Have a Pop Art Christmas!

It is always a great day out for everyone to go up to London together and see a major show. In November students from the Bellerbys Brighton Art Department went to a new exhibition, “Pop Life: Art in a Material World” at the Tate Modern.

This exhibition brings together artists from the 1980s onwards who have embraced commerce and the mass media to build their own ‘brands’. Pop Life includes works by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and more. Some students said they thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition and some didn’t like it at all. Pop Art is a movement that often divides people, you either love or hate it, but it certainly generates debate!

Brighton Pop Art Xmas tree with recycled cans

Reverse of the tree

It also created a lot of classroom discussion afterwards which was very positive and even influenced the design of the Christmas decoration the Art deprtment made, which now stands proudly in the college atrium, above the Library.

 This contemporary tree was influenced by Warhol’s 5 Coca-Cola bottles and his iconic image of Campbell’s soup cans. It also makes use of recycled objects, referencing the desire to be “green” and perhaps not so consumer orientated at Christmas.

On 14 January it is planned that the Art students will visit the Moctezuma, Aztec Ruler, Exhibition at the British Museum which should prove to be another interesting and stimulating experience.

Have a great Christmas and New Year. Happy holidays to all!

See the range of courses available at Bellerbys College.

The Senior Maths Challenge

Four years ago a student approached me after lesson and asked me whether Bellerbys College London took part in any maths competitions and, if we did, could he be involved. At the time we didn’t participate in any such events but as a former A Level student myself I seemed to remember taking part in some sort of team maths challenge when I was at college, so I thought I’d try and find out if such competitions still took place. Well, that’s not strictly true – I actually asked my Head of A Level, Ms Erin Robinson if she knew of any suitable competitions and she volunteered to try and find out if any existed; which she did, and so the credit for our involvement in such events since then really belongs to Erin!

Since that day four years ago, Bellerbys College London has actively taken part in a range of extracurricular national maths competitions with very impressive success. One of our students actually came top in the whole country in one competition! This all started with our involvement in the Senior Maths Challenge (SMC) – an event which takes place across the country and involves thousands of students, and which Bellerbys College London has now entered for the fourth year running. The Senior Maths Challenge involves students sitting a ninety minute multiple choice paper made up of twenty-five questions, which range from slightly tricky questions to very challenging ones.

The exam itself takes place after school and I fully admit that when we started this I very much doubted that the prospect of staying late after school to take an extra exam in Maths would attract many students but I was very much wrong and every year we have approximately thirty students – from across all our programmes; A Level, Foundation and GCSE – taking part in the SMC.

The exam papers are handed out

This year’s competition has recently taken place, with twenty-eight students from Bellerbys London participating. The event is meant to be a light-hearted experience and so we always encourage students just to come along and give it a go, regardless of how good they think they are at maths – and for those people who don’t think that a ninety-minute multiple choice maths examination is exactly a ‘fun’ way to spend an evening there is always the added incentive that participation is something which looks good on their university application!

Brain Food!

And then there’s the food! Because the SMC takes place after school, during dinner time, the school’s kitchen staff led by our Head Chef Donald Sweeney lays on a sumptuous feast for the students taking part; this year we had spring rolls, samosas, a wide variety of sandwiches, some lovely biscuit and pork snacks which I’d never had before (but which were lovely!) and, my personal favourite, prawn parcels; all of which were served to the students by my colleague Clive Cubitt and I whilst the exam took place!

Maths teachers John and Clive

Although we encourage students just to have fun at the SMC we also want to give those students who want to take it seriously all the support and help we can provide and so, in the weeks leading up to the SMC, Clive runs a series of lessons after school and during lunch times to help prepare students for the real exam. At this stage I must say what a wonderful job Clive does and that without him our students would neither enjoy the SMC as much as they do or have had as much success as they have done. This is especially important as the SMC is just the first stage of a series of maths competitions.

Students who do well in the SMC often proceed to take part in the next stage, known as the British Maths Olympiad (BMO), which itself consists of two separate rounds. Indeed it was in the second round of the BMO that, just two years ago, one of our students came top in the entire country! And although the student in question was a very talented young mathematician who fully deserved his success (success which has continued beyond Maths competitions; he is now studying Economics at LSE) again my colleague Clive deserves substantial recognition for all the effort and support he provided throughout all those competitions.

