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= Special Effects Budgets = Special effects have been evolving since the beginning of the film industry, but the advent of digital technology in movie making has accelerated this evolution exponentially. Toho Studios in Japan has evolved at a much slower pace than the big-budget American studios. They have been releasing //Godzilla// movies since 1954, according to Ken Belson’s 2002 New York Times article “Media; low-cost and low-tech, 'godzilla' thrives.” The studio produced its 26th film in the franchise in November of 2002 with a budget of only $8.5 million, 8% of the cost of //Star Wars Episode II//. The studio’s traditional approach to film making sets it apart in an action movie world full of wild digital effects. They still have a man in a suit play the titular monster, and scale miniatures make up most of the scenery and props. The studio maintains that this helps to keep their films more genuine. Make of the Godzilla suit Shinichi Wakasa says “I am skeptical if they could convey the feeling of a human acting, like Godzilla's breathing.'' Toho studios has evolved into the digital age, though they use digital effects to enhance what they already have, rather than create a completely digital world for the action to take place. Baran’s idea of “blockbuster mentality” does not exist at Toho as it does in the major American studios. While the Godzilla franchise is formulaic, a part of the blockbuster, they take a risk every time they make a new film. By breaking the industry’s modern conventions and expectations involving digital filmmaking, Toho makes modern films rooted in tradition. Special effects have become so commonplace that the public expects flashy effects in nearly every movie they see. The 1998 American //Godzilla// film had a $130 million budget, well over 10 times the typical budget of a Japanese Godzilla movie. Baran makes light of the opposite ends of the special effects spectrum, from the $35,000 cost of digital-effects-free 1999 film //The Blair Witch Project// to the $350 million dollar cost of //Spiderman 3//, a movie that relied almost entirely on special effects in order to tell its story. The huge budget of //Spiderman// and other popular movies like //Titanic// exists largely because of the cost of special effects. The American //Godzilla// was full of digital effects and true-to-scale explosions, but lacked the feeling expertly conveyed by Toho Studio’s expertise in more traditional filmmaking. Special effects can be used to great effect, and have made movies like //The Lord Of The Rings// able to accurately represent a fantasy world from a book. Films like Michael Bay’s //Transformers// series are the opposite, using nothing but special effects to entertain the audience. Toho’s stance on using digital effects to enhance rather than tell the story is both admirable and true to form. American blockbusters continue to rely on flash explosions and car chases to sell tickets, while Toho’s Godzilla movies retain a core following because they have a unique style. The financial concerns plaguing the film industry may just help it to turn around and focus more on the power of people than computers.

Belson, K. (2002, September 2). Media; low-cost and low-tech, 'godzilla' thrives. //New York Times//, C6. Baran, Stanley (2010). Introduction to mass communication. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. ||  ||
 * **Subject:** Godzilla vs. Hollywood || Reply Quote Set Flag  ||