media histories essay realism

How has an obsession with realism shaped the culture of the screen in the 21^st century and are there any negative aspects to this?

I am going to argue that there are no negative effects to realism on screen in the 21^st century . I will base this argument on the idea that the new technologies that have been developed in aid of realism have produced an all round more thrilling , and authentic cinematic experience.

Realism can be defined as , “Close resemblance to what is real-, fidelity of representation, rendering the precise details of the real thing or scene” Films are able to achieve realism better than ever now. The 21^st century has given us some fantastic films. In particular I feel sci-fi and fantasy films have flourished due to realism. Due to SFX now directors can practically shoot anything. The graphic novel, Watchmen was considered ‘un-filmable’ no director went near the film adaptation rights until Zack Snyder took up the challenge, after his success with 300 he was keen to do another adaptation of the comic book genre. “If you approach comics as a poor relation to film, you are left with a movie that does not move, has no soundtrack and lacks the benefit of having a recognizable movie star in the lead role.”
-Alan Moore

  Despite this negative quote from the writer, Snyder was passionate about staying true to the graphic novel. What made it so un- filmable was the comic book format, colour and timing ie flashbacks.

In the 80s Alan Moore was approached by Terry Gilliam asking to film Watchmen, “Moore told Gilliam that it was an impossible task, like finding the Holy Grail or filming Don Quixote.  Terry Gilliam agreed.  Watchmen was unfilmable.” Shana Mlawski (overthinkingit.com)

Through the new technologies in filmmaking Snyder had all the tools he needed to tackle this complex Graphic novel unlike Gilliam.

 The costumes where incredible and the sets where inspired, their was a real element of cg in the creation of Dr Manhattan as a God like blue glowing super hero with the ability to explode people and teleport to mars. Another character Rorschach has a complicated fluid ink blot simulation on his mask, this would have be unachievable if it weren’t for cg. The special effects where beautiful and I feel they added to the believability and realism of the film. Here Shana Mlawski talks about realism in Watchmen and why people wish to see comic book film adaptations, “Movies win this round due to the realism of their visuals and their use of music.  Why do people always clamor for film adaptations of their favorite novels or comics?  I think it’s because they want to see their favorite characters and scenes come to life.  Comics wouldn’t do it.  People want the realism.  They want to see the movement.”

This is a very important point, as an art form cinema is one of the best ways to tell a story as it transports you more than any other art form into the story, it is one of the most visual art forms and realism helps it to do this in a positive and satisfying way to the audience.

Through the birth of new 3d technology we have witnessed the highest grossing film in the history of cinema. Like many Sci-Fi and fantasy films in the past 11 years, Avatar has incredible special effects and through the use of motion capture technology, beautiful performances. This kind of cinematic experience was not possible 10 years ago. Realism requires a close resemblance to what is real, although the aliens and their planet in avatar did not exist in real life there was a realistic element to it all. This is because everything that was created on the alien planet was based on our planet. The indigenous plants and fauna of Pandora where believable as was the creature and vehicle design. Although we know this is not real we cannot help but feel everything on the planet is kind of familiar. This is the beauty of realism the ability to take reality and twist it. Another example of realistic design in film would be 1982 Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott , in a review Yves Chevrier stated 1, “Even if it still eludes us , the near future has an air of familiarity.”

Here he is talking about the incredible sets and the visuals of Blade runner,

“what a feast of images.”

Here the importance of the visual aspect of film is evident and present even in 80’s filmmaking so to say that realism is an obsession of the 21^st century s wrong we have always been obsessed with it. As far back as the renaissance humans have been obsessed with recreating reality , it is through this obsession that we have better understood reality creating new technologies in the creative arts. 

