The future of cinema is being altered as we speak. Soon actors will be redundant just as the same way scenery is being made redundant via digital technology. So how is this all going to work?
Digital scenes: Already, many movies use digital backgrounds for their movies. This cuts down dramatically on production costs and man power. Now, television shows are experimenting with the same technology (like Sci-Fi’s Sanctuary) as it not only improves, but is becoming so inexpensive that a person with a cell phone camera and some digital editing equipment can use the same technology and techniques on the cheap. Soon, location shoots may become simply stored file footage to be manipulated by digital artists. This thus relegates old, traditional shoots to places they have no file footage on, or for documentarians.
Digital actors: Even now, actors can be replaced by digital ones. Slowly but surely as using actors becomes more expensive, movie companies are going to be looking into alternatives to bring people to the box office. Most go to movies now for the actors, but a growing trend has people watching movies for the story line like in the old days. Many of the highest grossing films are digital animation like the Toy Story films, Cars and the like. We will see further development of this as we can make avatars that look like real people, but with the advantage of having them do their own stunts. There is even technology that can have them have their own unique voices, sing and even interact with people via programs. This will be similar to the digital girlfriends and the Vocaloids (digital avatars that sing) that have become popular in Asian countries. As such, these digital actors and singers may even have their own followings in the same way as a traditional actor would. All this will cut costs on development over time and thus cause a dramatic changeover in the movie industry.
Who gets paid the big bucks: With actors and actresses all but done away with on the big screen, digital affects artists who use digital tools will gain the big bucks. This will be especially so with those who own a particular digital actor. Those who own a digital actor are those who created an avatar with a particular personality. So their ownership makes these digital agents very important. The better an artist is at the quality of the movie or avatar the more money they make (let alone popularity). Also, writers will get a major boost as it is their stories that are being told, not the actors who are making the movie popular. As such, the writers themselves will become as big as actors are today as well.
Conclusion: This is one of the scenarios I see coming with the age of digital cinema. As the movie industry needs to get more people into theaters (a dying business unto itself) they will switch to making cheaper movies that can be easily put on television as well. So cheap and effective movies are going to be the norm. Digitizing as much as possible is what is helping to make this possible. It is going to be interesting seeing how the entertainment industry adapts to our changing world.
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