And who knows, thanks to the talent of our students here in London – and all of Clive’s efforts – one of our students may even win this year’s competition too!

Find out more about what you can study at Bellerbys College

Bonfire Night Celebrations

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I see no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot *

 * Traditional Guy Fawkes Night rhyme

The beginning of November started with a bang, in fact with many bangs as lots of fireworks and bonfires were lit all over the UK.  The reason is Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night, as it also known, which is celebrated every year on the 5th of November across the United Kingdom.

The tradition dates back to 1605 and the thwarted ‘Gunpowder Plot’ of Guy Fawkes and his cohorts, who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament (seat of the British government) in the capital London. Ever since, the day the plot was discovered and intersected, November 5th, has been celebrated around the country (and the British diasporas) with the ‘playful’ burning of effigies, lighting of bonfires, fireworks and eating of special foods – such as treacle toffee, baked potatoes and toffee apples.

The biggest celebration in the country takes place just a few miles from Brighton, in the town of Lewes, which is just a 20 minute journey by train.

This is one of the most famous places to experience Bonfire Night in the UK and much excitement was evident amongst the new students as they began to hear details of what takes place.

Each class was advised and guided on how to get to Lewes and where to stand to get a good view of the street processions and firework displays. This advice was especially for those students who were travelling independently of the school’s planned trip. The amazing photos, shown here, come courtesy of Linh Thi Kieu who visited Lewes with her friend that night.

The procession begins

Groups in fancy dress with lit torches

Linh Thi Kieu and her friend attended

The night comemorates the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605

More fancy dress here in a Scandinavian style

Lovinly painted effigy of Guy Fawkes, ready for the bonfire!

Fancy dress and raising charity funds

The bonfires are a good way to keep warm

The spectacular firework display

All processions eventually reach the bonfire

The bonfires in Lewes are huge

Ghosts of the past!

It is advisable to travel around Lewes in just a small group, as there are so many people out on the streets. It is generally better to move about in a group of two or three people, maximum four.  Ambitious types choose to move in a larger group but often find that they lose each other in the crowds.

The procession starts at about half past five and at this time of year the sky is already dark, and the air cold and crisp. One hopes that it doesn’t rain at this year, and this time we were blessed with clear, dry weather.

The procession has various different groups that dress up in all sorts of costumes, from smugglers, Victorians, Red Indians… and there is always have a hand made model or effigy of Guy Fawkes himself to be burned on the bonfire at the end.

After watching this spectacular procession, with the smells of lit fire torches and sweet burning wood in the air, everyone then follows the herds of people to the nearest or biggest bonfire.

Then the fireworks begin, with their incredible explosions of colour… and when these are over the remaining crowds can stay warm whilst watching the burning embers of the bonfire.

There is no doubt from all their feedback that the students had a fantastic time in Lewes.

The next thing on our seasonal calendar is Christmas. I do love this time of year.  It’s just so festive!  You can expect the weather to be cold and crisp and so its scarves, hats and gloves, coats and boots ready for the weather.

Hope you enjoy the photos, until next time folks…

Spooky Halloween Time at Bellerbys Brighton

It has been an extremely eventful October and November has started with a big bang too!

In October everyone at the Bellerbys Brighton Art Department grew very excited at the prospect of  making decorations for the school atrium again, as we had in May for the Summer Ball. This time we were to make decorations for the celebration of Hallowe’en which happens every year on the evening of the 31st of October.

In case you don’t know about this celebration, it is an ancient festival of the people of the Britain and Ireland - where we say ‘Goodbye’ to the Summer and welcome in the Winter season by scaring away any evil spirits from the Underworld.

Bellerbys fanastic Hallowe'en decorations

Originally, it was an ancient British and Celtic belief that during the transition from Summer to Winter spirits from the underworld could escape into our world. People choose to dress-up in fancy dress, wearing masks and costumes, generally as zombies, witches, black cats, skulls and anything scary with lots of fake blood – to scare away spirits or to trick the spirits into thinking they were one of them! 

