Within recent years of both cinema and television productions, the ever-changing new technologies used within them have become more and more important in the whole audience attraction of the production itself. In many cases of recent films, such as Avatar, Bolt, Coraline and Toy Story 3D to name but a few, the main reason for which the audience have been most inclined to go out and spend their money to watch the film at a local cinema, is often in fact because of all the pre-hype attention surrounding all of the special effects and flashy new technologies used in the production of, and shown in the film itself.
Recently in the filmmaking industry, the old-fashioned way of attracting audiences to cinema by having a gripping, enthralling storyline or plot to the actual narrative of the film, to keep audiences eyes glued to the screen and their minds lost in tales of gangsters, heroes and interesting characters, have instead been knocked off of the top of the priority ladder by new cutting edge effects and eye catching animations. It seems that not all, but many of today’s audiences prefer to watch the new films for their special effects as opposed to their narrative content. 3D film is the current cinema craze, and is set to become even bigger amongst film enthusiasts in the near future. These flashy effects, when the characters seem to jump out at you, as if you could touch them, seem to add a whole new dimension and thrill to the whole film viewing experience, that today’s modern audiences cannot seem to resist. Current characters in these newer blockbusters seem to jump out at you and grab your attention quite literally, as opposed to more primitive or traditional techniques of well-thought out narrative planning where their personalities would grab you far more metaphorically, enthral the audience by the interesting personalities created for the characters. It is not so much that the roles of the movie’s characters of this century do not play a vital role in films, because they most certainly do, there is no question about that, it just appears as though they are becoming less and less important in drawing the attention of audiences to film; becoming second best in order of importance to special effects and new technologies, which are revolutionising film for which most people would agree are improving it for the better! There are most definitely going to be people who are of the opinion that the storyline is still far more important than these effects, but most will find it hard to oppose the fact that they are undoubtedly creating a whole new era of the moving image as a medium.
Although the form of 3D entertainment that is currently in use in major mainstream cinemas such as Odeon and Vue, in recent blockbusters such as Avatar and Coraline are on the cutting edge of modern technology, the philosophy of 3D images in cinema is no new idea; in fact the use of 3D moving images in films have actually been around in cinema for over 50 years. The first known record of this in cinema occurred on 8th April 1953, and drew in many audiences who wished to be a part of this history making breakthrough in the world of cinema. Prior to the 50’s, the film industry could only be described as a booming one. The UK box office admissions in 1948 were hitting 500 million, though with the growing popularity and then inevitable rocketing marketable success of the television, the UK box office admissions began to plummet. It took the release of ‘Jaws’, Britain’s first summer blockbuster in 1975 to really bring back large numbers of audiences back into cinemas for their film-viewing needs. In 1980 there were still only 50 million people coming in through the doors of cinemas during the course of the year, a fraction of the figure from 30 years earlier. Though from then on, the production of large Hollywood projects continued to draw in vast numbers of viewers to cinemas, and by 2008 had brought the UK box office admissions for the year back up to a more stable and respectable 164.2 million. This is clear evidence of how new technologies has had such a large impact on the British film viewing audiences and trends, as it was the astounding underwater shots and breathtaking realism of the shark itself that audiences could not resist, so eventually came flooding back in through the turnstiles of cinemas all over the country. In contrast to the quality of viewing they would have received at home on their televisions at the time, the draw of the 1975 blockbuster packed with effects and new technologies to capture the attention of viewing audiences was just what the cinema industry needed to bring it back to life.
One perfect example of a new film, which contains a vast amount of these new technologies, is James Cameron’s new 3D film Avatar. Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. Development on Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999, but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to portray his vision of the film. Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production, and at $150 million for promotion. The film was released for traditional two-dimensional projection, as well as in 3-D. It was touted as a breakthrough in filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. Cameron was announced to be using this newly invented and patented ‘Reality Camera System’ to film in 3-D, in September 2006. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception. This has been the first real breakthrough in advanced 3D filming since the initial, more ‘gimmicky’ techniques, which seem to just use 3D effects purely for the fact that it is available to be used, which have been around since the first 3D movie made by a major Hollywood studio hit screens in 1953, a noir film named Man in the Dark. So basic 3D film is certainly no particularly new attraction! Though of course the levels of technology used in Cameron’s Avatar is greatly exceeding of this initial technology that dates back to over 50 years ago. For Avatar itself, a number of revolutionary visual effects techniques were used in its production. The director planned to make use of photorealistic computer-generated characters, created using new motion-capture animation technologies he had been developing in the 14 months leading up to December 2006. Innovations used in the production of the film include technological breakthroughs such as a new system for lighting massive areas called ‘The Volume’, a motion-capture stage six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements and only 40% live action, which I feel is a figure that really demonstrates the sheer importance of technologies such as computer generation in today’s modern film.
In conclusion, some examples of the new technologies that have flourished over the past couple of decades, and last 10 years in particular, are the aforementioned completely refurbished 3D viewing experience, computer animation (used for the first time in film in the production of the classic, Toy Story) new high definition cameras which allow audiences to view the completed film in a far higher resolution and picture quality than would have previously been possible in the last decade. These are just 3 examples of the kinds of technologies that have become ably available to film producers in order to bring a whole new dimension to this decade’s filming experience (often quite literally!) and what many people believe is the start of a completely new, high-definition filming era. All of which have been tremendously successful in forming the quality productions of blockbusters ranging from 1975’s Jaws to 2009’s Avatar. These have consequently captured the attentions of audiences not just in the UK, but all over the world, and encouraged viewing audiences to return to cinema to watch these big, highly rated projects rather than staying at home to watch their televisions and miss out on the whole cinema experience that makes film as great as it truly is! Many believe that due to these new technologies, we really are entering a whole new era of film viewing phenomena.
