Literature Review

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) has been around for decades, it was used to train pilots in the 1970’s (Yan, 1985) but more recently CGI has been used in the film industry on films such as Transformers (Cohen, 2008), CGI has been used in films before such films as this, for example in the 1980’s film The Empire Strikes Back a robot was put onscreen with actors (Cohen, 2008). Some of the latest films, however, prefer to rely on stuntmen for spectacular scenes. For example the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace used stunt men (Weinman, 2008). This film highlights the dangers of stuntmen as an alternative to CGI, it has been reported that there have been incidents that have injured stuntmen and one stunt that went wrong even ended in a stunt car collided with Bond’s Aston Martin leaving a stuntman in a coma (Weinman, 2008). Although CGI may be thought of as a safer way to create scenes that entice the viewer some view this as cheating, for example Frank Marshall who produced the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, another film which opts for stuntmen, is quoted as saying "We're not cheating with CG, it keeps the B movie feel." (Weinman, 2008). Meanwhile, there is also the issue of stuntmen needing jobs, Weinman states in his report that the James Bond film may harm stuntmen but “at least Quantum of Solace gives stuntmen a chance to get hurt. Most movies today don’t” (Weinman, 2008)