Assignment 15 - Cinema and OTT Platforms as a Medium of Communication

 

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsihnji Bhavnagar University

 

Written Assignment – Paper 15

Cinema and OTT Platforms as a Medium of Communication

 

Submitted by Rohit Vyas

 

M.A. English (2019-21)

Semester 4

Roll No: 19

Paper 15 – Mass Communication and Media Studies,

Unit – 3

PG Enrolment Number: 2069108420200041

E-mail: rohitvyas277@gmail.com

 

        Introduction

To start the assignment, let’s put a question first. Is it true that we can’t communicate without language? What if we humans wouldn’t have speech, language? Indeed there is a gesture theory which could help understand the non-verbal communication. But can we possibly state that without language we can converse? The answer would be ‘no’. There are several answers to the question as such and especially in the 21^st century it’s quite a worth to discuss about communication and its mediums.

 

In the very beginning, there were several ways to communicate, like kite flying, sending birds as a messenger and so on. Later on, there came postal services and telegrams. Telephones were the first invention to be in the category of audio communication services. Then, mobile phones, SMS services, email services, smartphones and the series of modern electronic gadgets made communication seamless and effortless.

 

On the parallel, there were several modes of entertainment which became popular among the masses. Historically looking at the aspect of entertainment, there was a variety of activities like street arts, puppet shows, play performances, folk cultural performances and so on. Largely, today, there are mediums beyond just television and radio. Cinema was the emerging one as a revolutionary medium of communication, which served a large purpose of entertainment also.

The definition of communication

 

According to Oxford definitions,

The activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information Speech is the fastest method of communication between people. (Oxford Definitions)

The basic purpose of communication is to pass messages and information from one end to another. To refer to a basic process of how communication takes place, Stuart Hall’s trajectory would help.

The encoder creates the message either in form of written things, speaking, or making a gesture. The message is decoded by the receiver who understands the encoded message by reading, or listening or making sense of the gesture.

Cinema and Its Emergence

According to a website dedicated to cinema,

No one person invented cinema. However, in 1891 the Edison Company successfully demonstrated a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. (Science and Media Museum)

“The first permanent studio, opened in 1911, was Nestor Studio. Major studios with names that are still familiar today, including Paramount, Warner Bros., and Columbia, soon followed. By the 1920s, movie making was the dominant industry in the area.” (Paxson)

If Indian cinema is to be discussed, one can state that Alam Ara was the first talkie film released in March 1931. Before that release, there was a first full length silent film titled Raja Harishchandra, released in 1913.

Wherein the Western countries,

The 1927 movie The Jazz Singer is often cited as the first successful talkie, or movie that included recorded dialogue. Audio technology changed the movie industry in several ways. (Paxson)

Several awards like Oscar, IIFA, Filmfare, BAFTA, Academy awards, Golden Globe Awards are given to best films to appreciate and encourages quality content in films.

The Purpose

What purpose do the films serve in communication? There may be several arguments for the question but to be precise, films basically serve two purposes, one of them is for entertainment and the other is for conveying messages to masses. Messages, are more of a concern for highlighting the contemporary issues and encouraging people to bring societal changes of the given era. In such way, it can be said that movies, like literature are the mirror to society.

If one looks for the structure of the communication that takes place in films is as follows.

The film contains a message or multiple nuggets of messages that applies to larger benefits to society. Then people having different identities like students, critics and laymen consume the film in various ways and analyze important factors from the film. Some of them capture the timely nuances of fashions, trends in technology, human behavior at large, scripting, narration and filmography, issues in society, and many other aspects. So the mode of communication can be said that it is single to multi. The messages transfers from one medium to masses.

Cinema in 21^st Century

Before bringing the modern cinema into consideration one may look for the traditional genres of the films which were prevalent and popular in the past. Historical drama, fiction, love drama, patriotic drama, suspense thriller, horror, comedy and documentary were some of the famous genres. To name a few films, Mugha-e-Azam, Shahid Bhagat Singh, Paakizah, Shree 420, Jaagte Raho, Silsila, Coolie, were some of the said genres.

Just like the early period of cinema, the new gust of the films established another variations in the filmmaking industry. Sci-fi thriller, docu-drama, physiological thriller, horror-comedy are some of the new genres. The use of different production technology and film cameras have made the film production much faster than all the previous decades. VFX is the technology used for graphical movements, IMAX, 3D, 5D and 4K, Dolby Digital, Dolby Ultra are the video and audio perfection technologies which enhances the end consumer experience. Some of the examples are, Avatar (2009), Inception, Jurrasic Park, Magic Magic (2003), Dunkirk etc.

 

Over-the-top OTT platforms

As the newest of the form of cinema is now getting narrowed down to the hand held devices such as tablets and smartphones, and came in the new form called OTT, the movie watchers are having personalized experience. This is considered as drastic change in the entertainment industry.

Over-the-top platforms surpass the film screens, theatres and film distributors, reaching directly to the consumer’s device. It was earlier called as home viewing. Where in the television it was called as movie-on-demand. The genres are also emerging and more sub-genres like adventures, adult-rated, sexually abusive language, and so on.

Netflix was found in the year 1997. An OTT platform which is popular throughout the world. Another platform is from Amazon prime video. Thereafter many film companies and production studios have launched their own OTT platforms, such as Zee5, ALT Balaji, Disney+, Voot Select, OHO Gujarati, and several others.

As Paxson cites about the early stages of OTT platforms and the emergence of home viewing experiences, he states:

“One potential benefit for both the movie industry and movie viewers is that even if a movie is not as successful in theaters as its creators hoped, that movie can still generate revenue in the home viewing market. Indeed, some movies that are determined to be unlikely to make a profit in the theaters are released directly to video formats.” (Paxson)

         

Conclusion

As above mentioned, the importance of audio visual media has emerged as good medium of communication, cinema and OTT platforms are contributing at large in communication. Majority of youth gets more influenced by the OTT programs. But there’s a hidden threat of getting misguided from false inspirations. In some cases parental advisory and guidance is necessary for kids and younger teenagers.

Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.
― Martin Scorsese

Cinema is for society and society creates the cinematic content. As mentioned earlier, cinema mirrors the zeitgeist of time, culture, society, and politics. So as society reacts accordingly after watching the content. Thus, both, cinema and ott platforms are a medium of communication which serve the purpose of entertainment and conveying meanings.

 

Work Cited

Paxson, Peyton. Mass Communications and Media Studies: An Introduction. PDF, Continuum, 2010.

Reference:

Park, Sungwook, and Young-Sun Kwon. Research on the Relationship Between the Growth of OTT Service Market and the Change in the Structure of the Pay-TV Market. PDF, 2019.