Abstract

CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) is a big thing in films and animation, but it hasn’t always been that way. Computer Generated Imagery was used in flight simulation for training pilots in the 1970’s (Yan, 1985). Computer Generated Imagery made an appearance in the 1980’s film The Empire Strikes Back by putting a robot onto a RVI (Real Video Image) which contained actors (Yan, 1985). Since then Computer Generated Imagery has been a big part of the film and animation industry.

This has caused problems within the stuntman industry because Computer Generated Imagery has “supplanted stunt work in many movies” (Weinman, 2008) because it is cheaper and can go beyond the limits of human capabilities such as punching, jumping and falling (Weinman, 2008). In his report Weinman discusses how the more spectacular the stunt, the more it costs in insurance for the film makers. While if they were to use Computer Generated Imagery the only insurance needed is for “unexplained system errors” and the stunt can look “more dangerous than it actually is” (Weinman, 2008). Weinman continues talking about a famous scene from the first Indiana Jones film where a stunt double climbed “under a speeding truck” and grabbed “onto a rope at the other end” and although Weinman claims that fakery was used, Computer Generated Imagery was not. Indiana Jones is one film which prefers to use stuntmen instead of CGI, as did the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, which highlighted the dangers that being a stuntman can bring. In his report Weinman talks about two accidents while filming this James Bond movie, one of which was a stuntman who accidentally drove into a lake. The other went into a coma after a car accident between the stunt car and Bond’s Aston Martin. Weinman commented about these occurrences and commented that although this may be “carnage” for stuntmen it better than the alternative because many films don’t give the stuntmen a chance to get hurt because they use Computer Generated Imagery as an alternative to stuntmen.