Cinematic Innovation: From Charlie Chaplin to Pacific Rim

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
~ Bill Gates

Now, this post is an attempt to reclassify the stages of automation of a field, and analyse how they have impacted the show biz.

The three phases that we wish to look at are:

Automation replacing current activity
Enhancing the activities
Inclusion of new functionality
Film industry has always been tech-savvy and they have been early adopters of every new trick and technique that they happened to stumble upon. Gone are the days when John Carpenter had to conjure up ‘The Thing’ from bread and dough, gone are the days when one could marvel at the effort which must have went in designing the effects of Nightmare of Elm Street’s bed-engulfing-Johnny-Depp scene. Effect houses like Pixar, Industrial Light and Pacific Data etc. are already functioning in the third stage. Production houses are catching up, and DreamWorks has shown great advancements (How to Train your dragon 2, Rise of the Guardians).

So, the stage 1 would be when computers substitute existing methodology of accomplishing certain tasks, rarely affecting the productivity. Lately computer based camera holding and movement have become a fad among the production houses.

Godzilla during the 80s was a man in a rubber suit, shot from a distance, when I sat through the 2014 version (staring agape at the brilliant radiation breath/fire spitting scene, MUTO ravaging scene, final scream), I couldn't help but wonder at the computerized modelling that must have went behind the movie.

Taking a rather old example:
The advent of green screen: the backgrounds used to be painfully painted over a stretch of weeks and then the movie shot in front of it. Although the green screen artists had completely substituted the painting process by 1940s yet the productivity remained the same, since the background still had to be drawn on a computer.

Also, before computers could dictate the trajectory of cameras, the cameraman had to take and retake the shot till the shot achieved perfection. Even though the editing rooms were becoming increasingly populated with computers the major chunk of the task was still done by the cameraman, while only minor editing changes being carried out by the team.
“Computer Effects” would sum up the second stage. Explosions were simulated; men were copied and pasted to create crowds. The production became quicker. The pyrotechnics weren’t needed; Model artists were replaced with ‘Matte artists’ and ‘Optical Printers’. ‘Digital Composting’ allowed a scene to be shot first and then the backdrop added. The cameras were computer-guided, requiring only one-take-scenes.

Existing computerized processes were made more and more efficient. The focus of film making shifted from Pre-production to Post-production; a process which was becoming increasingly automated. Precision and accuracy increased, the pan-dimensional-circling-Michael-Bay-esque shots could be better shot by an overhead computerized camera rather than any camera-rig or steadicam or dolly-set up.

Gonzo, Hip-Hop montage and the Irreversible style camerawork could be now achieved with minimal human intervention and handling.
Newer functions would dominate the next decade of cinema. Movies are becoming completely automated and animated. We have newer technologies like Imax and 3-D, which have redefined the movie-going experience creating an entirely new customer-segment.

Encouraged by past successes, the production houses tend to keep employing newer methods of automation and innovation. Recently released ‘Elysium’ was released in Immersive Audio (Auro 11.1 and Dolby Atmos), a technology which allows producers to dynamically mix audio post-production (something that Peter Jackson has vehemently defended over the past couple of months).

Post IMAX, we have Anamorphic lenses (Cinemascope) which is essentially a return of discarded technology, which is being considered a repeat of what happened post the death of the original debut of 3-D.
(Thor: the dark worlds was shot in Anamorphic Wide Screen)

Some developments in the pipeline:
-Computational Cinematography
-High Frame Rates (The Hobbit, even though it made some people throw up at 48 fps it is considered to be more relaxing to our eyes)
-SimulCam (Avatar, essentially motion capture technology with a live feed, instead of waiting for the post-production phase to put the CGI in the frame, SimulCam allows the director to dynamically view the CGI rendering of the actors in front of a green screen and allows for direction of the movie like a regular movie, with real actors being shot in CG anime.
-Live CG (Star Wars VII is supposed to be shot in Live CG. Currently being tested, Lucasfilm has dropped a lot of hints about the technology)


Although any conclusion to this post would be thoroughly insufficient (?!) yet it can be said that automation has resulted in strengthening of the profession and the benefits outweigh the costs, we have the biggest hits coming from the CGI-digital factories (Titanic, LOTR, Avengers Assemble, Frozen, Avatar, Toy Story, Transformers, Iron Man 3 etc.)

Once again the shift in required skill sets has rendered many unemployed and major league animation studios have ended up becoming the biggest winners. But when you need giant robots beating giant aliens, as massive structures crumble around them in a big crash of digital dust over the sound of the Inception horn, you need the best of both worlds.