Digital Effects, CGI, and Film Theory
DVFx or digital video effects is a type of manipulation of video in digital formats that compute mathematical calculations in programming languages to create CGI or computer generated imagery for aesthetic purposes which create new ways of producing video that is audio-visually enhanced and photorealistic. As found with any aesthetic medium, technology has instantiated new ways of precise, meticulous, intricate, manipulations that can create an illusion of reality in a linear or Hollywood style of editing or a dialectical approach through montage where cinematography styles and post production editing will create the viewer to have their own conclusions by opposing or thematic juxtapositions. Another use is to create a spectacle, but at what cost will the spectacular serve its purpose is an important decision left to the director. Directors must strategize the use of DVFx and implement the technology where it is most effective. Psychological factors vary from culture to culture in this aspect, “Images are ambiguous: they float somewhere between the imagination and the senses, between expectation and reality…in another way, too, (the image) is ambiguous, for it must not offend. It must suit unpredictable future purposes and unpredicted changes in taste” (Boorstein 1962:198.)
DVFx cannot make a bad script good; there must be a good plot. Without an organized structure, a constant original source concept that is kept consistent working with continuity in fundamental plot details, good premises, reliance on action and not substituting it with spectacle, character development, and thematic resonance of coherency and impact, DVFx is worthless. Clarity of the narrative objectives must first dominate in the production process for a respectable production (McClean). After first achieving the main objective, the use of Digital Effects can enhance video on an audience giving greater control of communication that the director wants to relay to the audience. This is essential when creating a desired spectator perspective that is focused, attentive, absorbing, and entertained. “Many people report a strong sense of affect when deeply involved in watching television and a certain sense of dialogic engagement in the narrative representations portrayed” (Thomas, L. 1995.)
Early special effects first appeared in the films of the French director Georges Méliès in 1897, whose films have been shown in the Smithsonian (New York Times, 1969.) He was a former magician and once had one hundred people color his film by hand with minute brushes. Later on in his career he added more plot as his first films were around four minutes long and his later are up to twenty minutes. It is important to understand how the early effects worked before digital effects because digital effects are partially based upon early special effects. As McClean points out, “it allows consideration of DVFx have impacted narrative structure by providing an opportunity to compare digital-visual-effects usage with traditional special-effects-practice…it offers an opportunity to show how the theoretical placement of traditional special effects, in particular the arguments about spectacle and genre, informs our current understanding of the impact of digital effects usage.” Early traditional effects such as optical trickery that use special lenses, optical printing, pyrotechnics, mechanical, matte paintings, glass mattes, rear projection, miniatures, models, prosthetics, make up, specialized props, were the early ancestors of CGI and digital visual effects. As with digital effects the “wow” effect can also describe audience reactions to early special effects as Barker points out when he says “the simultaneous self reflexivity of effects solicits attention in a more direct fashion, inviting the audience to see them as effects, and to react with awe and wonder at the capacity of the cinematic practices.” The photorealistic qualities achieved today is what separates the two times of special effects and digital effects. As seen in Méliès’ earlier films the narrative were built around the abilities of the effects which in my opinion should be avoided in linear editing but can have its uses when the director wants the audience to synthesize specific information communicated visually. As the “wow” audience reaction is cliché in 2009 where digital effects should have the quality of realistic proportions to engage the viewer into the movie instead of causing them to take a step back from the story line. Barker also goes on to say “Special Effects…are pointless if they don’t evoke at least a component of reaction that fireworks can catch from us: ‘Wow!’” This perspective towards effects is not what an experienced director intends to do as digital effects have multiple uses to engage the viewer into the narrative instead of a distraction by creating spectacle or a “wowing of the audience” which will be focused on with the introduction of sound an color.
With developments of audio, or speech, sound effects, and music in the 1920s, Steve Neale “documents how sound technologies led to soundstage-based filming and that the general opinion of critics was that sound detracted from film style” (McClean.) Digital sound was introduced to cinema in 1990 (Braudy & Cohen) and was followed by surround sound. Natural color was dominant in film in 1960, and also had its criticism as Neale says “These comments highlight both the extent to which colour as spectacle was itself, however motivated, composed, and controlled, to some extent incompatible with narrative and drama, and the extent to which, in any case, such motivation, composition and control was essential.” The uses of color to enhance narrative can definitely be utilized to enhance a director’s intentions as McClean agrees with me when she says “it seems odd to think that color could be argued as being incompatible with narrative these days.” Special effects and digital effects should be combined synergistically with audio, camera angles, and basic construction of image in film, enhancing realism or conveying a message instead of some overblown, unbelievable, cliché production.
Computer generated imagery or CGI was also in its developmental stages in the 1940s and 1950s derived from military technologies. “CAD (computer assisted design) and CAM (computer assisted manufacture) applications of the automotive, naval, and aeronautics industries…architects and artists adopted new CAD and CAM techniques” (McClean.) New technology is expensive and films with digital effects are produced from Hollywood corporations who have links to military and government affiliations. One of the major advances from CGI is the virtual camera and 3D photorealistic environments. The virtual camera allows camera movements which would be impossible to replicate realistically, which provokes the question how to use the virtual camera in ways which will enhance a quality of the production but keep the viewer engaged in the narrative without causing them to’ oooooh’ and ‘ahhhh’ at the spectacle of new. Have we evolved as viewers to conform to the already existing trends in camera movement so that the virtual camera is a threatening distraction from the narrative? Fully computer generated films which the company Pixar is famous for are increasingly getting closer to photorealistic qualities to the point where the audience will be unable to distinguish this as an effect. Combining photorealistic CGI with the virtual camera, innovation of the spectacle will supersede all notions of narrative if we keep trying to dazzle the audience with the new. Does this wow effect engage viewers into the narrative more? Or does it aid in distraction if the narrative is in fact of caliber to pass as a respectable script. As a director it depends what you are going for.
The use of digital effects and CGI have been most commonly implemented in science fiction genres and action sequences. Science fiction films rely on the digital effects and CGI to recreate reality and create spectacle. The ability to create a computer generated image that will be undetectable in an action sequence is much easier due to the “acceleration of natural motion” and fast observation time, where intricate details are swept across the screen and the spectator will not detect the unrealistic qualities. If it was slow the unrealistic qualities that are immediately observed would destroy all focus on the narrative as the viewer steps back and criticizes the poor effect. With all the new digital media emerging such as video on the web, digital HD television, standard definition television, movie theaters, IMAX movie theaters, video on smaller devices such as cell phones and iPods, DVFx and CGI have been culminating to the point where they are undetectable. They are used in new more efficient ways, each designed towards a specific strategic implement where “The spectator’s individual experience of the film is simultaneously a product of the film and a product of the spectator given that both rely on the signifier, that which structures, constrains and makes realisable all that is recognisable as communicative” (Forrester, 2000.)
The main focus is to criticize DVFx and CGI in standard box office cinema but not when used in spectacle intentions as science fictions genres. There are undetectable methods where DVFx and CGI are used which will enhance the narrative of a production and those methods can be combined synergistically with vectors, camera angles, and audio to draw the spectator in instead of pushing them out, “how we ‘engage’ with the images, narratives and discourses of television, in film theory we find a number of well-established conceptual frameworks influenced by semiotics, linguistics and psychoanalysis” (Forrester, 2000.)Under the Hollywood continuity editing style “the provision of a master or establishing shot, enabling the spectator to orientate himself or herself with respect to each new shot in the sequence the 180° rule, ensuring that the spectator always finds the same characters in the same part of the screen, i.e. matching ‘screen space’ and ‘narrative space’ the 30° rule, which prevents the spectator experiencing a jump in space and permits a smooth continuity between shots the orchestration of actors’ movements so that reframing and camera movement do not draw attention to themselves…” (Lapsley and Westlake, 1988,) we find that after these production standards are met, applying digital audio synchronously to establish mood by audio and with digital color correction to enhance mood visually, digital effects will create a more coherent film as we see that “external image perception and internal reflection and imagery is film or cinema,” (Forrester, 2000,) as I will investigate the digital effect; color manipulation in films such as “Shawshank Redemption,” and “Do the Right Thing,” how this effect creates a greater engagement into the narrative. “Van Helsing,” will also be under the microscope as we will see how plots designed around digital effects and CGI can ruin a film.
