The Virtual Steamroller: How CGI Paved the Way for 3D‟s Comeback
A thesis presented to
the faculty of
the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University
In partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Master of Arts
Cody Barber
March 2012
© 2012 Cody Barber. All Rights Reserved.
2
The thesis titled
The Virtual Steamroller: How CGI Paved the Way for 3D‟s Comeback
by
CODY BARBER
has been approved for
the School of Film
and the College of Fine Arts by
______
Louis-Georges Schwartz
Assistant Professor of Film
______
Charles A. McWeeny
Dean, College of Fine Arts 3
ABSTRACT
BARBER, CODY, M.A., March 2012, Film Studies
The Virtual Steamroller: How CGI Paved the Way for 3D‟s Comeback
Director of Thesis: Louis-Georges Schwartz
This thesis argues for technological development in CGI as a partial explanation for the resurgence of 3D films in mainstream Hollywood cinema after the year 2000. It defines and differentiates between “immersive” and “gimmick” 3D, describes formal aspects of CGI-heavy 2D films from the past two decades, and argues how they created an expectation/desire for 3D cinema.
Approved:______
Louis-Georges Schwartz
Assistant Professor of Film
4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For her steadfast encouragement, patience, and editing assistance, not to mention love, I thank my wife, Samantha. Additionally, this thesis would not have been possible without the support and care of Professor Louis-Georges Schwartz, to whom I am deeply indebted. My sincerest gratitude also goes to Professors Ofer Eliaz and Michael Gillespie who, like Professor Schwartz, took the time out of their very busy schedules to offer their aid and input toward this thesis. My fellow School of Film Master of Arts candidates deserve a mention as well, as their company and comforting words have helped keep me sane for the last two years. Finally, I must thank my family and friends, as their smiles and belief in me have driven me toward this point in my education, career, and life. I love you all.
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………3
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..4
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..6
Chapter 1: Paving the Way: The Drive Toward Immersive Entertainment……….....…11
Chapter 2: Almost 3D: CGI Effects in 2D Films…………………………………….....23
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….59
References………………………………………………………………………………..62
6
INTRODUCTION
A screening of the latest Hollywood blockbuster at the local cineplex begins with a few trailers for upcoming features. Many of these previews close with the phrase “in
3D!” which garners some whoops and whispers of “that‟ll be awesome” from some of the fellow audience members, groans and sniggers from others, and content indifference from the rest. Conversations with coworkers, friends, and family involve cheer, disdain, and debate regarding recent 3D movies. Do they make the viewer feel like they are actually there, do they look flat and rushed from poor post-conversion, or do they just offer a painful headache? Does the 3D effect justify the inflated ticket price, or should the audience veer toward the 2D showing? All of these issues and situations reflect the present era of 3D films, but it did not begin this way.
The novelty of the stereoscopic effects of 3D films began practically with the inception of cinema. Documents dated as far back as 1891 reveal that film‟s innovators experimented with the idea in the early days of motion pictures. A letter written by film pioneer William Dickson states, “It is Mr. Edison‟s intention to give a stereoscopic effect to the pictures taken in connection with the Kinetograph,” indicating, at least, an early desire for 3D cinema, if not a possible original intention for it as standard practice in filmmaking.1 Three-dimensional movies have disappeared and resurfaced many times in cinema‟s history, but they have always been present in one form or another. Historian of
1 Zone, Ray. Stereoscopic Cinema & the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838-1952. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 2007: 1. Print. 7
3D, Ray Zone, points out every period of 3D awakening in film‟s chronology and names them as eras, beginning with the early years, the novelty era.2
An obsession with the novelty of 3D characterizes this period in its history, which continued until around 1952. Zone states, “During this period of technological progress for the stereoscopic motion picture, there was an aesthetic tug-of-war between the technical and the narrative demands of the medium.”3 At that time, it appeared to be up in the air whether 3D films would remain a festival attraction like film‟s early days, or if they would receive recognition as a way to enhance cinema and storytelling. By the end of this era, millions of people had been exposed to 3D, its technology was better understood, and its capabilities as an artform had been exhibited at the 1951 Festival of
Britain.4
The next era, from 1952 to 1985, was marked not only by two periods of vastly increased 3D film production and consumption (between 1952 and 1955, as well as in the early 1980s), but also largely by what Zone points out as a dominant technological development of 3D production in the 1950s: convergence, in which the cameras converged on subject matter at any distance and placed it within Academy 1.33:1 ratio.
This lasted for only a few years, as “when the exhibitors and studios elected to pursue
Cinemascope with its […] wider screen, the classical Hollywood frame was broken, along with the 3-D film.”5 The short run of gimmicky 3D films in the early 1980s, although utilizing a widescreen format, fizzled out as well, but not before spawning the
2 Ibid. 1. 3 Ibid. 2. 4 Ibid. 2. 5 Ibid. 2. 8 first wide release of a 3D film, Friday the 13th Part III,6 in 1982, in more than 1,000 theaters.7
In 1986, the “Immersive Era,” as Zone calls it, began with the innovation of
IMAX films and theatres.
With its seven-story-high image projected on the giant screen accompanied by six-channel sound, the large-format stereoscopic film eliminates the awareness of the edge of the frame […] The viewer‟s peripheral vision is completely immersed in the stereoscopic image, and there is no awareness of the edge of the motion picture frame.8
According to Zone, the virtual reality craze of the 80s and 90s fits into this era as well, but remains not as influential as IMAX in cinema as it “never established [itself] as a widespread platform for motion picture narratives,” at the theater or in the home environment.9 This era, as well as the next, continues to the present day. Finally, our current era of “Digital 3-D Cinema” began with the wide release of the fully digital 3D film, Chicken Little,10 in 2005.
Zone‟s work on 3D focuses primarily on the historical and technological in his
Stereoscopic Cinema and the Origins of 3-D Film.11 The text, which, as explained in its subtitle, only follows 3D‟s origins in 1838 up to the end of the “novelty period” in 1952, discusses mainly principles of 3D filmmaking, anecdotes about individual films, and the development of specific technologies. It unfortunately does not dig further into the
6 Dir. Steve Miner. Paramount Pictures, 1982. 7 Zone, Ray. Stereoscopic Cinema & the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838-1952. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 2007: 3. Print. 8 Ibid. 3. 9 Ibid. 3. 10 Chicken Little. Dir. Mark Dindal. Walt Disney Pictures, 2005. 11 Zone, Ray. Stereoscopic Cinema & the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838-1952. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 2007. Print. 9
“immersive” era. His other well-known book on 3D, entitled 3-D Filmmakers, shares some insight on the background philosophy of 3D filmmaking from established 3D directors, including James Cameron.12 While touching slightly more on the concept of
“immersion,” it still largely leaves it out of the equation. Other works on 3D‟s history and development, such as Lipton‟s Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema and Hayes‟
3-D Movies, follow suit with Zone‟s historical work, focusing chiefly on mechanical inventions and the science of stereoptics, as well as chronological and economic overviews of released 3D films.13, 14 Heffernan‟s Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold offers an fascinating and somewhat unique angle on 3D by way of genre.15 While also reiterating some points made in Hayes‟ text about the economics of 3D, Heffernan points out the
“lowbrow” connotations of “gimmicky” 3D in mid-to-late-century horror and exploitation films. Interestingly, the science fiction and horror genres continue to produce a vast amount of today‟s 3D cinema. While the horror films appear to be largely rehashes of the 80s 3D slashers, the sci-fi iterations tend to lend themselves toward creating the “immersive” experience. The defining text of “immersive” ultimately falls to an essay by Lauren Rabinovitz, entitled “More than the Movies,” in which the writer provides an overview of immersive entertainment as attractions from the early days of
12 Zone, Ray. 3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2005. Print. 13 Lipton, Lenny. Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema: a Study in Depth. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982. Print. 14 Hayes, R. M. 3-D Movies: a History and Filmography of Stereoscopic Cinema. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1989. Print. 15 Heffernan, Kevin. Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953- 1968. Durham: Duke UP, 2004. Print. 10 film through motion simulation rides and IMAX.16 Much of the converging trajectories of technology, techniques, formal filmic elements, and popular culture, with regards to modes of entertainment such as 3D, seem to form an overlying movement toward this
“immersive” entertainment.
A new era, a new upsurge of 3D films currently exists and we are well aware of it, but how did it arise this time? Why now? Does anything make this era stand out from its predecessors? This thesis argues that two factors play a major role in the answers to all three of these questions: computer-generated imagery (CGI) and the drive toward immersion.
16 Rabinovitz, Lauren. "More than the Movies: A History of Somatic Visual Culture Through Hale's Tours, Imax, and Motion Simulation Rides." Memory Bytes: History, Technology, and Digital Culture. Ed. Lauren Rabinovitz and Abraham Geil. Durham: Duke UP, 2004: 99-125. Print. 11
CHAPTER 1
PAVING THE WAY: THE DRIVE TOWARD IMMERSIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Technological advances such as CGI, economics of production, marketing, and
American consumer culture can all be attributed as potential causes for the current success of this new era in 3D filmmaking. While discussing these topics, it is important to remember that this success comes after a century of movement toward a not-often- mentioned goal: the drive for immersive entertainment. To explain the general concept of “immersive,” Lauren Rabinovitz writes:
… the spectatorial process is essentially a disavowal of corporeal presence (embodiment) and an absorption into the distant world of image and sound.17
Rabinovitz continues to describe immersion, utilizing terms such as “identification” and phrases such as “foregrounded bodily orientation.”18 Therefore, if a film possesses
“immersive” qualities, it should exhibit characteristics that cause the audience to lose themselves within this “distant world of image and sound.” This desire for immersive cinema can be traced from film‟s early years through today‟s digital technology, including innovations in 3D as well as the formal elements of CGI-heavy 2D cinema on which this project focuses.19
17 Rabinovitz, Lauren. "More than the Movies: A History of Somatic Visual Culture Through Hale's Tours, Imax, and Motion Simulation Rides." Memory Bytes: History, Technology, and Digital Culture. Ed. Lauren Rabinovitz and Abraham Geil. Durham: Duke UP, 2004: 100. Print. 18 Ibid. 101. 19 On page 106, Rabinovitz discusses an early example of immersive entertainment: Hale‟s Tours, which ran from 1904-1910. Introduced by George C. Hale, these attractions involved 1-3 theater cars which seated 72 “passengers” each. “The movies shown out the front end of the otherwise closed car generally offered a filmed point of view from the front or rear of a moving train, producing the illusion of movement into or away from a scene while mechanical apparatuses and levers simultaneously vibrated, rocked, and 12
Aesthetics: Immersion, Gimmicks, and Depth Cues
With Rabinovitz‟ working definition, it can easily be construed that 3D films naturally contain an immersive quality, in that they potentially create the sensation of being among the onscreen objects. If two people watch two versions of the same film, one in 2D and the other in 3D, and are equally engrossed in the narrative (not distracted by audience members, emergency exit signs, etc.), the person watching the 3D film should have more potential to become “immersed” in the world of the film. Of course, this only occurs if the onscreen objects do not distract the viewer from the filmgoing experience. For example, if the 3D plant effects of Avatar20 do not distract the spectator, the illusion of depth should make them feel more like they are in a jungle on Pandora.
