The whole nature of cinema is being redefined by what we call ‘digital media’. Digital media is something that enables cinema to present narratives in new ways, affecting the entire aspect of filmmaking. As traditional film technology is universally being replaced by digital technology, the logic of the filmmaking process is being redefined. Some of the new principles of digital filmmaking include how live-action footage can be manipulated in several ways by hand. This can be done by animating merged with scenes that have been 3-d computer-generated (Denson and Leyda, 2016).

With digital filmmaking, it has become more difficult to distinguish between a live-action plate and photo-realstic digital visual effects (VFX). This is caused by the widespread usage of VFX (Giralt, 2017). VFX refers to visuals that are made, altered, or improved for any film or other moving medium but do not occur during live-action filming. To create environments that look realistic, VFX frequently combines real footage with these altered visuals. These artificial surroundings are either unreal worlds or ones that are too unsafe to shoot in. To accomplish this, they use specific VFX software and computer-generated imagery (CGI) (Maio, 2021).

In the film The Revenant (2015), the aim was to make the spectator believe that the visuals were made entirely by the camera, but 630 shots were actually created or modified digitally by VFX production companies. The scenes of elk, buffalo herd, wolves, bear, etc., includes visual effects and are intended to improve the story’s visuals and to visually depict dramatic events that would be otherwise impossible to handle (Giralt, 2017). In the example video, you can see that the editors have achieved this. The outcome of digital filmmaking is a new type of realism, which is defined as something that looks as if it is designed to look exactly as if it could have happened when it truly could not (Denson and Leyda, 2016).  

By Serine Mikkelsen

References:
Denson, S., Leyda, J. ‘Perspectives on Post-Cinema: An introduction’, Post-Cinema: Theorising 21st Century Film, pp. 1-19, Available at: reframe.sussex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/POST-CINEMA_LO_RES.pdf

Fame Focus (2021) ‘Deep Dive into the VFX behind ‘The Revenant’ / Before & After CGI Breakdown’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFh5KXEm_9U (Retrieved 14. November 2022)

Giralt, G.F (2017) ‘The Interchangeability of VFX and Live Action and Its Implications for Realism’, Journal of film and video, 69(1), pp. 3–17. doi:10.5406/jfilmvideo.69.1.0003.

Maio, A. (2021) ‘What is VFX? Defining the Term and Creating Impossible Worlds’ Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-vfx/ (Retrieved 13. November 2022)