What Is NOCG?
NOCG is about truth in the medium.
It is a return to the past so that we can realize the future.
It is a rejection of the idea that CG VFX are somehow the future – they are not and never will be, for the simple fact that CG VFX are, well, fake. CG is fools gold. It is fiat money. It is lab-grown meat. It is a lie.
“Those who control the present, control the past. Those who control the past, control the future”
-George Orwell
Why NOCG - No Computer Graphics?
The case for practical special effects, real stunts and homegrown Cinema has never been stronger.
We all know – movies today are worse than lame. Whether it’s the woke programming or the over reliance on computer graphics – movies just are not what they used to be.
If we can define Movie Magic as the ability to recreate our imaginations in real-time and capture that on camera, then Movie Magic peaked in the early 1990’s and has been deflating ever since.
But why? How did this happen?
Of course there are plenty of culprits. Primarily;
1. Corporate takeovers of Studios watering down artistic vision to reduce risk in an attempt to maximize profits.
2. The lure of power that industrialized mainstream culture promises to those seeking to condition millions of minds to a certain political bent.
3. We, the People – who are tricked over and over again to buy into repackaged, regurgitated nostalgia bait (ie Star Wars, Marvel etc) in a series of an ever declining experiential return on our ticket investments.
4. A growing over-reliance on fraudulent, Computer-Generated illusions, catapulting us into the void, disconnecting us from the true experience.
These are the primary culprits. And it’s time things changed. It’s time we got back on track and brought truth back to the Medium of Film.
Because we go to the movies to be thrilled, to be moved, to experience the visceral rush of other worlds, other lives, revelation and meaning..
Not to be beat over the head with cult programming or force-fed computer graphics masquerading as the real thing.
We are 30 or so years into the Computer Graphic SFX revolution in film, and the shinier and crisper the graphics have gotten, the more hollow and soulless they really are.
The pioneers of Computer Graphics thought they were ushering in a world of endless possibilities – but at what cost?
Instead of liberating imagination from the bounds of reality, computer graphics have led us into the void.
None of it means anything anymore. Who really cares when the latest CG Superhero smashes through a building, obliterates a thousand CG enemies and flattens a CG city block.
Yawn – boring.
There is no consequence when everything is completely fake – and the minds eye knows it.
So how can we connect?
For something to matter, we need skin in the game. It’s not like these epic-scale illusions can’t be done in real-time using and building on the rich legacy of Film SFX.
When city blocks were blown to smithereens in 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day’s nuclear blast, it still holds up today. It looks better and feels better than anything the CG VFX drones have put together in Marvel Studios, by a long shot.
In 1999’s Matrix, the stunts, the SFX, the walls blown to smithereens in the iconic battle in the skyscraper lobby – almost all real. The let downs in the first Matrix visually would be the CG generated tentacle robots, and as the sequels progressed it got worse from there. The Matrix 2 was falling apart as soon as a CG Neo was battling an army of CG Agent Smith’s. All clearly fake – yawn, boring.
There are countless examples.
When the stunts and special effects are real the illusion rings true and we can experience the story in full. This is what movie magic is all about. The illusion must ring true.
Which is what’s missing today – truth in the medium. Try as they might, a forged reality will never beat the real thing.
But maybe this is exactly the intention – to sell you a meaningless existence. To have you conform to a fake reality – a fake reality that Computer Graphics help perpetuate.
And with the arrival of A.I. this issue becomes even more important than ever.
But there is a way out.
And light is peaking through the clouds. What was Steven Spielberg caught saying to Tom Cruise on a hot mic in regards to Top Gun: Maverick (2022)?
He said “You saved Hollywood’s ass and you might have saved theatrical distribution”
Why did he say this? Well, not because it made a lot of money – Spider Man: No Way Home made more money that year, so if it was just about money, why wouldn’t Spielberg say that to the producers of that Marvel sausage?
I would argue it’s because of the way Top Gun: Maverick was made. It was made in real jet fighters in real skies, with real pilots who all had skin in the game. Tom Cruise showed that not only can such risky, high stakes film making still be done, but it is part of the draw. In fact, it was THE draw. It was a blast from the past – a time when film was still real, and people are starving for it.
People are tired of being expected to show up and eat the newest CG sausage just because it has slightly different packaging than the last.
People dont want Beyond Meat’s fake tumor-meat.
People want their steak bloody and from a real cow.
The same goes for film.
The key to the future lies in the past. Until we reclaim our cinematic heritage and a film language based in truth, we’re stuck, our wings clipped in green screen hell.
Because it is by grounding the impossible in reality that we can really let our imaginations fly.
What Does It Mean In Practice?
NOCG doesn’t mean we do not use computers. To the contrary – we use computers to help catch reality. We use computers to cut, paste, mask, erase, insert, bend and warp the raw material.
We use computers to make the act of film creation easier.
Think about it like this – to achieve the visual effects in The Thing (1982) of the monster moving about, all of the control mechanisms had to be hidden inside the prosthetics, otherwise they would be caught on film. This is an extremely time consume, difficult and expensive way to create. What computers allow us to do is give us the breathing room to have the cables + control mechanisms outside of the prosthetics to be removed digitally. This would cut down on time, difficulty and cost but with all the benefits of the real prop monster.
That principle can be applied to any sort of effect.
Lets say you want to create a fireball flying across the shot between actors. Today, VFX would create the fireball digitally in post, and on set, set up lights to imitate the effects of fire on the actors faces.
We think this is ass backwards and leads to a lower quality of production. No matter how good your VFX are, no matter how good you set up that lighting, it will never be REAL, and the MINDS EYE knows it.
How we would approach this is, we would run a cable across the set on the trajectory of the fireball, then put a ball of fire on that cable and launch it across the set. The light reflecting off the actors faces would be REAL. The actors themselves would be able to react to something REAL, helping performance. It would ring true – because it is true.
It’s a simple example, but the point is made.
Yes, of course you would have an elevated level of risk – that Insurance would probably piss and moan about. And so what? Of course all safety measures should be taken into consideration and the entire scenario should be handled by professionals. But as long as the participants voluntarily agree and the risk is professionally understood and contained, it should be done IN PRINCIPLE, the real way – the right way.
In summary;
We do not use computers to fabricate images or effects. We use computers to assist in the creation of actual, real images and effects.
There is a caveat to all of this.
IF what you are trying to do would benefit on a character or story level from the fraud that is summoned forth by CG VFX, then by all means break the rules.
In all other cases, it pays to keep it real.