Be Fair to the Flare

Since Star Trek has hit the screens I have been hearing common jokes about the prominence of lens flares in the film. I have never been a Trekkie, always leaning closer to the Star Wars universe, to the extent that J.J. Abrams’ film is the first Star Trek experience I’ve ever had. In short, I am here to defend the lens flare.

Wikipedia describes the lens flare as “light scattered in lens systems through generally unwanted image formation mechanisms, such as internal reflection and scattering from material inhomogeneities in the lens.” In other words, it is light that gets bounced and reflected within the lenses of a camera. When used intentionally, it often creates an epic and dramatic effect.In an interview, Abrams describes his deliberate exploitation of the lens flare effect, suggesting that “just off camera, something spectacular is happening…There are something about those flares, especially in a movie that can potentially be very sterile and CG and overly controlled. There is something incredibly unpredictable and gorgeous about them.” Many of these flares were created with out digital assistance by off-screen flashlights and mirrors which Abrams insists creates the sense of action uncontainable by a cinematic frame.

To me, what the lens flare really does is call attention to the presence of the camera itself. By acknowledging the technical presence of the camera, the film grounds itself as something real and something filmable. This is important for a film like Star Trek, which as Abrams points out, had the potential to become an oversaturated CGI effects extravaganza (Wolverine anyone?) In this sense the lens flare brings a sense of reality to the table. This reality makes the action more identifiable and immediate to the audience.



I would also like to draw attention to a similar technique used in the film to the same effect: the shotgun zoom. This technique involves the manual operation of the zoom lens allowing for a rapid zoom on a subject, often seen in Bruce Lee films [skip to 0:19] (and really, most cheesy films and shows from the 60s and 70s…Star Trek included.) This technique once again draws attention to the existence of the camera as the recorder of events in a cinema verité sort of fashion.

The first time I saw this technique used to this effect in a modern sci-fi was in the Battle of Geonosis scene in Attack of the Clones (skip to 6:30). When I saw this however, I was very jarred. I assume it is because, unlike the new Star Trek, the Star Wars prequels rarely acknowledge the presence of a camera in this grounding way.

This only reminds me of last summer’s Wall-E, which also grounded action through the incorporation of camera aesthetics.



Being entirely computer-generated, it is interesting how Wall-E incorporated these aesthetics to create the impression of cinematic realism. During production, the producers of Wall-E invited acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins to Pixar Studios to advise programmers on camera aesthetics, and the visual effects of various lenses and lighting styles. Programmers simulated techniques such as the shotgun zoom and shallow lens focus in an attempt to create a more documentary feel, the same way mockumentary TV shows like The Office attempt to.

It is also worth noting the importance of Ben Burtt’s distinct sci-fi sound design in Wall-E, and Star Trek.



Burtt’s work is probably best known from Star Wars in which he revolutionized sci-fi sound design, opting for very worldly sounds instead of the traditional synthesized sci-fi soundtrack. This approach re-emerges in his work for both Wall-E and Star Trek. The importance of this approach to sound, in similar ways as the aforementioned cinematography, is to ground film visuals into a real-world environment. This has special importance in (CGI) effects-driven films like Wall-E and Star Trek in that much of the film world has no diegetic anchor to the real world in that it is constructed digitally.

These approaches to cinematography and sound may seem minor, however I think this may be a new trend in CGI-heavy movies. When CGI was relatively new, we often saw filmmakers over-indulging in its near-endless possibilities. One shot comes to mind in Return of the King, when the camera pulls away from Gollum’s face (skip to 2:15), through the actual loop of the One Ring, into a wide-angle shot of the innards of Mount Doom. Such impossible camera movement can be disturbing to audiences who know that such a camera movement is impossible, thus drawing attention to the falsity of the special effects in play. Filmmakers are now tending to return to the laws and limitations of the real world in their virtual cinematography in an attempt for greater realism.

In the science-dependent universe of Star Trek, such a move couldn’t be more important.

