Film and TV: What is the Difference?

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Sergei A. Filippov

Researcher at the Chair of Television and Radio, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: s_a_filippov@mail.ru

Section: Television and Radio

Film and TV have one fundamental similarity — both of them are flat visual media with the mutual language, — and they have dozens distinctions. Nowadays, many of the distinctions are eliminated, including the technological basis, economical disunion, and some of the aesthetical means. This faces us with the necessity of new differential definition of both media, because the old one, based on the technology, is out of date. The paper discusses the most significant distinctions (derivedfrom Russian theoretical issues), including screen size, place of the exhibition, privacy, artistic and media statuses, intimacy, involving, the presence effect, the direct address to the viewer, the quantity of genres, etc. The author argues that almost all distinctions are the consequences of exhibition’s place: cinema associates with the especial screening house, while TV — with the viewer’s home. Thus, cinema is that is intended for the theatre, and TV— is that is intended for home.

Keywords: television, cinema, convergence of media, differentiation of media
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