Computer Interfaces in Cinema - Evolution of Imagination

TL; DR. We tried to cover a lot, so the article was frighteningly voluminous. But, I hope, informative. And under it you can nostalgic.

Interfaces in pop culture have a whole story that deserves special attention. Today we will talk about how people represented and portrayed interfaces in the cinema. Priority will be behind computers (from home to airborne), however, it is worth understanding that any system with which a person interacts with another system is an interface.

First glimpses

When the science fiction genre just came to the screens, the 20th century was in the courtyard. The first film of the genre, Journey to the Moon, was inspired by the work of Jules Verne.

It is hard to imagine now, but this pioneer of the “cosmic” sci-fi did without talking holograms in the cabin of the star cruiser, rotational volume maps, flickering data projected on the glass of the “smart helmet”. In total, without which we have lost the habit of taking science fiction.
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The film "Journey to the Moon", directed by Georges Melies, 1902

The genre by this time has not yet accumulated its own "knowledge base", a set of well-established images, of which dozens of science fiction films, books, cartoons and video games will later grow.

A starting point

Like any fictional system, this one had to be grounded. If for fantasy the basis and source of inspiration was (mostly) European mythology, then for NF this is technical progress.

Any fantastic literature is based on its meta-universe: a set of clichés that all authors agreed to take as a basis. For classic fantasy, these are orcs and elves, gray-bearded wizards in conical hats, fictional continents as a mandatory locale, non-existent languages, magic, and the like. Science fiction also has a very lively system of cliches: teleportation, superluminal speeds, time travel, holographic communications, laser weapons, human-like robots, futuristic computer programs ...

The twentieth century is the century of computers and electronics, nuclear weapons and the first spaceflight. Warlike and enthusiastic, looking only to the future. It was scientific and technical progress that pushed the authors to create high-quality science fiction. And the world of NF gradually absorbed the inventions of the century and thought them.

The pictures show inventions of the beginning of the 20th century and sources of inspiration: sonar (sonar), radar, electrocardiograph, gyrocompass, theremin, Geiger counter, iconoscope ...

Retrofuturism

The first NF-films please with a bold flight of thought. A typical computer here looks like a grandmother’s sideboard with gates, verniers and knife switches, and what it shows the user (if it shows at all) is the work of constructivist artists.

Images from the film Raumpatrouille Orion, 1966

Already here, the main motives of cosmic fiction are clearly visible: a large round table in the command post, onto which graphic data are projected. The interface is fabulous more than full, because no one has yet felt the “real” computer interfaces.

But remember the legendary "Enterprise" or a couple of the last "star" NF - much has changed? We still get to the futuristic UI (they are called FUI), but for now the next stage in the evolution of cinema interfaces.

Eighties green console

With the advent of the first PCs, everyone once again felt what the “future today” means. The hero of the day is not the space captain, but the hacker, who is seen as the indispensable computer wizard. Such a wizard, who can, by entering html-tags on the command line, force a primitive text OS to suddenly produce color photos, color lines and polygons.

And, of course, the secret information of the special services.

Characteristic attributes of computer interfaces for films of this time:

Green command line on a black screen.
The appearance of letters one by one, as if, instead of a PC, they were betrayed by a not very agile typesetter.
Squeak and crackling - because the computer had to radiate uncertainty and even a threat.
A quick click on the keys (to show the hacker's virtuosity ).
Boot screens, more like screensavers, and showing that something is going to happen now .
Epic ACCESS DENIED and ACCESS GRANTED (namely, capital) as the only way to show at least some movement among uniform characters
Exploding monitors. From the eighties, everyone knows that if you do not enter the correct password in time, the C4, built into any monitor by default, detonates.

The cliche c access denied / granted is so ingrained that it has been successfully exploited so far. A shot from the TV series “Revolution”, 2012-2014. They say that the code is real, taken from a githaba, and the truth refers to the recognition of fingerprints.

Interfaces are typical representatives of the era:

"Tron", the original film of 1982.

“Tron: Heritage”, a remake of 2010

Brainstorming, 1983

"Die Hard", 1988

It is curious that the creators of the series LOST, whose action takes place at zero, put the “same terminal” with green letters in the bunker of the Dharma Initiative, which was based on the island just at the end of the seventies.

“Lost”, 2004-2010.

In the game Fallout, which recreates the atmosphere of the "cyberpunk of the fifties", the style of the green console is also actively exploited:

Fallout 3, 2008

However, the fantastic interfaces in the 80s have not disappeared anywhere. The most significant example of an era is the NF film Tron, which is very bold in terms of interface design. In fact, it’s not even a computer interface, but a virtual reality, a qualitatively different level of interaction .

Fantastic interface with pakmen in “Throne”: do you recognize these spinning circles? Choose any modern NF-film and wait until it comes to computer technology;)

The film predetermined many ideas about the “interfaces of the future” not only in the nineties cinema. This vector has not changed yet.

Nineties graphic skins

The nineties were held under the motto "personal computer in every home." Cinematographers also changed the boring monochrome squiggles with full-fledged graphical interfaces. However, the methods of hacker attacks remained the same (but outwardly they became much more effective):

On the video in the film Universal Soldier: The Return, the smart computer prints "Hello, doctor Cotner ..." - but instead of the green console we have the "beautiful" Times New Roman against the standard texture of "green marble" from Power Point.

For some reason, the special effects masters of that time did not consider it decent to show real programs or operating systems, even if the film was set in a severe present.

Distinctive features of epochs:

Visualization of everything in a row. If this is the selection of a password - then let it be like a computer game, and not like a dull console.
Dossier as a symbol of the era. Everyone remembers this search in the CIA database, where pictures flash at a rate of five pieces per second. Showing, apparently, that the base is really big.
Windows, icons, animation. Fundamental things of modern interfaces.
Glitch effect. A photo that suddenly shakes and twitches, makes the viewer feel that something is going wrong.
Progress bars. Uploading virus window that has become a meme. Which will probably blow up the monitors to all adversaries. But according to the laws of the genre, both the time bomb timer stops at the penultimate second, and the progress bar freezes by 98%.

Typical Ace Ventura Dossier, 1994

Flabber, 1997

Biometrics in the Thirteenth Floor, 1999

The indispensable visualization in "Batman Returns" (1992), and also showed how the energy shield of the starship was pierced.

Golakeco danger! The Fifth Element, 1997

In the cinema of the nineties, the beginnings of “modern futurism” appear: biometric indicators, heat maps on computer screens, turning
emerging 3d-models. And another important element that predetermines the appearance of future cinema interfaces is virtual reality (Johnny Mnemonic, Lawn Mower)

Johnny Mnemonic, 1995

Present programs for the present

The next stage in the evolution of film interfaces is the maximum approximation of these to reality. Or a demonstration of real programs in the frame. Why re-design the video messenger, browser or operating system, if even without this there are plenty of options?

True-wind in The Bourne Identity, 2002

Holmes applies deduction to the top ten real laptops, Sherlock, 2010

Agent Carrie Matheson opens on his armored laptop WordPad and the video player we all know, “Rodina”, 2011

Gregory House, apparently using specialized medical software (but quite plausible), "Dr. House", 2004-2012

Quite a common Safari and site in it, “At a distance of love”, 2011

In Iron Man 2 (2010), Arab interfaces are stuck somewhere between the 80s and the 90s

This layer of film culture is the least interesting, because we are interested in cinema interfaces.

Futuristic User Interface (FUI)

We return to sci-fi, only this time modern. The development of computer interfaces for cinema is so in demand that there is even a separate profession for this.

Particular attention should be paid to futuristic interfaces - it is in science fiction that they are valuable in themselves, because they create the necessary entourage. In addition, the NF often acted as a prophet, predicting the appearance of gadgets and cars. Maybe the interfaces from sci-fi will soon be on our personal computers?

For the lazy: the video below is 99.9% describing the appearance and behavior of any futuristic interface in modern cinema:

Characteristic features of modern FUI:

A lot of information. At the same time, the monitor displays the dynamics of dozens of indicators, graphs are plotted, pie charts are drawn, an unknown code is written, three-dimensional models are spinning, and what is not happening.
Biometrics. Indicators of living organisms are interesting from the point of view of visualization: heat maps, models of skeletons and tissues, colored DNA chains.
Hyperdynamicity. There is nothing static at all.
Humanization of the interface. It is strange not to have on board a starship talking AI when even your smartphone listens to its voice.
Voice control The least expensive option in terms of film budget, was used in Star Trek.
Manage gestures. Virtual reality is just the opposite: the holographic projection is fully interactive, it can be twisted, approximate individual sections and generally create a technomage.
Contrasting bright colors on a black background. All the “interfaces of the future” are made exactly in this range. Reason: the holographic volumetric model will be most noticeable if it is acid-green or poisonous blue. But the rule for some reason works for ordinary computer programs - maybe this is a tribute to the eightieth?

An excellent example showing how interfaces are being developed for the needs of sci-fi:

Typical representatives of the genre:

"Star Trek: Retribution", 2013

Infographics again, “Thor: the kingdom of darkness”, 2013

"Jack Ryan: Chaos Theory", 2013

In Oblivion (2013), the interfaces already look relatively orderly and logical.

HUD or interface-slam, “Ender's Game”, 2013

The interface from “War of the Worlds Z” (2013) looks more like a professional software window for musicians.

Tony Stark is, of course, a genius, but even he has a hard time accepting all this abundance of data. Even to the Terminator with his red-black UI was easier! "Iron Man 3", 2013

In the series “The Edge” (2008-2013), JJ Abrams, director of LOST (and the upcoming Star Wars), has moved away from the primitive text OS, now the interfaces deserve the captain's bridge of the spacecraft.

Similar interfaces can be found in games (where they are, and there they really like cliches).

Splinter Cell: Blacklist also found a place for “desktop interfaces”

In Mass Effect, John Shepard moves through the game world, selecting points on a huge volumetric map of a spiral galaxy.

In Star Craft II: Wings of Liberty, brutal Jim Raynor makes decisions at a round table, looking at the green projection

In Star Wars: Old Republic, the pensive Sith listens to the hologram of his master - a reference to the classic film saga.

After such shots, looking at the control center of the ship from Interstellar I want to shout: “Boring!”:

The interfaces of the future are usually so complex and crammed with dynamically changing information that a typical user of such a product should look, most likely, like this:

Beyond fiction

Meanwhile, while fantasy artists imagine what the interfaces will look like in hundreds of years, major players in the software market also make predictions. True, for a smaller period - about five years.

Microsoft's forecast, everything is quite logical.

It is clear that the primary purpose of the UI in the movie - to produce an effect. But it seems completely illogical to use interfaces in science fiction that do not correlate at all with current simplification trends .

Andrei Manuilov, interface designer: In the cinema, often no one thinks about the usability of the interfaces that surround the characters - they just try to make it “beautiful”. Moreover, directors and screenwriters, inspired by the classics of fiction, leave us in the hopeless world of flying strips, columns and circular diagrams of one or two colors. The fact that today high-quality interfaces actively penetrate the web and mobile will eventually force the creators of films to look at the “ buttons and icons ” differently. The paradigm, when the screen is littered with unknown information, should change soon. The “Internet of Things” is what awaits us everywhere tomorrow. One of the basic principles is to present a minimum of information to the user at a time, in favor of the usefulness and relevance of this information. He should be developed in science fiction on the screens.