Traditional and Digital Cinematography

Transition from Traditional Cinematography to Digital Cinematography By Antonio Aranda Eggermont

Advances in cinematography during the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced filmmaking's original emphasis, as a medium, on naturalism and the production ofrecords ofreality . However, after the introduction of computer systems and software programs, the aim of bringing realism on the screen by recording reality and naturalism has been changed. Increasingly, films are no longer based on reality. A film is not simply a random batch of ideas without any connection 1 between them. Like all mediums of artwork , film also has a form. "By film form we refer to the 2 overall system of relations that people perceive among the elements in the whole film. " Films tell us stories and stories are narratives that are considered the fundamental means by which people make sense of their experiences in life. "A narrative is a chain of events in cause-effect 3 relationship occurring in time and space. " In most cases a narrative begins with one situation, then a series of changes take place according to a pattern of cause and effect, and finally, a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. Filmmaking provides us with a medium to visualize narratives and deliver ideas and stories to audiences. However, film form and narrative development using film as a medium has depended on the techniques and technology available at a given time. Recent developments in technology have profoundly altered the narratives and stories that are now in film. The digital technological revolution has enabled the emergence of a new cinematic style that stresses visual illusionism in place of realism and in doing so has redefined traditional filmmaking.

a. Realism as a Historical Focus and the Shift to Illusionism

Visual effects have been used since the beginning of the entertainment industry but whereas previously they were used to support realism, recent developments in technology have been used to support visual illusionism. The techniques that were used to support realism have been replaced by the use of computers which allow for a cinematic style that stresses illusionism.

1. Early Cinematic Techniques in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century

During the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, a number of cinematic techniques such as in-camera effects, miniature sets, and optical printing were developed to modify the basic record obtained by film cameras. But yet behind even the most stylized cinematic images, we can discern the bluntness, sterility, and banality of early twenty-century films. Regardless of the complexity of stylistic innovations applied to pictures, early pieces of cinematography were deposits of reality and naturalism. The principal purpose at the very origin of the cinema was to record reality and naturalism. In the following paragraphs I will describe and discuss some of the

Advances in cinematography during the 19th and 20th centuries reinforced filmmaking 's original emphasis, as a medium, on naturalism and the production of records of reality. However, after the introduction of computer systems and software programs, the aim of bringing realism on the screen by recording reality and naturalism has been changed. Increasingly, films are no longer based on reality. A film is not simply a random batch of ideas without any connection 1 between them. Like all mediums of artwork , film also has a form. "By film form we refer to the 2 overall system of relations that people perceive among the elements in the whole film. " Films tell us stories and stories are narratives that are considered the fundamental means by which people make sense of their experiences in life. "A narrative is a chain of events in cause-effect 3 relationship occurring in time and space. " In most cases a narrative begins with one situation, then a series of changes take place according to a pattern of cause and effect, and finally, a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. Filmmaking provides us with a medium to visualize narratives and deliver ideas and stories to audiences. However, film form and narrative development using film as a medium has depended on the techniques and technology available at a given time. Recent developments in technology have profoundly altered the narratives and stories that are now in film. The digital technological revolution has enabled the emergence of a new cinematic style that stresses visual illusionism in place of realism and in doing so has redefined traditional filmmaking.

