TECHNICAL REALISM IN THE MOVIES What effect are modern technologies having on the movie-going
experience today? Are audiences still as much participants in the
movie-going experience as before or are we now just passive observers?
Around the 1930s, audiences would see the actors in a car scene while
a rear-screen projection played in the car's back window. Audiences
knew the actors weren't really on a road somewhere but on a sound
stage in a studio. Even the cheesy Wizard of Oz sets and effects were
fine and accepted by audiences willingly suspending their disbelief. Today effects are so real that they can be as much off-putting as they
are mesmerizing. Like animated backgrounds, effects should be
integrated and not stand out or draw attention to themselves unless
the scene is in itself an effects scene. If a film has an overdone
computer effects shot for the audience to ooh and ahh over (or
probably shout out “awesome!') then it's an interruption to story and
character. I can remember the first time I noticed this. I was watching the film
TWISTER (1996); The tornadoes had been realistic and thrilling, and
then came a shot where the protagonists, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton
were driving their truck in a ditch beside a road that was being
churned up by a twister as debris (and later a cow) flew by, all in
one shot. The three elements transported me out of the scene. It was
super real, too real, actually, and visually shouted out“Hey- look at
what we can do!” As a result I was totally an observer now who had
lost any connection with the characters and their predicament. The
magic has been broken, and effects are not in and of themselves magic.
experience today? Are audiences still as much participants in the
movie-going experience as before or are we now just passive observers?
Around the 1930s, audiences would see the actors in a car scene while
a rear-screen projection played in the car's back window. Audiences
knew the actors weren't really on a road somewhere but on a sound
stage in a studio. Even the cheesy Wizard of Oz sets and effects were
fine and accepted by audiences willingly suspending their disbelief. Today effects are so real that they can be as much off-putting as they
are mesmerizing. Like animated backgrounds, effects should be
integrated and not stand out or draw attention to themselves unless
the scene is in itself an effects scene. If a film has an overdone
computer effects shot for the audience to ooh and ahh over (or
probably shout out “awesome!') then it's an interruption to story and
character. I can remember the first time I noticed this. I was watching the film
TWISTER (1996); The tornadoes had been realistic and thrilling, and
then came a shot where the protagonists, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton
were driving their truck in a ditch beside a road that was being
churned up by a twister as debris (and later a cow) flew by, all in
one shot. The three elements transported me out of the scene. It was
super real, too real, actually, and visually shouted out“Hey- look at
what we can do!” As a result I was totally an observer now who had
lost any connection with the characters and their predicament. The
magic has been broken, and effects are not in and of themselves magic.
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