Digital technology and the film industry

I read the article called “the film industry should embrace digital technology” in which Lord Puttnam gives a lecture at Cass, Monday 14 June 2004. In this lecture, called ‘The Impact of Digital Technology on the Film Industry – Opportunity or Threat?’ at Cass Business School, he said that digital technology offers a huge opportunity for the film industry but the current trend of treating it as a threat could hasten the demise of parts of the industry. Puttnam said the film industry needed to embrace digital technology otherwise it would share a similar fate to that of the music industry which has witnessed a massive drop in profits due to illegal internet trading. Lord Puttnam also spoke of the impact of digital technology on special effects in films, arguing that special effects are both increasingly important in the success of a film as well as being very reliant on specialist skills.