The Opacity of Representations of 3D Scanning and Motion Capture in the Cinema - Text 7
Next, the CGI model resulting from the capturing is shown on a screen on which appears, among other things, a “parallax” ratio, inducing the effect of a change in the observer’s position vis-a-vis a subject. What is taking place here, then, is above all an emphasis on the three-dimensional quality of this capturing, which a traditional recording, fundamentally flat, could transcribe only with difficulty: the mise en scène was conceived to convey this specificity of digital scanning before any question of documenting the system itself. Beyond the revolutionary hyperrealism of the imagery of this 1981 film, we see here in particular a rift between the precision of the vocabulary for digitising the body and the impression of magic resulting from this process, whose technical modalities are in reality left in the shadows. In the end, this rift is there to serve the impression of an unclear, nefarious and condemnable technology which gives the sense of sequestering the body against the will of those who experience it.
