Using a selection of significant titles from throughout the archive, Brass Ring considers film's migration from photochemical to electronic media, up to the recent, rapid dominance of digital cinema, taking account of how this profound change of tools and formats has affected narrative conventions, congregational reception, and the writing of film history. With a formalist lens and a uniquely hands-on approach, Rife offers a practical means of understanding the medium-specific challenges, and indulgences, common to contemporary filmmaking, at its most celebrated, and best-selling.