Dillon Glazebrook 12|7|11 Film Theory Nina Fonoroff

In this response paper I will be looking at Michael Allens article, The Impact of Digital Technologies on Film Aesthetics and comparing films from the beginning of the use of CGI and recent films in order to analyze the changes in aesthetics that have occurred over the maturation of CGI. I am too young to have witnessed, overtime, the aesthetic changes that CGI has shaped within the film medium. Although I was not around to gain a long-term familiarity with aesthetic qualities of films before CGI became common I have come to know them quite well. I have studied motion pictures from all time periods, with great interest, for fifteen years now. I am confident in my knowledge of aesthetic concepts and conventions but I wonder if my understanding of their change over time is in some way tainted by the fact that I didnt know early films outside of the context of modern films. Despite the fact that I was not alive during the eras of cinema that preceded CGI I am quite sure of the changes I have seen in aesthetics of films from the birth of CGI to current films. One of the first films I watched in the theater was Jurassic Park. At the time of its creation CGI was fairly young and was focused on creating an artistic reality(Allen, 824). I was amazed at the films mixture of live motion and CGI. At the time I first saw the film the dinosaurs seemed to mesh perfectly with the live motion footage of the actors. The creators of this film went through great pains to make the

computer generated parts of the film look as naturalistic as possible. This aesthetic attempt at reality through CGI was very popular at the time and is still seen today. A change I have noticed in the aesthetic use of CGI in films is a larger focus on fantasy. This is apparent in the shift overtime of CGI shot length. In early CGI films shots were often very short; in one scene of Jurassic Park averaging around 6.3 seconds. Current films that feature CGI have much longer shots that give the audience time to analyze the computer generated elements and admire them. This aesthetic shift from short to long shot lengths occurred for many reasons. The improvement of CGI technologies made it easier and less expensive to create longer and better looking sequences of CGI footage that birthed a new element of admiration to the CGI rather than trickery. Over the life of CGI I have also noticed a shift in the credibility of CGI elements in realistic and fanciful spaces. The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park are a far cry from the abilities of CGI today to achieve a believable appearance as well as blend with live motion footage.