more informal. It acts as face to face interaction between the film star/filmmaker and the fans.
The use of vlogging from actors in their own personal time or from film sets lets them address their fans directly. Videos from film sets let us right into what is happening in the production of the movie.
Celebrities have exploded onto the social networking scene and to an extent we can now follow their daily lives. However, are celebrities revealing too much information about their personal lives? Digital Media has allowed us to interact with celebrities in real time which was not possible before.
On the 17th of April, I followed the Water for Elephants premiere online. I was nowhere near the New York yet I was updated by the minute through digital media. Within 4 minutes of the premiere starting, a picture appeared on twitter via a mobile phone. Twitter users were using the hashtag “#wfe” and film critics and fans were tweeting live from the event (4). MTV streamed the premiere live over the internet which you were able to watch from anywhere in the world (5). Apple had an application available from their App Store that you could upload and share your pictures from the event (6). Digital Media allows us to access so much more information now and makes us feel like we are part of an event even though we are not there in person.
Before Digital Media really took off, we knew little about the films that were due to be released and less about those who starred in them. I think Social Networking has definitely given us a bigger insight into the production process but sometimes it is possible that we find out too much also. This is simply through the interaction of people online. It only takes one person to share data for a thousand people to share it. Digital Media has made it more difficult to keep secrets in this industry but gives us a greater insight of that they do as a business.
References
1. MSN (2009), http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861621730/interact.html, Accessed 18 April 20112. IMDB (2011), http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919363/, Accessed 18 April 2011
3. Twitter (2011), http://twitter.com/chrisweitz, Accessed 19 April 2011
4. Twitter (2011), http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23wfe, Accessed 17 April 2011
5. MTV (2011),http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/04/16/join-us-on-sunday-for-the-water-for-elephants-premiere-live-stream/, Accessed 17 April 2011
6. Color (2011), http://www.color.com/waterforelephants, Accessed 17 April 2011
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