Despite this, the concept of the novelty of 3D distracting its audience in no way changes the potential of the 3D film to more successfully draw the spectator into the diegetic world.
While 3D contains naturally immersive elements, the immersion of the audience remains vulnerable to distractions, including distractions which come from the film itself.
Because of this, we must differentiate between “immersive” 3D and “gimmicky” 3D.
While the “gimmick” of 3D appears in most 3D films, it is the non-reliance on the gimmick that should set immersive 3D apart from the gimmicky. Rabinovitz describes the “gimmick” of 3D as the novelty of “shock effects of objects „coming at you.‟”21 The
tilted the car.” This also acts as a precursor to contemporary immersive theme park attractions like Star Tours and “4-D” presentations of today. 20 Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. 20th Century Fox, 2009. 21 Rabinovitz, Lauren. "More than the Movies: A History of Somatic Visual Culture Through Hale's Tours, Imax, and Motion Simulation Rides." Memory Bytes: History, Technology, and Digital Culture. Ed. Lauren Rabinovitz and Abraham Geil. Durham: Duke UP, 2004: 101. Print. 13 legacy of the gimmick reaches back to 3D‟s beginnings, understandably, as it was the primary attraction and reason to produce stereoscopic films. A well-known example of the gimmick occurs in a scene from House of Wax22 where a huckster on the street repetitively smacks a paddleball into the camera. Friday the 13th Part III, a milestone entry in the early 80s stream of 3D films, utilizes multiple objects thrust toward the camera in a similar fashion throughout the film. Even in the recent reemergence of 3D in the digital age, films continue to go for the cheap thrill of throwing things at the screen.23
Zone‟s criticism of the gimmick offers one reason to distance it from immersive 3D:
…the reliance on optical convergence and an unrelenting exploitation of off-the-screen effects disconnected from the narrative demonstrated only slight artistic advance for stereographic film.24
Zone mentions here the “disconnect” from the film world that the spectator can experience, which obviously reduces the level of immersion.
In contrast, the most well-known example of immersive 3D today is Avatar, which currently holds the record for the highest-grossing film to date (not adjusted for inflation).25 Avatar‟s marketing for the mainstream American public relied heavily on its
3D filmmaking, but the film itself does not rely on the gimmick of objects poking out of the screen. Instead, the film utilizes CGI and 3D to create an environment of depth,
22 House of Wax. Dir. André De Toth. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1953. 23 The House of Wax scene has become such an iconic use of this tactic that it is even parodied in some recent 3D productions. During the Disney attraction Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D (Henson 1991), Sweetums smacks a paddleball at the camera. Also, at one point in Monsters vs. Aliens (Letterman, Vernon 2009), the film pays its homage when a character absentmindedly performs the paddleball action during a phone conversation. 24 Zone, Ray. Stereoscopic Cinema & the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838-1952. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 2007: 3. Print. 25 "Avatar (2009)." Box Office Mojo. Web. 15 May 2011.
„[I] don‟t want to assault the eye every five seconds. I want it to be comfortable… I want you to forget after a few minutes that you are really watching 3-D and just have it operate at a subliminal, subconscious level… it makes the audience feel like real participants.‟27
Even the narrative of Avatar deals with people exploring a strange new environment via immersive technology.
Three-dimensional films are not the only type which can exhibit immersive qualities. Two-dimensional films possess this ability as well, though, as previously mentioned, not to the same extent. By expressing more immersive formal qualities, a 2D film can not only feel more immersive, but also create a desire for 3D. How can an aesthetic element of 2D film create an expectation for 3D? Before looking into formal qualities, first look at the depth cues involved in two-dimensional film. The depth cues consist of two types: monocular and binocular. Monocular cues require only one eye to discern depth while binocular, of course, requires two. Of the handful of monocular depth cues, accommodation (the changing of the focus of the eye depending on distance)
26 Of course, some sensitive or susceptible spectators will always feel “assaulted” by any intensely foregrounded object in a 3D film. 27 Reynolds, Simon. "Cameron: 'I'm Conservative with 3-D'" Digital Spy. 7 Aug. 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.
15 remains the sole missing component in 2D film. Stereopsis, the only binocular depth cue, is also missing from 2D film. Stereopsis involves a disparity between images, seen by the slightly different angles between two points of view (the eyes), which allows the judgment of depth. This lack of illusion of stereopsis represents the only difference between the depth cues of 2D and 3D film, as not even 3D films (in their current state) can accurately recreate accommodation.28 With one depth cue setting them apart and many others embodied by both (perspective, motion parallax, lighting, shading, occlusion, etc.), the aesthetic leap between 2D and 3D seems smaller than one might think.
With the concept of depth cues, as well as immersion and 3D in mind, the ability of 2D films to have a three-dimensional and immersive quality becomes more believable and logical. Additionally, a two-dimensional film exhibiting more immersive qualities than other 2D films should more strongly invoke the qualities of 3D film. One method of applying immersive qualities to a 2D film involves the use of computer-generated imagery and environments. As previously mentioned, 2D films reproduce almost all of the depth cues 3D can, but what makes CGI-heavy films more conducive to the immersive environment than other 2D movies? A simple answer posits that films which rely more on CGI, especially for environmental effects, draw more attention to the diegetic surroundings of the characters, effectively drawing the spectator further into the film world. These CGI effects, when not jabbing at the camera‟s lens/viewer‟s eyes, are less likely to distract the audience than a gimmicky counterpart. But if the spectator
28 Lipton, Lenny. Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema: a Study in Depth. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982: 53-60. Print. 16 notices the effects, how can it be immersive? To cause a sense of immersion, the viewer must be aware of the onscreen environment at some conscious level. A distinctive, unreal, or impressive environment has more of a chance to capture the attention of and immerse an audience than a standard city street or forest. Part of this argument relies on the realistic implementation of CGI, meaning a more lifelike representation of onscreen objects and locales, whether they be based on reality or on fantasy. Fantastic settings, however, tend to draw more attention, and therefore immerse the viewer more efficiently.
Fantasy and science-fiction films also constitute a high percentage of films involving both CGI and 3D, making them a more natural point of connection between modern 2D blockbusters and the return of 3D. Avatar and its production‟s goal of immersion represent the epitome of what certain CGI-heavy 2D films initiated in the past two decades. With ever more realistic graphics at their disposal, filmmakers at the turn of the century acquired the ability to build believable shots not previously possible. One of many examples appears in The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, 29 where a long shot of a character on fire, running toward the camera, tracks backward to follow his movement. Simultaneously, the camera appears to crane downward and away from the high precipice from which he jumps. As the burning character falls to his death, the camera continues to pull back to reveal his long fall, the city below, and eventually moves so far out that both the city and the battle outside its walls become visible. By the end of the shot, the massive city, its surroundings, and the fiery dot all fit within the frame. This shot utilizes a dynamically mobile frame and moves between extremes in distance along the depth axis, setting up the spectator to crave 3D. The camera‟s
29 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2003. 17 movement appears simultaneously unrealistic (impossible to actually perform) and realistic thanks to the believability of the impressive CGI, despite the fact that it depicts an imaginary location.
Credit Where Credit is Due: Other Technologies and Economic Factors in 3D‟s
Comeback
The novelty of 3D endures so strongly because of “a bewildering variety of technological strategies for creating a stereographic motion picture, as well as the continuous technical evolution of the conventional motion picture medium itself.”30 Part of this “technical evolution” includes the increased use of computer-generated imagery, but the rapid development and implementation of CGI in feature-length two-dimensional films is in no way the solitary reason for the resurgence of 3D films. Going hand-in-hand with technology, the economics of 3D also played a part in its resurgence. As products of the Hollywood system, most 3D films exist for economic reasons. In 3D‟s previous periods of popularity, its novelty would always eventually wear thin on audiences. As mentioned in the previous chapter with the ends of Zone‟s eras of “novelty” and
“convergence,” the majority of public interest would wane and temporarily remove the majority of 3D from the cinema, at least until it became feasibly profitable again. The acceptance and standardization of digital technology in the filmmaking community maximizes that profitability and reduces the risk of producing a box office “bomb.”
Thanks to the past decade‟s technological advances, the possibility of the production of a
30 Zone, Ray. Stereoscopic Cinema & the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838-1952. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 2007: 1. Print. 18
3D film has become cheaper and therefore less of a gamble than in previous generations.
Although the debate continues over the superiority of digital versus film photography, digital filmmaking has without a doubt become a more viable and accessible enterprise.
While this has had little effect on filming in 3D other than making it cheaper, digital technology in the realms of post-production and projection has greatly impacted the 3D industry.
Releasing a two-dimensional version of a 3D film has long been an option, but with advances in post-production technology, filmmakers gained the ability to convert an entirely 2D film into a spectroscopic one. Additionally, as the process has become more streamlined, it has also become (relatively) less expensive. This potentially grasps the interest of filmmakers who refuse to shoot in 3D for technical or aesthetic reasons
(whether shooting on film or digital), allowing them to film how they want and let the studio release both versions to cinemas and home video. Films like Clash of the Titans31 and The Last Airbender32 utilize this method. Ironically, however, this process receives mixed reactions, involving a debate over the quality of “converted to 3D” when compared to “filmed in 3D,” suggesting that converted 2D images look flatter and, consequently, less immersive. Michael Bay asserts his feelings on the matter, saying:
Right now, it looks like fake 3D, with layers that are very apparent. You go to the screening room, you are hoping to be thrilled, and you‟re thinking, huh, this kind of sucks. People can say whatever they want about my movies, but they are technically precise, and if this isn‟t going to be excellent, I don‟t want to do it. And it is my choice.33
31 Clash of the Titans. Dir. Louis Leterrier. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2010. 32 The Last Airbender. Dir. M. Night Shyamalan. Paramount Pictures, 2010. 33 Fleming, Mike. "Michael Bay and James Cameron Skeptical of 3D Conversions: „The Jury Is Out‟" Deadline.com. 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 May 2011.
Other films that receive the post-production conversion include those previously filmed without any intention of a 3D release. Disney‟s Chicken Little received the treatment mid-production with the help of Industrial Light and Magic, exhibiting the possibility of the process for the first time. Disney followed this up with the conversion of the non-
CGI feature The Nightmare Before Christmas,34 setting up a system which Beauty and the Beast,35 Titanic,36 and Star Wars37 followed, and for which films like The Lord of the
Rings series are being considered. With Chicken Little, the relative ease of the conversion process with fully CGI films became apparent. Since the production team already has the computer models in three-dimensional form, the process merely involves placing a second “camera” within the animated world to make it a 3D image. This discovery, the technique of which was later improved, played a large part in the upsurge of 3D computer-animated films after 2005. It also pointed out the ability of studios to convert past CGI films with comparatively little cost (if they still had the computer models), leading Disney/Pixar to rerelease Toy Story38 and Toy Story 239 in 3D.
