Digital Film Making and "Mission to Earth"

Using "Mission to Earth" as an example, note what is new or different about digital cinema compared to traditional film making? Consider the story and appearance of the film.
In addition to the more traditional camera shots showing the main character moving through her life, other sections of the visual frame contained illustrative graphics that were quite abstract. These aspects of the video could not be created without digital technology and the overall feel of the film would be different without them.

What about the construction of the film?
There seem to be two ways that the construction of this film can be viewed: the visual structure and the narrative structure. Both visually and in terms of the organization of the story's narrative the organization of this film was very unusual and could not have been produced that way without digital technology. Visually, the screen was broken into a grid pattern, displaying a collection of visuals simultaneously. Most prominently were the realistic camera shots, but we also saw abstract digital animations and frames of solid colors alongside what the camera had captured of the actress moving through her world.

What struck me as most interesting about this film was how the storyline was structured. We learned that the DVD contained a larger database of scenes than what is shown in one viewing of the film. At each scene change the next segment is pulled from the database creating a different story than the last time it was watched.


What other art forms (eg film, digital art, painting, websites etc) does this film remind you of? Explain the similarity.
This film reminded me of a collage, pulling together a variety of visuals that were chopped up, moved around and put together in one frame to create a new product for the viewer. It also reminded me of the way we often treat the computer screen with a variety of windows open all at once. Lastly, I didn't think of it myself but it seemed so obvious once a classmate said it: the way the grid of this film was organized looked quite a lot like a painting by Piet Mondrian.


Did I like it?
This is such a difficult question to answer, I suppose because nothing is really as black and white as "like" vs "not like." For entertainment value, I would not say that I liked this film, however for something that makes me think both about the world around me and the possibilities of film and digital technologies I liked it a lot.