CGI is as subtle as it is special... and a revolution in Filmmaking

10 April 2012

For film purists, special effects sometimes get in the way of story telling, but CGI, computer generated imagery, has brought a quiet revolution in attitudes to technology too. It's CGI that makes action or fantasy films such as Avatar come to life - but it can play a more subtle role, too.

Special effects are associated with big budget productions, but the availability of the software and increased computer speeds mean smaller filmmakers can also get the benefits. It's much simpler to create animations that are computer generated than it is to hire thousands of extras or build real sets. Natural-looking landscapes, for instance, are generated easily by means of computer algorithms.

To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer screen and replaced again and again by a new image that is similar to the previous image, but advanced slightly into a different position, usually at a rate of 24 or 30 frames a second. The versatility of the technology was first taken to heart by the cinema-going public in 1994 in Forrest Gump. Using CGI, director Robert Zemeckis was able to convince audiences that his hero, played by Oscar winner Tom Hanks, was having real encounters with historical figures such as John Lennon and President Nixon.

In Gladiator, released in 2000, Director Ridley Scott not only re-created the Colosseum as it would have looked in the days of the Roman empire, but also had to use CGI, sadly, to complete the performance of legendary actor Oliver Reed, who died during filming.

Fast-forward a decade, and in The Social Network, director David Fincher was able to use one actor, Arnie Hammer, to play two people, the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who contended that their idea had been borrowed by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, as played by Jesse Eisenberg. It's impossible to tell them apartliterally.

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