Today Hallowe’en is a secular celebration. It is very popular for little children to dress up espeically and go ‘trick or treating’ around their local neighbourhoods.  Trick or treating involves calling at neighbours door and spooking them with your outfit, in return for a treat (usually sweets) or a trick, which you might entertain them with!

It is also traditional to carve pumpkins and turnips into ‘Jack-o-Lanterns’, whilst groups of people get together to watch horror films or go on a zombie walk. In general this has become a very popular time of year to get dressed up and have a good time!

Adding the finishing touches to the Hallowe'en decorations

Our students were given two themes on which to base their decorations, these were ‘Haunted houses’ or Day of the Dead’ (the colourful Mexican tradition).  Consideration had to be taken for the fact that students only had two days to make them and so the work was divided between 24 people at different times of day. They had a £50 budget and no access to the display platform, which meant that they had to complete all the work outside of the environment where the installation would exist.

Getting ready to hang the spooky Hallowe'en heads!

Villette, also known as Yun yun Wei, designed the Hallowe’en tree and each student made their own skull to hang on the spooky, knarled branches.

The heads are ready to hang on the tree!

In addition to our own activities and decorations, the  Student Services here at Bellerbys Brighton ran a Bat Hunt. The Bat Hunt was a form of ‘treasure hunt’ - with numbered black bats being hidden around the college building which the students had to hunt out.

Just one of the hidden bats of the Bellerbys Bat Hunt!

Student Services were selling entry forms for £1 to raise money for the school charity, Building Futures. The students bought a form and wrote down the location of as many black bats as they could find around the college! Completed forms were returned to Student Services and whoever spotted the most bats won a prize!

As you can imagine, Hallowe’en went down a storm at Bellerbys College Brighton.  Just take a look at the photos of our decorations and some spooked out students!

Until next time, bye for now!

See the list of courses you can study at Bellerbys College

‘Why Beauty is Truth’ by Ian Stewart

In my previous blog I wrote about Group Theory and how, despite the superb teaching of my university professor, I have only recently grasped exactly how the beauty and significance of this branch of mathematics reaches beyond maths itself. The reason for my renewed interest was due to my good fortune in reading several excellent books on Group Theory and symmetry. I would like to recommend two of these books in particular to anyone who is interested in reading about these ideas.

Before I review these two books, I should make it clear that there are many popular maths books available which discuss Group Theory and symmetry and it would probably be impossible for you to find a modern popular physics book which did not at least hint at the significance of Group Theory to modern theoretical physics. However, of the books that I have read, ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ by Ian Stewart and ‘The Equation That Couldn’t be Solved’ by Mario Livio, stand out as my favourite books for reasons I shall now share with you.

However, when I started to write this blog, I realised that these books are so good I couldn’t stop writing about them! So in this blog I will write about ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ and leave ‘The Equation That Couldn’t be Solved’ for a later date!

"Why Beauty Is Truth" book cover copyright of the publisher

Long before I read ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ I was aware, through reading lots of popular science books (most notably ‘A Brief History of Time’ by Stephen Hawking and ‘The Elegant Universe’ by Brian Greene – which are also excellent books!) that symmetry plays a very important part in our understanding of the universe and that theoretical physicists (such as the renowned Edward Witten) had developed a partial new theory of the universe – Supersymmetric String Theory (which is perhaps itself one aspect of a more encompassing theoretical framework known as M-Theory (please don’t ask me what the ‘M’ stands for – by all accounts Edward Witten, the inventor of M-theory, is the only person who knows!) – in which symmetry, and thus Group Theory, are paramount.

At this point, many physics authors claim that these new ideas in theoretical physics are actually helping mathematicians to solve problems in maths. As a staunchly proud (but ultimately obstinate and in this case ignorant) mathematician I completely refuted this notion and couldn’t (or perhaps wouldn’t!) believe that work in theoretical physics could really help mathematicians. I assumed that what they meant was that modern theoretical physicists, of a sufficient mathematical talent were producing new mathematics (as Isaac Newton and others had done in the past) and thus contributing to the body of mathematics as a whole. In short, I believed that these physicists were using mathematics to prove statements in mathematics and then claiming that what they were doing was physics. Ian Stewart’s book ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ changed my misconception.

