Thanks for reposting that blog, moirafinnie. That trip to Rochester was wonderful, if a bit hurried; I was actually supposed to arrive a day earlier, but my flight out of Atlanta had been cancelled, so I was fortunate to make it to Rochester at all.moirafinnie wrote:
You make a good case for more recognition for stunt people in such movies, but do you think that this is likely to occur in an age of CGI-created effects? Has the use of such artificial effects made stunt people superfluous?
Since you have some considerable experience with TCM events in the real world, do you think that there is a growing interest in classic films in modern theatrical settings thanks to TCM's extensive efforts, regional film festivals, and other groups?
Has the explosion of media outlets helped this interest or does it ever seem almost too diffuse to know what direction things are headed in terms of interest and the distribution of classic films?
Regarding stuntwork in the CGI era...short answer: yes. There will still be work for stunt performers, even though having a character take a fall off of a building, for example, could be created within a hard drive. What stunt performers and coordinators have learned is that their work can work with CGI, to the benefit of not only the story, but also for the safety of the performer. For example, when the marvelous stuntwoman Zoe Bell is hanging onto the hood of the car in the 40 minute car chase in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof", that's not faked. She's really there, going that fast. But thanks to digital technology, the safety wire was digitally erased, giving Tarantino and Bell greater freedom in getting the shot without having to "hide" the tether. Make no mistake about it: even with the tether, that was an incredibly dangerous gag. Same for Tom Cruise hanging outside the skyscraper in "Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol".
Also, stunt performers are called upon to create stunts within the green screen. For example, in "The Dark Knight", stunt performers jumped into an air bag that was cloaked in the green screen tech, so that when Batman jumps off the skyscraper in the Hong Kong sequence, that could be seamlessly worked out. (Christopher Nolan and his stunt coordinator Paul Jennings tried to create a high jump using a special harness, but went with the green screen method instead)
That all being said, I think there will always be a yearning to see real people do incredible stunts in the real world. There's a reason why YouTube videos of skydivers, base jumpers, car crashes, high rise climbers, etc. are routinely watched over and over again across the world: because viewers know the action isn't faked. Cinema viewers still want that too, it's just a matter of making it feasible, from a production standpoint, for the producers.
As for your other questions, I do think there is a growing interest in seeing films in theaters. In some ways, the easy access to thousands of films on video and streaming, from multiple sources, perhaps overwhelms viewers, so that they yearn for the singular experience of seeing films in theaters. Just a guess. Either way, I ain't complaining!