Digitize Me

Although dated through its continual references of films produced in the early to mid 90's, I found Manovich's essay "What is Digital Cinema" very provocative...and extremely true. Despite some long and arduous passages in which Manovich spews forth endless digital and cinematic dialogue, I enjoyed reading this essay, and for the most part understood nearly everything he discussed (a rarity while reading about digital media).
One of the most interesting points that I found while reading had to do with the amount of labor used in cinema as it has evolved. In the beginning to create moving images, producers and artists hand painted and drew each frame. Then with the evolution of the camera manual labor was cut down as images were recorded. However, now with the age of digital cinema directors and producers find themselves back to the point in which they labor and "paint" each frame. It seems now that digital cinema has evolved and advanced people must put more labor into producing a film. Of course this labor is optional, but because of advancement people realize the possibilities they can reach with each frame to create an overall more meaningful and cohesive product- interesting. Manovich discussed the use of loops in detail...and it seems that the evolution of cinema yet again demonstrates loops in terms of man's physical involvement with creating a film.