Digital technology also drastically impacted the projection and viewing of 3D film. Along with easing the process of projecting advertisements, trailers, and films in theaters, digital exhibition companies opened new doors for 3D, including live broadcasts. Cinedigm, for example, utilized its technology in 80 digitally-equipped
34 The Nightmare Before Christmas. Dir. Henry Selick. Walt Disney Pictures, 1993. 35 Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991. 36 Titanic. Dir. James Cameron. Paramount Pictures, 1997. 37 Star Wars. Dir. George Lucas. 20th Century Fox, 1977. 38 Toy Story. Dir. John Lasseter. Walt Disney Pictures, 1995. 39 Toy Story 2. Dir. John Lasseter. Walt Disney Pictures, 1999. 20 movie theaters to broadcast a live NBA event in 3D, the first 3D projection of its kind.40
The relationship between digital projection and 3D film production has been mutually beneficial, with increased interest in the films leading to increased willingness on the part of theaters to install digital projectors which, in turn, increased interest in releasing 3D films. RealD digital technology requires only one projector to produce a circular polarization effect, and is the most widely used technology for 3D in theaters.41 This circular polarization, unlike linear polarization, allows the viewer to tilt their head without affecting the 3D illusion. While previous common incarnations of 3D viewing involved thin, flimsy paper or cardboard glasses which could dig in behind the ears, glasses like RealD‟s present a more comfortable and durable format while remaining inexpensive enough for films and theaters to make a considerable profit.
Digital technology played an enormous role in 3D‟s recent return, but other developments assisted it as well. IMAX cameras and projectors, though not digital until
2008, further moved the industry toward immersive entertainment. Picking up where
CinemaScope left off, IMAX took screen size to new heights, literally. The standard
IMAX screen, at around 70 feet wide and 50 feet tall, fills much more of the audience‟s periphery. Although audiences were initially introduced to IMAX through specialty screenings of educational films and travelogues, IMAX eventually became part (albeit a small one) of mainstream cinema. In 1995, Apollo 1342 became the first feature narrative
40 "NBA All-Star Saturday Night to Be Broadcast in Live 3D HD." NBA.com. 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2011.
IMAX films continued to primarily consist of documentaries, but eventually broke into mainstream narrative film with upconverted presentations of superhero and other fantasy films in the 2000s. Throughout this time, 3D occasionally became a component of
IMAX in documentary films like Into the Deep43 and Ghosts of the Abyss,44 setting the precedent for later IMAX 3D presentations like Monsters vs. Aliens,45 Avatar, and Toy
Story 346 and further pushing Hollywood into the realm of immersive entertainment.
Rabinovitz‟ definition of immersive mentions the element of sound as well as image, and technological developments in that field also made films more immersive.
With the advent of digital sound compression systems, like Dolby Surround, surround sound in the late 1980s moved closer toward verisimilitude of a three-dimensional sound environment. If, in a film, a car moved from the background of a shot to the foreground and behind the camera, the speakers in the theater would mimic this. With 2D films being regularly exhibited in homes and theaters of the 1990s with this technology, it seems only natural that audiences would be expecting the images onscreen to follow suit.
CGI, along with all of the above mentioned technological advances and their economic contexts, led up to the 3D resurgence and immersive 3D of films like Avatar.
In fact, the immersion factor even became a selling point for some films like Avatar, as some consumers would assert the best way to view the film was in IMAX 3D. In South
43 Into the Deep. Dir. Howard Hall. IMAX, 1994. 44 Ghosts of the Abyss. Dir. James Cameron. Walt Disney Pictures, 2003. 45 Monsters vs. Aliens. Dir. Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman. Paramount Pictures, 2009. 46 Toy Story 3. Dir. Lee Unkrich. Walt Disney Pictures, 2010. 22
Korea, Avatar even had a limited “4D” release, which included “moving seats, smells of explosives, sprinkling water, laser lights, and wind.”47
While all of these technological and economic precursors to 3D‟s comeback are fairly well documented, the desire for 3D created by CGI-heavy 2D films is not.
47 Sunhee, Han. "'Avatar' Goes 4D in Korea." Variety. 5 Feb. 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2011.
23
CHAPTER 2
ALMOST 3D: CGI EFFECTS IN 2D FILMS
In order to argue how scenes in certain films assisted in an expectation/natural movement toward 3D, the chosen films should not only exhibit the necessary formal elements, but also represent mainstream (read: widely viewed) cinema. A film seen by tens of millions of people is more likely to impact Hollywood and culture. For the purposes of this argument, the primary films chosen exist among the top twenty highest- grossing franchises of all time: Star Wars, number 3, The Lord of the Rings, number 6,
Spider-Man, number 9, and The Matrix, number 17.48 Additionally, these selections have also received widespread critical acclaim for their achievements in visual effects. In
Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects alone, The Matrix,49 Spider-Man 2,50 and every
Lord of the Rings film won, while Spider-Man51 and Star Wars Episodes I52 and II53 were nominated.54 All of these films present their audiences with lifelike computer-generated imagery, often set in a world of fantasy, which through immersive environments, dynamic cinematography, point of view shots, or straightforward similarities to the 3D gimmick, potentially creates the mainstream Hollywood audience‟s desire for 3D.
48 "Movie Franchises and Brands Index." Box Office Mojo. Web. 12 Aug. 2011.
Coming Close to the 3D Gimmick
While our technology and culture move more naturally toward immersion, the element of the gimmick in 3D films remains. As previously mentioned, recent 3D films utilize the archetypal “coming at you” effect. The more surprising aspect of this fact stems from its use not just in previous eras of 3D, but its mutual precedent in the CGI- laden sequences of these turn-of-the-century 2D films. Despite their two-dimensional nature, these films‟ visual effects can move objects or the camera quickly and vividly along the depth axis. These effects may not appear to jump off of the screen at the audience, but they act as a sample of the types of shots American and global audiences were exposed to at the time (and are to this day). Because of this, they also represent a part of how these films could potentially have given the turn-of-the-century movie-goer an expectation for 3D‟s resurgence. While many of these shots obviously share formal qualities with those of gimmicky 3D, I have also categorized and included some less plain examples of these 2D films getting as close as they can to the 3D gimmick.
There appears to be no shortage of shots in these films which feature objects flying at the camera with the assistance of CGI. Surprisingly, however, the films with guns, ships, and lasers are the exception. The only noteworthy “in your face” moments of the Star Wars prequels appear in episodes II and III.55 During a chase through the city planet‟s flying traffic, Obi-Wan and Anakin pass by numerous vehicles which fly directly toward and past the camera. Also, during one of the climactic scenes of Episode III, the villain uses the Force to throw multiple empty senate seats at Yoda, whose point of view the camera briefly assumes. In The Matrix, the viewer has only three of these shots, all of
55 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Dir. George Lucas. 20th Century Fox, 2005. 25 them near the end of the film: endless guns loading into the Construct by launching from white background toward the camera, the slow motion explosion of the elevator door flying toward the viewer, and the final shot of the film in which Neo flies from the city far below and almost through the bird‟s eye view camera in the sky.
The Spider-Man series contains a plethora of “at the camera” action. Various combinations of computer-enhanced Spidey and digital backgrounds abound in iconic shots of the hero swinging into the camera. In action sequences involving the wall- crawler, streetlights appear to barely miss the camera as it follows the swinging action, the Green Goblin grabs a falling cable car and throws it upward at the spectator, Doctor
Octopus‟ CGI tentacles claw at the camera, and, in Spider-Man 3,56 the Sandman‟s face breaks apart on a passing subway train which appears close enough to do the same to the audience. In Spider-Man 2, a fight scene set in a bank includes shots of the vault door flying at the camera after being ripped off its hinges, and bags of money and taxi doors being thrown at Spider-Man (and the audience). Slow motion effects add extra time for the viewer to take in the visual information presented, and the Spider-Man series uses this in tandem with gimmicky CGI at least once in each film. In the first movie, a Goblin grenade explodes in Spidey‟s face, partially destroying his mask and sending multiple pieces of shrapnel at the camera in slow-mo. Similar slow motion shots appear in the sequels, and for some reason, often involve glass. Glass flying toward the camera kills
Doctor Octopus‟ wife, appears after a taxi is thrown through a café window, and surrounds Spider-Man after being slammed into the side of a building by Harry Osborne.
56 Spider-Man 3. Dir. Sam Raimi. Columbia Pictures, 2007. 26
In this same scene with Harry, an engagement ring slips from Spidey‟s pocket and the hero stretches his arm out in slow-mo to grasp the CGI ring in the foreground.
A similar shot acts as the first at-the-camera CGI moment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy when the evil Sauron‟s fingers (and ring) are sliced off and fall in slow motion toward the camera in The Fellowship of the Ring.57 The series follows this with many more instances of the effect, at least partially as a result of Jackson‟s ambitious computer- enhanced cinematography. The audience has many objects directly thrust at them, including: Gandalf‟s arrowlike fireworks over a lake, the hands of the ghosts of the Dead
Marsh in The Two Towers,58 catapulted rocks, a giant battering ram breathing fire,
Legolas sliding along the tail of a giant elephant he just killed, and the rubble from
Sauron‟s tower when the heroes finally defeat him. In the first film‟s staircase sequence,
Boromir‟s torch falls into a deep chasm through the camera. A few moments later, goblin arrows fly at the camera next to the Fellowship, one of which ricochets off the staircase and at the spectator. The rest of the at-the-camera effects stem from the CGI creatures that fill the films‟ diegetic world. Some of these beings hurl parts of their body at the screen, such as the octopus-like lake monster, whose tentacles reach and swing at the camera. The ents, the sentient trees of the second film, use their roots and branches to stomp, sweep, and claw downward at orcs in low angle shots. Similarly, the giant elephants of the climactic battle of the third film swing their massive tusks and trunks at the soldiers below. Other creatures, like Shelob the giant spider, move toward the camera as if devouring it (and the viewer). The dragons ridden by the Deathlike Ringwraiths and
57 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2001. 58 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2002. 27
Gandalf‟s dragon firework also appear to consume the camera. Some CGI creatures wield weapons and throw objects at the screen. The cave troll in the first film swings a club and a chain at different times, while a couple of scenes later, the giant Balrog swings its whip at the camera just before dragging Gandalf into an abyss. Ents throw and roll rocks during the second film‟s climax, and soldiers are thrown down by armored trolls and Ringwraith dragons in the third film, though some of them fall away from the camera as well.
