The End of Movie Memorabilia

With the rise of computer-generated imagery, cultural artifacts like James Bond's Aston Martin and Dorothy's ruby slippers are sadly becoming a thing of the past.

In a few short years, the auction houses that specialize in selling props from Hollywood movies are going to be in serious trouble. Why? Because there won’t be any props left to sell.

The blame – or credit – goes to filmmakers who use computer-generated imagery for special effects. Over roughly the last 15 years, such animation quickly became the norm in Tinseltown: CGI has been used to render schools of deadly pirahnas, it has mobilized massive armies of orcs, it has held Carrie-Anne Moss suspended in mid-air.

The number of movie lovers who can spot the difference between CGI and traditional effects (using miniature models, matte paintings, and elaborate makeup and costumes) is steadily dwindling. I am the only person I know who prefers the old-school way of doing things.

But my point isn’t to convince you old ways are good ways. What I’m underlining is that there are entire industries that sprang up based on traditional effects — and if they aren’t already, they will soon be in jeopardy.

You may have heard how next month in London, England, a legendary piece of special-effects history is going under the gavel. The Aston Martin sports car driven by Sean Connery in the James Bond pictures Goldfinger and Thunderball is set to be auctioned off.

The car has real switches that activate such fake extra features as machine guns, an oil-slick sprayer, and a bulletproof shield. It has been kicking around since the 1960s; I’m expecting it will fetch a pretty penny because its like is only going to get more scarce.

Directors who insist on creating onscreen car chases the old-fashioned way, with drivers who drive actual automobiles, are considered holdouts. Movies like the four Fast and the Furious flicks – which made heavy use of CGI – have grown more common, while movies such as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, produced with real vehicles, are fast becoming the exception.

There is now an entire generation of moviegoers who have grown up with CGI. They are accustomed to effects that are nothing more than a collection of colourful pixels. For them, there is no James Bond Aston Martin waiting to be auctioned off in the future.

Ask yourself this question: Decades from now, what memorabilia will be left from James Cameron’s Avatar to sell? It will be a very small collection, since the props and sets Cameron used were generated by means of computer. They never existed as real objects. Sam Worthington didn’t wear a suit to play a Na’vi — so it can’t be handed down decade after decade, like the gill man’s mask from The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

You and I are accustomed to reading about movie auctions, but they will soon be a thing of the past as an entire way of life passes before our eyes. I believe it’s a huge blow.

To my way of thinking, items like Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and the motorized shark from Jaws are properly classified as cultural artifacts, evidence of a type of storytelling that entertained millions for the better part of a century. We’re the poorer, in an archeological sense, for the loss of such pieces.

And the auction houses will grow poorer in a very real financial sense.

This article was originally published in the London Free Press.