Stewart is a renowned mathematical writer and this book clearly illustrates his talents as both a mathematician and an author but also shows that he has a sound grasp of modern theoretical physics. ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ explains the development and ideas behind Group Theory superbly but, and this is where the book became truly brilliant in my opinion, he is also able to write about the role of Group Theory in modern science and the work of physicists such as Edward Witten in an equally enthralling manner. Moreover, Stewart is the only author I have encountered who has been able to explain how the new ideas that M-Theory generates have led talented minds like Witten to perceive genuinely new insights into mathematics, as a consequence of their understanding of physics.

Whether this is because Stewart is an excellent author or just one of the few authors who can perhaps see both the mathematical and physical points of view, I cannot say. But I do know that having read his book I feel that I have a greater admiration for the work of physicists such as Witten and that I have come away from reading ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ with a new insight into both Group Theory and even M-Theory. And this is what makes this book so good; ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ is the only book that I have read which is able to tell the story of symmetry, Group Theory and modern physics – and the linkages between these different ideas – in a way which does justice to all parts of the story. Hence I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in maths or science or anyone who just wants to understand why our Universe is the way it is.

Beautiful symmetry

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abulic_monkey/ / CC BY 2.0

Find out how you can study Maths and a variety of other A Level subjects at Bellerbys College.

Group Theory and Symmetry

As an undergraduate student at University College London (UCL) I took a course in GROUP THEORY, a branch of mathematics about which I knew very little at the time.

The lectures themselves were excellent – thanks largely to the lecturer, Professor Frank Johnson, who was a brilliant teacher. I quickly learned that GROUPS (the mathematical things which are studied in Group Theory) were very important, but I never really appreciated why and as a mathematician, I didn’t really care!

I could appreciate the beauty and elegance of the mathematics and that was enough for me – or so I thought at the time – hence I wasn’t really that bothered with why they were important or what they could be used for. Now I realise I was wrong and I regret that I didn’t use the opportunity I had at UCL to learn more about them. (At this point I would like to make it clear that Prof. Johnson is totally absolved of any blame for my shortcomings – my ignorance of these issues was entirely my own fault and despite his superb efforts to explain the wider significance of Group Theory!)

The reason for my change of heart regarding Group Theory was that I was fortunate enough to read some excellent books on the topic and these really opened my eyes to Group Theory, symmetry and their role in modern theoretical physics. My original plan was to write a blog about Group Theory and symmetry and try to explain why this is such an important and interesting topic in mathematics. Then I realised that I wouldn’t be able to do this topic justice and decided instead to just write a brief introduction to the topic, to hopefully whet your appetite in the process! So in this blog I will explain a little about why Group Theory is so useful and in subsequent blogs I’ll tell all about the wonderful books that I’ve read recently – and leave those authors to explain this topic in more detail – and far more eloquently than I could manage!

Symmetry is everywhere

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gep/ / CC BY 2.0

One of the reasons why groups are so important is that they give us a mathematical way of analysing SYMMETRY. Loosely speaking, something is symmetric if you can do something to it without actually changing the way it looks. For example, the letter ‘A’ is symmetric because if I look at it in a mirror, it still looks like the letter ‘A’ (this is called a REFLECTION SYMMETRY) whereas the mirror reflection of the letter ‘B’ would look like it had been written backwards (you can try this yourself; hold a book up in front of a mirror and look at the reflection – probably some letters in the title will look correct but others will look backwards – I just tried this with the book ‘Why Beauty is Truth’ by Professor Ian Stewart and the ‘W’ of ‘Why’ and the ‘T’ of ‘Truth’ looked the same in the mirror but the others looked backwards; hence ‘W’ and ‘T’ have a certain symmetry that the other letters do not). Another type of symmetry – ROTATIONAL SYMMETRY – is exhibited by regular shapes such as circles and squares; if I rotate a circle it looks exactly the same, hence this is also an example of symmetry.