Although they may not be the first thought for “gimmicky,” objects moving away from the camera drastically along the z-axis, like the famous opening crawl of all Star
Wars films, should also be considered in relation to the term. In 3D films, this type of shot still captures the attention of the viewer with its illusion of extreme change in distance. A few shots in these 2D films utilize CGI to create something akin to this. Like the previously mentioned glass in Spider-Man films, the Green Goblin‟s throwing blades move in slow motion, but away from the camera at an evasive Spidey in the background.
In The Matrix, a memorable scene of Neo escaping his office building reaches its peak when his cell phone falls unnaturally slow, then fast, toward the street far below. In The
Lord of the Rings, this type of shot is used on objects as small as the titular ring falling slowly from the foreground onto Frodo‟s finger, to the gigantic ladders the orcs use during the climactic battle of the second film, which rise up from the ground to the castle wall above with the assistance of ropes on either side of the camera. Two other shots have the camera appear to move through objects as they distance themselves from the audience. An establishing shot of the Mines of Moria in the first film zooms out from the 28
Fellowship through rock formations which act as archways and internal framing. In the same way, Gollum becomes framed by his most desired object as the camera zooms out through the center of the ring.
Another type of gimmicky action in these films occurs when the camera more or less stays with the object on screen but moves with it drastically along the depth axis through diegetic space. In Star Wars, this effect has always existed as starships flew through space, but recent strides in CGI improved upon the detail and realism of the ships in these shots for the prequel trilogy. For example, in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Padme‟s ships from Naboo sport a sleek metallic look not unlike the texture of the liquid metal T-1000 assassin in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.59 Two memorable scenes from the prequel trilogy involve a great deal of this depth axis action.
In Episode II, the camera follows Obi-Wan as he chases a bounty hunter through an asteroid field. He dodges the gigantic CGI space rocks from various angles and at one point leads the viewer through a cave running the length of a larger asteroid. In the opening space battle of Episode III, Obi-Wan and Anakin fly their starfighters along the edges of huge battleships while enemy fighters close in and give chase in noticeably long takes.
A similar, but shorter, shot occurs in the first Spider-Man film as the camera follows the Green Goblin‟s glider through a series of parade balloons in New York City.
In the sequels, entire action sequences occur principally along the depth axis at high speeds. In Spider-Man 2, Spidey fights Doctor Octopus on the roof of an elevated train as the camera follows the action back and forth along the track. In the third installment,
59 Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Dir. James Cameron. TriStar Pictures, 1991. 29
Harry‟s fast paced attack on Spider-Man takes place in a tight alleyway. In this sequence multiple CGI flying objects and props like clotheslines and pipes move as quickly as the characters along the z-axis.
While it occurs in underground tunnels rather than outer space, the exterior cinematography of the Nebuchadnezzar and machine sentinels in The Matrix mirrors the action of Star Wars ships. The tunnels potentially create a more focused sense of depth than the vastness of space, as well. Some of the CGI bullets in the film also perform this action along the depth axis when followed by the camera. In the scene where Neo finally realizes he can stop them with his mind, the camera moves along the trail of the bullets
(which even presents itself in the form of ripple effects). The camera also moves drastically along the depth axis in the shot where Neo and Morpheus enter the “jump” program. In likely the fastest example of z-axis camera movement in all these films, a top-down high angle shot of a city comes into view beneath the characters‟ feet and flies toward them until they touch the roof of a building. At this point, the characters launch away from the camera along with the city below at an equally fast speed. This shot almost acts as a stereotypical gimmicky shot where an entire city soars at the audience.
A less dramatic but still interesting example occurs whenever the camera seems to enter the Matrix code text itself, showing depth, circuits, and electricity on either side as it transitions to the next shot.
Similar depth axis action shots in The Lord of the Rings almost always involve a character or object falling. At the beginning of The Two Towers, a flashback reveals what happened during Gandalf and the Balrog‟s fall into darkness with a lengthy fight 30 sequence taking place entirely during the fall through the deep crevasse. A shot during the battle at the end of the film follows orcs at the top of a gigantic ladder as it falls down into the horde below. A very similar shot occurs in the third film where the camera tracks behind a stone launched by a catapult into the swarming mass of orcs outside the city walls. Elsewhere in the film, the audience falls a long distance with an orc down the outside of a tower. The most climactic shot in the series fits into this category as well, as the camera closely follows Gollum and the ring into the lava of Mount Doom, destroying the film‟s primary antagonists. In a reversal of this pattern, the viewer trails Gandalf as he is thrown upward into the high ceiling of Saruman‟s tower in the first film. Finally, in one of the more complicated examples, the camera pans left to follow Gandalf‟s moth but then breaks loose and shoots down the long exterior of Saruman‟s tower. Rather than ending at the ground, however, the camera continues into the caves beneath the surface, into an orc factory, past multiple catwalks, and finally ends on a closeup of a sword being formed.
While not actually providing camera or object movement, certain noteworthy
CGI-heavy shots in these 2D films provide the illusion of deep diegetic space for what in a 3D film would often be a gimmicky exploitation of depth. For example, in the scene in
Spider-Man in which Peter Parker discovers his newfound agility, a top-down high angle shot of the alley below reveals the extreme height of his jump. In a longer lasting shot in
The Matrix, Neo awakens in his pod in the real world and sees a high angle shot of the towers built by the machines. Thousands of similar pods fill the sides of the towers and go downward into endless black. Like the catwalks in the orc factory depth axis shot, 31 details and architecture can provide reference points to further illustrate the proposed depth of some of these shots. In Episode I, an establishing shot of the podrace arena reveals a large gathered crowd on multiple stands of seating and is temporarily obstructed as the camera pans right by a humongous jutting rock formation. Near the end of the film, the climactic lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul spends much of its time in a bottomless chasm. The three characters fight on multiple levels of walkways which span across the large room. Episode II‟s droid factory presents layers of interweaving conveyor belts and machinery. The opening space battle of Revenge of the
Sith features a high angle shot from the outer layer of the conflict with more levels of fighting and ships above the city surface of the planet below. Later, a starport appears to be dug thousands of feet vertically into the ground and has many visible ships and characters moving about on each level. The enormous column city in The Fellowship of the Ring also fits this subcategory as no visible vanishing point exists in its establishing shot, but the imposing columns and miniscule characters provide a sense of its endless depth and great height. The next time the audience sees this room, goblins fill the columns as they attempt to catch the fleeing heroes. Other shots in the Spider-Man series offer this same sense of depth and layers while in a comparatively smaller diegetic space.
When Peter Parker‟s DNA changes as a result of the spider bite, the audience sees a microscopic CGI environment where layers of his genetic code are visibly altered and replaced from foreground to deep background. Flint Marko‟s transformation in Spider-
Man 3 features a similar sequence wherein a barrage of sand molecules alters his DNA and creates the Sandman. While not actually existing in the diegetic world of the Spider- 32
Man films, the opening credits of each film possess many of the same formal elements of these DNA sequences but contain multiple layers of web, letters, tunnels, genes, and even city buildings.
The last category of 2D shots which mimics 3D‟s gimmick involves environmental effects. These effects, however, only appear gimmicky depending on the spectator. While James Cameron claims to have not wanted to “assault the senses” with
Avatar‟s 3D, some people may certainly have nevertheless felt “assaulted” by objects like the floating seeds. For those who felt “assaulted,” the following elements exemplify 2D precursors of the gimmicky CGI environmental effects which appear in the foreground, usually at the bottom of the screen. In all Star Wars prequels, Lucas utilizes sparks from destroyed battle droids. Episode II features a stormy water-covered planet complete with clouds, haze, rain, and high waves. Steam and more sparks appear in the droid factory later in the film. Episode III contains smoke like anti-air flak in the opening battle and smoke, rubble, and sparks as Obi-Wan chases General Grievous. The lava planet setting for the trilogy‟s climactic duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin features numerous environmental effects including: heat haze, fire, lava spurts, flying embers, sparks, smoke, and steam, all of which appear in the foreground at some point. Steam also appears in an early swinging sequence in Spider-Man as he traverses rooftops and alleyways. A scene in Spider-Man 2 involves the hero attempting to save a woman as she falls amongst debris from a tall office building. As Spidey descends in order to catch her, he passes numerous pieces of CGI glass, paper, and concrete from the damaged building. Like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings uses more natural elements like the 33 water sprayed from the lake monster in The Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf‟s battle with the Balrog in the second film and the volcanic Mount Doom in the third utilize the same numerous environmental effects as the lava planet in Revenge of the Sith.
Almost Like You‟re There: Immersive Environments
By definition, one of the main factors of immersive entertainment is the feeling of being somewhere else. In these films, the spectator is allowed to become immersed in a noticeably unreal and simultaneously realistic CGI environment. The audience often first sees this diegetic world through an establishing shot. As usual, the establishing shots in these films serve to orient the viewer and provide information on the location where the ensuing action will likely take place. Aside from serving this purpose, the establishing shots in these films, with the use of CGI, situate the viewer in a fantasy world that appears incredibly lifelike, almost as though the viewer could actually visit it. They appear so realistic largely due to details in architecture and geographical features, as well as animated components such as people, animals, and vehicles. All of the following establishing shots involve some sort of smaller detail in motion in the background.
In the Star Wars prequels, Lucas utilizes numerous establishing shots of his multiplanetary locales. Padme‟s home city of Theed in The Phantom Menace receives multiple shots from different angles throughout the film. Most of these include CG birds and waterfalls around the Mediterranean-style architecture for added detail. With added camera motion, the shots look as though they could have been filmed from a helicopter at an actual location. When combined with the added digital light source, this results in a 34 much improved sense of realism over model-based effects of films in the past, such as the original Star Wars trilogy. Similar to the birds of Theed, swimming alien fish accompany the shots entering and leaving the underwater Gungan city in the same film.
In The Lord of the Rings, this type of establishing shot occurs for many of the extreme long shots depicting the villain Sauron‟s dark tower. In them the camera slowly spins around the structure while here and there a small orc or wisp of smoke appears for size comparison as well as realism.
Many of these shots also use a green screen or other digital backgrounds to place actors in the foreground, often in semi-subjective shots where the viewer sees over their shoulder. In Spider-Man, Mary Jane wakes up on the top of the Queensboro Bridge. To identify with her curiosity and subsequent fear, the camera moves backward a few feet then pans over the platform‟s edge with Mary Jane to reveal the traffic far below. A similar shot appears in The Matrix when Neo wakes up in the real world. The camera moves with his body and looks down into the robot‟s human farm as he does. In The
Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo walks out in the foreground onto a balcony to reveal the elf city of Rivendell in the background. Two of Frodo‟s friends, while riding a sentient tree, occupy the foreground of a shot with a massive forest stretching back to Saruman‟s tower in the second film. In The Return of the King, the second shot in the series to introduce the city of Minas Tirith begins with Gandalf and Pippin riding up a hill in the foreground.
