Barry Purves © Bare Boards Productions

I know I must be alone in this, and I know that there is nothing I can do about it except eventually accept it and go with it, but I do feel that I am waving at a computer-generated Emperor and politely telling him that he is wearing no clothes. Sadly, I feel I am deafened by the surrounding crowd saying how lovely the Emperor's clothes are, and how his wardrobe will never be the same again. I am sure it won't, but I still remain to be convinced that his wardrobe will be better.

I have a basic psychological problem with computer-generated animation, in that as soon as I am aware of any involvement of computers, a huge barrier comes between me and the screen. I can sit there and be wonderfully impressed and dazzled by the technology, but I cannot get beyond that. However spectacular the images and effects are, there is something nagging away in my mind that says, "Oh, it's computers." and I dismiss it.

I realize this does an enormous disservice to the skill and artistry behind the images, and says more about my own naiveté, my stubborn technical illiteracy and fear of things I do not understand, but the more complex the "magic" becomes, the less magical it feels. I just accept these effects without seeing any wonder in them.

If I sit in a theater, and I am presented with the illusion of a magician sawing his assistant in half, and placing the two halves at either end of the stage, that impresses me. I know it is only a trick, but with the performers physically in front of me, and with the limitations of the stage itself, I know the boundaries of what is possible, yet they have appeared to go beyond these. I have been happily tricked.

But if the same illusion happens on a piece of film, I am not impressed as I subconsciously know it has all been done with clever editing, or computers have erased any tell-tale part of the image that would have given the game away, or it could have been filmed over a period longer than suggested, and various body doubles replaced.

Reversing the situation, if an animator was to animate a complex dance sequence with huge leaps and jumps, it does not impress as much as its live-action equivalent when you know the physical limitations and gravity the dance has to overcome, but which an animator is not troubled with and can ignore.

I am no longer impressed by Stallone, on film, hanging from an edge of a mountain, when I know that computers have erased thick steel hawsers supporting him, and the sheer drop does not exist and has been generated by a computer. The so-called reality of film is somewhat less than real.

One of the Great Fallacies
That the camera never lies has proved to be one of the great fallacies of the twentieth century. It now seems that the camera nearly always lies and certainly cannot be trusted anymore, and sadly, I feel that I can no longer believe anything I see. This is totally disorienting.

Knowing that publicity photos are nearly always retouched, can I believe that a certain model really has such blue eyes, or that her waist is really so ludicrously small? Should I meet this model, how disappointed I would be in her dull grey eyes and spreading waistline.

Knowing that politicians can be diplomatically removed from incriminating photographs at the press of a few buttons, what can we trust?