Audio: Talking to Chuck Tryon, Author of 'Reinventing Cinema'

Over the last week, I've been reading the really excellent new book "Reinventing Cinema: Movies in the Age of Media Convergence." The author is Chuck Tryon, a professor at Fayetteville State University who also runs the always-enjoyable Chutry Experiment blog.

We caught up by phone yesterday for a conversation about some of the ways that new technologies are changing cinema. Among the topics we covered:

- The shift from print to digital movie criticism
- Will studios remain power players in the future?
- With democratizing technology, will there simply be too many movies available from up-and-coming indie filmmakers?
- The notion of the "endless film" - the movie that is never finished (with a hat-tip to Ted Hope)
- Can filmmakers ever transcend their desire for total control over their product?

You can download the MP3 (it runs just under 20 minutes) here, or just click "play" below.



From the publisher's official overview of the book...

For over a century, movies have played an important role in our lives, entertaining us, often provoking conversation and debate. Now, with the rise of digital cinema, audiences often encounter movies outside the theater and even outside the home. Traditional distribution models are challenged by new media entrepreneurs and independent film makers, usergenerated video, film blogs, mashups, downloads, and other expanding networks.

Reinventing Cinema examines film culture at the turn of this century, at the precise moment when digital media are altering our historical relationship with the movies. Spanning multiple disciplines, Chuck Tryon addresses the interaction between
production, distribution, and reception of films, television, and other new and emerging media.Through close readings of trade publications, DVD extras, public lectures by new media leaders, movie blogs, and YouTube videos, Tryon navigates the shift to digital cinema and examines how it is altering film and popular culture.