Cinema acting in the digital era

As in many other fields, digitalization has created new possibilities and narrative forms in cinema and has led to changes in the art of acting. In the digital era, the cinema actor/actress creates by using all of his/her instruments (voice, body and face), however, due to the technological processes, such as motion or performance capture, and due to the fact that his/her creation is completely dependent on the creation of other artists, some aspects of acting participate in the final digital performance, while others are completely excluded from it. In this way, in the digital era of cinema, the actor/actress is being separated from his/her creation and has become invisible or even inaudible in it. As a result of this, the authorship of the acting component in a digital film has become constantly questioned. In other words, very frequently other artists claim to be the authors of an acting component in a digital character, besides the actual actor/actress. İn order to understand the current status of acting in the digital era of cinema, this thesis explores the art of acting before the digital era in three different media: theater, cinema and animation. By using a qualitative research method, this thesis looks at the transformation of acting in these three media from the perspective of media archeology. The transformation of acting has been examined through a historical research, while the transformation of acting in the digital era of cinema has been analyzed through three case studies chosen as a data collection technique. - Brad Pitt's acting in the digital construction of the character Benjamin Button in the film The curious case of Benjamin Button (2008); - Guy Henry's acting in the digital construction of the character Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016); - Andy Serkis's acting in the digital construction of the character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong in the film King Kong (2005) and Caesar in The Planet of The Apes trilogy. By following the journey of the actor, from the very beginning until today, analyzing the transition from one medium to another, this thesis discovers that it is not the acting that has changed over the years, but rather its involvement in a concrete performance. Acting, even before entering any particular medium, has defined itself as an art that demonstrates itself through the voice, the body and the face of a person. Therefore, in any field or era, an actor/actress creates through the use of these instruments. However, because of the technology or the artistic decisions, all or some of the instruments are presented to the audience. Based on the examples of the actors Brad Pitt, Guy Henry and Andy Serkis, this thesis presents that, even though the actor becomes invisible and sometimes inaudible in the digital era of cinema, he/she is able to maintain its presence in the character and therefore in the final film performance. Finally, in the digital era of cinema, the actor/actress can be felt everywhere, even though he/she can't be seen anywhere. Keywords: Acting, Digital Era, Cinema, Theater, Animation, Motion Capture