Introduction
Mad Max franchise is a dystopian action film series created and directed by George Miller which based on an apocalyptic background. The first Mad Max was released in 1979 with a low budget. After an unexpectedly huge success in Australian, George and his production team release three different films: Mad Max 2 (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Max Max: Fury Road. Unlike the previous trilogy which made before 21st century, visual effects technology such as CGI, stimulation and motion capture were heavily used in Mad Max: Fury Road. These type of technical transformation based on computer science are more commonly used in film production industry since the last decades which may eventually change the way of interactive experience in film, animation and other medium of the moving images.
This essay will compare the similarities and differences between the film cinematography in analogue and digital time with visual effects that supported by the technology of computer graphic and other filming techniques. It will also discuss the possible boundary of the reality and creativity in film by analyse the tools, forms and practice methods using to form the film and how may the audience receive the information behind the scenes and give an overview of the evolution of film production and its impact on the industry, and speculate on the future possibilities in the field.
Brief history
Roundhay Garden Scene filmed by Louis Le Prince on 14 October 1888 was the oldest surviving motion picture which shot on paper film. In 1895, Louis and Auguste Lumiere produced the first projected motion picture in paris in front of 200 audiences. The demand for film standardization increased as the quantity of the film in the early 1920s.
Beginning in the late 1980s, many lens manufactures started to produce film camera with digital lens and images components. George Lucas filmed with high-definition digital cameras in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace which contained the digital footage blended with the footage shot with film stock. Later on, he decided film its sequence entirely on high definition digital video. At that moment, film industry started to use the digital film camera to instead original analog film. An analog film has a greater resolution than most digital camera images. For example, a 35mm analog frame may resolve up to 6,000 lines. Although digital cameras can reach 7,000 lines, consumer HD camcorders record only 1080 lines. The granularity of analog film is based on the emulsion molecule size. The granularity of digital images is based on the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in the sensor.
Comparing and contrasting
• Scene analysis
In terms of scenery, most of the first outdoor scenes of Mad Max are based on roads and wilderness. This kind of framing based on natural scenery has to consider the limitations provided by the landscape scenery when shooting. The indoor scene uses a lot of props and stage art design. In Mad Max, 14 vehicles were destroyed in the chase and crash scene, [Fig] however in Mad Max: Fury Road, many crash scenes and explosion effect were made in computer software to stimulate such visual effects. [Fig]
• Make-up and Costume design
In make-up and character design for the film franchise, both Mad Max and Mad Max 2 use a lot of normal makeup materials to achieve the performance visually. The costumes in Mad Max (Fig) have a large selection of vinyl styles. The protagonists and knights are dressed in motorcycle leather jacket, and the vehicle they used are mainly based on traditional modified muscle cars. Characters in film did not use the specific dressing and special makeup techniques to ensure the role design look good. In Mad Max: Fury Road, due to the maturity of face capture and high-precision model technology, the limitations of the designer’s character design are reduced. For Example, Imperator Furiosa was hurt and lost one forearm in a struggle scene which made the character had to performance as a disabled person who lost one arm and use an artificial one instead, (Fig) the arm were replaced by a high definition model and compositing with the actress which means that the actress can easily do anything and did not need to bear with uncomfortable makeup assets or materials in acting. While in the original Mad Max, the main character Max was shot on his leg but the makeup skill can not create a serve wound like CGI so
• Cinematography
In terms of lighting design, early film must be set up in the shooting process, assuming correct lighting equipment to ensure the filming effect of the film. The lighting engineer should not only consider the pre-set effect in the early stage, but also adjust it according to the shooting time and the weather conditions of the shooting location. However, with the continuous development of compositing and rendering techniques, the lighting engineer and rendering can be adjusted by creating virtual images, modifying settings and parameters. In Mad Max, cinematographer David Eggby captured some daring shots that would be probably impossible to do due to the health and safety regulation. Fox example, in the chase scene, very low camera shots were achieved by the camera man riding on a bike as a passenger holding and operating the camera while traveling at a top speed. Same chase scenes happened in Mad Max: Fury Road however, mostly done in a studio with green screen then compositing with visual effects in different layers by computer softwares.
