a group of scientists worked on human perception of both photochemical and digital cinema.
As Film Goes Byte: The Change From Analog to Digital Film Perception Miriam L. Loertscher1,2,*, David Weibel1, Simon Spiegel3, Barbara Flueckiger3, Pierre Mennel2, Fred W. Mast1, and Christian Iseli2 1University of Bern 2Zurich University of the Arts 3University of Zurich
Abstract
The digital revolution changed film production in many ways. Until the end of the 20th century, most film professionals and critics preferred celluloid film. However, no previous empirical study compared complete narrative films recorded with analog and digital cinematography. Three short narrative films were produced with an analog and a digital camera attached to a 3D rig in order to control all optical parameters. In postproduction, a third version of a digital film was created to mimic the analog film aesthetics. In a cinema experiment with 356 participants, we tested whether the three film versions are perceived differently. The two
capturing technologies produced similar emotional and immersive experiences during digital projection. The study revealed significant differences in the memory of visual details, with higher recall scores for the digitally captured versions. By contrast, preference ratings of very
short scenes and the comparison of projection types revealed different results. The mechanical projection of celluloid film produced higher levels of emotional reactions. The results might be of interest to film professionals and audience in general. This study shows that the gap between analog and digital aesthetics has been closed with today’s advanced digital technology.
Reference to the original article:
Loertscher, M. L., Weibel, D., Spiegel, S., Flueckiger, B., Mennel, P., Mast, F. W., & Iseli, C.
(2016). As Film Goes Byte: The Change from Analog to Digital Film Perception. Psychology of
Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 10(4), 458–471. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000082
A prepublication copy of the manuscript that was accepted on July 7, 2016 can be read at
