SFX Evolution: How Special Effects Have Changed, and Not Changed

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Hilary

It’s interesting to consider that many of the special effects invented by Melies during the dawn of filmmaking were not only still in use half a century later, but even into the present century. Take, for example, the 1960 version of The Time Machine. The use of bluescreens, miniatures, stop-motion, time-lapse photography, and matte backgrounds earned The Time Machine an Academy Award for special effects. But stop-motion, time-lapse, matte backgrounds, and miniatures had been around a while by then. Before bluescreening, the rather more clunky looking method of back-projection (also called rear-projection) was used. When the protagonist is using the time machine to travel forward through time, for example, time lapse photography is used to show the accelerated opening and closing of flowers in his garden and stop motion animation is used to portray the rapid movement of a snail across the floor. During shots of the street outside of his house, each side of the street and the sky above are all composited together in a very rough and visually obvious way. Although the set design, props, and costumes used in The Time Machine would still pose a strain on the budget of any amateur filmmaker today, the special effects used in this film could easily be mimicked by any modern filmmaker with some knowledge of time lapse photography, a passing familiarity with stop-motion animation, and the use of editing software that comes with a chroma Key (blue screen) filter. Remembering that filmmaking had only been around for a short time, however, The Time Machine was using the most innovative, high-tech methods available for creating visual effects. Nonetheless, these methods can still be seen in the science fiction and fantasy movies of today.

In Jurassic Park, for example, a combination of life-sized mechanical model dinosaurs, the combined use of stop-motion and CGI techniques, and the occasional use of matte painting conveyed a level of unprecedented realism that far exceeded the efforts of previous special effects creators like Ray Harryhausen. Even Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which is famous for its use of digital video and computer graphics, combined images of miniature models with computer graphics and live action footage of volcanoes to create one of the more famous battle sequences movie history. In contrast to the aforementioned use of rear-projection, which always looks really cheesy, it’s worth mentioning that the method of front-projection (which was used for the ape sequences in 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968) seems to give results that are as good as, or sometimes better than, those of the bluescreen technique.

Although, as stated, most or all of these techniques are still being used in the making of modern science fiction and fantasy movies, the use of computers to further manipulate and enhance these techniques –  in addition to the use of CGI (computer-generated imagery) –  in movies like Jurassic Park and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith add new levels of realism, visual beauty, and aspects of storytelling that could not previously have been achieved in so great a degree.

So, is there something beyond CGI? Some new innovations in visual effects will arise from future generations of filmmakers? Well. . . that remains to be seen. Even now, CGI still looks pretty cartoony in most movies – and I have yet to see a significant improvement over the likes of Terminator II and Jurassic Park. With the recent cross-pollination between the film and computer/video game industries, the focus on good graphics should become more pointed in the immediate future – even if the quality of the screenwriting continues to suffer horribly as a result.

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Roger & Me Vs. Capitalism: A Love Story

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Hilary

Because I have seen all of Michael Moore’s recent documentaries, and because he implied that Capitalism: A Love Story might be his last, I decided to see the first documentary he made back in 1989, Roger & Me. It occurs to me in watching this film that Capitalism: A Love Story could be considered a sequel because so many of the points made in Roger & Me connect up so perfectly, and because several clips from Roger & Me appear in Capitalism: A Love Story. Also, several of the people and places in Roger & Me are revisited in the latter documentary. It was astounding to see, all at once, how much some things have changed since 1989 compared to how little of the things have changed. Roger & Me documented the process of the destruction of Flint, Michigan from outsourcing before outsourcing had created such a large-scale impact on the rest of the country. In a way, Roger & Me provides a historical perspective of General Motors as one of the early purveyors of the mindsets and business models that created the global financial crisis in which we find ourselves today.

