From the books that i hav been reading through in order to help me with my presentation i have picked out many quotes wich support my argument. I want to use some of them to help reinforce points. I have also learnt alot more about the industry and the process of film making and the studio system through reading these books.
I have read books ranging from ones about narrative, special effects, hollywood studio system and several books containing essays and various articles compiled from film critics and makers on the subject of CGI and spectacle cinema. I beleive these books really have helped alot into contributing toward my presentation and i have learned alot from them.

I have also looked at actors and film makers who are reknowned for working mainly on big budget blockbuster action spectacle cinema. I have done this in order to help me to prove points in my presentation and to look at the trend in modern hollywood. I have also looked further into how CGI has been used well to support narrative and how older films compare to modern films - how has narrative changed? Furthermore i have found various articles and writings such as an article about future graphical capabilities to improve the efficiency of producing CGI filled shots for films, this kind of information i can use to reinforce and inform in my presentation.

I have compiled the information i want to use from all my sources wether they be internet, journals or books. I have had to pick and choose the appropriate resources as i found that some things strayed too far from the main points i was trying to make and would cause me to go off topic a bit.

My investigation has let me gather the information i need and the resources i need to put together my presentation. I have compiled all of my sources into my catalogue and will use the findings, facts and information to construct my presentation and argument. I want to convey my opinions through my presentation and so i will be arguising a point so i will need to pick the resources i use carefully in order to make sure i am on my main points and arguing my view and opinion succesfully.

Research into the history and Progression of Special Effects

I have looked into the history of special effects and how far it has come in order to establish ground on which to build an argument about its affect on narrative.

For starters i looked at the start of mainstream special effects, when it all really got going. As my one of my focus films Sat Wars: A New Hope used special effects in a way that brought to light what you could achieve using special effects, and the new heights of stories you could tell because of it and the realism possible. With George Lucas founding his own special effects company to do the films (industrial light and magic). Using special effects they managed to achieve epic space battle sequences and creations such as the death star.



Following on from this Blade runner achieved alot through special affects as it showed a dystopian earth in the future, complete with flying cars. The spinners in the rain shots showed how special effects was able to be used to create a fuly emmersive shot of flying over a smog filled city complete with other 'spinners'. It was all achieved using superimposed images and miniatures.



Even with the (highly) questionable quality of the narratives in modern films such as transformers it is impossible to deny that they did not push the boundaries for modern special effects. For example some of the most complex animations ever acheived were done for transformers, in total 60,217 vehicle parts and over 12.5 million polygons were animated to bring the 14 robots in the film to life, with Optimus Prime consisting of 10.108 different parts. ILM (indutrial light and magic) were responsible for 1/3 of the total special effects shots in the movie.

(Info from http://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects.html)



I have also found an interesting top 50 movie special effects shots ranking. This list ranges from the old very first films to utilise special effects to the brand new hollywood blockbusters. This list includes revolutionary sequences which would have pushed the boundary of special effects in their time.

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/177951/top_50_movie_special_effects_shots.html

This glimpse into special effects shows how it has enabled cinema to go further and achieve films with alot more epic scope. I cannot fail but to see that as the timeline progresses that films seem to get more dependant on special effects and story telling takes a back seat instead of special effects being a device used to tell the story. The use of special effects is now practically indespensible to hollywood blockbusters, and perhaps narrative will take a backseat.

Focus Film's - Star Wars: A New hope (1977)
Blade Runner (1982)
Transformers (2007)

Title - How has CGi affected the Narrative of Film.

I will be looking at how Special Effects has developed how films are constructed and how the narrative has changed by looking at focus film's from 3 progressing times over the last 30-40 years. I want to look at how storytelling in films has changed with the advancement of Special Effects and how with Hollywood there is this emphasis on big budget explosive films with an abundance of Special Effects.

I want to look in depth at the decline of Hollywood or what some might consider the rise as views differ on the emphasis of bang over drama in Hollywood today. As studios keep revitalising franchises and starting new ones i want to ask, do the studios care about good narratives in films or is it all about the big blockbuster spectacle that will make them money.

I will compare three films as shown above to see how the narrative and storytelling has changed over time. I will look at how the use of special effects has changed over time as it has been brought to the front with transformers while with previous films such as Blade Runner the emphasis is on the storytelling.

i have chosen Star Wars: A New Hope as it was the first feature length film to use Special Effects, Blade Runner i have chosen because it used highly advanced Special Effects for its time of production and also it lies in the middle of my other two films. Finally i have chosen Transformers as it is a perfect example of modern Hollywood cinema.

I have chosen to do this as i am interested in the Special Effects area of cinema however in Hollywood today i feel that the narrative is taking a back seat to the explosions. I want to see a comparison of three films that are each separated by about 10 years to see the gradual effects on the narrative from the introduction of Special Effects.

Some sources i have used so far to determine what Focus films i am going to use and what my project is going to be on are Wikipedia, IMDB, Youtube and Animation (book).

Initial Ideas

I have been thinking about what to do my analysis on and have thought through a varied selection of subjects. So i have come down to an analysis of the impact cgi has brought to film making. It would involve an in depth look at the difference of film making before and after the introduction of cgi to find out how it has changed. This would also include doing some research into cgi itself and how it has evolved.

I will also want to look at different studios, mainly WETA digital as i have a particular interest in them and how as such a small company they have achieved so much, thats not to say i will limit my research. I would also want to look at the question of 'Is CGI a cheap imitation trick for lazy film makers or is it an art form in itself, enabling film to push boundries and go further and create more engaging and exciting films'.