As an aspiring concept artist in film I appreciate the ability of animators and modellers in films today to make practically anything come to life. Therefore concept art in film I believe is the best its ever been due to the total liberation of concept artists creativity, there are no physical limits in blockbuster films like Transformers. The case was different for filmakers in the 50’s and 60’s for example when directors where limited creatively by the technology of their time, for example Jaws 1975 directed by Steven Spielberg, back then the animatronic shark was an attempt at realism by Spielberg, I think that if he could have used the technology of our time back then they would have , “He is, in box-office terms, the most successful director ever, and there are few things quite so damaging to the reputation of an artist than extreme popularity. The sheer success of Spielberg’s way of making movies, starting with his second theatrical feature Jaws in 1975, has led to a lasting critical wariness that has impeded the recognition of him as a truly great filmmaker.- Tom Shone , Blockbuster

One of Spielberg’s latest cinematic exploits would be The Adventures of Tintin, In a review from Empire magazine reviewer Ian Nathan states, “ Spielberg expands the Belgians former elegance into a digital wonderland”

Nathan realises that Tintin is a perfect homage to the original even though there is a digital aspect to it,

“a wonderland of digital detail without ever losing sight of the bubbly charm of the books . Encompassing the shovel chins and bobbled noses of the hergeian caricatures, Weta pursues a whimsical variation on photoreal .”

To say that there are negative effects to realism in 21st century cinema is ridiculous as we have constantly been striving for realism on screen if we did not the industry would not have grown or developed. The Oscars now recognise special effects along with other technological developments in films in their award ceremony. A good example of this would be lord of the rings clean sweep at the 2004 Oscars winning 11 awards for Return of the king . Peter Jackson was one of the few directors to try out motion capture technology. He used this to create a sense of realism with his character Gollum. The response was incredible. The Return of the king grossed $1 billion worldwide. What made this film successful was a marriage artwork and design executed in stunning special effects.

I feel that special effects and realism are just another way of entertaining the audience. I do not feel we are obsessed with realism on screen, it is just a small tool in making fantastic films.

It really is Realism...

Realism can be defined as having a close resemblance to what is real. Fidelity of representation, rendering the precise details of the real thing or scene.

As technology progresses more and more in film and televison, artists and film makers have been pushing the boundarys of visual entertainment. Nowadays it is almost impossible to tell that something that has been compueter generated in cinema graphics and special effects. I feel this creates a very real and engaging experience for the audience, because the graphics are so realistic i feel it is easier to totally immerse yourself in what you are seeing.

In film nowadays there are things that we know are not real in our world but because of the technology in film we can create almost anything we want , we can make the audience believe (almost) that what they are seeing could also be present off screen in theyre world - real life. The advances in technology in film have have created a whole new level of escapism.


In big budget blockbusters like Avatar we are transported to another planet where we see an array of animal and plant life we know does not exist but it looks real , allowing us to relax and enjoy the experience. What i am saying is if graphics are done badly these days , it is laughable, that is assuming the creator was trying to c achieve a sense of realism and fidelity to real life. It is a different case , however , if the filmaker has made a concious decision to stay away from reality as a artistic angle , as long as this is made obvious the audience can relax and accept that what they are seeing is not trying to be real.

As a hopefull concept artist and creature designer in film I look to reality for inspiration constantly. The best way I have ever heard concept art being described is , "taking reality and twisting it". It is the process of looking to reality for inspiration that excites me. Artists often look to nature for references. In avatar James Cameron had a whole team of artists concepting for years before he made the film. He wanted his artists to study the natural world in order for them to create a completely convincing real world. They looked at the ecosystems of the ocean for inspiration. the idigenous plantlife and fauna in avatar is absolutely awesome  looking , the reason for this is Camerons understanding and study of reality.


So in a sense there is realism is everything , because everything is based on something real.


Realism can be defined in many ways , I have explored the way that I feel affects me the most.

Narrative

Once upon a time...
In film and televison narrative is always present. The most obvious form of narrative I can think of would be David Attenborough narrating Blue planet. He explains whats going on and informs us of what we are watching.



Perhaps a less obvious example of narration would be Rorshachs role as the narrator in Watchmen



In Watchmen follow the character Rorshach attempts to solve the mysterious murder of The Comedian.
Through his narration we are given his biast opinion and thoughts, we see the world through the warped eyes of Rorshach. The structure of a story was worked out by Aristotle, "A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end"
These are the basic principals of storytelling. A theorist called Todorov came up with his own theory of narrative he explained that in a story there is, EQUILIBRIUM--->DISEQUILIBRIUM--->EQUILIBRIUM

In Watchmen  arguably the equilibrium is that the heroes are all retired or working for the government , the disequilibrium is that the comedian is murdered along with impending nuclear war . The new equilibrium is that nuclear war is avoided through Veidt's plan for world peace, Rorshach is killed.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality- Denotes the transposition of one (or several) sign systems.