Although this was Moore’s first foray into expository documentary filmmaking, it had surprisingly high production values and a very modern pace – as far as editing and the rate at which the narrative progressed. The fast cutting in several scenes, especially those in which famous entertainers or old advertisements were used to illustrate the contrast of hype versus reality, added a more narrative feel to the documentary. Although a similar technique can be seen in certain documentaries made by Disney in the 1950s, Moore was one of the first to pioneer the use of a farcical narrative style as a method of sardonic commentary on social and political issues using the cinematographic styles developed by producers of popular media. The particular style of humor attributed to the films of Michael Moore, who is now widely considered an auteur, is also surprisingly well-developed in this film. Admittedly, most of it is based on irony. For example, there was a scene in Roger & Me in which one of Moore’s crew was carried bodily from a building while still sitting in a chair because he was recognized to have been a nephew of Ralph Nader. In the dénouement of the documentary, Moore finally speaks with Smith on Christmas Eve and voices the plight of Flint, only to be patronized and essentially ignored. This scene is intercut with a Flint family being forcibly ejected from their home, Christmas tree and all. This illustrated the dehumanizing moralistic attitudes of corporate greed later expounded upon in Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story. I still hold the opinion that Sicko was Moore’s finest effort as a filmmaker (with Canadian Bacon coming in a close second), but I must say that Roger & Me is incredibly impressive as examples of first efforts by documentarians go.

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Brooding Females, a Recent Trend Imitating the “Brooding Male” Cliche?

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Hilary

I was watching old episodes of Daria recently and it got me thinking about the introduction and continuing low-level trend of the brooding female teenager character in television shows and movies. Dark, brooding characters are a perennial favorite for screenwriters. Characters in the media who spend a lot of time in their own heads thinking about the negative aspects of life can range all the way from the classical “strong, silent type” to the more recent semi-angsty goth. From the protagonists in the pre WWII westerns and noir films to those in modern crime shows and action movies, brooding male characters have always been around. But brooding females (which aren’t quite the same as angsty females, although one often becomes the other) didn’t start to become popular in mass media until the 1980s. This still hasn’t become a particularly noticeable trend, and some examples are related to the most recent incarnation of the goth/vampire trend, but it still interesting to note as an occasional contender in the world of character types. As far as I can recall, one of the earlier examples of the brooding teenage girl was the Mary Stuart Masterson’s character in the 1987 movie Some Kind of Wonderful. This character was somewhat transitional, as she was also fairly angsty, but she had more to be grumpy about than just a boy. This is as opposed to Bella from Twilight, who started out as a brooding teenager and became angsty after meeting Edward, the sparkly faux-vampire. A character somewhere in the middle of this range would be Julia Stiles’ character from the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You. Admittedly, she was grumpy because of a past relationship with a boy, but I would still describe it more as brooding than angst.

There are also a few brooding female characters that were not teenagers. Take, for example, Marg Helgenberger’s character (Catherine Willows), who originally served as second banana to William Petersen’s character (Gil Grissom) on the TV show CSI. Like Gil, Catherine had a tendency to work through personal problems by doing lab work, trying to ignore the problem, or just plain old sitting and brooding in a dark room – not that any of the rooms on CSI were actually well-lit in the first place. This also provided direct contrast to the angsty female on the show, Jorja Fox’s character (Sara Sidle, a name that I always thought was a play on the word “suicidal”).

The consummate example of the brooding female character, as is the case with the male variety, appears in action movies. The best brooding female in all of action moviedom so far would have to be Sarah Conner from Terminator 2: Judgment Day – after she left the asylum, that is. Nothing says brooding like dreaming about a nuclear apocalypse and watching your son play with a repurposed death machine while you quietly sit and ponder the upcoming war with the machines.

So, what does the recent appearance of the brooding female in the mass media mean for the future of female characters? On the one hand, this could be seen as a somewhat positive influence, as more pronounced examples of these characters tend to be more self-sufficient and independent (since one cannot brood if one is not a loner). On the other hand, it could be seen as negative as well, since (like the early examples of the male variety) many of these characters are also relatively socially inept and have poor relationships with everyone around them. Also, the combination of being alone so much and being all grumpy about it sometimes leads to the character descend into madness.

Will this trend continue? Even increase? I’m guessing it will. With the onset of so-called “mumblecore” films and an increasing affinity among filmmakers to blend prevalent male and female gender stereotypes, it seems likely that more female characters will start spending considerable screen time sitting alone (or, at least being mentally alone while in a crowd) and thinking deep, pessimistic thoughts.

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Seven Movies For St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Hilary

Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)

Aside from the innate humor of seeing Sean Connery sing and dance, in a Disney movie no less, this is actually a very entertaining movie in its own right. The story is basically about a man named Darby O’Gill (played by Albert Sharpe) who tries to trick various supernatural powers (mostly leprechauns) into giving him what he wants and the back-and-forth incidents that occur as a result. I highly recommend this film for anyone who just wants to see something imaginative and charming.

