Multi-task cinema, or a “whatever style”

Abstract

This text seeks to reflect upon the impact that new imaging technologies — from video introduction to computers dependency — have had on more recent generations of cinema, and its effect on film language. The context of the analysis is North American cinema and the Hollywood industry in particular which, as a large production system, absorbs and transforms technological novelty in order to enlarge the scope of its action (in line with the idea of general audiences and the phenomenon of globalization which loses its cultural specificities). From the cinematographic point of view, the immediate consequences of such impact are felt in film language rooted in classical narrative, with particular focus on action and science fiction films; and, from a cultural standpoint, how they precociously manifest themselves in school movies done by a generation with a visual culture also marked by music videos and YouTube cultures.