Popular Movies and Technology
People’s aesthetic appreciation for any art is bound to the craft of its artists, and that craft is deeply affected by the technology available. Movies have evolved through a long series of venues and technological advances—theaters to shrinking personal devices; roll film with sprockets added; increased frame rates; the standardizations with added sound; experiments with color, aspect ratios, and contrast; and the move to a digital format. This chapter traces these and the consequent psychological improvements in viewer engagement that they fostered—for example, the creation of motion also created aversive flicker, but flicker was then diminished by increasing frame rates and was eliminated by digital delivery. Sound had profound effects, among other things creating a temporary deglobalization of cinema. Color increased discriminability and punctuated the change of scenes. And increased aspect ratios more firmly stimulated people’s systems of balance and the feeling of presence.