The camera then cranes upward to match their ascending movement until the city appears in the distance. The final shots of the first two films use this effect to present the viewer with an image of the long way yet to Mordor for the two main hobbits. In both shots, the 35 camera tilts/cranes upward over a mountain range to reveal multiple levels of terrain, more mountains, and the volcanic land of Mordor, still far away.
To enhance the sense of liveliness in establishing shots, these films often use CGI to show groups of people walking, cheering, and fighting, among other things. The Star
Wars prequels, specifically Episode II, include exterior shots with pedestrians and space vehicles for a bustling urban setting, including city centers, government buildings, spaceports, and even a diner. Episode III‟s vertical spaceport shows multiple levels of people and ships as it goes deeper into the structure. The establishing shots of Isengard, the white wizard Saruman‟s tower in The Lord of the Rings, often depict a multitude of laboring orcs and machines surrounding its base. A different type of action occurs in the first establishing shot of the large column-filled room in Moria: the Fellowship cautiously enters the great hall and becomes dwarfed by the massive architecture. In a flashback sequence of The Two Towers, Gandalf recalls his epic battle with the Balrog, during which the film presents an extreme long shot of the mountaintop struggle.
In some cases, the films employ CGI to depict colossal crowds of characters, such as the various shots introducing the clone army in Episode II. Here, one actor gives multiple performances which are all digitally placed into a CG environment to depict cloned soldiers training, eating in a mess hall, learning in a classroom, and boarding ships in formation. Later in the film, the clones fight an insectlike, CG alien army which also appears in a large group shot before the battle. At the beginning of the gladiatorial execution of the main characters, these bugs fly into an establishing shot of the arena and fill its stands like cockroaches. More arena-like establishing shots occur in The Phantom 36
Menace to relay the setting of the famous podrace sequence. Like the clone army, except with more initial performers, CG effects place the same performances in various locations of the digital environment in order to make an enormous and impressive crowd, complete with aliens, of course. The Lord of the Rings features plentiful establishing shots of large crowds, especially in the third installment of the series. From the vast battle of Minas Tirith to the overwhelmed human army at the gates of Mordor to the coronation celebration after the heroes‟ victory, all epic shots with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of characters rely on digital technology.
For The Lord of the Rings and subsequent films, commercials, and video games, crowd effects have been made so realistic thanks to Weta Digital‟s MASSIVE program.
MASSIVE (Multiple Agent Simulation System in Virtual Environment), created specifically for the ambitious shots in Jackson‟s trilogy, utilizes artificial intelligence to allow thousands of individual CG characters to react realistically and uniquely to environmental stimuli as they each specifically encounter them. In The Two Towers, ten thousand orcs appear below Saruman‟s balcony in one shot, but unlike similar crowd shots in films like Star Wars, this shot does not simply copy and paste a small group of characters in order to make an army. Each orc soldier performs its own unique animation when prompted to cheer for their wizard leader. Later in the film, MASSIVE allows the orc, human, and elf soldiers to act out a large battle, showing pairs and small groups of characters engaging one another in realistic combat, dying, falling, and rushing into the next fray. The scale of shots permitted by MASSIVE technology appropriately reaches even more massive sizes. For example, in The Return of the King, the series‟ largest 37 battle, set in front of the white mountainside city of Minas Tirith, thousands of horsemen ride into thousands more orcs in multiple extreme long shots, trampling some and being killed by others. These shots, powered by MASSIVE software, exemplify the pinnacle of immersive, long shot, CG crowd effects and have inspired other MASSIVE-created scenes in films such as I, Robot,60 The Dark Knight,61 Happy Feet,62 Vantage Point,63 The
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,64 and King Kong.65, 66
After these films establish the setting for their effects-laden action with extreme long shots, they further immerse the audience with digital environmental effects. These effects make the fictional worlds of Middle Earth and a galaxy far, far away appear more realistic and tangible. They enhance the sense that the spectator can move and swing through New York like a superhero or bend the laws of time and physics inside a simulated computer world. Star Wars, a film series whose narratives involve multiple planets with distinct environments, exhibits a vast array of these environmental elements.
In a short montage in Revenge of the Sith alone, the film presents a handful of different locations on different worlds as the Jedi are slain, including a blizzard, a colorful jungle, a cloudy sky, and a brown wasteland, before returning to Yoda in a forest. CG sand clouds, heat haze, and even mirages appear in Episode I‟s podrace scene. Sand clouds return in Episode II both when Anakin speeds across the desert to find his mother and during the climactic battle on the sand-covered planet, Geonosis. The fully CG droid and
60 I, Robot. Dir. Alex Proyas. 20th Century Fox, 2004. 61 The Dark Knight. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2008. 62 Happy Feet. Dir. George Miller, Warren Coleman, and Judy Morris. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006. 63 Vantage Point. Dir. Pete Travis. Columbia Pictures, 2008. 64 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Dir. Rob Cohen. Universal Pictures, 2008. 65 King Kong. Dir. Peter Jackson. Universal Pictures, 2005. 66 "Massive Software - Film." Massive Software – Simulating Life. Web. 20 Aug. 2011.
Mummy.67
Aside from surrounding the podrace in Star Wars, heat haze appears again beneath the Green Goblin‟s glider throughout the first Spider-Man, as well as in the roaring breath of the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring. When Gollum and the eponymous ring finally fall into the volcano in the third film, they pass through heat haze, as well as steam from the lava. Many other scenes utilize CG steam, such as the droid factory in Episode II and the volcanic planet of Mustafar in Episode III. A web-swinging sequence in Spider-Man involves Spidey moving through a steam outlet on the roof of a building, just as added environmental effect. When Gollum falls into the lava, he also passes through smoke, just as the CG element appears elsewhere in the series, as Gandalf falls after the Balrog, and as the camera moves away from the burning city of Minas
Tirith, not to mention Bilbo‟s smoke ring and Gandalf‟s smoke galleon when they smoke pipes in the first film.
Similar to the smoke and steam effects, CG fog also plays a role in the immersive environment of these films, but it creates an obviously occlusive atmosphere, as well as an ominous one. In The Return of the King, a surprise attack by the orcs, which will
67 The Mummy. Dir. Stephen Sommers. Universal Pictures, 1999. 39 result in a crushing human defeat, begins with its concealment in a heavy layer of fog.
Additionally, fog blankets the city planet of Coruscant at the beginning of Attack of the
Clones. Soon after, Padme loses her body double in an explosive assassination attempt.
Fog also appears in the film on the concealed planet of Kamino where a naïve alien race creates the clone army in secret.
A more prominent environmental effect on Kamino comes in the form of CG rain, as the planet seems to experience thunderstorms in every exterior scene. In The
Fellowship of the Ring, rain falls in multiple exterior long shots of Saruman‟s tower, in which the camera pulls back into the sky while looking down at the orc factories and fires below. Rain becomes one of the main environmental factors in The Two Towers during the climactic battle of Helm‟s Deep. Saruman‟s orcs attack the last stronghold of the human kingdom of Rohan for much of the last hour of the film. While not CG throughout the entire battle, the rain effects add to the atmosphere and pessimistic outlook of the battle, the outcome of which appears to be defeat until Gandalf arrives.
Water effects extend into areas other than rain, as well, such as the turbulent waves on the stormy planet of Kamino. The CG ocean moves naturally and becomes white and foamy at the tops of each violent wave. A Kaminoan bursts out of the sea in one particular shot, riding a flying creature and splashing upon resurface. Similar effects appear in the following film, Revenge of the Sith, during a battle on the Wookiee homeworld. A beach invasion scene involves numerous splashes and water effects as the furry locals destroy the droid army with explosives and projectiles. In The Matrix, a “bullet time” shot of
Morpheus uses computers to allow time to stop and the camera to move around and in 40 toward an actual splash of water from the actor‟s footstep. The octopus-like monster in
The Fellowship of the Ring sprays water and splashes about in its CG sequence, and the siege of the river town, Osgiliath, in The Two Towers incorporates splashes from catapulted rocks as its human defenders scurry. Elf princess Arwen conjures a wall of water shaped like horses to drive away the Ringwraiths in the first film. This type of water effect would later be used on larger scales in films like The Day After Tomorrow,68 where miles-long tidal waves wash out cities in a weather-related natural disaster. The combination of real water and CG water occurs again in The Two Towers when the ents break Saruman‟s dam and flood his factories and tower. Even when the camera appears to be under water, CG effects add realism, such as the bubbles and ripples in Episode I when Jar Jar Binks leads the swimming Jedi to his underwater home city.
The hottest environments in all of these films appear on the volcanic planet of
Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith and the interior of the volcanic Mount Doom in The
Return of the King, each featuring lava spurts, fires, flying embers, and sparks, in addition to the previously mentioned steam, heat haze, and smoke. These effects are used in other shots, including multiple shots of the fires in Saruman‟s factories before the ents flood them. The demonic Balrog‟s characteristic appearance at the climax of The
Fellowship of the Ring and in Gandalf‟s flashback battle of The Two Towers relies on the
CG fire emanating from its body. In The Return of the King, fire effects become most prominent during the climactic conflict at the white city of Minas Tirith, wherein they fly toward the city (and camera) in the form of multitudes of catapulted fiery rocks. Rather than fire flying at them, in Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan and Anakin fly past fires as
68 The Day After Tomorrow. Dir. Roland Emmerich. 20th Century Fox, 2004. 41 they weave in and out of industrial flares during the Coruscant chase scene. Another hot digital effect appears in this same sequence, as the Jedi fly through an electrified power coupling, temporarily electrocuting themselves with purple bolts. This electrified forcefield bears some similarity to the red energy gates found in The Phantom Menace which prevent Obi-Wan from coming to his master‟s aid in fighting Darth Maul. The ensuing lightsaber battle features numerous spark effects which appear throughout the
Star Wars saga when lightsabers touch other materials. In the prequels, these effects happen much more often, and not just during lightsaber duels. During the droid factory scene of Attack of the Clones, sparks emanate from all manner of machines, while later spewing forth from General Grievous‟ escape vehicle as Obi-Wan pursues him in
Revenge of the Sith. Gandalf‟s fireworks in The Fellowship of the Ring consist entirely of
CG sparks, whether in an abnormally large firework of average design, shaped like arrows and shooting across a lake, or forming a dragon which swoops down to terrorize party guests. The initial explosions of the fireworks mirror the anti-air flak bursts in the space battle over Coruscant at the opening of Revenge of the Sith, during which pilots
Anakin and Obi-Wan must dodge the enemy fire. In The Matrix, a couple of explosions play important roles at two climactic points in the narrative. At one point, a helicopter carrying Trinity crashes into the side of a building, and, by saving Trinity, Neo‟s status as
“the One” appears more likely than any time earlier in the film. The helicopter‟s explosion is preceded by an enormous ripple effect in the glass side of the skyscraper, like an object dropped in water, and then followed by the fiery explosion which launches
Trinity and pieces of the helicopter toward the building across the street. A bit earlier in 42 the film, the heroes create a diversion by detonating a bomb in an elevator shaft. The resulting explosion fills the building‟s lobby with slow motion flame as the elevator door soars toward the camera.