All of us have an intuitive idea of symmetry – indeed there have been many scientific studies which highlight how our brain seeks out and recognises symmetry – and we can often recognise the aesthetic appeal of symmetric objects. Moreover, it also turns out that symmetry is present at the very heart of the fundamental theoretical physics that helps to explain the universe we live in, although this symmetry is often more abstract than the previous examples I have discussed. For example, suppose you carry out two identical experiments, one in a laboratory at UCL and the other in a car travelling at a constant speed in a straight line. Allowing for any experimental errors, you will get exactly the same results from each experiment and the reason for this is that the laws of physics are symmetric – I can change them in a certain way (by placing one experiment in a car) without changing the way it looks (in this case ‘the way it looks’ refers to the outcomes of the experiment – not the physical image of the experiment taking place – because that’s what I’m interested in).

And this is where Group Theory becomes important. Some symmetries are instantly recognisable; others are dramatically more abstract and far from obvious – and indeed quite removed from our everyday understanding of what symmetry is. Moreover, symmetry is, to many people, a visual property, something that we can see, recognise and appreciate for its aesthetic charm; not something that is naturally mathematical. Yet, if we are to understand the Universe around us we need to be able to use the power of mathematics and so we need to be able to talk about symmetry in a mathematical way. And this is exactly what Group Theory does. It gives us a mathematical description of symmetry and allows us to analyse symmetry in a way that wouldn’t be possible in any other way. And whilst I have long enjoyed Group Theory for its mathematical beauty, this is why I have now (and somewhat belatedly!) come to appreciate it for its importance to the whole Universe too; Group Theory helps us to understand symmetry and symmetry helps us to understand the Universe. It’s as simple as that!

Dr John McDarby is a Maths Lecturer at Bellerbys College.

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Take Part in Dr Tim’s Egg-dropping Challenge

In one of my previous blogs I talked about the weekly maths challenges that I run at Bellerbys London, and promised that in a future blog I would pose one of my favourite past challenges for the amusement of any interested readers. And here it is!

Dr Tim works for a bank in Canary Wharf. The building he works in has 100 storeys. Dr Tim wants to find the highest storey that he can drop an egg from without the egg breaking (we have to assume that these are pretty strong eggs that can, theoretically, withstand a fall from a great height!). Unfortunately Dr Tim only has 2 eggs (which we will assume are identical) available. He could start on the first storey and keep dropping the egg from a window on each subsequent floor until it breaks but potentially this would involve 100 drops – so the maximum number of drops for this strategy is 100. Alternatively he could start by dropping an egg from the 50th storey. If it breaks he takes the second egg and starts working his way up from the ground floor. If it doesn’t break he starts working his way up from the 51st storey until the egg breaks (or he gets to the top floor). The maximum number of possible drops for this strategy is 51 (a big improvement on 100).

This week’s challenge is to find a ‘dropping strategy’ that MINIMISES the MAXIMUM possible number of drops required. This means that you need to decide which storeys Dr Tim must drop the eggs from in such a way that guarantees finding the answer (which storey is the highest one that an egg can be dropped from without the egg breaking) with the use of just 2 eggs AND which guarantees to get the answer in such a way as to minimise the maximum number of potential drops.

I will post the answer to this challenge in a subsequent blog – but not for at least a month or so – so until then please feel free to contact me with your answers or to ask questions – I may even provide a hint or two if I’m feeling generous!

Many thanks go to my good friend Dr Tim Edwards who first suggested this problem to me!

Which floors would you choose?

Photo: ginnerobot

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/
CC BY-NC 2.0

Welcome to the new term at Bellerbys!

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to the new academic year for Bellerbys College 2009-2010!

Where do I start? Tess here or Mrs Stewart as I am known in class; the Art Department’s photography teacher.

The new academic year started with a fabulous bang and its been busy times every since. So much excitement, to meet new faces, students already forming lovely friendships and strong artwork being produced for all the fantastic projects being set.

The Life Drawing classes have begun, on Mondays and Tuesdays, which are full every time with budding artists, enthusiastic about improving their drawing skills as soon as possible.

The Foundation Art and Design students are already collating work for their portfolios as interviews generally come in fast by January.