The Quiet Man (1952)

This is a beautifully shot movie, which is unsurprising since it was directed by John Ford. It stars John Wayne as a retired American boxer who moves to Ireland and soon falls for and marries a highly spirited country girl (played by Maureen O’Hara). Cultural misunderstandings wreak a little havoc on their relationship, but it all comes together in the end with a truly silly fight between the protagonist and his brother-in-law. This movie is well worth watching for both the pretty cinematography and the acting/writing of the comedic characters.

Top o’ the Morning (1949)

Bing Crosby (playing an Irish-American insurance investigator) and Barry Fitzgerald (playing the local Irish policeman) team up to solve the mystery of who stole the Blarney Stone, and who’s using it to cover up other crimes. This is an entertaining musical comedy, that happens to be a crime movie as well. It contains some traditional Irish folk songs that are most amusing.

Irish Luck (1939)

This is a comedy/mystery about a bellhop (whose mother is Irish) who solves a murder in a hotel. This film doesn’t really focus that much on the Irish aspects of the characters, but it’s still a cute little movie.

The Gnome-Mobile (1967)

This movie stars Walter Brennan and the same boy and girl from Mary Poppins as a wealthy old fellow and his grandkids who help out some lost gnomes. It’s a pretty goofy movie for adults, but it’s sure to please little kids. I really loved it when I was little.

Waking Ned Devine (1998)

This could probably be considered just as much of a old people movie as an Irish movie. Actually, though, it reminded me a little of Last of the Summer Wine – only a little more crude. I think any detailed description could almost be considered a spoiler so I’ll just say that it’s a movie about ridiculous old Irishmen in a little town and leave it at that. It’s worth a watch.

Evelyn (2002)

This is a somewhat tragic film with a happy, and rather sweet, ending. Okay, yes, part of this film takes place around Christmas, but it’s an exceedingly Irish movie. This film stars Pierce Brosnan as a father whose daughter is taken away by the state when his wife abandons her family. Like I said, it’s a bit of a tear jerker, but it’s well written and acted. Besides, a little political commentary is good for ya!

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Father-Daughter Stories: A New TV Trend

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Hilary

I thought it might be interesting to talk a little bit about the recent trend of father-daughter dynamics in TV shows, especially in crime shows. What’s so interesting about the most recent examples is that it’s basically the same dynamic from one show to the next. Shark, Castle, Lie To Me, and a few other shows made in the last few years all center around a semi-irresponsible protagonist whose primary redeeming quality is that he’s a loving father, and include a scholastically and socially responsible daughter who acts as a smart-alecky foil for the protagonist. In the case of Castle, the relationship dynamic kind of resembles the best friend-ish mother-daughter relationship in Gilmore Girls to a certain degree. However, this makes a fair amount of sense because the father in Castle was supposed to have been raised by his mother. There are also largely father-daughter oriented shows wherein the daughter is the main character, like Veronica Mars and Hannah Montana.

Okay, at this point you may not get how unusual this is. Sure there are a couple of father-son shows on TV today, like the show Psych. But think about it for a second. In the past, the majority of television had father-son relationships (e.g. Diagnosis Murder, That 70’s Show, Sanford and Son, The Andy Griffith Show, etc.) – and a number of, mother-son or mother-daughter stories, but practically no father-daughter stories. Yeah, there were a couple of stand-out oddities like My Two Dads and Full House, but that’s not really the same thing. For that matter, neither are the occasional father-daughter episodes on ensemble shows like The Simpsons or Bones. Nope, the growing trend of having a main feature (source of sub-plots) of a show be a father-daughter relationship is really pretty new.

So, here’s my point: When the prevailing trend from the 1950s clear through the 1980s was father-son relationships, why is the focus now trending towards father-daughter stories on television? Okay, I have one theory so far (with absolutely nothing to back it up). Maybe the makers/backers of these shows are dads of daughters, or daughters of influential dads, who are writing from that perspective. Some have theorized that having three presidents with daughters in a row has influenced the public psyche, but that seems pretty unlikely to me. It’s interesting to think about, but this trend isn’t really being talked about much yet. Any theories of your own?

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Chuck Versus Get Smart

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Hilary

Egad! I haven’t posted in almost a month! Sorry, folks. I guess I’ve been a little preoccupied with scholarship apps, etc. I’ll try to be a little more on the ball.

