Improvement of technology but constant art?

So in the lecture we talked about how the technology improves, but art continues to stay the same. I personally don't believe that. Lets talk about this graph:

Ok so why is this true? Is art an constant which doesn't change? Are we only following the traditional methods without bringing anything new to it? I don't think that's true and moreover let's add some more factors and examine the next graph.

Technology is being improved every single second, but this unlocks more possibilities for artists and boosts art along with it. But the effort put into the making of the final product has definitely decreased. Over the years technology used in movies has never been so common. It's cheaper than physical effects, it is broader of possibilities, it can create thing that you can never create physically and the lights that you can use to light 3D scenes have abilities which every movie director will kill to have in physical state. With the development of technology, the visual side of movies has never been so beautiful and believable. Blockbusters such as "Inception (2010)", "Alice in wonderland (2010)", "Avatar (2010)" show us what modern CGI can produce, and I think it is quite AMAZING. But there is no doubt that the meaningful side of movies has decreased. What happened to the stories, the mysteries, the shock after realizing the real murderer... I haven't experienced any satisfaction from seeing new high-budget-movies ( there are some exceptions though ). But film giants like Disney and Pixar ( now together ) kept their creativity. It seems like only CGI movies now can actually show some professional storyboarding and unique screenplay. But let'd dig into the past first.

Pixar:



The adventures of Andre and Wally B. (1984)

This animation shows the great improvement of the 3D software that Pixar used, which are:
-motion blur
-particle systems (for the creation of the forest)
-Bending the model (the first type of rigging)

Pixar are and will always be the best animation company in the world. They are the company which shows what 3D can do now, but in stylized way and synthetic style of nature.

"Ideology is the false obviousness of everyday life" Louis Althusser
This quote is so, so true. People set ideals so they can look up to something they can never be. The main factor of development is competition. If we have something to fight for, and believe that reaching it will give us eternal happiness, we will be twice more productive. But something can never be ideal, there will always be imperfection, which makes it believable. But we need ideals so we can always fight for perfection, and know that by following the example set by something perfect, everything will be OK. Human's mind is always curious and hungry for the unknown, which will leads us to too many solutions to a problem, if we don't have the pre set ideal of the goal. These ideals are easily shown by animation. The best example is soviet propaganda art:

Cartoon dominants such as Disney are mentors of modern youth. A lot of kids are brought up following the rules set by Disney animations.

Bambi (1942)

One of the most touching movies I've ever seen...This movie shows to children various of important things. For example the forest is shown in such a beautiful way, synthetic style as a combination of what it is as physical objects and it's beauty as a pure element, not harming anybody and living in peace and joy (well, until humans invade it...). On the technical side, its the first animation that uses anatomy for Bambi's movement, it looks like there is a real deer skeleton inside the main character's body. They had biological specialists in the studio to whom they can refer to at any point. They also used an chinese style for making the elements from the forest to fade in a certain point, so they can fill the point of interest with curiosity. There are places where your imagination can inhabit. Also, this is one of the first cartoons to use multiplaning:

 The 2D way to fake 3D. I have to say that my favourite part of the lecture came with this sentence : "First they become stiff, then they vibrate, and then they melt and become soft...". Bill definitely killed us all with that lol :D . The lecture ended with the expected anime talk. Studio Ghibli is I have to say, the best studio there is. Movies like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and Princess Mononoke have to be seen by everyone. A true piece of art. The interesting part was when the lecturer analysed the scene from My Neighbour Totoro when they planted the seeds and the tree went into bursting metamorphosis. I never knew that this was actually a reference to atomic bombs, or being more exact - in 1945, USA dropped an uranium bomb called "Little Boy" on Hiroshima and 3 days later they dropped an plutonium bomb called "Fat Man" on Nagasaki.

And finally, a quote worth mentioning -
"We are subjects to a result of our experience" by Malcolm Armstrong

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. By members I mean exactly people like the Quay Brothers (or Brothers Quay). Every artist has a different way to express what he needs to say. Some surrealists had different ideas in mind before the final product, but this is due to limitations set by the government. Most of the countries now-a-days don't have restrictions as they once had. It wasn't that easy to show everything you felt, I believe. Surrealism as way of expressing is unique. Followers of the revolutionary movement, like the Quay Brothers, have no meaningful spoken dialogue in their movies, with a very few exceptions. Surrealists transform their message in a way that only few can understand. Their creations are something far more different than the "normal" movies created for the masses. Surrealists use both organic and inorganic elements combined with music (mostly composed by Leszek Jankowski). Jan Švankmajer, for whom they named one of their films (The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer), is also frequently cited as a major influence, but they actually discovered his work relatively late, in 1983, by which time their characteristic style had been fully formed. Art comes in all shapes and sizes, but this is art itself. The first time I saw their masterpieces was during the lecture, but I've been enjoying surrealism long before that. OK, that's enough for the introduction, let's analyse some examples.





