Amateur digital filmmaking and capitalism

William BROWN

pp. 198-217

in: Ewa Mazierska, Lars Kristensen (eds), Marx at the movies, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Abstract

In the digital age, cameras that can record moving images and sounds have become ubiquitous; they exist not only in the form of cheap, stand-alone moving image cameras, but also on various devices such as mobile phones, tablets and still image cameras. Practices such as machinima (the making of films using footage recorded in videogames and/or virtual environments), or using footage found from online archives to create edited works (some of which might be referred to as "mash-ups"), mean that one does not even need a physical moving image camera to make a film (although the digital era is of course preceded by a history of found footage films, scratch films, painted films and films made with still images that similarly did not necessitate a physical camera). Furthermore, many computers now come with editing software pre-installed on them, while one can also download editing freeware from the internet in order to put films together. Simultaneous to the increased ease of producing films is the increased ease of getting those films "out there". For the internet has, of course, put in the hands of anyone with online access the ability to upload, and thus in some senses to distribute, their films — popularly via sites such as Vimeo and YouTube.