Intertextuality is everywhere, but the most obvious form of intertextuality for me is used in film and televison.
This example above was taken from the Austin Powers movie  ~(left) and The Bond movie 'You only live twice'

Here Mike Myers is in costume as Doctor Evil, which looks incredibly similar to The Bond Movie villain played by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The similarities between these Dr Evil and this James Bond villain are used on purpose. It is a sort of shout out to the fans of 'You only live twice' It is a sort of private joke between the filmakers and those who have seen the Bond film. This does not mean however that those who have not seen the bond film will not recognise this bald villain with a cat as familar, this type of villain has been used in other movies and telvison before Austin Powers eg Inspector gadget



'The Claw' Villain from the inspector gadget cartoon also references the Bond film. A person stroking a cat sitting on a swivel chair became iconic  as a villainous pose.



The new cats and Dogs movie also does this but in a more obvious and therefore humorous way. Another example of intertextuality was whenever a friend of my could finish the rest of his sandwich and it reminded me of the scene in Anchorman where Ron Burgandy cannot finish the rest of his borrito and so throes it away saying, " This borritto is delicious but it is filling!"
I decided to badly qoute this as my friend threw his sandwich into the bin - i was the only one who found this funny. Perhaps those that heard me couldnt remember this scene or mabye im just really bad at qoutes....

Semiotics- The study of meaning...

Semitonics is present in every day life, we see iconic signs everywhere. Some signs are recognised universally and some are only relevant to specific cultures. For instance, a picture of a dog would be universally recognised as a dog, yet the word DOG is only recognised by those that speak and can read English. The general idea then is that the more constrained the thing you are trying to communicate is to reality, the more iconic it is, the less constrained something is to reality is Arbitary (Symbolic)

When it comes to films we can apply the same idea , for example a film like Avatar is less contrained by reality and is therefore more symbolic. A documentary film like Frozen Planet( David Attenborough) is based around real life , it is totally constrained by reality. Using this theory Frozen Planet is Iconic and Avatar is Arbitary.

Another example of this theory would be the slight cultural differences between my home country - Northern Ireland and England. I have realised that talking to english people in my accent results in some confused looks, I am having to repeat myself! Even though our language is the same, the difference in accents can cause misunderstanding or bad communication. Therfore my accent is more abstract(or arbitary) to most English people and more realistic(or Iconic) to my friends and family back home.

Communication, Redundancy / Entropy

Last week in Media histories we learnt about an amazing communication model invented by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, they were tasked with improving the communication process.
 As a budding artist I am now realising the importance of communication through your work - one of the more important things i took from this lesson was how easily emotions the artist / animator/filmaker would like his audience to feel may not always be felt , they can very easily be lost in translation.
For example in the new Predator film that came out last year (yes the one that practically murdered the franchise for alot of us) was ofcourse sold as a horror / action film - the difference between this and the origional Predator (1987) was that, in my opinion we do not give a sh*t if the characters die, in all good horror films I think it is important that the audience feel attached to the main characters that are in danger ...or at least can identify with them, otherwise we dont feel for them and therefore dont care if they are about to get thrown in to an industrial meatgrinder. In Predators the must have been a serious breakdown of communication between the director and writers, ie thier must have been alot of NOISE at the time. In Shannon and weavers model noise is something that distracts from the signal. This noise could have came in the form of a low budget or the director and the writer having different views about the way the film is going.

We also learnt about REDUNDANCY and ENTROPY - Learning about redundancy and entropy has changed the way i look at films drawings even advertising i am now seeing it everywhere. On the 15th I journeyd to London - the big smoke, coming from Norhtern Ireland London always surprises me , on this ocassion it was the tate moderns exhibiton of Gerhard Richter - Pnorama . Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden East germany after the second world war. At the exhibition i was noticing how skillful his work was , yet what i realised more was the variation of entropic and redundant work he has done - he had a collection of amazing landscape paintings that where too me quite redundant , i must stress redundant does not mean i found it boring simply some of his more maintstream work appealed to more people than his other more abstract work , as I sat there i noticed people staring at the more redundant pieces for ages and the more abstract work was simply glanced over quickly by the majority. I realised redundancy and entropy can be applied to almost anything.