Anyway. . .

Ever since Chuck premiered about four years ago, I’ve been comparing it to Get Smart in my mind. Sure, it has a different story, different characters, and came along about 42 years after Get Smart, but it has the same premise and genre. At its core, Chuck is a goofy slapstick spy comedy which makes frequent use of some highly ridiculous word jokes. Also, although the show didn’t start out this way, the main characters have been fighting a large organization of evil of one kind or another (vaguely reminiscent of KAOS) for most of the show’s run. Over this last season, the organization was even headed by a Russian named Volkoff (played by British actor and two-time James Bond Timothy Dalton). Finally, the main character and his leading lady were married in both programs, although the proposal in Get Smart was more silly and the one in Chuck was more sentimental.

The main differences between these two programs seems to be the considerably more sentimental slant in the show Chuck and the occasional elements meant to convey a certain degree of “cool factor.” While Get Smart focused on packing as many jokes into the time allotted as possible, Chuck generally spends at least one or two scenes on a big stunt or action sequence to get an “ooh” out of the audience and ends each episode with something warm and fuzzy to get an “aww” out of the audience. While Chuck does occasionally the veer a little too close to melodrama on occasion, the show is really fairly balanced overall. I would guess that the occasional forays into excessive melodrama are due to the influence of Josh Schwartz (who was also involved with The O.C and Gossip Girl). Co-creator Chris Fedak is pretty much a mystery at this point. As for Get Smart, the comedic style of the writing was unmistakably the most heavily influenced by Mel Brooks (who is best known for his early writing on Sid Caesar’s television programs and for movies such as Blazing Saddles and Dracula: Dead and Loving it!).

It is worth noting, however, that many of the routines appearing in Chuck seem to almost be homages to the writing style in Get Smart. In the episode Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil, for example, Ray Wise (playing Volkoff’s lawyer) started the episode with a brief yet highly ridiculous routine fully worthy of Get Smart.

It would be impossible for me to choose which of these two shows I like better. I like both for slightly different reasons, and many of the same reasons. One could make any number of arguments in favor of either program, but I like to think that any modern viewer who is a fan of classic Get Smart episodes will also be a fan of Chuck. Hopefully, it will continue to be the same hilarious, action-packed, sentimental, and minimally melodramatic program it has always been.

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Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh: Best Martial Arts Movie Team Ever!!

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Hilary

Jackie Chan is, perhaps, the most famous actor in martial arts films. I first saw him in a television broadcast of Rumble in the Bronx and have been an admirer of his films ever since. Michelle Yeoh (best known for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is considerably less well recognized for the vast body of her work. I first saw Yeoh playing a Chinese secret agent in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. It’s because of her portrayal of a female equal to James Bond that Tomorrow Never Dies is my favorite Bond movie (I used to like Moonraker the best, but that’s neither here nor there).

About a week ago, it occurred to me that Chan and Yeoh might have been in a movie together. They did (no, I don’t mean Kung Fu Panda!). The 1992 movie Supercop (aka Police Story 3) co-stars Chan and Yeoh as a pair of Hong Kong detectives who go undercover to bust a Chinese drug ring. As expected, these two are great together. Both are good actors, both are amazingly athletically coordinated, and both are natural comedians. They actually made a sequel of this as well, but I haven’t seen it yet.

What’s my point? Chan and Yeoh are the Astair and Rogers of martial arts movies and I just thought it was worth mentioning. I’ll write a more analytical post about this later on.

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The Future of the MPAA Ratings System

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Hilary

There seems to be a lot of talk nowadays about the ratings system and its effect on movies. For what it’s worth, here are a few of my thoughts on the matter. One of the primary complaints I hear and read from critics of the current ratings system is that it prevents NC-17 (X-rated) movies from being shown in most theaters and decreases advertising venues for such films. It is for this reason that, when filmmakers claim they are being forced to edit/censor their movies, what they’re actually complaining about is that their movies will receive a higher rating in its original form and, thus, be less likely to rake in significant revenues.

As a rather unfortunate result of this, general social pressure from the media at large seems to have influenced raters to frequently be less conservative than they should be so that more semi-pornographic and grotesquely violent films are allowed to have the lower ratings that gives them entrée to larger advertising campaigns and to a greater number of theaters.

