“In a world where there is time shifting, shape shifting, power shifting and other transformative experiences, knowing and understanding the digital landscape are essential. This understanding is essential to users and producers (though who can tell the difference these days?)” (Pavlik, J., 2008, p: xii).
Life as we know it today has evolved to the point where digital media gives everyday computer users, otherwise known as amateurs, the opportunity to produce content in a few simple steps. Within a short time frame, amateurs can now produce content of a fairly high standard, whereas creative skills used to be something that people aimed for and worked to develop, which gave them some credentials. Film is one area where challenges need to be met by practitioners due to amateur input in producing digital content.
Film is a very controversial area of creativity. The inception of new communication technologies is one of the main reasons; “New digital media fundamentally weakens traditional media and creative institutions” (Keen, A., 2007). The ability to film something is readily available for anyone; anytime, anywhere. Before this new technology, professionals and highly skilled artists were given special credit that couldn’t be easily attained.
Internet sites such as YouTube and iReport are continually contributing to amateurs’ success, promoting their work around the globe. YouTube is a world wide craze, even a phenomenon. “As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow” (YouTube LLC, 2009). Though iReport uses the same concept, it is portrayed differently; it is predominantly news based whereas YouTube clips are broad-spectrum. iReport.com is a user-generated site. That means the stories submitted by users are not edited, fact-checked or screened before being posted (iReport, date unknown). Its sites like these which are causing real masterpieces to be discredited.
The aforementioned points are reinforced by a number of sources. Andrew Keen’s book, The Cult of the Amateur describes how the line between professional and amateur has seriously been blurred. “In today’s self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion, however ill-informed, can publish anything on the internet, the distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur becomes dangerously blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers, unconstrained by professional standards or editorial filters, can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion; truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented” (Keen, A., 2007).
Keen also warns that “our most valued cultural institutions—our professional newspapers, magazines, music, and movies—are being overtaken by an avalanche of amateur, user-generated free content” (Keen, A., 2007). Sharon Badal’s book expresses the same concepts; it also covers the topic of blurring the lines between elite film makers with years of experience and an amateur film maker who distributes their work through YouTube and other such outlets.
Media in the digital age, written by John Vernon Pavlik, goes on to talk about devices used to create film content and how it is disseminated through the use of the web. This again re-enforces the argument that new technology is allowing anybody to create film, which in turn makes the profession of film making far less elite. Since the 1980s, “media professionals have seen their almost exclusive dominion over the world of media content erode rapidly” (Pavlik, J., 2008).
The Little Macquarie Dictionary defines an amateur in one sense as “one that engages in a particular pursuit, study or science as a pastime rather than as a professional.” “Amateurism” is defined as “non-professional” and amateurish as “the lack of professional finish.” To gain further understanding, the same dictionary defines a professional as “one who earns a living by an art or sport etc, in which amateurs engage for amusement or recreation” (Blair, D., 1983). Incidentally, the latter entry urges comparison with the former.
“Amateurs are found throughout science, art, sport and entertainment; that they can be distinguished by a variety of criteria, from professionals who work in the same field and from dabblers who merely play at it; and that we need to know much more about seemingly one of the most complicated and neglected facets of modern leisure” (Stebbins, R., 1992, p: xxi). This book in particular provides an understanding of the absurd relationship between professionals in art, film, science, sport and entertainment and their serious amateur counterparts.
There seems to be an ongoing feud between Amateur and Professional; sure the lines between the two are becoming increasingly unclear, but in reality each tier within the film making industry faces its own individual challenges. Although professionals and amateurs do face the same challenges and hardships, just on a completely different scale; copyright, budget, equipment and time are naming just a few.
Amateurs are hungry. They have the time to experiment and explore different avenues and are generally self-taught. For the majority of the time, amateurs sit making films that go un-noticed. Amateurs are forced to work with the equipment they have, though in some cases they end up finding original ways of delivering films. These productions can sometimes, in return, help them break into the industry - which in the long run can only help the industry itself.
