With computer generated images (CGI) rampant in most movies today and some movies being made entirely in CGI, it’s important when thinking of a new movie if it will be shot using this technique. Although CGI can be useful in shooting scenes that normally wouldn’t be possible it is important to use these types of shots in moderation. Too much CGI and your viewers may not feel the amount of immersion you want them too. If I were to make a film, I would only use the amount of CGI the film called for.
The film I hope to one day create is a superhero movie titled “Wireman©.” The film would not be based on any existing comic book, and would not be set in any established comic universe either. I realize that this has been done in films like “Unbreakable” and “Hancock,” but I have never seen them done in a way that they could exist as an ongoing story. They are either one shot films in which the story ends after the bad guy is caught, or they are not done well enough to continue with a sequel.
“Wireman” takes place in a city, much like other superhero movies, in a possible near decade. The government, bankrupt from both problems abroad and from it’s crumbling infrastructure, has become extremely weak and relies heavily on massive corporations to run things. Public institutions such as schools, hospitals, waste management, and even law enforcement are all privatized. People are heavily monitored and their movement is regulated. Each corporation has it’s own major city, where it’s workers live, with the higher paid employees living away from the wage slaves. The corporations make everything that the people in the city need and ration it out to the poorer masses, while the wealthy can have as much as they desire (for the right price of course). The movie begins with an alarm in the dark, we hear shuffling and a loud thud and the alarm is silenced. The scene would cut to a man in a shower with his back turned to the camera, then cut again to him leaving his building and opening a newspaper. On the front cover of the paper, it shows the faces of the latest people to go missing that week. All the while, the man’s back is always facing the camera. The man lives in the poor district of the city, and the camera pans out to show the slums where he lives. This scene would require heavy CGI to create a city in ruin, and a barren wasteland around it with a fade to black. The CGI in this scene, as with the rest of the movie has to look as realistic and believable as possible.
The next scene would have our person walking down a smoke filled alley at night, presumably on his way home. He is still with his back facing the camera as he disappears into the smoke. The camera does not follow and hear the sounds of a scuffle followed by a loud thud. Through out this entire opening, I envisioned a violin performing the score with the final note being right after the thud is heard. The screen would turn black again (not a fade, but rather instantly), and the title would be shown in white letters. Before this, no credits were being shown in the opening.
The following shot would be done with CGI, with us hearing muffled voices talking rapidly and becoming startled. The camera would go first person, with the man waking up and his eyes adjusting to the bright white light in his face. A loud beeping would be heard as he realizes he is in a metal tube and begins to panic. He is strapped down, but as he struggles his body begins to fall apart. He notices that he is a strange green color and his skin is metallic and hardly held together. His body completely falls to pieces, and gathers at the bottom of the tank as a puddle. The camera pulls out of first person and we see a man in a lab coat enter, look at the puddle of shimmering green metal, and declaring the experiment a failure. He orders the workers to incinerate the experiment and prepare the next subject, when the puddle starts to twitch. It slams against the glass, breaking it. It starts to attempt to rebuild itself into a humanoid form, but can only form a basic skeleton. Security is called in and as they fire upon the thing, it runs out of the room, and into the hall. There it sees more guards and slides into a pipe through a nozzle. We next see all the pipes leading outside and draining into a levee surrounding the poor district. The thing then falls into the levee and is seen swimming away like a snake. The animation of the thing would of course have to be in CGI, but the glass tube shattering would be done with other special effects, as would the first person view.
The rest of the film would be the standard, hero discovers his powers and has to cope with them and use them to defeat the enemy. The “thing” mentioned earlier will come to be known as Wireman, since he has found that the best way to keep his body together is through a mesh of wires. The character himself will take a lot of specialized graphical artists to make him and his movements realistic. With the advancement in digital effects this should be accomplished fairly easily in the near future. Unfortunately with all the special effects this film requires, I doubt I will be able to make it without a big Hollywood budget backing me up.
This paper is Copyright © Wireman Films Used With Permission
Side note: I own Wireman Films so don’t get any ideas!
