People in pictures these days seem to be perfect. No moles, no wrinkles, no frown lines. What happened to imperfections? What happened to celebrities actually having pimples on their faces during a film? The answer? Air brushing. Digital enhancement. Photoshop. These programs and techniques are relatively new to the media field, but they’ve made a huge impact already. “Now, Sonnenfeld estimates, 95 percent of films are color-corrected.”
“The color-correction process is still expensive, and it takes weeks — sometimes months — to do. But it also saves time and money during actual shooting. Directors of photography, for instance, can work more quickly on a set, knowing they can adjust color and refine lighting in post-production.” This is the reason films nowadays are more and more picture-perfect. Take a look at Sweeney Todd for example. The entire film seemed to be washed out, gray, lifeless. Except for the shocking, bright red. Directors are relying more and more on “digital intermediates” as they’re called.
What does this lead to? Women complain that they have to live up to these picture-perfect models, with impossibly thin figures, flawless skin. It makes even men disappointed when they look in the mirror and see a fit muscular body, but not quite like the chiseled men on TV. What is the perfected media doing to the public’s self esteem?
The article touches briefly on the “ethical” side of digitally transforming films into perfection. “Which raises the question: Isn't all this a tad dishonest? "Not really," Sonnenfeld says. "I think everybody appreciates that we try to do the right thing."” However, those few sentences were the only mention of the harmful effects of digital remastering. Whatever happened to art that was appreciated for its imperfections? What about spontaneity? Will these digital intermediates take away jobs of those who have to work on the set for the movie – like light directors, audio masters, set designers, painters, and many more?
And what about actual actors? Where there come a time where actors are no longer needed, because everything is possible to do on the computer? And that’s just so much cheaper than hiring actors. And with the more and more realistic animations, will viewers even be able to notice a difference?
I think that while programs like Photoshop and airbrushing are nice, and sometimes useful, they shouldn’t be used to the extremes that they are today. Perhaps some movies can take on the ancient era, like 300, but as models become more and more (falsely and computerizedly) beautiful, it’s harder for normal citizens believe they even stand a chance. What else do we have to compare ourselves to?
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Who knows? Maybe we'll be able to make holograms of the way we WANT to look for all others to see and then no will ever know what we truly, physically look like. Maybe advancements in technology will make it possible to completely mask our own physical appearances and we'll never have to worry about meeting any standards of beauty - we can all be fake WITHOUT plastic surgery!