a. Realism as a Historical Focus and the Shift to Illusionism

1. Early Cinematic Techniques in the Late 19th Centuzy and Early 20th Centuzy

1 Artworks are human artifacts and because artists live in history and society, we cannot avoid relating the work, in some way, to other works and to aspects of the world in general. Certain traditions , styles, and forms, will be common to several artworks. These common trails are called conventions. The body of conventions constitutes the norms of what is considered appropriate or expected in a particular tradition. When obeying or violating norms, artist relate their works to other works. 2 Film Art. An Introduction by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Pp 49. 3 Film Art An Introduction by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Pp 69. most relevant cinematic techniques developed in the 20th century, which successfully established visual conventions for storytelling that we still use today. One of the earlist films that captured realism and naturalism is Train Arriving at a Station by Auguste and Louis Lumiere.4 This film was reputed to have caused alarm when the locomotive in the film seemed to steam out of the screen towards the audience. G.R. Baker wrote in a newspaper: "The train is seen approaching, and gradually gets nearer and larger until the engine passes where we are apparently standing, and the train stops, the guard comes along, 5 passengers get out and in, and all is real! " The Lumiere brothers succeeded in capturing the public imagination since this film produced an exceptionally level of reality and naturalism using primitive cinematic techniques. The audience's reaction to this type of cinematic effect was the grounds for subsequent advances in photography and filmmaking. It became clear that audiences were interested in seeing images that were out of the ordinary but still preserved naturalism and realistically stylized cinematic techniques. However, these early audiences also demanded that cinematic pieces tell a story, rather than only showing one-shot wonders of a given event, such as a simple train arriving a station. The only way to meet audience demands was to produce films that told stories through narratives using naturalistic and realistic cinematic techniques. Shortly after Train Arriving at a Station, the use of narratives to tell stories had started in filmmaking. Even in the late 1800s, there was not an organized methodology in the world of cinema to make a film. However, as the film industry continued to evolve at the beginning of the 20th Century, artistic pioneers developed the art of filmmaking by creating and revolutionizing cinematic techniques. One of the most notable pioneers is David Wark Griffith. 6 Griffith introduced significant photographic effects for storytelling, such as the command of editing, camera movement, shot composition and lighting. Griffith employed transitions between shots for the editing of scenes, such as the fade-in and fade-out, which were used to visualize the lapse of time between scenes. He achieved this effect during photography by opening and closing the camera aperture diaphragm to control the amount of light reaching the film stock. The camera was also moved on the set to capture different perspectives of the scene, rather than positioning it only in one point in space. This aided the narrative development by presenting different point of views and perspectives for storytelling. In addition, Griffith also made use of the iris-in and iris-out technique to deliver dramatic effects. The iris was a simple device that fitted in front of the camera's lens and could be opened or closed to progressively reveal or conceal areas of the frame. He used the device to draw audience members' attention to the center of the drama or to reveal previously hidden elements of a scene. Another pioneer in visual effects was Norman 0. Dawn. 7 Dawn introduced the glass shot. 8 With the employment of the glass shot, scenery could be altered or extended on film by the use of highly detailed paintings. This technique was typically used to add height to studio sets that were only one or two stories high. With the glass shot technique, the upper levels of a set

4 Auguste and Louis Lumiere devised the Cinematographe, a device that served as camera, film projector and film printer. See appendix A http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere _ bio.html 5 Special Effects: The History and Technique By Richard Rickitt pp 10. 6 Special Effects: The History and Technique By Richard Rickitt pp 16. 7 Special Effects: The History and Technique By Richard Rickitt pp 17. 8 The glass shot. See Apendix B

') were added by painting them on a sheet of glass positioned in front of the camera. Dawn also later developed the in-camera matte shot, a technique that enabled filmed scenery to be combined with paintings. The cinematic techniques invented prior the 1920s become known as special effects in the film industry. For the first time in the story of cinematography, the term "special effects" was first used in the 1926 Fox film What of Price Glory? This term referred to the physical and mechanical work required to achieve visual effects. In addition, films using animation grew in sophistication and popularity. Some cartoons such as Felix the Cat produced by animator Pat Sullican, even began to compete with the popularity of live-action movie starts. Special effects such as fade-ins and fade-outs, iris closures, multiple exposures, glass shots, and in-camera matte shot proved to be effective devices to support story telling and were well accepted by audiences. Audiences demanded even greater levels of illusionism in films and filmmakers obliged by relying more on these cinematic techniques and by developing even more advanced techniques.

