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Digitalization
Technology in entertainment media
• The impact of technology cuts across a
number of issues in the delivery of
entertainment and news content
– Content production
– Content distribution
– Content delivery
– Audience response/re-creation
Digitalization
• Undoubtedly the greatest change in recent
years has been the move from analog to
digital media
– From albums to CDs
– From linear to nonlinear editing
– From analog to digital broadcast
– CGI
Digitalization has affected all phases
and forms of electronic media
• Digitalization has increased speed, lowered
costs, allowed for the inclusion of a wider
array of elements in content, provided a vastly
increased amount and diversity of access, and
made it far more difficult to prevent copyright
infringement
Historical factors driving adoption of
CGI in TV and Film
• Cost reductions
– Increasing computer power
– More advanced software
• Non linear editing
– Increasingly sophisticated hardware
• Consumer demand
– Success of blockbuster films, technically advanced
TV
– General interest in fantasy, adventure
Why use CGI in Film and TV?
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It is not necessarily cheap
It doesn’t necessarily save time
It is still not as realistic as live action
It does not produce as high quality visuals as
film
• However, the differences are becoming
smaller over time
Why use CGI?
• CGI greatly increases the control exercised by the
director, post-production specialists
– Provides for ‘perfect’ environments
– Vastly increases potential manipulation in post
• CGI allows for ‘realistic’ presentation of the
fantastic
– Dinosaurs, flying lizards, 10-ft. tall blue people,
environments
• CGI saves money on certain visuals, sounds
– Especially mattes/background
Why not use CGI?
• Like most of director Robert Zemeckis' films, Death Becomes Her
was a technically complex movie to make, and the production had
its fair share of mishaps. For example, in a scene where Helen Sharp
and Madeline Ashton are battling with shovels, Meryl Streep
accidentally scarred Goldie Hawn's face. Streep admitted that she
disliked working on a project that focused so heavily on special
effects, saying:
• My first, my last, my only. I think it's tedious. Whatever
concentration you can apply to that kind of comedy is just
shredded. You stand there like a piece of machinery — they should
get machinery to do it. I loved how it turned out. But it's not fun to
act to a lampstand. "Pretend this is Goldie, right here! Uh, no, I'm
sorry, Bob, she went off the mark by five centimeters, and now her
head won't match her neck!" It was like being at the dentist.
Pre-production
• Computer modeling of storyboards
– Greater realism/ability to visualize
• More guidance to camera crew, animators
• Materials for use in generating producer
interest/financial backing
• Websites, etc. intended to draw financial support
• Proposals calling for heavier use of effects
without greatly increasing the cost
– Less need for location shooting, etc.
Production
• Shooting with the knowledge that background, effects
will be inserted in post
– May be difficult for actors
• Collection of content (visuals, sounds, motion capture,
etc.) that will be used in generating digital portion of
final content
• Scheduling flexibility increased by the ability to shoot
different parts of a scene at different times
• Production of purely digital content
– Considered post production in some cases
• Increasingly, capture using digital media
Post-production
• Revolution in post-production
– Vast increase in ability to control final content
– Ability to experiment, change, adjust, rearrange
– Vast increase in complexity of post-production
• Multiple video, audio tracks, effects, etc.
• Ability to choose among a wide array of content from
production stage and adjust it to needs of narrative
– Much of direction is now carried out in post
• Like putting together a giant puzzle
Removing objects
• Removing physical objects that are part of the
filmed scene
– Wires
• Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
• Cliffhanger
– Objects/people
• Forrest Gump
Providing the environment
• Traditional matte
– Paint on glass
• Computerized matte
– Computer generated
– Copying model and generating matte
– Scanned photos/composite model
• Lord of the Rings
• Green screen
• 300
• Matrix
Characters
• Animated
– 2D v. 3D
• Toy Story
• Toy Story 2
• Photorealistic
– Computer generated
• Stunt characters
• Final Fantasy
– Scanned actors
• King Kong
• Motion capture v. Keyframe
• Lord of the Rings
• King Kong
• Morphing
• Terminator 2
• Black or White
Beowulf
Avatar
Compositing
• Combination of a large number of
independent sources into a single image
– Models
– Actors
– Location shots
– Animated characters
• Lord of the Rings
• Rotoscoping
• King Kong
Digital effects
• Explosions
• Fire
• Etc.