Recently in the filmmaking industry, the old-fashioned way of attracting audiences to cinema by having a gripping, enthralling storyline or plot to the actual narrative of the film, to keep audiences eyes glued to the screen and their minds lost in tales of gangsters, heroes and interesting characters, have instead been knocked off of the top of the priority ladder by new cutting edge effects and eye catching animations. It seems that not all, but many of today’s audiences prefer to watch the new films for their special effects as opposed to their narrative content. 3D film is the current cinema craze, and is set to become even bigger amongst film enthusiasts in the near future. These flashy effects, when the characters seem to jump out at you, as if you could touch them, seem to add a whole new dimension and thrill to the whole film viewing experience, that today’s modern audiences cannot seem to resist. Current characters in these newer blockbusters seem to jump out at you and grab your attention quite literally, as opposed to more primitive or traditional techniques of well-thought out narrative planning where their personalities would grab you far more metaphorically, enthral the audience by the interesting personalities created for the characters. It is not so much that the roles of the movie’s characters of this century do not play a vital role in films, because they most certainly do, there is no question about that, it just appears as though they are becoming less and less important in drawing the attention of audiences to film; becoming second best in order of importance to special effects and new technologies, which are revolutionising film for which most people would agree are improving it for the better! There are most definitely going to be people who are of the opinion that the storyline is still far more important than these effects, but most will find it hard to oppose the fact that they are undoubtedly creating a whole new era of the moving image as a medium.
Although the form of 3D entertainment that is currently in use in major mainstream cinemas such as Odeon and Vue, in recent blockbusters such as Avatar and Coraline are on the cutting edge of modern technology, the philosophy of 3D images in cinema is no new idea; in fact the use of 3D moving images in films have actually been around in cinema for over 50 years. The first known record of this in cinema occurred on 8th April 1953, and drew in many audiences who wished to be a part of this history making breakthrough in the world of cinema. Prior to the 50’s, the film industry could only be described as a booming one. The UK box office admissions in 1948 were hitting 500 million, though with the growing popularity and then inevitable rocketing marketable success of the television, the UK box office admissions began to plummet. It took the release of ‘Jaws’, Britain’s first summer blockbuster in 1975 to really bring back large numbers of audiences back into cinemas for their film-viewing needs. In 1980 there were still only 50 million people coming in through the doors of cinemas during the course of the year, a fraction of the figure from 30 years earlier. Though from then on, the production of large Hollywood projects continued to draw in vast numbers of viewers to cinemas, and by 2008 had brought the UK box office admissions for the year back up to a more stable and respectable 164.2 million. This is clear evidence of how new technologies has had such a large impact on the British film viewing audiences and trends, as it was the astounding underwater shots and breathtaking realism of the shark itself that audiences could not resist, so eventually came flooding back in through the turnstiles of cinemas all over the country. In contrast to the quality of viewing they would have received at home on their televisions at the time, the draw of the 1975 blockbuster packed with effects and new technologies to capture the attention of viewing audiences was just what the cinema industry needed to bring it back to life.
One perfect example of a new film, which contains a vast amount of these new technologies, is James Cameron’s new 3D film Avatar. Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. Development on Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999, but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to portray his vision of the film. Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production, and at $150 million for promotion. The film was released for traditional two-dimensional projection, as well as in 3-D. It was touted as a breakthrough in filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. Cameron was announced to be using this newly invented and patented ‘Reality Camera System’ to film in 3-D, in September 2006. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception. This has been the first real breakthrough in advanced 3D filming since the initial, more ‘gimmicky’ techniques, which seem to just use 3D effects purely for the fact that it is available to be used, which have been around since the first 3D movie made by a major Hollywood studio hit screens in 1953, a noir film named Man in the Dark. So basic 3D film is certainly no particularly new attraction! Though of course the levels of technology used in Cameron’s Avatar is greatly exceeding of this initial technology that dates back to over 50 years ago. For Avatar itself, a number of revolutionary visual effects techniques were used in its production. The director planned to make use of photorealistic computer-generated characters, created using new motion-capture animation technologies he had been developing in the 14 months leading up to December 2006. Innovations used in the production of the film include technological breakthroughs such as a new system for lighting massive areas called ‘The Volume’, a motion-capture stage six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements and only 40% live action, which I feel is a figure that really demonstrates the sheer importance of technologies such as computer generation in today’s modern film.
In conclusion, some examples of the new technologies that have flourished over the past couple of decades, and last 10 years in particular, are the aforementioned completely refurbished 3D viewing experience, computer animation (used for the first time in film in the production of the classic, Toy Story) new high definition cameras which allow audiences to view the completed film in a far higher resolution and picture quality than would have previously been possible in the last decade. These are just 3 examples of the kinds of technologies that have become ably available to film producers in order to bring a whole new dimension to this decade’s filming experience (often quite literally!) and what many people believe is the start of a completely new, high-definition filming era. All of which have been tremendously successful in forming the quality productions of blockbusters ranging from 1975’s Jaws to 2009’s Avatar. These have consequently captured the attentions of audiences not just in the UK, but all over the world, and encouraged viewing audiences to return to cinema to watch these big, highly rated projects rather than staying at home to watch their televisions and miss out on the whole cinema experience that makes film as great as it truly is! Many believe that due to these new technologies, we really are entering a whole new era of film viewing phenomena.
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