American Cinema into the 21st Century - Essay Example

?London South Bank American Cinema into the 21st Century 1990s – Mona Mivehgar Sabet ID: 2620552 Film Studies Unit: American Cinema Date: 23/03/2011 American Cinema into the 21st Century The United States has dominated the film industry since 1916 (Toth 2009), and it seems they will continue to do so, as stated best by Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear, “to infinity and beyond!” (Toy story 3 2010). For Europeans, film was primarily used for political purposes. Americans, on the other hand used film as a consumer product. Metaphorically, films have served as the “American Dream” linking issues through cinema to commercial gain (Toth 2009). The Social and Economic Context of the Period In the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the term “popular culture” became a mainstay, due to the dominance of culture in American cinema and the media. This indicated a shift from “empirical studies to studies of cultural forms and meanings” (Mass communication 2011). During this time, focus was placed on audience and different forms of mass communication, which included music videos, computer and video games, soap operas, and the Internet (Mass communication 2011). Research moved, particularly in the United States, to finding links between such mass communication and behaviour of society; emphasis was placed on popular culture and media studies. Cinema emulated these shifts in a number of areas from sociology and feminism to economics and history (Mass communication 2011). Technological Developments As cinema entered the 21st century, a number of technological developments were made. Of the more prominent developments was the use of computers, replacing hand-drawn cartoons and physically created special effects. In 2010, Walt Disney Pictures’ animated studio, Pixar, stretched the limits of possibility in the creation of “Toy Story 3,” the third successful installment of the wildly popular computer generated imagery (CGI) film in the Toy Story trilogy. Pixar has proven, time after time, that it has the expertise to create what would be impossible to animate by hand (Terdiman 2010). One particular challenge in creating the film was crafting a very complicated scene in which the film’s primary characters must make their way on a conveyor belt within a garbage processing plant. What seemed like millions of tiny pieces of diced garbage is moving toward a gigantic furnace, while the characters interact within the scene. In watching the scene, Pixar succeeds in making the audience feel as though they are watching live-action. The garbage reflects the lighting within the facility as it travels down the conveyor. The detail of the tiny pieces of garbage is truly amazing, somewhat gross, but the sequence is amazing nonetheless. Terdiman (2010) explains that Pixar did not have the finances or time available to them to manually animate the sequence, so the technical director and his team were forced to be creative with what resources they did have—computers. The thousands upon thousands of tiny pieces of garbage were procedurally animated and brought to life. Similarly, for the garbage bags in the sequence, procedural animation was put to use. Since the bags served such a critical purpose to the plot, it was important they look as real as possible so as not to distract the audience from the overall viewing experience (Terdiman 2010). According to Anderson, a Pixar representative, the talented animators do not intend to break ground with each film they create. Obstacles arise, and it is their job to creatively handle the situation. If that means improving processes or inventing new ones that change the way future films are created, great, but that is not the intention. The animators at Pixar are highly-skilled professionals who want to create something better than what they previously put out—innovations that just come naturally (Terdiman 2010). The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001) utilized CGI technology, but also incorporated live-action and a process called performance capture. Performance capture has been used in several films for the last decade or so, but is constantly developing, with a bright future ahead full of possibility (Brew 2011). Specifically, the character Gollum began as completely CGI. However, an actor was used for interactions with the live-action cast. The idea was to create the digital character over the actor for the final version of the film. Director, Peter Jackson, was so impressed with the actor, Andy Serkis’ performance, he opted not to use CGI, but to go with performance capture to combine Andy Serkis’ features, emotions, and behaviours into a digital representation of the Gollum audiences were introduced to (Andy Serkis 2011). James Cameron applied new cinematic techniques as well as newly developed technology in the making of Avatar. Cameron had a unique idea of how he wanted the world of Pandora to be represented in the film, and he succeeded in creating the realistic alien planet by developing what is called a motion capture camera (Cawley 2010). For the making of Avatar, the motion capture was achieved by positioning many cameras throughout an enormous motion-capture stage as well as harnessing the actors with special equipment (Cawley 2010). Cameron brought together much of the same motion capture technology used for bringing Gollum to life in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he enhanced it creating a virtual camera system, which allowed for instant recording of the actors actions and motions (Cawley 2010). According to Cawley (2010), “Cameron was able to alter angles and look around the whole virtual landscape while in front of him the actors went about their business in front of an array of positioned cameras.” The new type of camera that Cameron designed to suit the film’s needs was worn by the actors over their head. A small boom placed a camera about six inches in front of the actor’s face. Facial expressions were recorded digitally and used by animators to generate the most ground-breaking CGI performances ever captured on film (Cawley 2010). Audiences and Output Target audiences for mainstream films released during the last decade or so include many different age groups. It seems filmmakers are trying to get the most for their money, so to speak, by including something for everyone. For example, Toy Story 3, and many CGI films from Pixar and DreamWorks, like Shrek, Shark Tale, Monster House, etc. are geared toward children as far as marketing and promotional products are concerned. However, they contain a decent amount of adult humour and subtleties that make them entertaining, or at the very least tolerable, for parent as well. Films like Avatar and Lord of the Rings, particularly the latter, may be considered as specialty films in the genre of fantasy and science fiction. While they may be too violent for small children, some teenagers and adults are not interested in unrealistic concepts. Directors try to draw the audience in with fantastic special effects and boundary-pushing technology, but these types of films are not necessarily intended for everyone. Conclusion Innovations, whether intentional or not, have made American cinema in the 21st century exciting. At present, anything is truly possible, there are few limitations to what can be imagined and what kind of a journey the audience can be taken on. From CGI and performance capture to 3D experiences, there is no telling what the future holds. Bibliography Andy Serkis [online]. (2011) [Accessed 24 March 2011]. Available from: . Avatar (2009) [DVD]. United States: 20th Century Fox. Brew, S. (2010). Is performance capture as we know it dead? [online]. [Accessed 24 March 2011]. Available from: . Cawley, C. (2010). Behind the Scenes Look at the Motion Capture Technology Used in Avatar [online]. [Accessed 24 March 2011]. Available from: . Mass communication [online]. (2011) [Accessed 23 March 2011]. Available from: . Terdiman, D. (2010). The groundbreaking tech of 'Toy Story 3' [online]. [Accessed 24 March 2011]. Available from: . The lord of the rings: The fellowship of the ring (2001) [DVD]. United States: New Line Cinema. Toth, Z. A. (2009). American cinema at the crossroads of American studies. Americana [online]. V2, [Accessed 24 March 2011 ], p.1-6. Available from: . Toy story 3 (2010) [DVD]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures. Read More