A Level students are also straight into various set units of personal study and we also have extra classes of pattern cutting held by Miss Dryden on Wednesdays after school. As you can see so much is going on already, the Art department seems to be getting livelier by the year.

Bellerbys College hosted its Higher Education day here at the school for the first time last week. Usually it is held at Sussex University but we had the honour of hosting it here in the Exam Hall. This event was a fantastic opportunity for students to speak directly to representatives from Universities from all around the country, about all sorts of subjects.

Bellerbys Higher Education Fair

Students spent the afternoon collecting prospectuses and further information and asking questions. The busy environment with so much information floating around the room got students to begin thinking about their UCAS applications. There is no time to sit about here at Bellerbys College, it is a motivating and exciting environment to get anyone thinking about their future prospects as soon as they begin the Winter term.

The Art Department is also preparing for Halloweeen at the end of October and has been given the task to design and create all the decorations for the Atrium of the college building, as everyone was so pleased with the outcome we did for the May Ball (where we produced a giant mask and lots of little masks that were scattered around the college).
 
So you shall be hearing from me shortly in regards to Halloweeen too with photographs of our students work. How exciting! I cannot wait to see what they will do… the themes are ‘ Day of the Dead’ and ‘Haunted Houses’ that gives you a sneak insight to what’s to come! Bye for now!

Find out more about Studying Art & Design Foundation and Art A Level at Bellerbys College.

A Level Exam Results: Congratulations to our Students!

I couldn’t let the recent A-level exam results pass without congratulating all the hardworking A Level students at Bellerbys College London on their success – especially in Mathematics!  Almost three-quarters of our students received an A grade in A Level Maths, with several more A grades awarded for students studying Further Maths – including one student who managed to average over 99% in both Maths and Further Maths!  We also had two students who chose to sit extra Maths modules so that they would get an AS Level in Additional Further Maths; which means they now have two-and-a-half Maths A Levels – a first for Bellerbys College London!

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a teacher is when you get to see your students achieve the goals that they have set for themselves and this is never more apparent than in mid-August when the A Level results are released.  That is why, over a month after they were published, this year’s A Level results still bring a smile to my face!  I was especially pleased to see my student Jessie achieve the grades she needed to meet her offer to study Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.  Jessie is an outstanding mathematician who thoroughly deserves her place at Cambridge and who worked very hard to achieve her goal.  I will always feel very proud of her for what she has accomplished.

I was equally delighted to see another one of my students – Chen – claim his place to study Mathematics at Imperial College London.  Chen is an excellent mathematician and I’m looking forward to hearing how well both he and Jessie do at university!  I also had another talented student, Yusuke – a student on our Foundation Engineering programme – who decided to complete an A Level in Maths alongside his Foundation course.  Yusuke is a very talented mathematician – his final score in A Level Maths was 593 out of 600; an outstanding result – and he is now studying Maths at the University of Bristol.  Jessie, Chen and Yusuke were all brilliant students and will be sorely missed by all the Maths teachers in London!

And the A Level success was not confined to our second-year students; one of our first-year students has already completed his A Level in Maths with a score of 598 out of 600 – the best score ever achieved at Bellerbys London!

All the students I have mentioned are incredibly talented mathematicians who, along with many of their classmates, have made unique contributions to Bellerbys London and helped to make it such a wonderful place to teach and to study.  Their enthusiasm for mathematics and all their hard work and dedication has meant that it was a pleasure to teach them during their time at Bellerbys College and I am confident that their success will continue into university and I wish them all good luck for the future!

Let’s Get Digital, Digital!

I remember when I was a kid (yeah, it was some time ago now!) being fascinated when 3D films came out.  I got a pair of those flimsy cardboard glasses with red and blue lenses and thought I was super cool!  They were pretty high-tech in those days, as were VHS video players and walkmans.  Mobile phones, meanwhile, were not even in the realms of my imagination!

Remember these???

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elnicofotos/ / CC BY 2.0

How times have changed… and how media has changed too, thanks to the digital revolution we have been living through these past couple of decades. Technology has of course always had a huge impact on the way we produce and consume media products. Before vinyl records, gramophones and radios, for example, music and sports were purely live entertainment mediums.

