Here's a short review on the "digital films" that has cropped up in the last few years since High Definition Cameras were introduced to the big stage. There are two things about these digital films. The key word is "
entirely".
It all started when George Lucas tested out two shots in The Phantom Menace with High Definition Cameras, and subsequently filming Attack of the Clones
entirely with HD cameras. HD cameras are digital cameras that does away with traditional film. I'm not going to go into detail about how it speeds up film production processes, and bla bla bla. Attack of the Clones is perhaps one of the earliest films to be shot largely on bluescreen sets, with backdrops to be added digitally.
That being said, the key word is
entirely. So between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, four films were made in digital mode. This post is a look at these films. Immortel, Sin City, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and Casshern are the first films in the industry to be shot
entirely with blue/green screen environments. There's a debate about which one is the actual FIRST, but I dont' care.
While Casshern and Immortel was shot on film, Sin City and Sky Captain was shot on HD cameras, making it the first two FULLY digital films ever made. Okay, I don't care which came first too. I also don't want to really go into the process here, because that might take days and thousands of words more to write. I'm only going to talk about the product. I've yet to see Casshern, a Japanese film. So I'll talk about the other three.
Immortel is a comic book adaptation about Earth in the year 2095, where a mysterious pyramid that is home to the ancient Egyptian gods floats above New York. The story goes to show god Horus, who has limited time on Earth, seeking out a mutant-human to carry his offspring. So based on that two sentence sypnosis one can imagine a fusion of visual wonders, ranging from a cyborgified futuristic world, organic creatures, and ancient... erm... digital gods.
animated Egyptian gods looking out from the pyramid. Linda Hardy as the blue haired mutant girl Jill in Immortel.
In that sense, yeah we see all that. Immortel is slightly unique in that it has many digital characters as well. Most other visual effects savvy movies have only a few digitally prominent characters (i.e. Gollum in LOTR, Yoda/Jar Jar in Star Wars, Spiderman in Spiderman), but Immortel utilizes digital characters a lot. Now, that's problematic, because since the visual effects levels in this film isn't all that great... it's easy to tell the difference between real and unreal characters. This makes the show rather cartoonish.
Nikopol (Thomas Kretschmann) conversing with a digital HorusWhile that has nothing to do with my topic, it's important to note that the added backdrops and all look REALLY cartoonish... and
blur
Sin City is another visual wonder. Perhaps technologically, this film required the most skill to make, but again. I don't care about how it's made here. I'm all about how it look in the end. Perhaps this is the most flawless film of the three in terms of meshing all the digital elements of the film together. It's hard to tell that Mickey Rourke never really was on set with Elijah Wood, but in the final product they are fighting each other.
Also, the use of colors must be mentioned. I don't know how in the world they had so much time to rotoscope (separate the colors frame by frame), but they did. Pleasantville and Schindler's List did utilize this effect a bit, but Sin City uses it very very generously. Even in a complete black and white frame, the whites stand out in a flourescent manner, giving the film added aura of fantasy.
Stills from Sin City demonstrating the usage of color, even in a purely black and white shot (bottom picture) notice the crosses are of a brighter white.Lastly Sky Captain is about a... what's the best word... alternative view of our history that is mired in a technological disaster, where robots stomp the earth and Mr.Jude Law needs to fly a 1940s aircraft with gadgets to beat the hell out of them. Digitally, this film had the best visual effects out of the three shows. At least the backdrops looked relatively good, compared to Immortel.
The giant robots in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow...As you can see, I'm quite bored telling the plot and trying to explain digital products. So I'll just show you stills and explain some noticeable stuff.
All three films were shot either with blurry effect, glossy effect, or color mismatching effect. I notice that these films were produced in such a way that we accept it as unreal that we don't even think about it. Is it a means of avoiding us saying "that looks fake"? I don't know, but I certainly feel that way. 90% of the digital backdrops look fake, but we don't say it, because we're contextualized to accept it as fake ANYWAY because of the filming technique. Perhaps one marker in how digital film can make its mark in the industry is to film shots more familiar to regular eyesight.
Notice the glossy lens effect. I like it, actually. Suit the period.It's quite obvious none of these shows constitute "drama"... It's always fantasy, and it's always set in a very specific sort of world. It's Earth... it's somewhat familiar, but not quite. I find this genre rather boring. It's what I call "Blade Runner wannabes"... These films all score A's for concept, design, and creativity, but score Ds for coherence and deliverty. The story doesn't flow as well because of too much emphasis on the visuals (Hey I'm a believer of film as visual pleasure. I watch movies to see things more than to get a good story, but these films are way off the limit), and I've yet to see an Oscar winning performance done in front of the blue screen.
From top, establishing shots from Immortel, Sin City, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Notice the similarities.My conclusion, digital film has long ways to go before it can overtake traditional filmmaking methods. It IS the future, no doubt, but if it keeps on doing what it's doing, it's not going to go very far. I don't know what's the next digital film going to be... I think it's John Carter of Mars (as the title suggests... THAT sort of film again)... but eventually, it's gotta do more. Traditional film has proven it can incorporate powerful digital technology into it's production, and if Digital film can't find that balance, too bad for them.
Oh I must say, thanks to a particular film released in 2005 about laser swords and spaceships, digital film does have a lot of potential. Yeah, I know, it's not the real world as well. Yeah the acting stinks every now and then. But all in all, more well done than any tech ladden film to date.
Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith
