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THE CREATION OF A DIGITAL ARTS FACILITY AT USC comes in response to a technological revolution sweeping every aspect of filmmaking – from performance to production to delivery.
On the performance side, computer graphics specialists can now create virtual characters that technicians formerly fabricated out of plastics and electrical components. If today’s digital tools had been around when he made E.T. (1982), says director Steven Spielberg, they would have eliminated the need to hand-craft the lovable space alien. For next year’s 20th anniversary re-release of E.T., Spielberg is using digital editing to smooth over some of the original film’s rough spots.
Meanwhile, live actors enjoy greater safety thanks to the computers’ ability to “paint” over scenes. Equipment such as suspension cables and nets – formerly
I always loved the action, the special effects part of movies. When I also started to realize that movies worked by manipulating the audience’s emotions, then I really got hooked. That’s when I understood what a director does.”
hidden from the camera lens with great care – can now be as bulky and conspicuous as safety demands: they are easily removed from the picture in the digital editing room. The new technology also means actors’ faces and figures can be digitally scanned, then manipulated to do stunts a live performer couldn’t physically execute.
“The digital world has eliminated any necessity to injure an actor or a stunt person on any film,” says Zemeckis. “There’s no reason to put anyone in harm’s way for the sake of spectacle.”
On the production side, a major advance of digital technology is on-the-spot feedback. After recording each scene, a director can now decide instantly whether or not to re-shoot, instead of having to wait a day to review the “dailies.” Digital production has also perfected many special effects, such as the technique of
filming an actor against a blue-screen background, then later superimposing that image on a different computer-generated or pre-filmed background.
Another factor is cost. “Hollywood is not famous for its agility in adapting to change, though when cornered by innovations like sound and color it has always eventually, if reluctantly, embraced them,” wrote New York Times reporter Rick Lyman in a March 1 feature on the Zemeckis Center. “One of the main forces pushing digital technology is that it is much cheaper to use. The equipment is less costly and requires less elaborate lighting, and there are no costs of developing film or striking prints.” Even when it’s not cheaper, it frees the imagination of the c



Zemeckis directs Jodie Foster on the set (top) of Contact, a film that drew complaints from the White House for its visual effects wizardry, which morphed President Clinton into dramatic scenes with actors. A before-after shot from Cast Away (middle and bottom) demonstrates how digital editing over a blue-screen background can yield stunning effects while saving money and avoiding physical danger to actors and crew. Zemeckis: “There’s no reason to put anyone in harm’s way for the sake of spectacle.”
reative team.
On the distribution side, digital technology’s penetration has been slower. Some directors have experimented with sending digital versions of their films to movie houses either via recorded disc or over a network-based delivery system. Though digital distribution could potentially cut the costs of printing and shipping thousands of copies of a film around the world, the industry has yet to resolve security risks and the potential for illegal distribution of unauthorized copies. But make no mistake, it will.
“What we are going through, with this shift to digital, is on the same level and just as significant as the change from silent to sound films, or the shift from black-and-white to color,” Lucas recently told the New York Times.
Lucas has embraced the new technology wholeheartedly. His Star Wars: Episode 2, due to be released next summer, will be the first major studio film shot entirely with new-generation digital cameras. Many theaters scheduled to screen the new movie have digital projection systems in place, meaning that, with these venues at least, Lucas completely bypasses the need for celluloid.


SUCH SWEEPING CHANGES IN THE FILM INDUSTRY have led some to speculate whether the infusion of digital technology means the death of moviemaking as we know it. Lucas rushes to dispel those worries.
“This isn’t about digital taking over and film disappearing,” he says. “This is simply adding a new medium, a new range to the cinematic experience.”
Zemeckis agrees. His reputation as an effects aficionado notwithstanding, he says the true tenet of filmmaking is the idea that the story line comes first and foremost over technique. “I think it’s the only way that a movie ultimately works under any circumstance,” he says. “The technology is only there to serve the story. The story can never serve the technology.”
Thanks to advances in digital technology, Zemeckis says the old question of whether something can be done in a film has been replaced with the question of whether it should be done. “I don’t want to use the technology for anything that isn’t appropriate to tell the story,” he says.
Creating that new range will take new talent, which is where the Zemeckis Center comes in.

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“The idea, we hope,” USC School of Cinema-Television dean Elizabeth Daley told the New York Times, “is that you’re not training students in yesterday’s way of doing things, you’re training them in tomorrow’s way. The students coming out of here will, for the first time, know more than the people who are actually working in the industry. This generation will use these new tools to expand the language of the cinema.”
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