CMU School of Drama


Friday, February 24, 2017

How new technology is transforming the look of the movies

Dolby - Lab Notes: As Hollywood prepares to honor the world’s elite creative talent at the Academy Awards®, the subject of how technology is influencing the art of filmmaking is once again a topic of conversation.

Powerful laser projection, expanded color gamut, and high dynamic range imaging offer filmmakers the tools to reveal their vision in new ways and share that experience with audiences around the world.

6 comments:

Claire Krueger said...

I love reading about the overlap between technology and art. For one of my college application essays, I don’t remember which, I has to answer the a question about technology becoming more important than art. The article reflected my argument that the relationship is not one of predator and prey but a symbiotic one. In which art lays the foundations for the idea which grows into a technology and technology further enhances art. They are two overlapping fields and it’s silly to address them as two separate topics, seeing how technology can be art and art can become technology. I’ve seen inside out and it was beautiful, but I could never place my finger on why. With a movie about emotions, which are so closely tied with colors, the new developments in technology gave it the possibilities it needed to be a wonderful story. While it would have been a great plot without the added color, I don’t think it would have as powerful of an impact as it did.

Article Rating:
6/10
Notes:
When life give you lemons make apple juice.

Annie Scheuermann said...

I have noticed this so much recently. I remember watching animated movies when I was a kid and how their was always a distinct quality to it, almost like you put a layer of wax paper over everything, it was just not completely brilliant colors, a tad dull. Just recently I was watching Finding Dory (my absolute favorite movie) and was talking about how much more colorful and saturated it was as a movie and in comparison to Finding Nemo. From animated movie going from VHS to digital high def it really does have such a difference, and mostly in color. Art is so dependent on technology and what we can do with what we have available, but art also pushes technology to find solutions for what you want to create. I like how the author described this as a dance. I would love to see animators now a days use the technology that was prime in the 90s and see what they could create. Who knows what we will be watching in another 10 years with how fast and forward moving technology is.

wnlowe said...

I could NEVER do animation for films, especially in a world like today. The amount of detail which needs to exist is astounding and way beyond what my brain can handle or even comprehend. I would have been fine when both the colors and lines were murkier, so the level of detail was restricted; however, in a world like today the colors are so hyper detailed along with the contours of every object in every last frame. I will be interested to see if – as a person who usually focuses less on visuals – I notice the increased dynamic range of color intensity and values in films. I might only comment on the fact that I believed that the lighting was extremely well done, but – in fact – it was the heightened dynamic range. This all being said, the anecdotes utilized by the article are not new films, but a year or two old.

Emily Lawrence said...

I am continually impressed by the progress that has been made with films in even the past ten to fifteen years. They continue to look more natural and more real every time I go see one, especially with animation. I have seen many animation films recently and they are all so beautiful. For example, some of the shots in Moana looked like they should've come from a photograph. With non-animated movies, I would always see a place and have the desire to go there, now that is the same with animation. The environment they are able to create is absolutely amazing. The attention to detail has to be perfect, which is something that I do not excel at. I am heavily considering declaring lighting once I hit that point in sophomore year, so tend to focus on that aspect more in movies. And it seemed like the lighting design team of Moana had designed it for the stage at some points, then placed it in the movie. Since technology is advancing, art will be able to continue to grow past what it originally was.

nick waddington said...

I love going to the movies, even if i dont get to go that often, i think it is an incredible production that really takes an immense amount of time, and i can respect that. i think, for animated films however, it is an entirely different beast, because in this day and age, every little detail has to be perfect. I ave not seen moana, but from what ive heard it is breathtaking, and i can believe it. I know someone wo does animation for pixar, and it amazes me how much of a combination of art and math animated movies are. the way they describe it makes it sound like it could not be possible without the other. now if these are going to have to be more precise, and more dynamic, the stakes these people are working towards have most certainly been raised. I cant wait to see the next incredibly brilliant animated movie.

Julien Sat-Vollhardt said...

I love the trend of modern movies nowadays, where the film has really become again a medium that can be used with the same intensity and emotion as the stage, and even more. Maybe I'm just noticing these things because I'm out of my childhood, but it seemed to me that turn of the century movies were in some sort of transition period between effective film recording and projection, and effective digital recording and special effects. Many movies, that I saw at leas, were simply a means to an end for mediocre psecial effect. I think the recent trend of going for ultra high definition always in movies is perhaps a mistake. In Ultra-high definition, while the sensation is heightened, and details can be carefully controlled, there is none of the necessary "fuzziness" that is quintessential of older 70's 80's movies. One of my favority movies of all time, ZULU, could not have been filmed in HD, because part of what makes it so unique is what it is able to do in that limited film medium. Even though I say that, there were many films I liked this year like Manchester by the Sea, (which I hope wins the oscar, it deserves it), Silence, Deadpool, all of which I really enjoyed.