CGI has changed the experiance of viewing film

Can you remember the silent films of laurel and hardy? Imagine them with CGI, when the ladder hits laurel, what if there was an explosion added? Well after a bit of time sorting out my main title, i have finally been given this one. It is a topic that can be researched through many films, hopefully this will be good when linked to my focus films, and I can research the multitude of attitudes and opinions towards our big special effects, how people see them, and how it can enhance their experiance of watching the film. Imagine Star wars without lightsabers, what would be the effect of that, how much would we see the film differently?

How has CGI changed film since the late 70's until now?

For a while now I have contemplated what I would consider a practical subject to go forth with . With CGI i found i could do a number of things relating to film like 'How has CGI changed blockbuster film!?' or 'How has CGI changed and helped fantasy film'. Well looking at that last title I can't help but notice that Fantasy film, Sci fi films and other fictional non-realistic film NEED CGI to progress the narrative of the story, or even help it!.

An example would be from my focus film's, the 'Star Wars' Trilogy (1977 ones, not the recent films) ,'Lord of the Rings' Trilogy and more recent films such as the Harry Potter films, and Star Trek! The one sole thing that befuddled me was 'Do they actually need CGI to tell the story'

These films field a variety of the use of CGI and i want to find out how they have changed film, the way we watch films and what we gather from them.











I have always been interested in CGI ever since i saw 'Toy Story' as a child. I loved the way people could create a world of imagination from just sitting at there desks and hammering away at their mouse and keyboard to create art and imagery.

We all know the massive fan base that the lord of the rings holds as well as the star wars films, and i couldn't help but wonder if they have a comparison. If it were not for films like Star wars, would we have had the technology to create films like star trek or harry potter?

What I hope to Achieve in doing this is to gain a broader knowledge about CGI, know how some effects are made, how the effects help film and why they are so important!

A couple of books I have found should help me in finding more about the subject than I would watching video's 20/4/7 and hopefully I can find some of the extracts in the book helpful towards the project!