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Technological
Determinist Perspective of the Film 'The Matrix'
[Author's Name]
[Institution's Name]
Technological
Determinist Perspective of the Film
'The Matrix'
What
Is the Matrix?
The Matrix is the "world that has been pulled over your
eyes to blind you from the truth." It is the construction
the world has become to hide the fact that we've known all
along: we are slaves to a force much larger than our individual
actions. It is the collective illusion of humanity sharing
an artificial reality created by machines to keep them docile
and helpless against their captors. But in plain English,
the Matrix is simply the Technological Society come to its
full fruition.
The Matrix envisions a world where artificial intelligence
is not only more appealing than flesh and bone reality, but
more intelligent than the species that created it. The Matrix
arises at the point that the machine species realize that
the human species is a virus, and will destroy the ecological
balance between the environment and itself if left unchecked.
Thus, the Matrix, while ostensibly being future technology's
enslavement of the human race, in appearance actually resembles
the industrialized world as we find it at the gasping end
of the 20th Century. In other words, the Matrix is a trap
the world has become. [Read Mercer Schuchardt, 1999]
[Pictures
retrieved from : http://www.thematrixonline.com/docs/1371.html]
Technology and 'The Matrix'
The movie The Matrix, a visually dazzling box-office smash
in the US, includes a series of spectacular special effects
achieved with technology developed by Hampshire-based Snell
& Wilcox.
The complex and challenging movie is the story of a man (Keanu
Reeves) known only as 'Neo' who is a software author by day,
computer hacker by night. He is recruited by a group of rebels
who have made a crucial discovery about the world - it is
actually a form of virtual reality, called 'The Matrix'.
The movie uses seamlessly integrated special effects to create
the film's virtual realm. However, in order to create the
most spectacular scenes, the film's creative technicians turned
to Snell & Wilcox.
According to Kim Libreri, head of technology at Manex Visual
Effects: "A number of the required action sequences were
found to be unachievable because of the need to capture motion
at exceptionally high speeds. Snell & Wilcox is the recognized
world leaders in motion estimation/interpolation technology,
so we contacted them for their expertise. From there we never
looked back. The same film could not have been made without
them."
One scene, in which 'Neo' is being fired at by another protagonist
in the virtual world, involved a very high speed camera shot
which required 120 still cameras to be mounted in a roller
coaster-style arc. The cameras were required to shoot the
sequence with a timing accuracy of less than 1/1000 of a second
by a custom-made, PC-controlled firing, system.
Despite painstaking adjustments for subtle differences in
shutter speed, aperture settings and focal length, still cameras
are not designed to be used in such a way and could not effectively
capture the movement. When transferred to movie film, significant
gaps between picture frames still existed which caused unacceptable
blur, judder and other noticeable imperfections - clearly
degrading the quality of the picture and negating anything
"special" about the effect.
Phase Correlation technology gave the final product a crisp,
smooth appearance which made it appear absolutely real."
Phase correlation motion compensation technology, developed
by and exclusive to Snell & Wilcox, is the most powerful
and most accurate technique of motion compensation available.
[Snell & Wilcox, 1999]
Even though this production is done on a relatively large
budget, it is not a standard blockbuster -- it's very much
a private artistic vision of Andy and Larry Wachowski, the
two brothers who have previously made only one film, a romantic
thriller Bound. They wrote and directed The Matrix together,
drawing on such disparate influences as the Western ideas
of technology-based (or, rather, technology-enslaved) society
and the cyberpunk ethos, and the Eastern styles of kung-fu
fighting, Hong Kong action films, and Japanese anime.
The results are nearly amazing, with some action sequences
being as tense and exciting as they get. There's too many
of those sequences, and each of them goes on for a bit too
long, but there's no doubt about the authenticity of the style
and power of each of them. There's no denying that what we
have here is a really smart script, carefully delineating
the rules of its world and following them without running
into any plot holes.
References
" Snell & Wilcox. Spectacular Special Effects for
The Matrix Owe Much to Hampshire Engineering Firm, 1999 http://www.snellwilcox.com/internet/press/releases/jun99/matrix.shtml
" Read Mercer Schuchardt. The Matrix - We're caught in
a Trap and We Can't Walk Out. 1999 http://www.shootthemessenger.com.au/u_may_99/f_matrix2.htm
" Images retrieved from: http://www.thematrixonline.com/docs/1371.html
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