Mike Jones Digital Basin
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Children Of Men and the Physical Virtual Camera

The virtual camera is as much a concept as it is a technology. A conceptualization of the camera as a spatial occupant, present but incorporeal - in the space but not necessarily of the space and more often than not, in defiance of the space and of physicality. Obviously these conceptual parameters would point directly at the specific 3D graphic technologies that allow for the virtual camera. But this is not to say that the same Virtual Camera concept is not also viable with physical cameras.

The increasingly famous car chase scene in Children of Men is one such example. No effects, no greenscreen, no 3D virtual camera or set - instead a highly elaborate physical construction to allow for an otherwise physically impossible shot. But more interesting than the fabulous mechanics is the spatial effect on viewership.



The result of this spectacular single shot sequence is conceptually that of a virtual camera. The viewer's entity is within the scene; a vanishing point of observance and perspective. the viewer's positioning is not bound by the perceived physicality of the car and their presence occupies the scene from a position of non physicality. In effect the grand apparatus of a folding seat, transformer-like car space allows for a non-physical shot, a shot that defies the space it depicts. (The car/camera rig itself was developed by Doggicam and info about the two-axis dolly can be read here)

Despite massive differences in technology the result is the same as that from a 3D virtual camera in films such as Panic Room.


What is also interesting about shots like this (be they physically or virtually constructed) is that within contemporary movies they are viewed as 'extra-ordinary', special and worthy of particular attention. But within gaming and gaming cinematic media the immersion of the perspective as virtual vanishing point within a scene is everyday commonality and part of the persistent mode of visual construction games evoke.

Take games such as 'Company of Heroes' where the player is embodied as camera and their position within the constructed space of the viewed/played 'cinema' is infinitely flexible and consistently in defiance of physical parameters.



A shot such as that in Children of Men can certainly been seen as an extension of gaming influence on cinema as these types of depictions are not simply the result of technological advancement but more so the profound influence of expectations. Movie goers are also gamers and their visual cinematic sensibilities, their expectations for what the moving image can do, and perhaps should do - how it movies, frames and depicts - is profoundly different to audiences of just 10 years ago.

Movie goers bred on film and Tv see cinematic form in Frames.

Gamers bred on Film, TV and Games, see cinematic form in Spaces and the engagement, occupation, exploration of those spaces.

Posted at 01:00AM Sep 12, 2007 by Mike Jones in moving image theory  |  Comments[0]