The Advancements in Film: Editing, Special effects, and CGI

     Have you ever noticed how seamlessly each scene in a movie flows together? Or that some of the places even people in film appear to look different from one another, more digitized? This is due to the post-production part of making a movie, called editing, and the usage of special effects and CGI. Today the advancements in technology have become very great. 

  

       Today, non-linear editing systems are used to edit movies. In 1971 the first non-linear editing system was introduced (Wikipedia).“Non-linear editing with computers as we know it today was first introduced by Editing Machines Corp. in 1989 with the EMC2 editor, hard disk based non-linear offline editing system, using half screen resolution video at 15 frames per second” (Wikipedia). 

     Avid Media Composer is known as the leading editing system; considered industry standard. With the majority of major feature films, commercials, and television programs using it (Wikipedia). Another editing program that is commonly used among the industry is Final Cut Pro.

Avid Media Composer

Final Cut Pro

 Originally special effects were simply illusions and trick effects, which can date back as far as 1824; originally used in photography (FilmSite). The earliest forms of effects were shown in camera, simple jump cuts, back projection, matte painting, superimpositions, and miniatures were used (FilmSite). 

  Some of the more modern special effects today are, scale modeling, clay-mation, digital composting, prosthetic make-up, and modern computer generated or computer graphics imagery [CGI] (FilmSite). 

         Filmmakers today can create such things as slow motion and revolving around the object or person while in mid movement with special effects, as shown in the movie The Matrix (HowStuffWorks). “A technician deals with all of these imperfections one image at a time using a computer and digitized versions of the images. Once the still images are perfect, the morphing software interpolates between them” (HowStuffWorks). Finally, after this is accomplished, a technician has to build a 3D computer model to create the rotation of the scene, by positioning the camera in each scene of the film (HowStuffWorks). 

              

         

    The first human character made from CGI, Cindy, was in 1981 on the film Looker (Wikipedia). Also, this was the first use of 3D shaded CGI (Wikipedia). However it was in 1982, that four major production companies came together to produce over twenty minutes of 3D graphics in the sci-fi movie TRON (osu.edu).  Unfortunately, “the movie was not a box-office success, it did prove that this new medium had tremendous potential for the industry” (osu.edu). Coming into the year 2000, our ability to create better digital characters improves by the year, with the improvement in both software and hardware (osu.edu).

 The film industry has accomplished a lot since its beginnings. Non-linear editing systems helping editors make it easier and faster to edit. Filmmakers are now being able to do such things as slowdown motion with special effects. And with the invention of computer generated imagery gives to a whole new way of creating characters on screen. The film industry will sure to become more advanced as the years go by, who knows what we will create next.

Sources:

Leonard, Matt. "Section 14: CGI in the Movies." Home | Department of Design. Digital Dreams and Visions Ltd. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.     <https://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/lesson14.html>.

Wikipedia. "Non-linear Editing System." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-linear_editing_system>.

Dirks, Tim. "Visual and Special Effects Film Milestones." Greatest Films - The Best Movies in Cinematic History. American Movie Classics Company LLC, 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects.html>.

"HowStuffWorks "How Do They Create the Special Effects in Movies like "The Matrix" Where the Camera Rotates around a Frozen Actor?"" HowStuffWorks "Entertainment" HowStuffWorks, 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question295.htm>.

Wikipedia. "Timeline of Computer Animation in Film and Television." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 5 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_animation_in_film_and_television>.