My generation as an interesting and unique perspective on the Velvet Revolution, we were born and grew up in this time period. With this placement there is an interesting parallel between always having digital images integrated into our media culture and appreciating the growth of this craft. I have grown up in a time where when a film maker who uses film verses digital, it is special and praised as digital has become the norm. There is still a high appreciation for “old school” affects, but it is not what is normally done because visual effects can be easier to change, and less damaging to the budget. Though many have an appreciation for film, this article informs generations Z and so on the magnitude which After Effects has changed the editing game. Personalized computers can use this software and with the right instructions almost anyone can create. Understanding how the past was helps people appreciate the present a little more than before.
Artist Lev Manovich, and author of this article focuses his work on analyzing digital mediums like social media. His installations seem very interesting, I have not seen any in person but his website has his projects. For example the "Selfiecity", which investigates selfies from five different cities, creating visual representations from the data gathered from over 3200 images collected. Very interesting to look at this data, here is a link to this project: Selfiecity
Back to the main event, After Effects, or the Velvet Revolution, this article used a lot of examples that were music videos, and this makes sense for visually experimental concepts. Music videos are pretty powerful forms of art as they combined vocals, mixing, and visual talents into one piece. They are also a place for more experimental visualizations of the songs. It can be more difficult for visual artists to create a video that utilizes visual effects uncommon to mainstream and have a positive review but when accompanied by music there seems to be more of an acceptance of the art. During the period of the Velvet Revolution, music videos were more widespread as they reached a larger audience with the popularization of MTV.
MTV even had a whole award show for music videos. Not a large portion of the population are typically going to film festivals to see the changes in visual artistry. There are many people that look up their favorite band’s latest music video and can value the new visuals before them. The highly stylizes aesthetics of feature films or television shows are more common than the more experimental examples of music videos. This concept reminds me of the auteur theory in film that a film reflects a director’s personal creative vision through lighting, camerawork, staging and editing. When thinking of some auteur directors like Wes Anderson, Zack Snyder or Tim Burton, their style and look of their films connect to each other as you can see the similarities.
The concept of creating in “real time” verses not knowing what the final product will look like until it is snapped together is difficult to grasp in a digital world. Changes can be made easily to a film to correct or improve the picture in the
eye of the editor or director thanks to the composition window in After Effects. Movies
like Sin City or The Matrix would not have been the same if it wasn’t for the visual effects added to the shots after filming was finished. The green color effect in The Matrix adds a gritty digital fell used to differentiate the matrix world verses the 'real world'. And Sin City would not have been as successful without the digital adjusting after shooting finished because this is a live action film created from a graphic novel.
The digital effects added but also the screen or filter that gives off the iconic color palette for these movies, are incredibly important to the design of the film. Though this can improve a picture it can also hinder it. Most notorious is the special edition releases of the Star Wars. There is tons of documentation dissecting each change and how it was wrong. My point is that sometimes this freedom to change can hurt the artistic image. When there is a constant opportunity to alter the image, the alternations might not be in the best interest of the end story.
Overall, the recent improvements in the digital capabilities in altering the visual medium is an exciting development and I can't wait to see how technology keeps improving to convince audiences more and more that what they are seeing is "reality".