Computer-Generated Films and the Future of Special Effects in Film

With the much-heralded computer animated CGI film 'Beowulf' showcasing what can be achieved nowadays in the art and science of computer animation, some may see the threat beginning to loom of completely artificial characters taking the jobs of your average working-class, multi-million dollar salaried superstar. Perhaps 20 years or so from now we may start to see feature films that are not only completely computer generated but even with a computer generated script. Will writers be rioting in the streets by this point? Almost every facet of film production would be at threat if technological advances progress as rapidly as they have done in the past 15 years or so since the revolutionary animation that carried 'Jurassic Park' into blockbuster superstardom. From the actors and actresses to the stunt-men, from the cinematographer to the producer, the gaffer, best boy right down to the casting agent's. All would all have to re-think what the film industry holds for them.

It's a dark and insidious idea that hopefully won't come to fruition, save for the occasional fully animated feature. For right now, though, fully realized CGI animated characters are for the most part mapped off of the real human movements of bona-fida living/breathing sentient human beings. Anyone who's watched countless special features on one too many DVD's will be familiar with the myriad of small white balls adorning embarrassed looking actors in snug spandex tights as they physically enact scenes set against green screens in order that computers can fit them snugly into some other-worldly vista like 'Lord of the Rings' golum or 'Beowulf's' .....ummmm Beowulf! It could come to pass that in the future, once a person's/actor's been mapped that there would be no need for them to have any future involvement in the film in question. Gigabyte's upon gigabytes of stored human movements would be stored and assimilated by the computer instead of being mapped against the real person's movements.

But for now we are still some years from seeing a wholly 100% realistic human being on the screen. 'Beowulf' and 'Final Fantasy' being so far the two best and most realistic examples of the media. Should we be excited by the prospect of unreality playing reality on the big screen? It's almost a moral dilemma, to end up so unattached to real life human beings (ergo: people) that computer films are become acceptable substitutes. Horror films, slasher films and comedy films become so formulaic of late that I can't believe it will be too long before the formula's for these films are distilled into binary code and spewed out to us with equally banal results without a script-writer in sight. Will we really be able to suspend our belief-system enough in say a Jane Eyre period pic? even if we are thoroughly aware that none of it is real, that there is nothing behind the teary eyed performances filling the screen, that the beautiful English Landscape is purely the figment dreamed up by an some assortment of metal and wires imagination. Who knows?

What seems impossible now may well not only become possible but become mainstream a couple of decades down the road which is a frightening concept for any aspiring actor so let's hope that humanity manages to look beyond the limitations of the computer-age and doesn't become dependent upon a dead box for it's entertainment. Remember the heart, soul and imagination that makes being human an irreplaceable and wonderful thing.