Professionals, on the other hand, are constantly kept on their toes and some develop innovative ideas, while at the same time producing new and outrageous things with the up market tools and equipment available to them. Unlike amateurs, they are constantly faced with deadlines. It used to be common knowledge that professionals gained a reputation which got their work noticed, although it may not always be successful. But nowadays, their work receives little to no credit, because amateurs are able to create the same content, though of a somewhat lesser standard.
“An idea that filmmaking goals involved attainment of correct and sanctioned aesthetic norms, and an ideology that the rewards of leisure demanded both control and skill over creativity” (Zimmerman, P., 1988, p: 23). Again the abovementioned quote relates to the idea that control and skills are deemed necessary to create somewhat of a masterpiece; these characteristics can only be successfully accomplished with some sort of credential and precise understanding.
Every aspect of the film industry is collaborative; whether it is at a professional or amateur level; meaning that different tiers work together on a common enterprise of project. Take Citizen Journalism for example; television stations are inviting everyday individuals (amateurs) to send in their work to their news stations (professionals) in the hope of breaking a story, or in some cases to aid a story already presented. “The accessibility of technology has given birth to a new breed of filmmaker” (Badal, S., p xiv).
In summary, professionals and amateurs face the same challenges, only on different levels. Due to the availability and simplicity of being able to create film content through new media technologies, professionals are faced with more challenges than amateurs. In Today’s society amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion, thanks to the internet, can create and post a film online.
“The word masterpiece is much abused and often ambiguous. Using the term masterpiece, I simply mean that films, years after their making, challenge the mind and the eye, and that they still stand as emblems of filmmaking imagination, suggesting new possibilities for what film can be” (Perry, T., 2006, p: 1). The content consumers have access to is still growing; individuals are learning more and more which in turn allows anybody to create products of a higher quality. This is one reason as to why Professionals should be worried about Amateurs work. In relation to this aspect of film, we are able to see the dramatic change and just how much the industry has evolved.
The rapid advance of digital technologies network globalisation have made cultural products such as art, fashion, music and film one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. For the film industry, this constantly changing technological state of affairs requires constant re-invention in order to survive and prosper. After saying this, maybe the definition of “film” needs to be redefined. We seem to be holding on to this batch of elitist content producers, because we don’t want it to die, but maybe we need to break free and branch out; maybe we need something new.
REFERENCES:
Badal, S., 2008, Swimming Upstream: A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution, El Sevier Inc,
Blair, D., 1983, The Little Macquarie Dictionary, The Macquarie Library PTY LTD,
iReport, date unknown, About, http://www.ireport.com/about.jspa, (accessed: 15/10/09)
Keen. A., 2007, The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s internet is killing our culture, Double Day / Currency,
Pavlik, J., 2008, Media in the Digital Age,
Perry, T., 2006, Masterpieces of modernist cinema, Indiana University Press,
Stebbins, R., 1992, Amateurs, Professionals and Serious Leisure, McGill-Queen’s University
YouTube LLC, 2009, Company History, http://www.youtube.com/t/about, (accessed: 15/10/09)
Zimmermann, P., 1988,
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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Blair, D., 1983, The Little Macquarie Dictionary, The Macquarie Library PTY LTD,
iReport, date unknown, About, http://www.ireport.com/about.jspa, (accessed: 15/10/09)
Keen. A., 2007, The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s internet is killing our culture, Double Day / Currency,
Levy, E., 1999, Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film,
Munir, K., and Phillips, N., 2005, The Birth of the 'Kodak Moment': Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Adoption of New Technologies,
Pace, D., 2004, The American Historical Review, Vol. 109, No. 4: The Amateur in the Operating Room: History and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/109.4/pace.html, (accessed: 18/10/09)
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McGill-Queen’s University
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Zimmerman, P., 1995, Reel families: a social history of amateur film, Library of