11. More Advanced Techniques: Traveling Mattes, Rear Projection and Motion Control

The traveling matte technique was developed to help filmmakers present the historical setting of a film in a natural and realistic fashion in order to better meet audiences expectations. 9 This technique allowed actors filmed in a studio to be isolated from their surroundings and placed within settings from a different time and place. Although the first results were crude, this new technique enabled a great degree of realism from the audience's perspective. While the technique was first developed prior to the 1920s, it was later developed and refined tremendously. 10 The use of the traveling matte photography continued to be improved and resulted in the development of optical printers. Optical printers enabled the separation of filmed elements involved in traveling matte photography to be conveyed on a film with greater precision and control. The quality was far superior from earlier cinematic techniques employed to produce similar effects. The use of miniatures was also introduced along with traveling mattes in studios. The costs associated with transporting actors and equipment to set locations was greatly reduced with the use of these two techniques. The introduction of the rear projection technology is one of the most important advances in cinematography. Rear projection 11 was a process that enabled filmmakers to film actors in studios while background sceneries were projected onto screens behind them. This now enabled filmmakers to bring ocean and tropical views, city exterior background views, and adventurous views of journeys in trains and cars. Rear projection was also perfected to preserve the visual finesse reached in silent films expected by audiences. Another critical innovation in cinematic techniques is the introduction of motion-control systems in the 1950s. 12 The successful combination of separately filmed elements has traditionally depended on ensuring that there is no movement in any of the cameras used to film the various components. For example, if a model castle, was filmed in one shot, and a full-scale set was filmed in another shot, the two images could only be combined successfully if there was

9Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding 4th edition. See Appendix C 10 11 See Appendix E 12See appendix F absolutely no camera movement in either shot. Even a minimal movement of one element in a composite would cause it to slide against its neighboring image, shattering the illusion of a unified whole. Filmmakers avoided this problem by using static cameras to shoot all the elements that were to be combined in the final sequence. With motion control technology, camera movements can be accurately repeated for each of the shots to be combined with one another. This eliminated the limitation of only using steady shots. The area of special effects became an integral aspect of filmmaking since it proved to be a money-saving tool for filmmakers and provided the ability to create fantastic or seemingly impossible sceneries. However, special effects technicians rarely received any notice from audiences. Filmmakers believed that audiences would feel cheated if they new the real processes involved to make their exceptional pieces of cinematography. It was still their goal to preserve the natural and realistically stylized cinematography demanded by audiences in motion pictures. Filmmakers regarded special effects as something that should be invisible from the audience's perspective in order to better reinforce the concept that the visuals in films were entirely real and unconstructed. These cinematic conventions forced special effects departments to work behind the scenes to perfect rear projections and optical printer techniques to produce even more convincing films. The production of Citizen Kane in 1941 was acclaimed for the great diversity of special effects techniques employed in its production. These techniques included the use of matte paintings, optical printing techniques, and miniature sets. Rear projection, optical printing, matte painting, miniature sets and traveling matte photography were playing key roles in most studio productions and becoming part of the normal film production process. However, the production of special effects still remained as a strictly separated activity in the film making process.

iii. The Introduction of Sound and Color

The introduction of sound to the motion picture at the end of the 1920s set a new direction in terms of audience expectations and created significant challenges for the cinematic techniques of that time. The arrival of sound recording for the motion picture required filming to be done exclusively on location. Microphones were weak in their recording capabilities and this required filmmakers to have full control of the environment and surroundings around their sets. This resulted in the appearance and proliferation of film studios in Hollywood. Exteriors and outdoors sceneries could be filmed almost entirely in film studios. For special effects, this change in film production brought new technical challenges. Films were made exclusively in studios and special effects turned into a specialty area of cinematography, which was in charge of recreating both exotic and everyday locations on set. Color photography was introduced in the 1940s, which created a new technical challenge for filmmakers and new visual expectations from audiences· The introduction of color did not have the same impact as the introduction of sound did. However, special effects techniques in color films suffered from a loss in believability, especially with rear projection and matte painting. In black and white, the painter and photographer only had to worry about matching gray scale tones of painting and live action. In color, however, every color and shade of the painting needed to match exactly those of the original footage after both have been conveyed under different lighting conditions and after the original exposure had been stored undeveloped for some time. For that reason, most films during the 1940s continued were still produced in white and black until the end of this decade when faster film stocks became available. However,

4 the use of sound and color obviously reinforced the style of realism as films could more accurately represent real life, which obviously contains sound and exists in color. Most of the different developments of filmmaking techniques during 19th Century and the early to mid 20th Century focused on the creation of visual effects that introduced a sense of passage of time in narratives while still preserving cinematic naturalism and realism conventions. These techniques were tools that were used to make films more believable. This all changed with the introduction of computers and digital cinematography which have been used to support visual illusionism in filmmaking.