Other CG objects, not as “in your face” as the elevator door, exist in these films.
All of these digitally added elements involve some sort of movement, whether slow motion, fast motion, or somewhere in between. The Phantom Menace features schools of alien fish when the Jedi enter and leave the Gungan city to enhance the underwater environment. In the galactic senate chamber, the representatives fly around the spherical room on hovering platforms whenever they speak, and are also followed by the Star Wars universe‟s version of flying cameras. The film also introduces the city planet of
Coruscant‟s flying traffic, which appears more prominently in Attack of the Clones during the car chase. Attack of the Clones contains two instances of digitally simulated holographic technology, first of which takes place in Yoda‟s classroom where a recreation of their galaxy fills the room and surrounds the Jedi students. Near the end of the film, a hologram takes form on the villains‟ strategy planning table. Like a video game come to life, the miniature, 3D versions of soldiers and vehicles move along the table in a handful of shots.
The Spider-Man series incorporates some more realistic and relatable objects than those of a galaxy far away. In many of the web-slinging action sequences, Spider-Man swings past objects, often parts of buildings such as vents or pipes, narrowly missing them. The death of Mrs. Octavius in Spider-Man 2 not only includes a shot of the glass coming at the camera but one where the camera moves with the CG glass in slow motion. 43
In a couple of CGI-heavy action sequences in Spider-Man 3, objects and characters move through the environment simultaneously, barely missing one another. The first instance of this occurs during the alleyway fight between Spider-Man and Harry, where multiple pipes, clotheslines, and fire escapes blur past the camera and characters who are also using webbing and throwing CG weapons in the confined space. Later in the film,
Spidey must dodge rubble and other objects falling from a skyscraper in order to fall fast enough to catch a damsel in distress. The camera follows the hero as he uses his webbing to gain momentum past the rapidly descending litter and concrete.
The only prominent examples of CG objects in the environment of The Matrix come from the bullets and trails in slow motion, not only in the “bullet time” events of
Neo falling backward and he and Agent Smith dueling, but also when Neo truly becomes
“the One” and stops bullets through willpower. The slow motion bullets combined with the CG trails left behind create the immersive effect similar to 3D.
In The Two Towers, rocks fall around Gandalf and the Balrog as they fall into the abyss beneath the Mines of Moria. Later, in Osgiliath, catapulted rocks fall around the human forces. Arrows also fly past the camera, shot by both good and evil armies, engulfing it in moments of darkness in multiple shots during the battle of Helm‟s Deep.
Shots of Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring contain falling leaves, some of which are CGI, as well as CG birds in the background and sky. The film utilizes similar bird effects later when Saruman‟s blackbird spies flock over the Fellowship. When reporting back to their master, the camera follows the birds, as though part of the group, from outside Isengard down through the tunnels of Saruman‟s factories. Birds also appear, 44 with the assistance of computers, in a later shot in front of gargantuan statues of two kings of old, as well as the establishing shot of Minas Tirith in The Return of the King, in order to add a reference of scale between Pippin and Gandalf and the city.
Lighting also plays a pivotal role in immersing the audience in the diegetic environment. With skillfully created lighting effects, the film simultaneously adds realism to the imagined setting and enhances the viewer‟s sense of actually being there.
The mountainside city of Minas Tirith receives a number of high angle shots, some of which feature rays of sunlight reflected brightly by its completely white architecture. On the Star Wars planet of Coruscant, any realism the flying traffic and countless skyscrapers possess becomes enhanced by CG sunlight and resulting shadows. The city planet‟s lighting in Attack of the Clones receives a Blade Runner-like69 neon treatment as the Jedi pursue a bounty hunter into the seedier neighborhoods. Lens flare effects also appear at sunset and in passing vehicles‟ headlights, making it seem more like the camera was actually filming in this fantasy world. These also occur when Anakin rides a speeder bike across the desert to save his mother, when Spider-Man swings past the New York sunset at the end of both Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, and in the iconic “bullet time” shot of Trinity jumping into the air to kick an attacking police officer in The Matrix.
Along with lighting, it should at least be mentioned that general realism in the details of the CG set pieces also further the potential for the spectator‟s immersion in these films. Whether urban, forest, cave, or otherwise, these films pay special attention in all shots which feature a CG background or setting.
69 Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1982. 45
Riding in the Pod, Seeing the Code: P.O.V. Sequences
Another immersive aspect of these films stems from their ability to place the audience in the shoes of onscreen subjects (a character or any other entity capable of looking). In doing this, the film immerses the spectator not just in the environment but locates them within the imaginary three-dimensional diegetic space through identification. These films utilize numerous direct and semi-subjective point of view shots, as well as appropriately erratic camera movement, but a few specific instances work with CGI to enhance the sense of the viewer “being there” in the diegetic environment and action.
The most direct, first-person point of view shot allows the spectator to see, with the camera as an intermediary, what the subject sees. While some of the direct point of view shots include gimmicky CG objects flying at the camera, the viewer nevertheless remains in the character‟s position within the diegetic world, leaving room to be immersed in the action. The senate chamber duel between Yoda and the emperor in
Episode III exemplifies this, as the camera sees Yoda‟s perspective of CG senate seats being thrown at him with the Force. Another example occurs during the Episode I podrace when a racer screams in a medium shot, the camera cuts to his view, and the audience sees a stalactite getting rapidly nearer until fire engulfs the entirety of the frame.
Direct point of view shots do not necessarily require gimmicky elements to create an expectation for 3D. Elsewhere in Episode I, the audience sees from the Jedi knights‟ perspective as they follow Jar Jar Binks to the underwater Gungan city. Jar Jar leads the viewer by swimming a few feet ahead of the camera. The flying car chase on Coruscant 46 in Episode II features a handful of direct point of view shots for Anakin and Obi-Wan as other vehicles narrowly miss the camera in their cockpit. A spinning direct point of view shot takes place during the opening space battle of Episode III. In order to force two heat-seeking missiles to collide with one another, Anakin takes his ship into a barrel roll.
Here the camera takes the point of view of R2D2, looking back at the missiles as the ship spins.
Probably the most memorable and intense point of view sequence in the Star
Wars prequels occurs in Episode I: the podrace. While this intense action scene makes frequent cuts to non-point of view shots, it relies heavily on young Anakin‟s perspective as he pilots the craft. The point of view setup begins around the same time as the race itself, as Anakin‟s perspective first appears when he starts the twin engines. Once the race officially starts, the machines‟ fast pace becomes immediately apparent. Anakin proceeds to speed through canyons, under stone archways, and through caverns. This fast-paced environment moving past Anakin‟s viewpoint could conceivably be considered gimmicky due to its velocity along the depth axis, but the camera, Anakin, and the audience never seem to be in danger of actually hitting anything head on; it all passes along the side of the vehicle, thanks to Anakin‟s skill. The sequence utilizes multiple shot-reverse-shots to remind us of whose perspective this is, sometimes cutting between Anakin and his viewpoint many times every few seconds. The only other drivers whose point of view we see are the previously mentioned one who crashes into a stalactite and Sebulba, the primary antagonist of the podrace sequence. At the scene‟s 47 climax, a shot-reverse-shot gives us Sebulba‟s perspective as he tilts his podracer sideways in order to fit through a vertical gap at the end of a canyon.
Some other direct point of view shots in non-Star Wars films include less standard shot-reverse-shots in diegetic space. One features a unique way of seeing the computer world of The Matrix when Neo finally becomes “the One” and the camera shows his perspective which reveals the computer code which makes up this virtual world, with visible green characters shimmering along every surface including the villainous “Agents” themselves. In The Two Towers, Gandalf‟s flashback story after battling the Balrog includes another unusual point of view: that of a character dying. The point of view actually appears to come from inside the character‟s eye as he lies on the ground lifeless. White light emanates from his pupil to transition to the camera shooting forward through colorful stars and cosmos, apparently toward the afterlife.
Another point of view element which plays a key role in the podrace sequence derives from camera movement. Erratic camera movement, like a handheld shaky cam, augments the chaotic nature of the race and mirrors the jerky motions of the vehicle.
This same effect makes similar appearances in films like Saving Private Ryan,70 where the famous Omaha Beach sequence utilizes a handheld camera in tandem with CG whizzing bullets and explosions in the sand to immerse the audience and create the realistic sense of being an American soldier during that battle. Within the Star Wars prequels, this effect also occurs during the flying car chase in Episode II, the long take of the opening space battle in Episode III, and a scene in which Obi-Wan chases the evil
General Grievous on an escape vehicle later in the same film. Erratic camera motion also
70 Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Paramount Pictures, 1998. 48 serves a purpose in effects shots in Spider-Man, often during the tracking shots of the hero web-swinging. In The Return of the King, a notable use of the effect appears in a tracking shot when the horsemen of Rohan ride into the battle of Minas Tirith. The camera mimics the irregular movement of the horses as they stampede into the horde of orc soldiers.
These previous few examples of erratic camera movement also represent a different form of point of view shot. To similar effect, these films also utilize semi- subjective shots such as over-the-shoulder framing, wherein the audience can see the subject‟s line of sight and the object of interest within the same shot. Instead of placing the spectator directly in the character‟s shoes, these shots allow a bit of distance, show the subject looking in one less shot, and still create the potential sense for the viewer of being in that situation with the character. Some more shots in Star Wars which involve this setup include: a laser turret destroying a docked ship from the point of view of the crew in the cockpit in Episode I and, during the enormous clone battle at the end of
Episode II, a shot from the perspective of clone soldiers in their dropship flying over the chaotic battle below, as well as a shot which follows a CG missile from its launcher to its distant target. The Fellowship of the Ring features memorable semi-subjective shots when the camera follows Saruman‟s blackbird spies in flight and an arrow fired by
Legolas across a chasm into an orc‟s head. Another shot follows several arrows in a volley shot during the battle of Helm‟s Deep at the end of The Two Towers. Also in that film, a shot follows a group of orcs at the top of an extremely tall ladder as they fall a long distance into the mass of soldiers below. Elsewhere, the camera trails behind the 49 heroes of Helm‟s Deep as their horses drive down a causeway and similarly tracks a hooded Ringwraith as it flies high above the city of Osgiliath. In some comparable but more complicated shots in The Return of the King, the film presents a ride-along point of view as multiple Ringwraiths grab soldiers, carry them into the sky, and blindly fling them into the city and battlefield. Earlier in the film, an over-the-shoulder shot tracks around a soldier in Osgiliath as he screams and witnesses his comrades being tossed to their deaths on the ground around him by the same creatures. Akin to the falling ladder shot of the previous film, the camera follows a stone catapulted by the humans from its point of launch, through its hang time above the battle, to its inevitable squash of a group of orcs outside the city walls. As the orcs counterattack with their own catapults, another semi-subjective shot places the camera on top of the outer wall with the archers as orc- launched rocks fly in toward the audience. An over-the-shoulder shot in the midst of the battle brings the viewer under the legs of a massive war elephant as the camera follows a horseman racing beneath the beast. The shot alludes to and improves upon the CGI of a similar construction from The Lost World: Jurassic Park71 in which the camera tracks a motorcycle-riding dinosaur hunter through the legs of a fleeing brachiosaurus. A couple more tracking semi-subjective shots in the third Lord of the Rings film include that of an orc falling out and down the long side of a tower and the climactic shot which follows
Gollum and the ring fall into the lava of Mount Doom.
