With the Development of Digital Technologies the Future of Television Lies with Satellite or Cable Broadcasting. the Era of Terrestrial Broadcasting Is Now Over.

With the development of digital technologies the future of television lies with Satellite or Cable Broadcasting. The era of Terrestrial Broadcasting is now over.

In my life, I have only witnessed first hand, the effects of media and its development since about 1995, as this is the earliest I can remember. However, my huge interest in the subject has lead me to broaden my knowledge over the way media had developed in the 1980's and even earlier. I believe that what I have witnesses is in fact the most important time period in the media development timeline so far.

The 1980's is where the first seeds of the media becoming something that would eventually grow into what it is today, began to grow. New ways to impress the audience were being developed and used, for example simple camera and post production techniques, such as picture in picture, and time lapse became commonplace later on as they were having a great impact upon the way the audience viewed the media. To take one example further, Time lapse was being used as an alternative to live action special effects, previous effects such as stop motion models being used where large scale production could not take place, were becoming more visually advanced and seeming more lifelike. Stop motion has allowed things to be done easier and to relatively the same, if not better effect. The film American Werewolf in London is a prime example as it was one of the first to use stop motion to great effect when showing transformation sequences of the main character transforming from human to werewolf. Infact the work in the film impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences so much, that they created an awards category at the Oscars specifically for it - the Outstanding Achievement in Makeup Award. This unity between make-up and media effects was used to great effect without allowing the make-up effects to outshine the actual film.

A prime place for these new techniques and methods to be displayed was Top of the Pops. The music videos featured were all competing to implement the new advances in media technology to make their videos the most impressive. At the forefront of this competition, was the band Queen, whose promotional video for the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" became the first music video ever to be produced. The quality and the effects in the video became a clear sign that a great leap forward had occurred, in the advancement of the technology used to create the video, and development in response to the audience's expectations of advanced visual effects it seemed that all these advances in technology were being guided by audience's input and requirements. The success of this video has been said to have brought about the MTV age. The fact that the video producers had effectively used the new developments in media to give the video an element of exclusivity, such as motion trails and mirroring, could have been one of the main reasons why this video became so successful.

With the dawn of the 1990's, came the era of Personal Computers. This was, in my view, the most important step forward that the field of media has ever seen, with its repercussions having no foreseeable end. The PC gave power to the individuals who had dreams of becoming video producers. Armed with a video camera, a good idea, editing software and a connection to the internet, amateur producers became part of the unstoppable spread and development of media throughout the world. However, it was not simply the PC's doing all the work, the PC's only gave the individuals the tools to create the media, but it is safe to say that the imagination of the media developers is the most powerful tool in their arsenal. The advances of technology in this era are also immeasurable. The availability of easy to use tools to create forms of media that would have been literally impossible to produce 10 years ago, were now in everyone's reach. An example of these advancements would be the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit in which live action filming was mixed with animation to great effect.

The new millennium brought with it many new movies, including the very first movie completely computer generated - Toy story. This movie has spread awareness of the advantages of CG in movie production, such as, no need for soundstages, sets and physical actors. Other movies have developed from this scene including Shrek and its sequels. Another movie to rely heavily on CG is The Day after Tomorrow, where a large portion of the film is comprised of CG effects on the city of New York.

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