By Linda Romanello, October 3, 2003
Hooray for Hollywood! I know, you can't believe you just read that. But after watching the latest broadcast of the 75th Annual Academy Awards, it's hard for me to contain my excitement. And here's the reason why: Manufacturers such as Alias|Wavefront and Discreet and studios such as New Zealand's WETA Digital are finally being recognized for their contributions to some of the movie industry's biggest pictures.
Alias|Wavefront, for instance, won an Oscar at the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony of this year's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its development of Maya 3D animation and effects software. Most recently, Maya was used extensively in this year's Oscar-nominated films in the Visual Effects category: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Spider-Man and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Discreet, too, was called on by WETA Digital for its flame and inferno visual effects systems used throughout Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
I know that recognizing those who have contributed outstanding work in the 2D/3D graphics and animation space isn't exactly new for the Academy, but it just makes me realize how now, like never before, there is such an emphasis on digitally created images in film. In fact, it makes me think back to movies I used to watch as a kid. I remember some of those so-called "special effects" in films from the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s, and I can't believe just how far we've come.
I can still remember being completely awestruck by a scene from a movie called Anchors Aweigh (made in 1945 -- no, I did not see it when it first came out in the theaters, thank you very much!) starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. The film is well known and probably best remembered for a sequence in which Kelly dances with an animated Jerry (of Tom and Jerry cartoon fame), garbed in a naval uniform. Shot in three-strip Technicolor, it was one of the first scenes that paired a live actor with an animated figure. While the scene was somewhat revolutionary at the time, and the film itself earned several Academy Awards, nothing was given out to either the animator or the editor
. Other films followed later on including Disney's Mary Poppins and Song of the South. As mesmerizing as I found these films to be, back in the day, you can probably imagine my reaction years later to something as amazing as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Cartoons in 3D? Who woulda thunk?
Today, it's almost impossible to think of a film that doesn't feature some sort of special effect -- or one that was created digitally. Look at some of the more recent Hollywood blockbusters including this year's Oscar nominees Spider-Man, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Further, even films that are centered around more reality-based themes -- such as Titanic, The Perfect Storm and Gladiator -- have employed 2D and 3D techniques to help create more believable scenes. While Moses parting the sea in The Ten Commandments was a thrill for audiences in the '50s, today's graphic artists have taken the genre to an entirely new level. Largely, what audiences have the privilege of enjoying in theatres is due to the artistic abilities of the creative minds found in the industry's leading post-production houses. Yet, what can't be ignored are the tools that manufacturers keep making better, faster, and more intuitive than before. As the level of software keeps getting higher, so does the quality of images created by graphic artists. As manufacturers continue to raise the bar of software, creatives keep meeting the challenge.
And this is what brings me back to my original statement: "Hooray for Hollywood." I say it because the Academy has, since the early days, recognized the need to create new awards categories that honor the talents of both the creative and the technology leaders. I say it because Hollywood found a way to use the ever-evolving technologies to create images that are awe-inspiring, shocking, compelling, realistic, comical, and breathtaking. And most of all, I say it because Hollywood has managed to take everything that's good about these technologies and integrated them into films that will forever leave their mark in movie history.
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