Like the direct perspective of Neo seeing the code in The Matrix, other, more difficult to classify, interesting point of view shots exist in these films. For instance, whenever Frodo places the ring on his finger, the spectator sees a CG alternate reality
71 The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal Pictures, 1997. 50 where Sauron‟s eye is ever-present and black hooded Ringwraiths appear as mere old men in white cloaks. The sky and much of the background which exist in the shots before Frodo wears the ring disappear in his point of view. The audience sees Frodo but can also see the grey, wavy, and uneasy world he suddenly sees. Another interesting point of view shot occurs in the first Spider-Man film. While the film features more standard semi-subjective shots such as the one following the Green Goblin flying through parade balloons or the standard tracking shots of Spidey swinging, one particular shot exhibits a different kind of semi-subjectivity. When Peter Parker first begins to get the hang of his newfound powers, a misunderstanding causes the school bully to attack him.
At this point, the film attempts to illustrate a concept quite famous in comic book and popular culture: his “spider sense.” Time in Peter‟s world appears to stop as the camera moves away from him. Without showing Peter looking around, the time in the film world slows down as the camera pulls away from his sudden look of alertness and, without the appearance of cutting away, proceeds to move around the students in the hallway, focusing in on three different objects mid-flight: a paper airplane, a fly, and a spitball. The camera keeps moving back to Peter‟s head just as the bully‟s fist launches toward him. Without showing the character “looking” and without almost any time within the story passing, this CG-heavy shot gives the audience an idea of how Spider-
Man‟s advanced warning system works from his point of view.
51
The Dynamic Camera: Navigating CGI Environments
Computer-enhanced filmmaking brought one of the most important developments in terms of 2D films feeling 3D: advanced dynamic cinematography. Filmmakers have been able to utilize a moving camera since the first few years of motion pictures, whether by rotating the camera on its tripod or by placing the camera on a crane, car, train, or later, in a plane or helicopter. This allows the audience, by way of the camera, to move through the diegetic space without cutting to a new shot. With integrated CGI combining photorealistic rendered characters and settings with a variety of real actors and sets, the resulting freedom permits filmmakers to move through virtually any environment in any direction, speed, and duration they wish. These particular films often utilize shots which perform movements which would normally be either difficult or impossible without CGI, and also potentially bring forth the expectation for 3D by either immersing the audience through movement in the diegetic space or by unique shots of objects traveling through the film‟s world.
These films frequently exhibit the possible results of combining CGI and dynamic cinematography to create otherwise almost unfilmable shots, many of which involve extreme speed in movement through space. Some, like the opening off-world space battle of Episode III, simply appear to last an incredibly long time with regards to the series of multiple movements in different directions the camera makes. This long take treats the camera as though it were yet another spaceship pursuing the main characters through their sweeping, weaving dogfight. Of the shots utilizing fast speeds through diegetic space, a majority also track an onscreen object or character, especially in The 52
Lord of the Rings series. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the camera follows Gandalf as he is thrust upward into the ceiling of Saruman‟s tower. Later, the camera begins outside the tower and flies up to the top while tracking a moth. Following a mass of subjects, another shot moves with an evil flock of blackbird spies as they fly into and through the tunnels of Isengard. The Two Towers features more of these types of shots when Gandalf falls through the bowels of the mountain with the Balrog and during the battle of Helm‟s
Deep, when the camera remains with the orcs on top of a towering ladder as it falls into the horde of soldiers below. A similar shot follows a Gondorian catapult‟s launched stone all the way to its inevitable squash onto orc soldiers in The Return of the King.
Like a reverse of Gandalf flying into the ceiling, a later shot in the film tracks an orc as it falls along the outside wall of a tall tower. Yet another falling shot follows Gollum descending to his fiery death in Mount Doom‟s lava. Each of these shots not only performs a difficult feat of movement had they been done without CGI, but also brings the audience into the space of the film through their orientation of the viewer and swift maneuvering within the film‟s world.
Other shots still utilize rapid motion but do not necessarily track a subject, such as those found in Spider-Man 2. During a bank robbery scene, the camera quickly slithers along one of Doctor Octopus‟ tentacles as it grabs Aunt May. In a pseudo-“spider sense” shot, the camera pulls away from Peter‟s shocked face, pans right, and launches down hundreds of yards of train track almost instantly to reveal the cause of his worry: the predictable end of the track toward which the train is speeding. Similar to the tracking shots of Lord of the Rings characters falling, a shot in The Return of the King follows the 53
Witch King‟s gaze from the top of his castle: the camera tilts and shoots down toward the front gates from which the orc army emerges. Another shot in The Fellowship of the
Ring includes a similar movement down the side of Saruman‟s tower, but instead of stopping, continues through a hole in the ground into the underground orc factories, closely past catwalks, and finally ends on a close-up of a sword being forged. This shot illustrates another aspect of difficulty normally involved with shots like this, but not with these as they utilize CGI: the camera narrowly misses or moves through obstacles.
Coming rather close to “gimmicky” 3D, the following shots involve the camera
(or what would be the camera in a live-action setting) passing objects in one direction, much like the previously discussed examples, or moving the camera around the subject in multiple directions. Throughout the flying car chase sequence of Attack of the Clones, the camera narrowly misses numerous vehicles and, at one point, follows Anakin as he falls through multiple levels of traffic, narrowly missing the objects just as he does. Later in the film, the camera, like Obi-Wan‟s starship, weaves through an asteroid field. Shots illustrate the chaotic and precarious situation by barely missing the giant rocks as they come from out of frame, one of them following Obi-Wan through the center tunnel of an asteroid. In one shot of The Return of the King, the camera moves hundreds of yards in seconds and enters a small tower window where Frodo sleeps. A practical reversal of this shot occurs later when the camera pulls away from a close-up of Gollum‟s eye, actually appears to pass through the center of the eponymous ring while he gazes at it, and continues to track backward a good distance more. Another normally difficult backward- moving shot appears in the first Spider-Man as the hero swings toward the camera under 54 the support beams of the Queensboro Bridge. The camera simultaneously tracks Spidey backward while avoiding the numerous struts and cables the subject swings through. In
The Two Towers, the camera pulls away from Saruman‟s upper floor balcony downward and among his orc troops, closely brushing past a multitude of upward-pointing spears, until it surrounds itself with weapons and soldiers. The final shot of the film mimics a crane shot upward hundreds of feet through trees to reveal the long way yet to Mordor.
In Spider-Man 3, both Spider-Man and the camera dodge descending chunks of concrete and other objects as they race to catch up with a falling woman.
This shot also utilizes a full 360-degree motion around Spider-Man, demonstrating a difficult shot type if not for the aid of CGI. Michael Bay‟s films are notorious for using numerous inward-facing circular pans (Bad Boys II,72 Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen73), but these shots are often made possible by a dolly and circular track. A handful of shots in the Spider-Man series perform the same motion without the benefit of a track, thanks to CGI. The camera in these shots follows Spidey as he swings through the city, circling him while simultaneously appearing to keep up with his speed and changes in trajectory between buildings. The first two films‟ ending shots exemplify this technique as they merge real city skycam shots with computers, along with a CG
Spider-Man and, in the second film, some helicopters as well.
The Lord of the Rings films contain no shortage of circular and complicated shots supported by CGI. They include nearly 360-degree shots like those in Spider-Man when showing the tower fortresses of the villains, as well as the homes of humans such as the
72 Bad Boys II. Dir. Michael Bay. Columbia Pictures, 2003. 73 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Dir. Michael Bay. Paramount Pictures, 2009. 55 plateau-top city of Edoras. Another shot type, in between a circular pan and a standard pan, runs rampant throughout the series but also happens to enhance the sense of depth in the films. In order to further express the epic scale of the source material, Jackson uses a surplus of grand, sweeping pans and tracking shots which travel diagonally at times, on a somewhat circular path at others, while also craning to different heights. This technique appears within the first few minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring as a historical battle takes place long before Frodo‟s story begins. During this battle between men and elves and the evil orcs, the camera moves very closely along a cliff of archers, then continues forward while swooping down over the collision between infantries. This scene sets the tone for the major battles throughout the trilogy, as the sweeping pans often appear during large-scale fight sequences. Two exceptions occur in The Two Towers where a sweeping pan depicts the emergence of the ents from the forest, while another one moves among the tall tree creatures as they march toward Saruman‟s tower. Sweeping pans have their first battle-related appearance later in that film during the battle of Helm‟s
Deep. Throughout the battle scene, sweeping pans take the form of aerial shots, soaring over both good and evil armies. The technique acts as a transition between two locations within the conflict through an extreme long shot which moves from the main fortress wall to the causeway leading to the front gate. This performs the duty of a double establishing shot as it gives the audience geographic references between different places of action, shows their relation, and draws attention where needed. It occurs again after the orc army causes the defensive wall to explode; the camera moves from the king‟s position, following his order to retreat, and swoops down toward Aragorn, the recipient of the 56 order, as he fights in the ruins of the wall. The conflict finally ends when Gandalf leads a massive cavalry down the mountainside into the remaining orc troops. This climactic scene features a few sweeping angle shots within a short time as the camera appears to fly over both forces and from the side before the violent collision.
The Return of the King includes a couple of sans-violence sweeping pans before the major battle of the film. As Gandalf rides to the top of the city of Minas Tirith near the beginning of the film, multiple extreme long shot sweeping pans follow his movements through the streets along the side of the mountain. Another high angle sweeping pan occurs when Pippin climbs the flammable alert beacon tower at the top of the city. The shot twists in a circular motion to reveal the long way down should the hobbit fall. Later in the film, as the CGI-heavy battle of Minas Tirith begins, the vast majority of sweeping pans take place. The camera mimics the motion of the
Ringwraiths‟ flying dragons as both it and the creatures swoop down over the fighting factions. Another shot flies out and descends over the battle but begins high up in the city. Two sweeping pans act as transitions between instances of narrative action, much like those used in The Two Towers. The camera, once again high up in the city, pans left, away from the battle far below, and moves sideways toward the smaller-scale conflict taking place in the palace. This conflict‟s sequence culminates with another swift camera motion which pulls away from the minor antagonist‟s long death fall until the frame once again includes the major battle at the city walls. At different points in the battle, which constitutes a major portion of the film‟s duration, sweeping pans soar over and around the city, the orc army, a cavalry charge, and giant war elephants. One camera movement 57 depicts a high angle of a platoon of orc troops attempting to break down an inner city gate in a long shot and ends with a dragon flying through the foreground. As the protagonists finally gain the upper hand, their recruited army of flying green ghost soldiers swiftly covers the city, clearing it of all orcs, while the camera follows their movement up the mountainside and through the city streets. Many more sweeping pans abound throughout the main battle sequences of this series, enhancing the senses of depth and vastness to the film.
