The Story of Film Episode 14 – New American Independents & The Digital Revolution

The 1990s: The First Days of Digital – Reality Losing Its Realness in America and Australia.

• Gladiator (2000) dir. Ridley Scott – One of the first digital shots, everything isn’t real, it’s all digital, made/drawn on a computer. Wanted to film a scene as if the people were ants.
• Intolerance (1916) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. D. W. Griffith – Created a gliding shot by placing a camera on a crane.
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) dir. James Cameron – Liquid metal turns into a photographed actor. Utilizes this technique by scanning the actor, and digital placement. Also known as CGI (computer generated imagery). Image looked like it was actually real.
• Anchors Aweigh (1945) dir. George Sidney – An early form of CGI.
• Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) (introduced in Episode 4) dir. Winsor McCay – One of the first animations.
• Jurassic Park (1993) (introduced in Episode 11) dir. Steven Spielberg – Shows a hyper realistic dinosaur, compared to one of a drawing. Also shows reflections.
• Titanic (1997) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. James Cameron – Shows the audience the actual true scale/size of the titanic. About what we can see.
• Toy Story (1995) dir. John Lasseter – An inventive use of CGI. Made entirely of computer. Shows dynamic deep staging, and animated showers. However, very pricey.
• The Blair Witch Project (1999) dir. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez – Shot on low tech digital video, and shows how marketing could change a movie. Had the look/sound of camcorder footage.
• House of Flying Daggers (2004) (introduced in Episode 12) dir. Zhang Yimou – Even more innovative than Western cinema. Utilizes a CGI image of a man throwing an object against drums, with the camera following it, utilizing motion blur. Also utilizes a CG action scene. All of the props are CG. Utilizes both CG and choreography.
• Goodfellas (1990) dir. Martin Scorsese – About gangsters, what’s different is that it’s postmodern. Copies that of “The Great Train Robbery”.
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) dir. Edwin S. Porter – Inspired that of Scorses in “Goodfellas”.
• The Killers (1946) dir. Robert Siodmak – Lighting dark, shadows of German expressionism, little dialogue.
• Pulp Fiction (1994) dir. Quentin Tarantino – Opposite to that of “The Killers”. However, lighting is much brighter, the killers have a lot of dialogue. Breathes new light. As if they were being out of character. To empathize dialogue, they placed the camera behind their heads, not showing their faces. Dialogue became known as “Tarantino-esque”
• Reservoir Dogs (1992) dir. Quentin Tarantino – Shows a scene of long lens, character with sunglasses shooting guns. Stationary camera. Similar to that of “City of Fire”. Also has a scene of a “Mexican Standoff”, or a “Death Triangle”. Wide shot, then closeup.
• City on Fire (1987) dir. Ringo Lam – Similar thing as “Reservoir Dogs” Shows a scene of long lens, character with sunglasses shooting guns. Also shows a “Mexican Standoff” . Wise Shot, the closeup.
• Bande à Part (1964) dir. Jean-Luc Godard – Title sequence is fast shots/cuts of the main characters. Inspired Tarantino.
• Natural Born Killers (1994) dir. Oliver Stone – Shot on film, graded green, on a wide film. POV shot. Turns to handheld video. A mashup of styles. A definition of post-modernism. Reality was multiple.
• Miller’s Crossing (1990) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – Started a shot with a hat falling into foreground, trees out of focus, and the focus follows it. Shows visual precision.
• The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – Shows “the little man caught in events”.
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – Imagery is golden. Actor is wide-eyed.
• The Big Lebowski (1998) dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – Actor is wide-eyed. Shows a musical. Shows surrealism, shows a love for old Hollywood.
• My Own Private Idaho (1991) dir. Gus Van Sant – About a narcoleptic hustler. Shows what the actor feels. Full of empty landscape shots. Has a singular image similar to that of “The Shining”. One standalone special effect.
• The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick – Has an iconic image of the blood coming out of the elevator.
• Elephant (2003) dir. Gus Van Sant – A response to Columbine. Little dialogue, violence was unexplained. Constant walking was inspired by Clarke. Walking was similar to that of walking in video games, with the camera directly behind.
• Elephant (1989) dir. Alan Clarke – Used steady cam to simulate the trance-like walking to that of armed men walking.
• Gerry (2002) dir. Gus Van Sant – Shows that similar to video games, you have to get from point A to B, and can’t just cut magically to there. Like in reality. Inspired by Sátántangó’s shot of blowing litter.
• Sátántangó (1994) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. Béla Tarr – Influenced Van Sant. Shows the expressionism of blowing litter.
• Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) dir. Chantal Akerman – Full of fixed shots. Filmed square on, in domestic settings. Inspired Van Sant in “Last Days”.
• Last Days (2005) dir. Gus Van Sant – Similar to that of “Jeanne Dielman”, square shots, filmed in domestic settings. Fixed shots.
• Psycho (1960) (introduced in Episode 8) dir. Alfred Hitchcock – Inspired that of Van Sant with his remake.
• Psycho (1998) dir. Gus Van Sant – Shot for shot remake of Hitchcock’s version. Departed from the original slightly, as in putting shots of clouds in between shots of the stabbing, and having the actress’ pupils dilate. Also showed more nudity. Became devoid of some of the most important things of the original.
• Cremaster 3 (2002) dir. Matthew Barney – Shows an indoor rock climbing scene, Barney rises, but other things fall. Overloaded with symbolism. Inspired by “Safety Last!”. Films in a great height.
• Safety Last! (1923) (introduced in Episode 2) dir. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor – Inspires “Cremaster 3”, A vertical storyline of incidents.
• RoboCop (1987) dir. Paul Verhoeven – A satire. A reaction to what was in the Reagan era. Steely blue colors. Shows the theory of violence for comedic effect. Shows the satirical talk of “Happy News Writing”.
• Starship Troopers (1997) dir. Paul Verhoeven – Even more satirical. About the threat of humans. Bugs were computer generated. Look was bright/shiny, soundtrack was explosive. Had a controversial decision about including a person with a Nazi uniform. Had to make sure the audience got the metaphor with the ending. Shows that science fiction could be utilized to place a political message, yet show entertainment to the audience.
• An Angel at My Table (1990) dir. Jane Campion – Shows how people don’t feel safe, even in the modern world. Focuses a scene on a piece of chalk.
• The Piano (1993) dir. Jane Campion – Utilized very subjective images and sound to show one growing up. Fingers like curtains.
• Romeo + Juliet (1996) dir. Baz Luhrmann – About the postmodernism of the 90’s. One of the key visions of the 90s. Flashy edits. A remake of a Shakespearean poet. Has a back lit, long lens shot of Romeo. Replaces buildings that were utilized in the time with modern ones. In high comedy style. Swords become guns. Knights have become street kids. Wanted to be different enough to shock the audience, even though they know the original source.
• Moulin Rouge! (2001) dir. Baz Luhrmann – Took the ideas of innovative cinema even further, shots were grey, and computer generated. Has a shot of postmodern space. Even including modern shots. Nobody else was mashing up this many styles into one. Reality lost it’s realism. Visually, pure romantic cinema. Yet, dialogue was a mashup of 90’s songs, as if remixed by a DJ.