iv. Computers and The Shift to Visual Illusionism

Computers replaced much of the techniques that were developed over the last century. 13 While traditional cinematography must focus around realism, computers enabled visual illusionism in cinematography. While computers can be used to also support realism in cinematography, their invention has largely advanced visual illusionism. Traditional cinematography is focused around realism: it involves using real sets, models, art direction, cameras, lighting, and human characters to arrange the physical reality to be filmed. Occasional manipulation of the recorded film is possible, for instance, by using optical printers to create multiple exposures on a film. Sequences of the film that needed the use of special effects would require the use of expensive mechanical machinery and the expertise of highly qualified engineers and technicians to operate it. Moreover, studios would specialize in the production of one or some of the special effects. Few had the capability to provide the ~- infrastructure to produce all the mechanical special effects techniques. This added huge costs and processing times for filmmakers. However, in digital cinematography, it is possible to extensively manipulate the recorded film by the use of computers. Most of the cinematic techniques created since the invention of cinema such as rear projection, fade-ins, fade-outs, motion control, traveling mattes, etc have been implemented using sophisticated software programs running on powerful computers. In only 16 years since the introduction of computers in the early 1990s, computers have simplified and remarkably improved the production of the special effects that were created in the last century. In addition, most special effects techniques can be produced on a single computer. Editing and special effects are no longer strictly two different activities because the editing of film is highly dependent on the addition of special and visual effects. This new trend in filmmaking dramatically reduces operation and production costs. For the first time in the in the last hundred year history of cinema, directors and cinematographers have the ability to put literally anything that they could imagine on screen using convenient and relatively small devices called computers. While the cinematographer in traditional filmmaking captures records of reality on film stock, digital cinematography extensively manipulates the recorded film. Computers alter cinematic techniques, resulting in a new kind of realism. According to Len Manovich, a Professor in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego, the new cinematic techniques produced on computers produces a new kind of realism, which he describes as "something which looks exactly as it could have happened, although it really could not." 14 This statement illustrates the predominant view now that filmmaking is the creation of a record

13 See Appendix G 14 The Language ofNew Media by Lev Manovich. Pp 301 of reality that looks real but does not exist whereas previously, filmmaking was considered a natural record of reality. Jurassic Park is feature film that is a breakthrough for its use of cinematic techniques for the production of special effects. It also illustrates Len Manovich statement concerning a new kind of realism in digital cinematography. Director Steven Spielberg adapted Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park and made it into a feature film in which full-scale dinosaurs were built using animatronics and then animated using stop-motion animation techniques. Mr. Steven Spielberg's goal was to preserve the focus on naturalism and realisms in traditional cinematography by filming real, full-scale dinosaurs interacting with human characters. However, the technical challenges in creating live dinosaur performances such as the act of running that would be believable for audiences were technically impossible at that time. Director Steven Spielberg was then advised by engineers and artists at Industrial Light and Magic that three dimensional digital recreated dinosaurs would be a better alternative to full scale animatronics and stop-motion animation techniques. 15 Using state-of-the-art computer hardware and software, full-motion three-dimensional animated dinosaurs were created and integrated with live human characters. The success of Jurassic Park resides in the fact that the film achieved naturalism and realism for audiences that traditional filmmaking preserved for a century beforehand. However, in addition, Jurassic Park took digital cinematography to a new level of sophistication. It brought to the screen a reality that looks exactly as it could have happened, although it really did not. Audiences expectations of reality and naturalism in cinematography were changed forever. After the success of Jurassic Park both from a technical perspective and from its popularity among moviegoers, it was clear for filmmakers and producers that digital technology has enhanced the art of filmmaking and the access to computer tools for image manipulation made this possible. Continue computer software development of mechanical cinematic techniques for the production of special effects will gives directors and cinematographers a new perspective in the representation of realism on the screen through digital cinematography. In contrast to Jurassic Park, increasingly more and more films that used computers based special effects, advance visual illusionism as a cinematic style rather than realism. Rather than using special effects to reinforce and support storytelling and narratives, filmmakers increasingly seek to employ ostentatious special effects for the purpose of impressing audiences with visuals that are not intended to bear a resemblance to reality. For example, in the film The Mummy Returns, an action/adventure feature film directed by Steven Sommers, in which mummies come alive, special effects were used in virtually every scene. Unlike Jurassic Park where dinosaurs came alive and were presented as they could have appeared, the mummies in The Mummy Returns bore no resemblance to mummies as they could have appeared. They were seen jumping from buildings, flying, morphing into other animals and humans. While these images were remarkable, they looked artificial and unnatural. The visuals also changed the impressions that audiences had of mummies and Egyptian artifacts, which were based in reality, and replaced them with visual illusions.