A solution to this problem suggested to me by my brother is to have more theaters show movies that are rated as being unsuitable for young people and allow the distributors of such films to advertise the more prominently. In concept, this probably seems like a difficult, or even unfeasible, idea to implement. However, since much of the media shown in theaters and on television is already unsuitable for young people, and probably some adult viewers (due to inaccurate ratings), this idea might be made more palatable to resistant media makers/distributors if it was presented more as a shift in semantics then anything else. Could this make the prevalence of distasteful media increase? Maybe it would, maybe not. Eventually, after enough media outlets had expanded their offerings, pressure from mass media could decline enough to allow film raters to rate films more realistically. This would at least allow viewers some degree of certainty about what they were in for when they went to see a movie. And, of course, this would be particularly useful to parents. After all, aren’t these things the whole point of having a ratings system in the first place?

I should mention, however, that another frequent complaint by critics of the current ratings system is that movies are rated the same way court cases are decided – by a jury of individuals supposedly composed of members of the public who use their own social mores to make decisions instead of a set of written specifications. Although this system has the flaw of allowing decisions made about the rating of films change from one group of raters to the next, as films from different eras end up being judged almost on a case-by-case basis, having films rated by a specialized group of panelists using a set list of criteria would result in the same complaints that were lodged against the Hayes Code after 1934.

Perhaps, then, a solution to this might be a combination of the two systems. This is basically just off the top of my head, but the MPAA could write up a set of absolute minimum standards (changeable by vote of the members of the MPAA) for use as a reference by film raters –  who would still be regular people selected to represent the viewing public. Some critics further complain that they are not allowed to know the identities of the MPAA raters. As with juries in court cases, I feel this is as it should be. People chosen to use their own personal judgment should not be directly influenced through pressure, bribery, or other means by fervent filmmakers to make decisions they would not otherwise make.

As with any system involving judgments of morality or personal taste, it is likely impossible to come up with a perfect system that will please everyone. Especially when one considers that the mores and values of people from different communities and belonging to different eras can vary quite drastically from one another. As is also the case with any social/media regulatory system, the current film ratings system will continue to evolve over time –  whether for worse or better.

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Television Was Theater, Television is Cinema

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Hilary

I’ve been reading a book called TV Script Writer’s Handbook by Alfred Brenner. More often than not, those discussing the history of television tend to focus on changes in social content or technology. Interesting though those topics may be, my thoughts linger on Brenner’s description of the change in style and presentation. From the broadcast of the first television drama, which occurred in 1928 and was viewed on portable  electric television sets manufactured by General Electric (According to pg 140 of Tim Wu’s 2010 book The Master Switch), fictional television programs were essentially broadcasts of stage plays. By the late 1940s and early 1950s when television became more popular in the United States, several programs employed the format of buying short teleplays (or just hiring staff writers) and performing/broadcasting them live each week. As with stage plays, the actors would rehearse these teleplays thoroughly and perform them in exactly the order written. Any noises made by the crew or equipment, and any mistakes made by the performers, were seen by the entire viewership. Although some programs were prerecorded and edited before broadcast by the mid-1950s, this format didn’t really take over until the 1960s. At least, according to Brenner. Eventually, all (or nearly all) televised entertainment was prerecorded (often out of sequence, as in cinema production), edited, and then broadcast. The television of the 1960s and beyond bore a much closer resemblance to cinema than live theater.

In the present day, live television dramas are extremely rare –  if not unheard of. Even Saturday Night Live isn’t really live anymore. It’s worth mentioning that there was a recent example of a fictional television episode that was broadcast live. On October 14, 2010, former Saturday Night Live writer/performer Tina Fey and the cast of her show 30 Rock did an episode entitled “Live Show” which was exactly that. It was broadcast and performed twice, once for the East Coast and once for the West. This was probably more of an homage to SNL than the beginnings of television, but it did show just how innovatively and effectively a truly live fictional television program could be accomplished –  if only for one night.

Given the difficulties involved with streaming live broadcasts over the Internet with limited bandwidth, live Internet broadcasts or simulcasts will probably take at least a few more years to gain vast popularity. In time, technology may advance to the point where one could reasonably stream live broadcasts on small computers or cellular telephones while walking around. A version of this is available now, but it’s extremely primitive and clunky.