Snes is the Best: Imagination in the Super Nintendo

Not too long ago Chrono Trigger was released on the Nintendo DS under the auspices of exposing the classic Snes game to a new generation of gamers. Upon its announced release, game composer Yasunori Mitsuda declared “Finally!...It's still a very deep, very high-quality game even when you play it today. I'm very interested in seeing what kids today think about it when they play it." Its interesting to me that the marketed focus is on providing this classic gaming experience to a new generation of youth. I remember growing up on Chrono Trigger and pretty much spending an entire summer replaying it, trying to get my characters to level 99. I know I’m not the only one. Until this Nintendo DS rerelease, Chrono Trigger was quite rare to find on cartridge, sometimes selling for $200 on eBay, and I retain the notion that console games just aren’t the same when played on an emulator on the computer (you need the couch, tv, controller, and save limitations that only the console offers for maximum chill/fun factor.) However, the DS Chrono Trigger is not the Chrono Trigger of our fathers. Its portable, on (two) small screen(s), the menus are altered, there are added dungeons, new features – oh, yeah – and a new “more accurate” English translation of the original Japanese text.

Recently I have somewhat jokingly discussed with several people as to why the Super Nintendo is the best system of all time. The discussions rarely encountered any empirical evidence to back this up, but maybe there’s something to the claim. Its possible that I’m just displaying symptoms of nostalgia, since the SNES played an integral role in my childhood – however, I think that is too easy of an explanation. I think the “more accurate” translation of Chrono Trigger indicates to a gap that separates today’s systems (I’m looking at you PS3) and the consoles of our youth.



To expand on this, I’m going to draw on my all-time favourite game, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Released on the Snes in 1992, A Link to the Past has since been adapted to the Game Boy Advance in similar fashion to Chrono Trigger. The game features new dungeons, new features, and a “more accurate” English translation. I noticed this myself as I played the GBA version of the game, as certain text sequences in the game made a hell of a lot more sense than they did when I was a child. Specifically, there is a point when a towns-person refers to the town elder as “Oh, that old guy?” instead of “Oh, the grandpa?”

So maybe this retranslation is a narrative restoration, but why is it that so many English-speaking kids loved that game when many of its plot points barely made any sense? I remember playing many games as a kid, getting confused by the incomplete back-story and thinking I was playing a sequel to a game I had never heard of. I still loved the games though. Even now I’m replaying Illusion of Gaia for the first time since Corey and I beat it in my basement in grade 5, and it barely makes narrative sense.

And this is kind of why I think the Snes is the best. Its limitations as a system force the gamer to employ a great deal of imagination to fully engage with the games. With the insane hardware capabilities today, very little is left to imagination. Solid Snake looks like Solid Snake. Super Mario looks like…a comatose pedophile?



This concept is best illustrated by comparing (or rather contrasting) official game artwork with character sprites from the game. Seeing the variance between what the characters are supposed to look like and what they are represented as indicates to the degree of imagination employed when playing the game. Same goes with bad translations. When games are translated badly, young players may cope with impossibly ambiguous plots with imagination and makeshift narrative connections.

Games today seem to indicate clearly to the gamer exactly what they are capable within the virtual realm. Most games contain some kind of go-to character who is constantly on-hand to provide hints and advice, and to teach gamers exactly what they can and cannot do. When I got stuck in a game back in the day I would spend hours punching walls, slicing pots, and talking to every villager, because I wasn’t quite sure what my character was capable of, and what the game world had to offer. You read the game manual and pretty much thrown into the fray left to your own devices. Now Navi just tells you the answer to the puzzle before you even have a chance to figure it out yourself.

Now one may argue: If limitation is what makes the Snes so good, then what about more limited systems like the Nes?

I think its simply that the Snes has a perfect balance between limitation and capability that is enough to spur the imaginations of the gamer but not fully satisfy the mimesis of the virtual world. That might be a cheap answer…but I pretty much stopped paying attention to this essay as soon as I turned my Snes on.

In Film as Art Rudolf Arnheim essentially argues that cinema's status as an artform depends on its properties that distance it from the real world. I think this notion is pertinent to the Snes. The artistry of the Snes lies in its distance from realistic representation. While the Nes, Atari and other previous systems may seem by this logic more artistic, I somehow think they are less engaging than the Snes.