CGI, bane or blessing?

Can be Good, If. . .

A very brief look at the rise of CGI in cinema

Classic Effects

The history of special effects dates back to film’s inception.  Directors such as George Melies and Fritz Lang realized fantastic visions using many tricks from photography as well as inventing new ones.  A great part of the enduring appeal of this early work is the fact that everything was made by hand.  It is easy to relate to the experience of working with your hands and the satisfaction derived from having a tangible creation as the finished product.  Therefore, the audience’s appreciation is greatly enhanced when they can have some understanding of how much time and effort went into the special effects of these early films.

For decades, talented artisans of all kinds pioneered new techniques in special effects and developed new tools to achieve them.  They enriched the visual world of the films on which they worked and passed on their skills to succeeding generations.  Legacies were established, and many of these artists became as well known as famous actors and directors due to the breadth of their work and the creative inspiration that continued to drive them.  Companies were born specifically to supply special effects to whichever studio desired their services.

No one knew it at the time, but in the early seventies a short film appeared that would change everything.  While short films were certainly nothing new, the technology being utilized to make them was: computers had grown beyond their vacuum tube infancy and were just beginning to be able to render three dimensional images.  Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke created “A Computer Animated Hand” for a graduate project, and pieces of this eponymous film were later used in the 1976 sci-fi thriller “Futureworld.”  Quite a portentous title!  CGI as a special effects tool was now a reality, and its use in Hollywood would grow exponentially in the years to come.

Early Successes

At first, the computational limitations of early processors resulted in effects that no doubt appear crude to modern eyes, yet were cutting edge jaw-droppers at the time.  Perhaps the most famous film to use incipient CGI to a large extent is the legendary Disney film “Tron.”  Though the design of the virtual world of “Tron” is quite simple, it perfectly fits the embryonic technology.  It’s also quite a lovely irony that the deadly computer world that our heroes must survive was created almost entirely by computers!  It is a perfect evocation of the film’s theme, and it also wonderfully foreshadows how computers would come to dominate our actual lives.

“The Last Starfighter” is a lesser-known example of early CGI, but is a personal favorite of mine.  Even though the film is science fiction, this time CGI is used to simulate something real:  outer space.  The simplicity of this environment meant that more time could be spent developing and detailing the spaceships that would be battling for the fate of the galaxy.  Again, these effects may look simple, but they work well because the film doesn’t aspire to epic proportions.  "The Last Starfighter" is tween entertainment, and need not abound in overwhelming imagery.

James Cameron’s “The Abyss” is an excellent example of the proper application of CGI within a film already heavily reliant on practical effects.  The production was legendary in its on-set challenges for the actors, as Cameron was adamant to shoot as much of the movie as possible using real equipment and environments.  However, the alien pseudopod, composed entirely of water, presented a unique challenge.  The final product is still an effective and stunning sequence, and is also a sterling example of how and when CGI should be used:  when nothing practical is possible.

Overkill

Unfortunately, the success of the pseudopod led to an almost exclusive use of CGI effects.  They often took less time to complete than traditional, practical effects, and usually required less money.  All of sudden, like a viral spore, CGI usage exploded and infected nearly every genre.  Filmmakers discovered that they had almost no limitations on what they could put onscreen, and cinema audiences were suddenly drowning in a flood of films that seemed to serve no other purpose than to show how easily directors could be seduced into indulging every visual whim, whether it was pertinent to the film or not.

Fantasy and horror films have become almost wholly populated by CGI creatures, and most of them are not convincing because the audience can tell that there’s no physical presence to provide a real threat.  While a man in a monster suit is often easy to spot, at least it is something real.  These days, the actors on the set often have to pretend to be scared of a piece of tape on the end of stick!  There’s also the fact that human movement contains little variations, and the too-smooth motion cycling of computer programs is very easy to detect.

Aside from the over-detailed and unconvincing visuals, the content of these films suffered greatly.  Story and character elements became thinly veiled excuses to transition from one special effects sequence to the next.  George Lucas once infamously said; “A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.”  Prophetic words indeed, not only in terms of his own franchise!  For the vast majority of horror and science fiction films over the next two decades, the special effect became the story.

Furthermore, now that CGI usage dominated the industry, the demand for traditional, hand-crafted effects work receded rapidly and the artists employing them were faced with hard choices.  Their time-honored talents and techniques were now regarded as old hat or worse, obsolete.  Many companies were forced to abandon their traditional effects work and turn their studios into warrens of cubicles.

Of course, this is not to say that the intense work required to produce quality CGI is any less important, difficult or artistically challenging than practical effects.  There are some phenomenal CGI companies out there producing superlative work.  I'm just an old-school, nostalgic grumpus who likes to see balance in all things, and for me the pendulum is long overdue to swing back to more practical effects being used where they can.  There's too much CGI now, and it's losing its ability to feel fresh, vital and interesting when EVERYONE is using it as often as possible!

Notable Exceptions

I don’t want to come across as a totally bitter crank, so I take great pleasure in mentioning a few examples where even in the midst of the CGI tsunami, artistry and integrity remained alive.  While “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was a success, the plodding pace of the film was further undermined by many unfinished special effects.  However, when the Director’s Cut was issued on DVD in 2001, it was decided that several extended sequences would be finished and incorporated into this new version.  The special effects house tasked with updating these scenes knew that film grain needed to be added to the high-res CGI in order for them to properly blend in with the hallowed celluloid.

The results are spectacular, in particular because of the awareness that the resolution of CGI and celluloid is different.  If all of the modern special effects houses understood this, much of the work that has already been released would look much better!  SO many CGI effects in movies fail to work properly because they’re too sharp, too clean or the blacks don’t match.  The film screen must be cohesive.  It must present a unified vision.  Special effects that stand out are in opposition to their function.  They should enhance the reality instead of calling attention to the unreality.

Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings trilogy is an excellent example of how great films can be when a director understands that CGI is just one tool instead of the only tool.  The all-inclusive production and design of the trilogy is a benchmark of film-making.  Every special effects technique is used.  Beautiful set design, with real sets!  The endless hours making those mountains of chain mail!  Matte paintings!  Big-atures!  There is such a variety of much hand-made, lovingly crafted work, and it all shows.  Even though we’re watching a fantasy film, there is so much reality onscreen!

Gollum, a wholly CGI creation, benefits specifically from the human touch.  Instead of attempting to contrive emotion after the scenes with the actors have been shot, the motion capture of Andy Serkis’ on set performance was used as the basis for animating Gollum.  The result is one of the most affecting portrayals yet of a CGI character, solely because the source is an actual human, not a set of algorithms!  The success of this character has thankfully led to an increased use of actor-based motion capture performances, most recently for Smaug in the Hobbit films.  Here’s hoping that this becomes an industry standard!

Well, there you have it!  I hope you enjoyed it, and I dearly hope we all get to see more films in the future that strike a proper balance between the old and the new!