Phantom Perceptions

As digital cinema becomes increasingly dematerialized, in the vein of milestones such as Avatar (2009) and Gravity (2013), the role of CGI and other digital film technologies shift from a complement/corrective of filmed images to a means of creating images proper. In these films created without celluloid, without physical decors, and, increasingly, even without a camera, the insistence on retaining artifactual film formal techniques, codes, and devices from analog cinema is nonetheless striking: camera movements are simulated, lens flares are rendered digitally in the absence of lenses, editing proceeds according to classical codes of continuity, etc. This paper investigates the simulation of analog film forms and ‘dispositifs’ in digital cinema through the question of perception: what does it mean to perceive a camera that is not actually there? Or more generally, when are these simulated devices meant to be apparent, and when are they meant to be imperceptible? In order to approach these questions, this paper will look at cases in which perceptual objects may go unregistered, cases in which perceptual objects are rendered more perceptible by virtue of their digital simulation, and cases in which perceptual objects are meant to be perceived otherwise, in order to posit a skeuomorphic sensibility that links analog and digital cinema through experience.