Freddie Wong Talks Shop About Why CG Sucks

Freddie Wong (of Youtube fame) took some time to sit down and talk about CG and the movie industry in his latest video "Why CG Sucks (Except It Doesn't) as part of Rocket Jump Film School. Throughout, he touches on a few things that I personally haven't really thought about with regards to CG. Specifically, it seeks to tackle the notion that CG work is ruining movies as a whole and that we should hearken back to the good old days of practical effects. But should we really?

Before I ramble on, give the video a watch. It's okay, I'll wait.

Did you learn something? I know I did. What's amazing to me is just how much CG work goes unnoticed (in a good way). On my life I could have sworn that the effects on The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo were all practical, but that's what I get for not looking at the behind-the-scenes stuff. That's to Freddy's point, I suppose. A lot of people pour their heart and soul into something with the express purpose of someone not knowing that someone had a digital hand in it. The end point, though, is what got to me.

So maybe the reason why people seem to think that visual effects are ruining movies isn't a really a problem with a visual effects, maybe it's just a problem with the movies themselves.

At the end of the day, as he said, CG is just a tool that helps tell the story but there's not much it can do when you tell the story poorly either way. But I'd love to know what you think.