b. Traditional Filmmaking Redefined

Traditional filmmaking has been redefined because computers have reengineered the traditional production processes in filmmaking from a practical and conceptual perspective.

15 Special Effects: The History and Technique By-Richard Rickitt pp 172. Digital cinematography has deemphasized live action and has collapsed the normal production process into only two phases.

i. De-emphasis of Live Action

Traditional filmmaking has been redefined because among other things, the production process no longer needs to be centered around the recording of live action. With digital filmmaking, live action is only one material from which films can be constructed. As one of many materials, it can be composed in an innumerable of ways with other materials in virtual environments. Less dependence on live action images allows for greater control in filmmaking with reduced financial cost and need for human resources. Live action can be partially or totally separated from the environment in which it was filmed. Live action that is recorded can be digitized and then incorporated into a different environment that was separately and synthetically generated on a computer system. In the case of live action recorded using digital video, such as high definition, the recording is already in digital format. Computers do not distinguish between images that were obtained from a camera filming reality and synthetic images created solely using a computer. Therefore, live action recording becomes only one of many forms of materials at the disposal of a filmmaker. Furthermore, sequences of images originated using live action can be integrated, blended, and composed with synthetically generated images. With live action images recorded using traditional filmmaking, filmmakers are constrained in a two dimensional space. Even with the technique of traveling mattes, which superimposes live action over backgrounds, filmmakers are nonetheless constrained to work with two dimensional compositions. The live action element that was pulled from the film stock, as a traveling matte, can be placed in a different background but the entire composition can only be arranged in a two dimensional composition. In contrast, with digital cinematography, live action images that were recorded against green or blue screens can be pulled as "live action image plates" and these be placed into three dimensional virtual environments. In this three dimensional space, the live action images can be arranged in a three dimensional world and arranged with computer generated elements, such as backgrounds, virtual props, virtual lighting, and even characters. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a feature film in which live action characters are placed within animated environments and also in which animated characters are placed in live action environments. It was created entirely manually, and without the use of computers, so three film negatives were needed for every frame: the first for the live action, the second for the animation, and a third, which was a mix of the two and the final negative. While Who Framed Roger Rabbit? mixed live action with animation, because it did not use computers, every single frame had to be mixed manually using optical printers and the animators had to produce the animation with perfect proportions that centered on the live action. As every single frame was created manually without the use of any automation, 16 it required a tremendous amount of financial and human resources. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was one of the last films produced before the introduction of digital cinematography and three dimensional computer animation. If the makers of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? had the benefit of computers, the financial costs and need for human resources would be greatly reduced as many processed employed in the making of that film could be automated. Three negatives were used for every frame and that would not be required

16 Special Effects: The History and Technique By Richard Rickitt pp 142.

7 with digital cinematography since live action and animation sequences would be in digital format and could be composed together without the use of expensive printers and film stock. This could all be done while still preserving the directorial vision of integrating classical animation and live action. Digital cinematography also does need to be centered around live action because the need for physical sets is not the norm. In traditional filmmaking, a shot is a record of reality. Sets are built to re-create environments for the live action. In digital cinematography, live action is shot on green or blue screens and later composed against computer generated environments. In essence, any set can be created using a computer and in addition, the live action can be animated or altered against this set. As animation software continues to improve and computer processing speeds continue to get faster, there will a time where almost any environment can be simulated on a computer system and blended with live action, giving the illusion that both elements were filmed at the same time. One day perhaps, animated actors may replace human actors in even complex roles in a live action environment that is believable.