In retrospect, it’s quite surprising that tiny, hand-held television sets didn’t become more popular. I used to have a little television about the size of my hand that used a necklace-style antenna. Unfortunately, it only showed a black and white picture and didn’t receive very many channels no matter where was. Actually, I had a television tuner attached to my computer for several years, until that whole digital thing came along. Now I primarily rely on Netflix and Internet video websites like Hulu and YouTube. It was interesting to see live events like the presidential debates and Obama’s presidential inauguration available for live streaming on these websites. Honestly, they played surprisingly well. It would appear that live broadcasts of news, sports, and public events has found a place on the Internet. Whether the remnants of live fictional programming will find a new audience on the Internet or disappear from video entertainment entirely still remains to be seen. As for myself, and think the cinematic style of television has allowed for the creation of some phenomenal pieces of entertainment. However, for the same reasons one might enjoy watching a play at a theater, I also rather enjoy watching broadcasts of live performances –  although I don’t get to see them very often.

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CGI + Traditional Animation = The Future of Cartoons?

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Hilary

I recently wrote a review of The Princess and the Frog (2009) – a movie made using a combination of scanned in hand-drawn images and CGI (computer generated imagery) –  for a film class I’m taking and wanted think about a couple of interesting things brought to my attention as a viewer in further detail.

Because CGI makes for very crisp, slick-looking backgrounds and hand-drawn pictures make for very rich, varied, and often diaphanous backgrounds, the combination of the two made for a visually stunning movie. That is to say, all the static (or mostly static) drawings were excellent. However, the character animation was where this and many other examples of modern animation fall apart.

The movements made by various characters’ arms, legs, and other body-parts appeared overly fluid – almost snake-like. Conversely things that should have been more fluid or bouncy (e.g., hair, flesh, clothing) appeared overly stiff – kind of like sponge rubber. This, in my opinion, is largely due to the influx of new animators who are untrained in older methods of studying movement and applying it to animation. The solution? Get some older, more experienced animators to work with and mentor these young animators.

In Jurassic Park (1993), that’s exactly what Spielberg did. Initially, experienced animators were brought in and regular stop-motion models were used for the dinosaurs, but the models didn’t have enough range as far as what they could do and they didn’t look realistic enough. Then, they tried pure CG dinosaurs, but the movement wasn’t believable (same problem I was just talking about). Eventually, they came up with an ingenious way to combine them. Model dinosaurs were built for the stop-motion animators that transmitted all the movements made by the models to a piece of computer animation software. These were used by the experienced stop-motion animators. The CGI trained animators then combined and tweened the movements indicated by the stop-motion inspired models and made the dinosaurs look prettier with texture maps and other CGI.

Theoretically, this is what they were trying to do with The Princess and the Frog: combine the best of the old techniques with the best of the new techniques to create something wonderful. The only problem was that the people doing hand-drawn images to provide the element of traditional animation were not familiar enough with the techniques used in the past to simulate realistic character movement to make the experiment a complete success. Many modern examples of character animation in cartoons either consists of those cartoons that look like they were drawn in flash (with characters whose joints move as if attached by hinges), of characters whose movement is conveyed by motion capture technology attached to a human, or by characters modeled in programs that allow for the creation of model skeletons to determine the movement of the characters. None of these modern methods are conducive to teaching young animators how to study movement properly –  especially when they are drawing by hand and there are no computers to provide artificial assistance.

There is definitely a place for traditional animation in the future of animated motion pictures. Indeed, the combination of hand-drawn art and computer-generated art raises the bar for future endeavors by Disney and other makers of cartoon movies. There are two important things to take away from looking at movies like The Princess and the Frog and Jurassic Park. Firstly, combining traditional animation and CGI makes for a more visually complex and generally prettier movie. Secondly, it is important for up-and-coming animators to study under older, more experienced animators so that they may learn how to properly use both new and old techniques. If the old techniques are entirely forgotten, the opportunity to create many fine pieces of art in the future with those techniques will be lost and animators will come to rely exclusively upon technology rather than their own talent as artists. If new technology is ignored or not used to its fullest capabilities, innovation will cease. The only way to ensure continued innovation and artistic experimentation in the animated motion picture industry of the future is to keep all the older techniques in use and build upon them with new techniques and new technologies. As with math and science, the great discoveries and methods of the future are built upon all the discoveries and methods of the past. Just try to take the derivative of a polynomial expression without using arithmetic some time and see how far you get.

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