This is one of their most famous shorts - Street of Crocodiles (1987).
"In that city of cheap human material, no insticts can flourish, no dark and unusal passions ca be aroused THE STREET OF CROCODILES was a concession of our city to modernity and metropolitan corruption.The misfortune of that area is that nothing ever succeeds there, nothing can ever reach a definite conclusion. Obviously, we were unable to afford anything better than a cardboard imitation, a photo montage cut out from last year's mouldering newspapers"
They clearly say what their goal was with that short. The whole movie has a dark environment and mechanisms connecting everything. It is one of the most incredible stop-motions that I've ever seen. They bring to life every object in the artificial city. Only the elements in the scene are lit which makes the viewer's eye curious of what is beyond the scene, what lives in the dark corners and the streets of the unknown. It is clear that most of the people who have seen Tim Burton's work will notice the similarity. The camera angles and the pans are amazing, one of the best designs I've ever seen. Let's analyse the environment:
-dark corners
-crisp macro focus
-blurry surroundings
-foggy background
-cold colours
-unreal inhabitants
-unknown mechanics
-freaky dolls
-adoreness of the piece of meat
The message which they bring with that is that the future of the humanity will be like that. The EXACT opposite of NATURE. 1987 is an after war period. Period of government changes and numerous reforms in order to control the mass of people.

Dimensions Of Dialogue and Passionate Dialogue (1982)

Another example of what can be said through unreal motions.Created by Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. When looking at something like this you have to consider when it was made and where. Svankmajer created this, and many other animations, during the communist rule in Czechoslovakia to comment on the political unrest while trying to stay under the radar by not blatantly coming out and saying his opinions. The technique and subject matter are very deliberate and while it may mean nothing to someone today, it was very clear what this means when this was made. Not all art is good, but this IS. The meaning of the first part - Passionate Dialogue is clearly the intimate love between a woman and a man (sex), and how they abbandon what they found - love. Both of them don't want it, so they start to fight over it and eventually they destroy each other. The second part is about the control set by communism. Work together and you will succeed, don't follow the rules, everything is out of order and you fail. Well, I'm glad I was born after 1989 :D

Meat Love (1989)

Short and simple, the opposite of "The American Dream". We don't care who you are and what you have, you are who you are, a piece of steak, jump in the frying pan. I find this humorous because it is what fairy tales aren't. Realism or pessimism, I don't know but it definitely doesn't say that you are free to do what you want.

Genre

The term genre is used a lot around the movie industry to break down the type of film into categories. It's difficult to place a lot of films in a single category. For this reason a lot of films have multiple genres. New movies are created daily and there is always reference to other script, author, director or a book. Made recognisable intentionally as intertextuality or due to inspiration from the reference's creator. This is why a movie can never be "categorised" enough. There will always be something that doesn't match the genre. But based on the main elements, movies are categorised accordingly so they can suit the needs of search engines and movie databases. I think this is due to the fact that movie's storyboards now-a-days are a reflection of the audience's desires. With easy access to media everywhere (internet, television, adverts, etc.) , the viewer's knowledge has increased drastically, leading to increased interest in detail. The audience will always search for some hidden joke signified by another interesting tabloid title or for similarity with another movie. This is mostly seen in teenage series like "Family Guy", "South Park", "The Simpsons" and etc. On the other hand, in full-lenght movies, the audience will look for realism in horror and thrillers, or for logic in sci-fi. Let's analyse these two genres. 

HORROR and THRILLER (not the Michael Jackson one)

Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Director: 

Wes Craven

Writer: 

Wes Craven

Stars:

 Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp and Robert Englund

Now that's what I'm talking about. When I say horror and realistic, I mean that. Modern CGI effects are good, but still not good enough so they can full the human's curious eye. 3D objects are too noticeable and the reactions are too predictable. Old school effects is what should have been enhanced. Every modern eye can see this movie and say "oh my God, this was scary".  These original effects combined with lighting, depressing music, narrow halls and tiny rooms, this is what the magic was.