Affinity of hue refers to “when all colors in the picture are based on a single hue,” (Block, 2008.) For example, the movie “Shawshank Redemption,” directed by Frank Darabont, and cinematography done by Roger Deakins, is one of the best examples for affinity color hue manipulation. When you hear the term digital effects, you wouldn’t think of this movie, the effects are invisible to the viewer, they do not call attention to themselves therefore engaging the viewer into the narrative. “Invisibly introducing effects into a film and having them go unnoticed is considered to be “the best” use of this type of DVFx.” (McClean.)
“Shawshank Redemption” is one of the most successful films of the 1990s and is a drama that mostly is shot from inside a prison. During the shots inside the prison the color enhancement hue is blue and a bit desaturated (grey), the shots outside of the prison are color enhanced with red and are deeply saturated (stronger in color). The semiotics of color in Western Culture prove to show that high energy scenes effect viewers greater with a lot of color and the plot of “Shawshank Redemption” proves to show that the escape from the prison and the saturated red hues signify freedom as we watch the protagonist who was innocent, finally delving in his success of escapement and is reunited with his inmate friend in a highly saturated color scheme. While prior the color affinity inside the prison is of a dark-blue hue, and blue-grey, which is desaturated, low energy, and definitely matches the mood imprisonment offers; down, or hence the term the “blues.”
Accomplishing this effect is most efficiently done in Adobe After Effects but special effects such as blue gels, or even fluorescent lighting, could also produce the same effect of enforcing the blue hue. Analyzing this example of color manipulation in film, we can agree that brilliant brighter colors fulfill the effect of energy, intensity, and happiness, and combining this method with appropriate vectors, camera angles, thematic audio, that are in synch with specific plot details, a deeper engagement into the narrative is created, along with greater identification with specific characters which could not be as effectively produced without the digital effect of color manipulation.
An example of saturation of color hue can be seen in the film “Do the Right Thing,” directed by Spike Lee. The rising action in this plot speculates around a hot day in the city which is enhanced through diegetic audio of a radio announcer and then combined with a red saturation of video imagery. This effect could have been achieved through the use of red gel lighting which has a lower degree of Kelvin, or digital color manipulation of a saturated red hue. Fire, heat, high temperature; all are associative with the color red which is a perfect enhancement for this specific viewer identification of a very hot day. This type of effect is more transparent than invisible because the red hue is definitely exaggerated in multiple scenes with the intent of influencing the viewer to identify with the high temperature, humidity, and discomfort. Psychologically the color red in western society is an “alarming color” (in Germany it is calming (Zettl,)) which could also engage the viewer into the narrative as the climax or eruption occurs where each character is developed concurrently and their conflicts intertwine with each other as this red glow is enhancing the rising action in this high energy sequence prior to the riot, and it arrives again during the burning of the pizzeria.
A film that boasts digital effects is the thriller-horror film “Van Helsing,” directed by Stephen Sommers. This film won many awards for its usage of digital effects. The effects are realistic to an untrained eye but it is obvious what you are watching is not real; vampires, werewolves, there are many fictitious CGI characters throughout the film. The film is one action scene after another with the narrative based around the effects. Realistic CGI environments, characters, and digital effects are entertaining but also “could be ruining storytelling” (McClean.) The cinematography throughout “Van Helsing” also draws attention to itself as if the movie eliminates all engagement into the narrative and projects itself as a spectacle. That could also be the directors attempt to fix the bad narrative to begin with. This storycraft through technology does not create the same clarity as storytelling should be communicated through film and this spectacle of fast action sequence does little justice to the concept of the plot.
There is an ethical aspect with new technology such as digital effects and film. Films that do not have a human substance, lack in communicative moral value, or do not represent ideologies, desensitize and dehumanize us into the illusion Hollywood films create. How they distract and disrupt our natural structure of thinking into entertaining of the masses, occupying minds with materialism, reinforcing hegemonistic views and values. Here is where the “red meat” as McLuhan put it, could be reference to digital effects in film and how the art of storytelling is diminished into a spectacle. The spectacle aspect of digital effects will always have a place in modern filmmaking. Action sequences thrive with digital effects, where spectacle is the goal and captures an audience into the “…relevance to the story that is the crux of understanding the specific purpose of spectacular moments” (McClean.) In digital media, all new technological abilities are exaggerated and projected profusely in their first applications by centralizing the narrative around the new ability instead of strategic placement to enhance narrative. Digital effects can be compared to the innovation of sound, color, and special effects in film. New digital effects will be upgraded with computer’s hardware abilities as multiple-gigahertz processors will allow the ability for better software to take advantage of the capabilities of more creative effects strategies. New cameras with greater definition, aspect ratios, and focusing abilities will also play a role in the infinite digital revolution. Computer generated imagery will reach a point of photo-realism where actors are an unnoticeable effect.