ii. Only Two Phases: Preproduction and Postproduction

In traditional cinematography, there are three basic production phases: pre-production, production and post-production. Pre-production consists of conception of the idea, the conception of the visual aesthetics of the film, the story boarding, the development of the script and screenplay, and the general planning for the production phase. The production phase usually consists of the filming of live action. The post-production process usually consists of development of the film stock used in the production phase, editing of the developed film, color correction, editing of dialogue, the addition of sound effects and the sound track, and everything else that is needed for its distribution to the audience. With digital cinematography, the pre-production, production, and post-production overlap during the entire filmmaking process and cannot easily be isolated as discrete phases. While what is done in pre-production in digital cinematography (i.e, conception of the idea, storyboarding etc.) is similar to pre-production in traditional filmmaking, how it is done can be very different. The conception of the film can be assisted with preliminary photorealistic digital sets created on the computer to help filmmakers visualize scenes before any live action is captured during the production process. This preliminary digital set created during the preproduction phase can later be further developed to become a set used in the final film. The creation and compositing of backgrounds and elements to be added to the picture can be done before, during, or after the live action is shot. In this manner, work that is done during preproduction can itself be used in production and post-production, rather than being merely a tool to assist in conceiving ideas. In the feature film Artificial Intelligence, pre-production overlapped heavily with production and post-production in several of the sequences in the film. Director Steven Spielberg used an innovative cinematic technique for the blocking of digital sets and live action. The technology employed allowed for the pre-visualization of the recording of the live action conveyed with CGI in real-time. Preliminary digital sets created during the preproduction process were used during the live action capture to block the talent and arrange the different CGI elements in the virtual environments during the production phase. For the first time, the Director had the flexibility during the filming of the live action to issue stage directions to the talent, which were not planned in advance. The Special Effects Supervisor would make changes in real time to the digital sets as the live action capture was taking place. This allowed the Director to be creative during the filming and use digital sets that were not laid out during pre-production. There is even greater overlap between production and post production in digital cinematography. Digital filmmaking does not require the footage to be developed after its filming. It can be viewed and edited right after it is shot or even edited during filming. This replaces the timely and expensive development of film stock which necessarily had to occur after filming in traditional filmmaking. The film stock developing and transfer processes are totally removed. For that reason, it is possible to engage in post production at any time during filming. The filming of live action is not longer exclusive focus of the production phase. Filmmakers have instantaneous post production feedback which can greatly affect the remainder of the production process. Stars Wars: Episode 2 is one of the first feature films that employed digital cinematography using high definition for the capture of live action. Production methods used by Director George Lucas demonstrates how footage was viewed in real time during filming. Mr. Lucas monitored the action on several large portable plasma monitors on set while filming. 17 This empowered the Director of Photography to frame the shots with the planned lighting and also allowed him receive immediate input from the Director and Producer. This eliminated mistakes in terms of the focus of the camera and overexposure or underexposure issues. The Special Effects Supervisor was also present to assist the Director in issuing the stage directions to the actors that would be appropriate for the effects to be added later on. The most significant contribution to this new cinematic technique is that it enabled the Director and the crew to see an accurate view of the final product of the film beforehand.

iii. Garrick

18 The making of Garrick , a short film that I direct and produce exemplifies how the pre production, production and post-production processes overlapped during the whole making of the film. The production of Garrick implements similar production methods used in the production of Star Wars: Episode 2 and Artificial Intelligence. However, linking the camera with computers through a computer network made it possible for an Editor on set to put the film together as it was being filmed. After each take, the Editor would advise the Director and Director of Photography on potential issues with the framing of shots and possible improvements for filmed scenes and the need for new takes. A general production monitor was made visible to all crewmembers and talent during the filming of live action to promote an environment of collaboration on set. By the end of the filming of the live action, a rough cut was available with synched audio and a preliminary soundtrack.

Conclusion

17 Tricks, Next-Gen High-De/by Barbara Robertson 18 Garrick is a short fictional film that conveys live action and partially build physical sets with three dimensional virtual sets to depict a life of an English street actor in the late 1800s. The film is being produced as a Master's thesis at Emerson College by Antonio A Eggermont using innovative digital video and computer technologies that integrate the preproduction, production and post-production processes.

