Friday, 17 March 2023
A 7-time Oscar winning filmmaker and a world-renowned film scholar have written a new book, which explores why cinema has survived for more than one hundred years, despite endless crises including revolutions in technology, competition with television, the Covid-19 pandemic and a cultural shift to on-demand streaming services.
has been co-authored by – a Hollywood sound designer who has won seven Academy Awards for his work, which has included hit films such as Terminator 2,鈥疛urassic Park, Toy Story, Titanic,鈥疭aving Private Ryan and鈥疐inding Nemo – and Dr Gianluca Sergi, Professor of Film Industries at the 糖心原创 and Director of the Institute for Screen Research Industries. The book charts the history of cinema through a series of crises that could, or rather should, have ‘ended’ it.
We wrote this book to help film professionals navigate crises. From its inception, film was seen as an object of curiosity and appeal but not something that could develop into a mature industry. 120 years and countless 鈥榙eadly crises鈥� on, it continues to remain one of the most popular art forms for audiences from all backgrounds, and a multi-billion-dollar global industry.
One of the many key areas discussed in the book is the artistic crises created by the introduction of sound and the demise of silent movies. However, Gary Rydstrom explains that sound has played a vital role in the survival of cinema.
The coming of sound is an example of an artistic crisis that Hollywood was unprepared for, yet was unpredictably improved by. While loudly wrestling with a technological transition, cinema quietly underwent an artistic transformation. The sound crisis didn鈥檛 kill, or even radically alter the movies. Instead, it made cinema truer to itself.
In recent years, there has also been much debate over the role of cinema in a world where on-demand streaming services have soared in popularity and the likes of Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime are commissioning more original film content. In fact, Professor Sergi was invited to present his research on this subject to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy, which brings together people from every aspect of the film industry and has an influence far wider than the Oscars, wanted to hear his thoughts on the future of film; whether going to the movies would still be relevant to future audiences and, more fundamentally, when movies are created, distributed and consumed in so many new ways, can we agree what a ‘watching a film’ actually means?
The subject is covered in detail in the book and Professor Sergi explains: “Although we can all access high quality storytelling in a variety of forms, from books to music, cinemas provide a unique blend of ‘grand storytelling’ – large screens, big sound, the social experience of sitting next to strangers –and audiences worldwide continue to respond to that.”
The Endless End of Cinema’ is You can also listen to a podcast interview about the book with Gary and Gianluca here:
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Notes to editors:
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