Michele Pierson makes the convincing argument that digital effects maintain a discourse of wonder for the production and reception of film (Pierson, 2002). This sense of wonder is wedded to the very illusion of cinema as an apparatus and practice. The techniques of digital effects that we might see in the Terminator or the Matrix film series are very much part of the tradition of film as it connects science and technology to affective moments of awe and bewilderment within film narrative. The digital from Pierson’s perspective is a form of rejuvenation of the cultural form in its capacity to replay the ‘shock of the new’ origins of the cinema at the beginning of the 20th century.

The next two chapters explore the way that the now traditional media of film and television have been transformed in the era of new media and digitalization. As we are very aware, both television and film have been very successful in the production of audiences over the last century. In the case of film, our object of study for this chapter, audiences have been drawn to its narratives and structure of generally accessible content that can span many cultural differences through its various genres. What we have detailed in previous chapters is that the nature and status of the audience is in flux with the development of new media. Beyond the active audience, we have identified that there is a producerly quality in the user of new media whether that use is via the Internet or in electronic games. Similarly, the digitalization of film has presented possibilities and potentials for film to address some of these emergent democratized aspirations around cultural production. Film industry in reaction and response to new media cultures is developing interesting hybrid forms and patterns of production that are becoming significant components of that same culture of new media.