Q Traditional filmmaking has been impacted greatly by the rise of the digital revolution. While computer technology has enabled the creation of films that simply would not have been possible to produce, it has also arguably undermined film's main purpose as artwork, which is to tell a story. Computer based special effects can unarguably be visually spectacular but they do not necessarily bear any resemblance to reality, even as it could be. However when computer based special effects are used by a filmmaker as a tool to advance film, as artwork and not mere entertainment, then the true power of digital cinematography is unlocked.

1() Appendix A: The Cinematographe by the Lumiere brothers.

Le cinematographe - ( front and side views)

The cinematographe is a device that combines a camera with a film printer and film projector. It was patented on February 13th 1895. The Cinematographe was much smaller than Edison's Kinetograph, It was lightweight (around five kilograms), and was hand cranked. The Lumieres used a film speed of 16 frames per second, much slower compared with Edison's 48 fps - this meant that less film was used an also the clatter and grinding associated with Edison's device was reduced.

The Lumieres frrst public screening on 28th December at the Grand Cafe on Paris's Boulevard de Capuchines. The programm of films on show that day was as follows:

O La Sortie de usines Lumiere (1894) O La Voltige (1895) 0 La Peche aux poissons rouges (1895) 0 La Debarquement du congres de photographie a Lyons (1895) O Les Forgerons (1895) 0 L' Arroseur arrose (1895) Repas de hebe (1895) 0 Place des Cordeliers a Lyon (1895) 0 La Mer (1895)

11 ~ Appendix B: The glass shot of Norman 0. Dawn 19

The glass-shot is one of the oldest of visual effects techniques, apparently first employed in sophisticated fashion by Norman Dawn in 1907 for his production of Missions of California. The term 'glass-shot' is taken from the nature of the process itself. The following illustration shows the technique of the glass-shot.

----, r } ,· - ( ---~: ' ) ------/ ------·- MISS I NG ARCHES PAINTED ON GLASS

VIEW THROUGH CAMERA

A large sheet of glass is mounted in front of a camera which has been set up and focused upon the scene to be altered. An artist paints appropriate representational images upon portions of the glass. The images obscure and replaces certain visual components of the real scene. By. viewing the emerging composite through the camera's eyepiece, the artist blends the real and artificial visual elements together, developing appropriate perspective, tonal, and density relationships as he goes along. When completed, the complementary visual components from the real scene and from the painted images are photographed simultaneously with one pass of the raw stock through the camera.

19 Source: Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding 4th edition pp30.

1') Appendix C. Traveling Mattes 20

The traveling mattes process was patented in 1918 by Frank Williams. The following illustration exemplifies the concept of traveling mattes,

F igu re 11 THE W I LLIAMS PROC ES S

c) foreground d) high contrast b) backgro und plate element ma le matte I I

e) final

backdrop

The traveling mattes process is also known as the William process. The foreground element, be it the actor, monster or model, is photographed in front of an evenly lit, plain black backdrop (see fig (a)). The background element with which this foreground action was to be combined was usually filmed in advanced (b), so that directors and performers could refer to it in order to choreograph movement. Once a shot of the foreground element against its black back-drop had been filmed (c) this is copied a number of times using high-contrast film, which turns variations of tone into either black or black and white. This produces a clear background with the black silhouette of with the foreground element (d). The film containing no image other than a black silhouette was then sandwiched with the film containing the desired background element, and contract-printed on to a new piece of film, thus producing an image of the correctly exposed background with an unexposed area at its centre. The piece of film, still undeveloped was then sandwiched with the developed strip of film containing the correctly exposed image of the foreground element with an opaque background. These two elements were run through then printer and re-exposed to light, thus printing the foreground element into its prepared hole (e ).

20 Source: Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding 4th edition. Appendix D: The Optical Printer Process. 21

The following illustration exemplifies the optical printer process dramatically simplified.

Projecto r head The process came ra

The process camera, in the above illustration, copies a color master (positive) in the printer head (sometimes called a "projector head"), at left. In this sketch, the printer head is loaded in a bi pack for traveling-matte work, two strips of film passing through the movement at the same time. Note the reversal of pin positions from one intermittent to the other, and the direction of film travel in the printer head.

