Matrix

My favorite movie of all time is the Matrix. The Matrix is a visually dazzling cyber-adventure, full of kinetic excitement. It is not only an action packed film with a variety of special effects, but it also has an amazingly interesting story line to it. The Matrix has the conventional conflict of good conquering over evil. The Matrix involves an evil computer world with accompanying bad guys controlling the real world versus the good in the human spirit. The good triumphs over evil keeping the film morally correct. The movie “The Matrix“ brought an exciting new technology, never before used, to the cinema screen. The scene I am talking about is the action where an agent from the evil world is firing a conventional weapon upon Neo, the main character.

This scene is when Neo and Trinity go to save Morpheus, whom agents are holding. An agent shoots bullets at Neo, at which time the filming becomes slow motion as he bends backward 90 degrees and dodges every bullet coming at him, with the camera moving in a complete circle around the two opponents. The bullets are shown as rippling waves through the air, with a clear view of the bullet as it splits the air. As the camera moves in a counter clockwise motion, you see the characters and action change from viewing it in one direction to coming straight at the audience, before slowly moving away again. This scene length was close to one minute in which movie filming was changed from the realistic to the fantasy. The technology of the 360-degree camera shot was spectacularly introduced to the general movie going public. The camera was rotating around the character, Neo, in a 360-degree pattern while showing the bullets fly past him on all sides as the camera moved to show his front, side, back, side views. A music score without dialog kept the scene a visual experience. This technology lead to a whole new standard of filming for movies.

When I saw this scene in the movie theaters, I was astounded by the miraculous event that just took place. The audience was in utter shock, everyone was whispering to each other about what they just saw. I have never seen anything in the movies that could even resemble the sequence in the movie. The scene only lasted a few moments, but that image stuck in your head like a rewinding video.

Many kinds of movies, ranging from comedy to action, are now using the 360- degree viewing to enhance scenes and raise the levels of filming to adjust to the technology of the current times. This type of filming has generated a wide variety of uses. The first mimic, of course, was other movies. The movie Deuce Bigalow Male Gigilow had a scene where a character did the same scene as Neo in the Matrix, but was intended to make fun of it. This filming technique was even used in a more current film that came out, Swordfish. The opening scene where the girl is forced outside the bank with an explosive vest on her used this technology. When she blew up it showed the explosion in a 360-degree turn like the Matrix, but instead of a two character shot, this scene involved a slow motion view of the entire street area reacting to the impact of the explosion.

Graphic artists are using the 360-degree view for developing new building construction, landscaping, architectural development, and advertising. This type of filming has quickly become a standard for high tech projects involving new products, medical diagnoses, vehicle accidents, and law enforcement. The 360 view has been employed to recreate disasters, military maneuvers, and natural phenomenon to study and learn ways to protect the public, or to prevent future disasters.

The technology was in existence but this was the first time a movie had the chance to use it in a major film. The action packed science fiction of the Matrix made it possible to use this technology. The Matrix was the first movie that had the budget and foresight to incorporate this technology effectively. This technology became possible due to the advances in the computer industry in the last ten years. Without the many people involved in developing new programs, this type of technology would not be a reality at this time.

The best part about the Matrix is that it took place in the present and the story could be true about us, without our knowledge. Our society has made such tremendous advances in the computer era in the last decade, that few people know the extent and scope computers play in our daily lives. The human imagination has the capacity to dream up ways that computers affect our lives that sound more like science fiction than reality. That this movie could in fact be telling the world a true fact is not beyond the general public’s imagination. Initially, a person would deny that computers could be so advanced as to take over the human population, but subconsciously, there may be a small doubt that maybe, just maybe, it could possibly be true. People have been bombarded in the last few years with stories, real or imagined, of computers doing what was totally unthinkable to the last generation. With the knowledge that the general population knows so little about the high tech end of computer science, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the individual would begin to doubt that what his eyes see is in truth reality. The story was so intriguing that when people were exiting the movie, they were talking about how that concept could be true right now. During the scene when Neo dodged those bullets, everyone was in utter amazement. All the people in the audience were whispering to their companions about the event that just took place.

The artifact derived when Neo and Trinity went to save their companion. They were on top of the police building when an agent showed up, leaving only Neo, Trinity and the agent. It was an ideal time to show that Neo could move like an agent and begin to surpass his friends. The movie was starting to come to a conclusion, and there needed to be some recognition of Neo being the one (the one with the ability to remake the Matrix as he sees fit). The scene or rather the artifact showed the first step of Neo becoming the one. It was very significant since the first step to becoming the one is to match the agent’s skills and soon surpass them. Another significant part of the scene was that Trinity was there to witness it. Later in the movie it tells you that it was her destiny to fall in love with the one. Since Trinity was there to witness the event, it gave insight to her eventually realizing that he was the one. She learned that her feelings towards Neo were actually feelings of love. It showed the public that even with our lives depending on computers, either in the movies or in reality, that the human emotion of love is still an extremely powerful aspect of every life. I have come to realize that that scene not only played an important part in the movie, but also gave the first bit of insight into what Neo was to become.

The Matrix has become a big part of our pop culture because of the innovative film techniques used to make it a milestone for all other action movies. The 360-degree, slow motion scenes were filmed with such outstanding results; it set a standard for future movies to adhere to. This technology was quickly employed by a wide variety of graphic designers from a variety of professions, including construction and medical. The majority used it to display views for the improved understanding of how a product was perceived. The advances in this type of filming were welcomed by the general public as a superior visual component that would enhance their viewing. It has opened a door to the future where three dimensional viewing and filming c will only improve our way of life.

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