• Tones
Colouring settings of early films received many restrictions due to the limitation of the film stocks. In order to present different hue effects, photographers or cinematographers often need to use different chemicals when processing the images, or add different colour lenses filter to the lens before they started shooting. The modern film and television workflow changed the implementation steps of this process. Through CGI technology, people who do colour correction can use the computer programme to directly adjust the light source in different areas in different layers and the colour in the tones or brightness which make the images or sequence adjustable during the digital processing.
• Particle and smoke stimulation
The explosion scenes in Mad Max, such as the chase, uses the method of fixed-point blasting. It also uses fixed and borrowing shots when dealing with character damage effects, and then makes the sequence smooth by editing.
In Mad Max: Fury Road, the same chase scene uses a lot of digital post-effects. For example, the explosion effect is the particle simulation used, and the high-precision model is designed for the characters. The maturity of the green screen and motion capture technology enables technicians to implement difficult scenes through digital post-production techniques.
• Compositing
The use of motion capture technology reduces the difficulty of designing virtual character bones and motion in the production team. Through this channel, the modeler can make some difficult tricks or composite scenes through the virtual bone binding after the model is built.
Motion capture adds an interesting wrinkle to this narrative, but it, too, is merely a more-advanced version of existing processes. While Gollum, Caesar, Thanos, and other mo-cap characters are based on footage and tracking data from live performances, they’re actually rendered on screen (and, it’s worth adding, their performances optimised and tweaked) by animators. These techniques are several technological steps up from, but not entirely dissimilar to, Fleischer’s Rotoscope, which was patented over a hundred years ago. And any time you see characters doing things that aren’t physically possible – hell, any time you see human characters doing such things – they’re probably animated wholesale.
In view of the limitations of the early film industry on creation (film creation is a record of real angles), “for example, analyze and quote the corresponding academic materials as much as possible”, and speculate on the accuracy of the “realism” that the film film period considers itself. After re-analysing the limitations of the extended film creation in the film era and the modern digital photography period, I questioned the “authenticity of digital images”, “for example, analyze and quote the corresponding academic materials as much as possible”, and speculate on the creation of movies in digital photography. Authenticity is still the subjective truth of the creator’s self-righteousness rather than the “objective absolute truth”, which leads to the conclusion that in the film film era or the modern digital photography period, the creation and expression of film art is based on the “reality” designed by the creator. “, does not have an objective sense of truth, thus leading to the following mixed reality paragraphs.
In view of the limitations of the early film industry on creation (film creation is a record of real angles), “for example, analyze and quote the corresponding academic materials as much as possible”, and speculate on the accuracy of the “realism” that the film film period considers itself. After re-analysing the limitations of the extended film creation in the film era and the modern digital photography period, I questioned the “authenticity of digital images”, “for example, analyze and quote the corresponding academic materials as much as possible”, and speculate on the creation of movies in digital photography. Authenticity is still the subjective truth of the creator’s self-righteousness rather than the “objective absolute truth”, which leads to the conclusion that in the film film era or the modern digital photography period, the creation and expression of film art is based on the “reality” designed by the creator. “, does not have an objective sense of truth, thus leading to the following mixed reality paragraphs.
“Who Framed Rabbit Roger” started on December 2, 1986 and lasted for 7 months, then spent four weeks in Los Angeles to shoot, and the industrial light magic company completed the animation city’s stunt through blue screen technology. Produced [14]. The post-production of “Who Framed Rabbit Roger” took a full 14 months [9]. First, the animators and layout artists cut out the shots of the live-action show in black and white as a frame of photo, then spread an animated image on those photos, and then connect them by hand. And because the live-action lens shot by Zemikis often uses dynamic photography, the animator must also cooperate to add a large number of moving pictures to avoid the sudden movement of the animated character from one place to another [6][9 ]. After the completion of this stage, the traditional animation process will be carried out, and the professional camera technology will be used to capture the film on the premise of removing all the background. The next step will be sent to Industrial Light & Magic, which will process the shadows, tones, and lighting effects onto the animated characters using an optical printer to make them look more solid and seem to be really live actors. The light is illuminated under the same shooting [6], and then all the shots are combined with the live performance lens [1].
