Streaming: Movies, Media, and Instant Access

201 Pages·2013·0.933 MB·English

by  Wheeler Winston Dixon

FILM/TELEVISION/POPULAR CULTURE D
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“Dixon has written a lively, detailed, up-to-the-minute dispatch on moving-image media during n
their current period of rapid transition and transformation. . . . His experiences as a practicing
filmmaker as well as a media theorist and historian add to his credentials as an expert on this
multifaceted field, and his writing is consistently bright and engaging, making this an excellent
book for general readers as well as a valuable resource for classroom use and scholarly
reference. Streamingis a timely and in some ways urgent contribution to the constantly
evolving discipline of media studies.”
—David Sterritt, Chair, National Society of Film Critics, and author of
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Screening the Beats: Media Culture and the Beat Sensibility t
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“Dixon’s book offers a cogent overview of the history of digital film production and its impact
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on traditional filmmaking. His work is not only a historical map of the development of digitized
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filmmaking but also a sociocultural and psychologicalstudy of how digitally formed film will
(and does) impact viewers.” i
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—Valerie Orlando, author ofScreening Morocco: Contemporary Film g
in a Changing Society
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“In this expansive, elegantly written, and engaging study, Dixon attempts nothing less than to
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rethink the future of cinema in a digital age. Exploring the ways in which the Hollywood model I E
of embracing digital production is spreading throughout the world, Streaming complicates, S
illuminates, and extends our understanding of the current media landscape.” ,
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—Patrice Petro, professor of English, film studies, and global studies, E
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee D
I A
Film stocks are vanishing, but the images of the silver screen remain. Today, movies are stored in , A
the virtual cloud, and services such as Netflix and Hulu allow viewers to instantly stream video on N
televisions, computers, and smartphones. In Streaming: Movies, Media, and Instant Access, D

Wheeler Winston Dixon explores the ways in which digital cinema has altered contemporary
I N
filmmaking and changed the habits of viewers. Although Hollywood has embraced digital
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production and distribution because they are easier, faster, and cheaper, many critics and T
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industry professionals feel that the new format lacks the rich hues of traditional film stocks and
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fundamentally alters the art of cinema. Dixon argues that the change is neither good nor bad; T
it’s simply a fact. He explains how the new technology is not only affecting movies, music, A
and books but also changing our culture. C streaming
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WHEELER WINSTON DIXON, James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies and professor of S
English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is coeditor in chief of the Quarterly Review of Film S
and Videoand the author of numerous books, including A History of Horror, Visions of the
Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema, and Film Talk: Directors at Work.
M O V I E S, M E D I A, A N D I N S T A N T A C C E S S
ISBN: 978-0-8131-4219-7
52495
University Press of Kentucky Wheeler Winston Dixon
9 780813 142197
Streaming

Streaming
Movies, Media, and Instant Access
Wheeler Winston Dixon
Copyright © 2013 by Wheeler Winston Dixon
The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offi ces: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dixon, Wheeler W., 1950–
Streaming : movies, media, and instant access / Wheeler Winston Dixon.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8131-4217-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-0-8131-4218-0 (epub) — ISBN 978-0-8131-4219-7
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8131-4224-1 (pdf)
1. Streaming technology (Telecommunications) 2. Digital video. 3. Busi-
ness enterprises—Computer networks. I. Title.
TK5105.386.D59 2013
006.7’876—dc23
2012051381
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
For Gwendolyn,
My One and Only
We are on a shift that is as momentous and as funda-
mental as the shift to the electrical grid. It’s happening
a lot faster than any of us thought.
—Andrew R. Jassy, as quoted by Quentin Hardy
Contents
1. On Demand 1
2. The Lost Age of Classicism 31
3. Content Wars 71
4. The Moving Platform 101
5. Streaming the World 129
Acknowledgments 169
Works Cited 171
Index 183

1
On Demand
T
here can be no doubt that the digitization of the moving im-
age has radically and irrevocably altered the phenomenon we call
the cinema, and that the characteristics of this transformation
leave open an entirely new fi eld of visual fi guration. For those
who live and work in the postfi lmic era—that is, those who have
come to consciousness in the last twenty years—the digital world
is not only an accomplished fact but also the dominant medium
of visual discourse. Many observers have remarked that the lib-
eration of the moving image from the tyranny of the “imperfect”
medium of fi lm is a technical shift that is not only inevitable but
also desirable. And this tectonic shift in cinema is only part of the
overall digitization of society.
This shift to digital cinema is now under way around the
world, and much of it still resides in Hollywood, which retains
an almost hegemonic grip on international image discourse. The
way the image is captured, disseminated, and consumed by con-
temporary audiences, and the manner in which this process, or
series of processes, is constantly being revised, means that the
medium is at a genuine “tipping point” in its history. The same
holds true for music, texts, anything that can be streamed. This
switch to digital will bring about a permanent change in the hab-
1