Science has benefitted immensely from digital effects where implications have been used in the documentary style media relaying communication more fluid with graphical understanding of communication. Digital effects progresses the advances in essential areas such as education, medical, environmental, agricultural, engineering, and technology. It is here that this spectacle we can’t ignore will ultimately serve its purpose for humanity as education that is dull or bland can come alive and capture us in a way we never imagined. It is the digital effects artist’s duty to perform their skills and talent in a field that will promote sustainability and contribute to man kind’s attempt survive on this planet comfortably, for science predicts the coming of exponential population growth along with many other global problems. This can be shown thematically through a story or dialectically in a documentary, in each case digital effects will aid in the relaying of communication, symbolically.
Works Cited
Block, Bruce. The Visual Story Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media Second Edition. Burlington, Massachusetts: Elsevier Inc, 2008.
Braudy, Leo and Marshall Cohen. Film Theory and Criticism Sixth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Ettedgui, Peter. Cinematography screencraft. San Francisco: Focal Press, 1999.
Forrester, Michael A. Psychology of the Image. London, UK: Routledge, 2000.
Hill, John and Pamela Gibson. Film Studies critical approaches. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
McClean, Shiloh T. Digital Storytelling: the narrative power of visual effects in film. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007.
Special to The New York Times. (1969, October 6). Smithsonian to Show Films by Melies. New York Times (1857-Current file),59. Retrieved April 20, 2009, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) database. (Document ID: 91255222).
Zettl, Herbert. Sight, Sound, and Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics. San Francisco, California: Cengage Learning, 2007.
Reaction Statement
During this research project the first thing that came to my mind was the freedom to write about whatever I chose as long as it relates to film theory. That is a pretty broad area because film can be on anything and anything can be theorized. After completing my B.S. in Digital Media and taking my advanced TV production class, I quickly became more aware of how to use this technology in film and how to synergistically combine methods of lighting, camera angles, camera movement, mise en scene, color, vectors, motion, audio, and digital effects to achieve an effect desired upon the spectator. Originally I wanted to scheme layouts for each genre of film to effectively produce video that would enhance the narrative of different styles of production, which still is my goal later on in life. This direction was too broad and lengthy. With my skills to create effects and this project at hand, I thought to myself how can I implement them strategically. This led me to write my research project on Digital Effects, CGI, and Film Theory. Prior to writing this paper my idea of digital effects was pretty limited to how they were made and how to dazzle and impress people with the spectacle. Now I know what makes a digital effect respectable, where they came from, and different approaches to criticizing a film. More importantly this paper gave me insights on new technology influencing digital media and how prior innovations developed through the medium which can give me a heads up on how to use newer technologies later in my career. My difficulties encountered writing this paper was mainly how I wanted to create schematics for each area of film studied in our curriculum. I wanted to make a scheme for Soviet montage, Impressionism, Italian neo realism, Feministic Film, Masculine Film, Counter Cinema, Racial Film, and Linear Hollywood combined with each genre of cinema. Other problems I had was working around the tight schedule of another 10-15 page research project on Internet Defamation and my other classes. The main idea that will stick with me forever from writing this project is what makes a good script good and how a narrative is the backbone for any production. I will definitely make sure my next projects have the potential in the script before I begin work. I really look forward to my screenwriting class to use my skills from this research project to write a script that supports a narrative that fits into a respectable qualified production. One of my goals is to have complete control over a production from the writing, field, editing, and digital effects. After writing this paper I have lost interest in my 3D CGI skills when producing any thematic work. Unless the goal is educational, informative, and not telling a story I don’t see myself using CGI of any type even if I can manipulate them to be photorealistic. I certainly enjoyed writing about the digital effect of color manipulation and I believe that affinity of color to enforce mood of scenes in different locations and work around the plot are definitely effective. Saturation of a certain hue singularly can be effective as well, even if it is just to reinforce temperature. There is really nothing in this paper I didn’t enjoy writing and I feel that writing this paper has really enlightened me on how to judge a film by narrative, cinematography, and digital effects.
