ARE GREEN SCREENS KILLING THE MOVIES?
It’s easy to be cynical about green screen work and computer graphics; to say that they’ve made movies increasingly artificial and soulless. Many, myself included, are quick to bemoan the loss of practical effects, in-camera tricks, and techniques like matte painting and stop-motion. However, what makes a given movie good or bad is seldom the specific tools that were used in its creation – a movie’s quality is determined by how those tools are used. The reality is that you see much more green screen work and CG compositing than you realize. Projects that we don’t immediately think of as effects-heavy, like network TV shows, use green screens all the time for things like background replacement and vehicle insertion.
The following video is the 2014 showreel for an effects company called Stargate. They do a lot of compositing work that simply blends away into the background, unnoticed by the viewer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2l3scv5Gj8
The next video is an essay from Rocket Jump Film School. It’s a very thoughtful look at why CG special effects work – or don’t – along with how effects change how we think of films.
Green screens, compositing, and computer effects are not going anywhere soon. Film has been continuously evolving since its inception and new tools will continue to be invented. It’s up to the filmmakers to use these tools in effective, compelling ways.
Here’s one more video from Mark Vargo, a visual effects artist who was working at ILM during the production of The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a fascinating, detailed look at the way compositing was done before software streamlined the process. It’ll definitely make you appreciate how far we’ve come.