The wavefront recording plane (WRP), subsequently generalized to be known as the virtual diffraction plane (VDP), is a recent concept that has been successfully deployed in fast generation and processing of digital holograms. In brief, the WRP and its extension, the VDP, is a hypothetical plane that is located between the hologram and the object scene, and which is at close proximity to the latter. As such, the fringe patterns on the hypothetical plane are carrying the holistic information of the hologram, as well as the local optical properties of the object scene. This important property enables a hologram to be processed with classical image processing techniques that are normally unsuitable for handling holographic information. In this paper we shall review a number of works, that have been developed based on the framework of the WRP and the VDP.