From digital effects and digital photography, the feasibility of creative effects has been expanded, and the design limitations of scenes and movements have been improved to analyze the impact on artistic creation. “Cite data to prove that the market share of sci-fi and other topics continues to increase.” Original direction: issues that need to be considered in the film and film era. During the film period, the development of the film is still regarded as a derivative of photography rather than an independent art. The main purpose of videography is to record reality.
Such was the technical difficulty of blending animation with live-action that many “hybrid” films would feature just one or two scenes of interaction between the two – and even then, the interaction would be limited. Many of Disney’s features fall into this category. These range from the all-but-buried, notoriously racist Song of the South, to the newly-sequelised, enduringly famous Mary Poppins. Poppins features a dazzling sequence wherein Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke sing, dance, and race horses in an animated fantasy world. Poppins represented huge advances in combining the two techniques, with the live-action actors appearing to interact in complex ways with their animated costars. So impressive was it, the film won an Academy Award for Special Visual Effects, as did its spiritual successor Bedknobs and Broomsticks. By the time Pete’s Dragoncame along in 1977, though, even including an animated character for a feature’s entire running time wasn’t enough to garner so much as a nomination (not that it could’ve won against Star Wars, of course).
Other innovators brought alternative approaches to the hybrid medium. In the US, Ralph Bakshi often mixed live-action with animation in transgressive films like Coonskin, claiming the two techniques could “coexist with neither excuse nor apology”. His animated Lord of the Rings notably featured traditional animation, silhouetted live-action sequences, and rotoscoped animation. In the UK, Terry Gilliam often bridged animated and live-action sequences in the various Monty Python projects by using photographic elements as animated figures. And over in Europe, Jan Svankmajer created his own unique combination of filmmaking forms in surreal titles like Alice, one of the stranger Alice In Wonderland adaptations around. Meanwhile, an increasing number of live-action films utilised stop-motion animation as visual effects throughout the 20th century. This technique, too, dates back to the silent era, with Willis O’Brien’s pioneering work on the The Lost World and the half-lost Ghost of Slumber Mountain paving the way for equally revolutionary work from Ray Harryhausen and his disciples. From the ‘20s to the ‘80s, stop-motion was a principal means of adding fantastical creatures to live-action films. Jurassic Park, in 1993, would be the first to toss the technique aside (mid-production!) to truly reinvent the medium with CGI.
Hybrid concept and possibilities
David Green once proved his idea on stillness and movement in images that ‘not the conflation of photography and film but a conjuncture of the two media … in which they co-exist and seem to simultaneously occupy the same object’ (Green, 2004: 31). On the contrary, Walter Benjamin argues that film and other mechanical technologies are destroying the aura that had belonged to traditional art in early years. (Benjamin, 1968). However, if the audience and the producers or the creators of the artefact would accept a brand new combination of the digital media forms then Benjamin probably was wrong on this issue. In the past decades, the interests in mixed reality or hybrid media for computer programming and traditional art design were highly increased. Designers can wee able to make information or data that stored in the hardisk database into an interactive virtual experiences for their users. (Jay David Bolter, Blair MacIntyre, Maribeth Gandy and Petra Schweitzer, 2006)
For example, “Who killed the rabbit Roger” used the simultaneous synthesis of the actors live action performance and virtual creation to achieve the results of the hybrid idea. This combination of the animation and the live action shots had lead the golden age of American animation, which may also reflect the constant diversification of the tools and ideas involved in the production of the film. Marry Poppins also use traditional two-dimensional techniques and real live action shots technology before.
