It's interesting to think about film studies in terms of the digital revolution. This semester I'm taking Russian Cinema and I plan to take more film classes in the future. It's hard just to remember how cumbersome VHS was. I think that was the quickest technological overthrow I've yet seen. On the other hand, it's odd to think of a giant film database that would analyze trends because we don't yet have one for written texts! Why not feed all important literature into a database and mark-up different uses of language? Films databases would encounter the same problems. That is, I can see thousands of academics arguing over how exacty to carve up movies as well as books.
Film analysis also runs into the same problem as the other visual arts. How do you analyze a performance? A dance? A particular theater production? A painting? The latter is a bit easier because you can include a still but it's not the same as "the real thing." All of these suffer things getting "lost in translation." Furthermore, I don't think there's a standardized citation system. When I wrote my film analysis, I didn't have to include which particular version or cut I was watching or where exactly this scene could be found within the film. In standard literature, I absolutely must include page numbers and book versions. Odd, isn't it?
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