Another groundbreaking example of dynamic cinematography utilizes CGI to augment the feeling of moving through a three-dimensional diegetic world. The “bullet time” sequences in The Matrix create the illusion of stopping time (or close to it) and moving the camera around the subject mid-motion. Achieved by taking multiple still photographs in a single moment, the effect uses computers to interpolate the images taken by the many still cameras mounted along a green screen wall. CGI creates the background in the green screen, removes any visible cameras, and adds any desired effects such as bullet trails. The end product immerses the audience in the virtual fantasy environment of the matrix and allows the “camera” to move through multiple axes of the diegetic world in milliseconds. Four shots utilize the effect throughout the film, each one taking place within the matrix program itself. In the first instance, Trinity jumps into the air before kicking a police officer in the face, with time freezing mid-jump, her arms outstretched like wings and her legs curled beneath her as the camera circles the two characters. Another shot enters extreme slow motion and moves along the outside wall of a room as Morpheus attempts to escape. Water on the ground and sprinkling down 58 from the emergency fire system fills much of the space as an enemy‟s bullet travels toward Morpheus‟ ankle. The camera closes in on his leg and the shot ends just as the bullet passes through, leaving a slow motion blood mist in its wake. Near the end of the film, Neo and Agent Smith collide in midair for the last chronological bullet time shot in the film. Just as in the other shots, the camera appears to spin around the characters, changing in height as it moves through CG bullet trails. Possibly the most iconic image of the film occurs during a bullet time sequence when Neo falls backward in order to dodge an enemy agent‟s bullets. The camera moves an entire 360 degrees around Neo and the bullet trails while simultaneously slowing diegetic time.
Trinity‟s jumping kick has been parodied in numerous films, such as Scary
Movie,74 and influenced the action sequences of films like 300.75 Neo‟s bullet-dodging also spawned multiple copycats in the ensuing years, including Spider-Man, such as when Spider-Man dodges the Green Goblin‟s thrown blades in slow motion. In the previously discussed “Spider-sense” scene in that same film, time seems to stand still during the shot as the camera moves around people, a paper airplane, a fly, and a spitball.
In a way, this shot attempts to mimic and improve on bullet time, just as many commercials and other films have done since. Just as the legacy of these shots continues, so does that of all of these films‟ memorable CGI-laden shots
74 Scary Movie. Dir. Keenen Ivory Wayans. Dimension Films, 2000. 75 300. Dir. Zack Snyder. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2007. 59
CONCLUSION
The history of 3D cinema involves a handful of dwindlings and resurgences, developments and complications. Its present state results from innumerable changes in technology, cinematic style, and consumer culture over the last century. This recent comeback in the last decade stems from multiple causes relating to each of these factors, but one not often discussed ties to CGI and the two-dimensional blockbusters in the years prior to this reappearance.
At the turn of the century, films like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Spider-
Man, and The Matrix inundated mainstream cinema audiences with more realistic CGI than ever before which also created a formal expectation for 3D‟s resurgence. Through drastic movement along the depth axis and objects flying toward the camera, these films, though two-dimensional, recreate everything required of “gimmicky” 3D except for the glasses and the illusion of stereopsis. In contrast, the realistic rendering and detail of fantasy CGI environments, along with foregrounded natural elements, creates an effect close to the immersive 3D diegetic worlds of films like Avatar. To further immerse the audience within the film‟s environment, with the assistance of CGI, some of the previously discussed scenes place the viewer in the shoes of a character, allowing them to experience the unfolding eye-catching effects from an in-world point of view. Dynamic cinematography also plays a vital role in calling for future 3D as its computer-aided movements travel in previously impossible or difficult trajectories, sometimes shifting the camera through items as small as a ring, to take the spectator through the film‟s world at every conceivable angle and velocity. Some of these previously mentioned shots act as 60 evidence for more than one of these “almost 3D” arguments, just as the films themselves do, combining to create an immersive CGI-heavy experience that powerfully manifests an expectation, perhaps even craving, for 3D.
Aside from the 3D resurgence, other results of that desire for 3D continue to surface. The gimmicky, immersive, point-of-view, and dynamic cinematography techniques combined with CGI and utilized in these films continues to appear in today‟s
3D blockbusters such as Transformers: Dark of the Moon76 and Pirates of the Caribbean:
On Stranger Tides.77 Also, reemerging in different ways, these films acquire a new 3D format, the kind for which they have called for so long. The Star Wars saga, all six films, releases in theaters soon with a post-converted 3D look, beginning with, appropriately for both the story and for 3D, Episode I, the trailer for which predictably emphasizes the podrace sequence. The Amazing Spider-Man78 reboots the Spider-Man series merely five years after the most recent installment with a new take on the story as well as 3D showings in theaters. The film‟s trailer features a CG multiple rooftop environment through which a first-person point-of-view Spider-Man navigates and, at one point, looks down the long distance to the streets below. While production company discussions surround a rerelease of The Lord of the Rings in 3D, The Hobbit,79 the series‟ prequel, will release as two separate films, both filmed once again by Jackson, but this time in 3D.
While, at this point, the future of 3D in Hollywood films remains up for debate, these films will remain a part of mainstream cinematic history. Their technological
76 Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Dir. Michael Bay. Paramount Pictures, 2011. 77 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Dir. Rob Marshall. Walt Disney Pictures, 2011. 78 The Amazing Spider-Man. Dir. Marc Webb. Columbia Pictures, 2012. 79 The Hobbit. Dir. Peter Jackson. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2012. 61 innovations and formal legacies will continue to inspire or manifest in one form or another, just as past incarnations of groundbreaking films have for the last hundred years.
62
WORKS CITED
300. Dir. Zack Snyder. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2007.
"Academy Awards Database." Web. 12 Aug. 2011.
8499874087>. The Amazing Spider-Man. Dir. Marc Webb. Columbia Pictures, 2012. Apollo 13. Dir. Ron Howard. Universal Pictures, 1995. "Avatar (2009)." Box Office Mojo. Web. 15 May 2011. Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. 20th Century Fox, 2009. Bad Boys II. Dir. Michael Bay. Columbia Pictures, 2003. Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991. Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1982. Chicken Little. Dir. Mark Dindal. Walt Disney Pictures, 2005. Clash of the Titans. Dir. Louis Leterrier. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2010. The Dark Knight. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2008. The Day After Tomorrow. Dir. Roland Emmerich. 20th Century Fox, 2004. Fleming, Mike. "Michael Bay and James Cameron Skeptical of 3D Conversions: 'The Jury Is Out'" Deadline.com. 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 May 2011. conversions-the-jury-is-out/>. Friday the 13th Part III. Dir. Steve Miner. Paramount Pictures, 1982. 63 Ghosts of the Abyss. Dir. James Cameron. Walt Disney Pictures, 2003. Happy Feet. Dir. George Miller, Warren Coleman, and Judy Morris. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006. Hayes, R. M. 3-D Movies: a History and Filmography of Stereoscopic Cinema. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1989. Print. Heffernan, Kevin. Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953-1968. Durham: Duke UP, 2004. Print. The Hobbit. Dir. Peter Jackson. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2012. House of Wax. Dir. André De Toth. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1953. I, Robot. Dir. Alex Proyas. 20th Century Fox, 2004. Into the Deep. Dir. Howard Hall. IMAX, 1994. King Kong. Dir. Peter Jackson. Universal Pictures, 2005. The Last Airbender. Dir. M. Night Shyamalan. Paramount Pictures, 2010. Lipton, Lenny. Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema: a Study in Depth. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982. Print. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2001. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2003. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Dir. Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2002. The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Universal Pictures, 1997. 64 "Massive Software - Film." Massive Software - Simulating Life. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999. Monsters vs. Aliens. Dir. Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman. Paramount Pictures, 2009. "Movie Franchises and Brands Index." Box Office Mojo. Web. 12 Aug. 2011. The Mummy. Dir. Stephen Sommers. Universal Pictures, 1999. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Dir. Rob Cohen. Universal Pictures, 2008. "NBA All-Star Saturday Night to Be Broadcast in Live 3D HD." NBA.com. 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. The Nightmare Before Christmas. Dir. Henry Selick. Walt Disney Pictures, 1993. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Dir. Rob Marshall. Walt Disney Pictures, 2011. Rabinovitz, Lauren. "More than the Movies: A History of Somatic Visual Culture Through Hale's Tours, Imax, and Motion Simulation Rides." Memory Bytes: History, Technology, and Digital Culture. Ed. Lauren Rabinovitz and Abraham Geil. Durham: Duke UP, 2004. 99-125. Print. Reynolds, Simon. "Cameron: 'I'm Conservative with 3-D'" Digital Spy. 7 Aug. 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. im-conservative-with-3-d.html>. Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Paramount Pictures, 1998. 65 Scary Movie. Dir. Keenen Ivory Wayans. Dimension Films, 2000. Spider-Man 2. Dir. Sam Raimi. Columbia Pictures, 2004. Spider-Man 3. Dir. Sam Raimi. Columbia Pictures, 2007. Spider-Man. Dir. Sam Raimi. Columbia Pictures, 2002. Star Wars. Dir. George Lucas. 20th Century Fox, 1977. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Dir. George Lucas. 20th Century Fox, 1999. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Dir. George Lucas. 20th Century Fox, 2002. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Dir. George Lucas. 20th Century Fox, 2005. Sunhee, Han. "'Avatar' Goes 4D in Korea." Variety. 5 Feb. 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2011. Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Dir. James Cameron. TriStar Pictures, 1991. Titanic. Dir. James Cameron. Paramount Pictures, 1997. Toy Story 2. Dir. John Lasseter. Walt Disney Pictures, 1999. Toy Story 3. Dir. Lee Unkrich. Walt Disney Pictures, 2010. Toy Story. Dir. John Lasseter. Walt Disney Pictures, 1995. Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Dir. Michael Bay. Paramount Pictures, 2011. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Dir. Michael Bay. Paramount Pictures, 2009. Vantage Point. Dir. Pete Travis. Columbia Pictures, 2008. Verrier, Richard. "3-D Technology Firm RealD Has Starring Role at Movie Theaters." Los Angeles Times. 26 Mar. 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. Zone, Ray. 3-D Filmmakers: Conversations with Creators of Stereoscopic Motion Pictures. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2005. Print. Zone, Ray. Stereoscopic Cinema & the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838-1952. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky, 2007. Print. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Thesis and Dissertation Services ! !