The beauty that Weta creates. Photo: Chuck Cook

For anyone interested in digital effects and cinema who hasn’t already seen this website, visit it. It’s an unbelievably brilliant showcase of some of the technologies that are being used by film makers around the world today to produce some of the biggest blockbusters. Here’s an article from the 13th of August on the new Neil Blomkamp film, Elysium. Getting to see some of the best digital effects of the contemporary world unfolded in front of you with excerpts from the experts themselves and the creators behind the fiction (Such as Weta’s Richard Taylor, a favourite of mine). While the articles on fxguide certainly aren’t going to give you a ticket to a job in a film studio, they can provide a great insight into the basic workings of a digital effects company.

While I am often sceptical of Blockbuster films (I have been impressed recently but I have certainly witnessed some big let downs), I think that digital effects is an important part of contemporary cinema and something that it would be silly to close your mind to. We’ve heard all the arguments regarding the over-reliance on technology and the fact that it is more important in some films (seemingly) than the actors, costumes and sets themselves.

As we entered the digital age, effects like this became more prominent, sometimes not for the better. It often seems like filmmakers get carried away with the FX and forget about the substance in films. For me, a big Tolkien fan, when I saw the first shots released to the public from the Hobbit I was a little spectacle. They took a bit of warming up to. But by the time the trailer was released I was already in love. This is a good example of how rapidly the film industry has changed. Just nine years earlier I was on the edge of my seat watching the final instalment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Boxing Day 2003. To jump from these films into the Hobbit was like stepping into a different world. What set the Lord of the Rings films apart was the extensive and thorough detail and grit that was compounded into the films. It made the distant lands of middle-earth and fantastical creatures such as the orcs and elves seem real without second guessing (a lot of what makes those films work is New Zealand itself).

So we go from one end of the spectrum, then suddenly we’re in a fantasy world that’s beautiful, vivid and dream like in the Hobbit. It’s made by the same team, yet there’s a whole lot of fantastic new digital technology (For example, goblins are now digitally created, rather than created using actors in prosthetics), but there’s also new technology involved (Hello HFR cinema). There’s a huge gap between 2003 and 2012 in terms of cinema. This is what we can create now with the technology that we have. What’s even better is that the gorgeous and visually splendid world Jackson was able to create using the new technologies suits perfectly the mould of Middle Earth that Tolkien first imprinted with the Hobbit. The possibilities are endless, to an extent.

For anyone who, like me, has an interest in contemporary digital effects and what the future holds dig your nose into the some of the extensive research that digital FX forerunner Weta has purveyed. Once again we see the competitive edge boosting our progression and advancement. There’s a reason Weta are so well respected and regarded in the world of cinema props and FX.

I love cinema. Almost as much as I love Tolkien. I’m sure you’ve noticed that, and I hope that a little of my passion might teach you something new.