“Who Framed Rabbit Roger” started on December 2, 1986 and lasted for 7 months, then spent four weeks in Los Angeles to shoot, and the industrial light magic company completed the animation city’s stunt through blue screen technology. Produced. The post-production of “Who Framed Rabbit Roger” took a full 14 months. First, the animators and layout artists cut out the shots of the live-action show in black and white as a frame of photo, then spread an animated image on those photos, and then connect them by hand. And because the live-action lens shot by Zemikis often uses dynamic photography, the animator must also cooperate to add a large number of moving pictures to avoid the sudden movement of the animated character from one place to another. After the completion of this stage, the traditional animation process will be carried out, and the professional camera technology will be used to capture the film on the premise of removing all the background. The next step will be sent to Industrial Light & Magic, which will process the shadows, tones, and lighting effects onto the animated characters using an optical printer to make them look more solid and seem to be really live actors. The light is illuminated under the same shooting, and then all the shots are combined with the live performance lens.
In order to capture the lens of the real person interacting with the animated character, the camera adds motion mastering technology. The models of rabbit Roger, Doll Harman and Weasel, which are made of rubber during rehearsal, allow actors to vividly interact when they need to “imagine animated characters against the air”. Many mime artists and puppeteers provide Help, and also used a lot of dolls and robotic arm to assist in shooting. Charles Frescher, who voiced the rabbit Roger, also insisted on wearing a jacket made with an animated character image, not only to make himself more entertaining and real, but also to stand in the lens while other actors are performing. Outside, so that they perform when they perform”.
Technology has an interesting way of steamrolling over itself. Convincingly mixing animation and live action footage probably was one of the more challenging missions in filmmaking for decades, and as a result, it rarely appeared through the film history. However, as technology caught up with passion in that realm with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Computer generated imagery came along almost immediately then dominating the film industry and rendering technology were heavily used in animation for creating three dimensional animations instead of traditional drawing animation. Modern CG characters now built with virtual skeletons and skins to match their motion capture actors or actresses, and because of the vast difference in visual aesthetic, many audiences will never figure out the connection or the transition between the two. This technical wonder of seeing animation characters interact with human beings is actually something CGI has changed the way of what our thoughts of reality since years and years ago.
Conclusion
In summary, ‘Moving image’ is a more like an abstract expression combined with movies, animation, television and other type of media. In this way, the boundaries of image motion theory can be broadened as much as possible. The creation of digital moving image as an modern art subject has been gradually developed. The gap between virtualization and realistic process of digital images may reflect the development and integration of the concept for film and television continuously. In the early years, artists and professionals in the industry who may focused on recording moments in life and limited to some extent by creation have the opportunity to realize the visualization of virtual concepts with the support of digital technology. Documenting this process is no longer just a relatively objective act, it implies a broader range of creativity and potential. As the viewpoint of film art is constantly undergoing changes in imaging processing. The impact of these changes is not only in the film/animation/moving image art itself, but also the complexity of image-based creation. The boundaries between true records and fictitious compositions are constantly blurred and weakened. The audience also needs to analyze and understand more planes when observing the creation of such carrier media.
In terms of the media characteristics of a movie, the image symbol itself is fictitious. The image that people see on the screen itself is nothing but a phantom created by the light and shadow acting on the viewer’s perception. Even in the traditional film era, the camera’s shooting of physical objects is far from what Krakall called “the restoration of the material world”, because the images presented to the audience through a series of subject factors such as shooting and editing must have some kind of Selectivity and constructivity are not possible to achieve a completely objective reflection. This is true even for the most documentary film that pursues documentary aesthetics. Therefore, the film itself is a combination of authenticity and virtuality. The film in the digital age is only to push the fiction or virtuality of the image symbol to the extreme. As far as the relationship between film and real material life is concerned, although digital image is greatly free from the constraints of reality in the production process, its creation is still based on the observational cognition of the objective world, and its ideographic function still follows the real event. The logical and emotional foundation is the same as traditional movies. The authenticity of the film, in the final analysis, is an artistic reality. It expresses the essence of the abstraction and understanding behind the phenomenon through the artistic expression of the subject.
2019-1-25-1548382118