21 Source: Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding 4th edition, pp 126.

14 Appendix E: Rear-projection 22

Similar to the traveling-matte process , background projection provides with a method by which the figure of an actor can be convincingly combined with a background scene photographed elsewhere. The actor performs in front of a large translucent screen onto which a positive photographic image of a background is projected. The following illustration exemplifies the basic elements involved in a rear-projection environment:

- LI ME LIG HTS EACH SI DE

ACTOR

The equipment involved for background projection can be as simple or complicated depending upon the type of composite desired , the scale of the set, the manner in which the foreground action is staged, and the budget available for the effect. The basic elements of a rear projection effect are 1) the camera, 2) the projector, 3) the screen 4) interlocking controls for projector and camera.

22 Source: Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding 4th edition, pp 248. Appendix F: Motion Control 23

Motion control uses mechanical or electronic means to record the movement of a camera and reproduce that movement whenever and whenever different elements of a composite shot are filmed. The following illustration exemplifies the schematic diagram of a modern motion control system developed at Walt Disney Studios.

The system consists of a motion-picture camera mounted on a crane which can be made to move across the stage floor on precision rails. The camera can tilt and pan through 360 degrees, and roll through 720 degrees on each of these axes. The camera can also move vertically (North/South) a distance of four feet, laterally (East/West) a distance of four feet, and longitudinally, in a trucking motion across the stage, a distance of 68 feet. The system also includes a second crane which carries the miniature(s) being photographed. The miniature(s) attached to it can be moved in yaw, pitch or roll fashion, and can be moved across the stage on a 30-foot set of rails. A video tape in the optical system of the camera allows the operator of the system to see the image being photographed on a video monitor. All movements of the camera crane and the miniatures crane are controlled by a minicomputer, as are adjustments of the camera's focus and film movement. The computer calculates all in-between increments of position and movement involved as the camera and the miniature pass through key positions on the stage floor. Relative to each other. The computer makes such calculations for all the axes of movement of all the mechanical components. Sensors and limit switchers prevent the camera crane from accidentally smashing into the miniature or other set pieces.

23 Source: Special Effects Cinematography by Raymond Fielding 4th edition, pp 399.

r- -- Appendix: F Relation of replaced traditional cinematic techniques by computer software 24

The followin g table exemplifies a relation of some of the most important traditional cinematic techniques and their replacement by software programs. A single computer with enough memory, speed and storage space capacity can implement all the following traditional cinematic techniques:

Traditional Cinematic Digital Postproduction Digital Postproduction Description Technique Function

Traveling Mattes Chroma-key keying The process of keying involves and mattes generation extracting an object from an image and combining it with different background. 25

Rear Projection & Multiplane compositing A compositing environme nt for Glass shot positioning 2-D layers such as live action sequences within a 3-D space inside the computer. A virtual camera controls and integrates the view multiple 2-D and 3-D layers superimposed together.

Optical Printing Non-linear editing Real-time editing of digitized footage computer based implementing fade-ins , fade-outs, software cuts, multiple exposures , and audio synching, etc.

Motion Control Matchmoving Camera A compositing technique that Tracking and automatically captures the 3D camera Stabilization path and camera parameters from 2D live-action sequences . Such information can be then applied to other 3-D or 2-D sequences.

24 Source Digital Filmmaking, the Changing Artand Craft of Making Motion Pictures by Thomas A. Ohanian and Michael E. Philips . 2nd Edition. 25 Most keyers use the difference in color between the color channels of an image to extract the matte. This technique depends on the foreground subject being photographed in front of a uniformly colored background , such as blue or green screen.

17 Appendix: F Relation of replaced traditional cinematic techniques by computer software (cont'd)

Traditional Cinematic Digital Postproduction Digital Postproduction Description Technique Function Rotoscoping Rotoshapes The computer manually extracts, insolates, or affects a portion of an image. Rotoshapes are frequently created on a frame-by-frame basis.

Stop-motion 3D computer animation Creation of 3-D models in the computer that can be manipulated and animated to create the impression of movement.

Sets and miniature sets Digital sets Creation of 3-D virtual environments in the computer that depict real locations. Live-action sequences can be integrated in digital sets using Chroma-key keying and mattes generation techniques.