Is CG Addiction Killing Modern Blockbusters?

Youtuber Cody Johnston posted a video on the Some More News channel last week that asked, “Why Are Modern Blockbusters So… Not Very Good?” The video is an hour long and offers plenty of answers to the question, but what caught our attention was a segment focused on a modern overreliance on cg vfx.

In the video, Johnston argues that the ability to create almost any shot imaginable using cg has created an unsustainable mindset among producers, “That power, when wielded by people only thinking about money, can make very bad art.”

According to Johnston, scenes are now being shot with post-production vfx in mind. Blockbuster filmmakers are no longer crafting shots and scenes they way did when vfx was a tool for completing nearly finished shots. Instead, cg is being used as a catch-all device to create most of the imagery seen by the audience on screen.

“If you don’t know what a scene is going to look like, you can’t light or shoot that scene in any specific way,” he explains. “It has to be lit evenly in boring wide shots so it can match whatever changes are made afterward.”

Johnston says that pre-production processes are being cut short in favor of longer post-production windows. That means directors aren’t thinking about artistic intent or crafting scenes as carefully or for as long as they once did. Instead, they’re working like documentary filmmakers who simply need as much coverage as possible, which can then be dealt with in post.

Another problem, in Johnston’s opinion, is the way that modern vfx service bidding works. He says that when studios need work done, they’ll often solicit bids from several vfx houses before eventually settling on the cheapest option, which can result in inferior work. However, despite regularly going with the lowest bidder, major studios’ vfx budgets have ballooned disproportionately in recent years because cg is being overused. Johnston provides several high-profile examples in the clip.

“Instead of being the expensive option you have to use sparingly, cgi is seen as the norm,” he says. “And despite picking the cheapest effects, it is still bloating movie budgets.”

This, Johnston implies through heavy use of sarcasm, has created an unsustainable situation and contributed to inferior films being made with exorbitant budgets.