I get a magazine called “Cinefex.” For years I read about the models, the costumes, the creative photography, and the clever tricks used to fool the eye.

Now it’s mostly computers. No complaints, really, but a lot of the articles are beginning to boil down to “the actors stood in front of the green screen, and the computers put everything else in.”

Some of the methods used to get acting input into computerized characters is kind of neat. The actors wear devices that can actually digitize their expressions in real time. One article talked about actors playing digital characters who wore special viewers so that the other actors looked like the creatures they were.

I’m old fashioned, though. I still think an actor does a little better standing on a set surrounded by real things than on a green screen stage.