Similarly, the advent of cinematic technology meant that we could suddenly tell and ‘read’ stories not only through books, plays and dances, but also through re-playable moving images. (By the way, check out the website Early Cinema and/or this Wikipedia entry if you’re interested in learning about the fascinating early development of cinema).

But even by these standards, the media world is currently changing at a manic pace thanks to the digital revolution. Can you imagine a world without iPods, iPhones and mp3s now? Of course not, and yet Apple only released the first iPod in 2001, less than 10 years ago!

And cinema is no different. The digital age is literally changing things before our eyes.

The curtain is coming up on a new era for film...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/missmass/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

On the production side, computer generated imagery (CGI) has meant that sets and characters can be digitally created. This gives filmmakers greater flexibility and creative scope, as highlighted in a recent article in The Guardian on the release of James Cameroon’s Avatar (Vision of The Future, The Guardian 20/08/09)

Avatar is being touted as the film that will signal the coming of age of 3D cinema. Also known as stereoscopic cinema, 3D has not until now taken off in the way it was meant to. The technology wasn’t quite right back in the day to give us the illusion of reality necessary to make it work. That is all changing, however, and digital technologies are the heartbeat of these changes as they provide not only the means of production, but also the means of distribution and exhibition.

3D films like Avatar can only be shown on digital screens. What does that mean then? Well, for most of cinema’s lifetime films have been shown using projectors and 35mm celluloid films, called ‘prints’. Film distribution companies produce a few prints of their films and these are transported from cinema to cinema.

Prints like these may be on the way out...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellochris/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Obviously, bigger companies can afford to make more prints and so their films can be shown at a much greater number of cinemas. This is one of the reasons why it can be hard sometimes to see small, independent films, except at only a handful of art cinemas.

Digital copies of films are far cheaper to produce and distribute (the cost is around one tenth of a celluloid print according to the UK Film Council) and so allow many more copies to be made and sent to cinemas. The drawback here of course is that not all cinema screens are digital yet; in fact, the cost of installing digital projection equipment is high and smaller cinemas may be unable to cope with this cost.

To address this situation, the UK Film Council set up the Digital Screen Network, which aims to provide cinemas with the money for digital screening equipment. Why does this make a difference? Basically because digital screening means we don’t need to use 35mm prints anymore and so a film can be shown at more cinemas at the same time.

The idea is that more independent and alternative films will be shown on UK screens, thus giving us a wider choice of cinematic experiences. It’s certainly a worthwhile initiative in my view and means that the art of cinema can move with the digital times.

Some of my favourite cinemas in London have already been equipped with digital equipment thanks to the Digital Screen Network. The Curzon Soho on Shaftesbury Avenue always has some excellent screen offerings and is a ‘real’ cinema, not only because of the quality and range of its films, but also because of its artsy atmosphere and really laidback café and bar. I really recommend checking it out.

Other favourites of mine include The Renoir in Russell Square and the Everyman Cinema Club in Hampstead. For all you discerning cinemagoers out there, these cinemas provide a welcome relief from those overcrowded, shopping centre screens where the small popcorn and cokes are the size of my house!

You might bump into me here - one of the coolest little cinemas in London

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55935853@N00/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

In other words, these digital projects are allowing the old school appeal of the cinema to survive in the brave new world we live in. Of course this doesn’t mean that the big film companies won’t benefit too. Cheaper production and distribution costs mean that blockbusters can show at more screens worldwide, so the big fish in the film industry will still be swallowing up audiences!

It’s a fascinating time right now for cinema. And of course we can get involved too. Relatively affordable digital cameras and editing software has made it easier for amateur filmmakers to produce and exhibit their films. Platforms like YouTube give us a potential audience to show off our creative talents too.

Our media students here at Bellerbys are already using these platforms to show their coursework films. They’ve produced some great stuff! Check out some of their short films on YouTube.

Can you match them? Come and join the digital revolution!

References

• Creeber, G. & Martin, R. (2009) Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media. Berkshire: McGrawHill.
• McDougall, J. (2008) OCR Media Studies for AS, 3rd Ed. Oxon: Hodder Education.
• Brooks, X. (20. 08. 2009) Vision of the Future. The Guardian.