Gravity

Let's talk about Gravity.

No, not the law discovered by Mr. Newton in the 1680's, but the film directed by Alfonso Cuarón coming out this weekend. 

Critics are going crazy for this film. IMDB has given it an 8.5/10, Metacritic– a 97/100, and Rotten Tomatoes a 98%. So what are they loving so much about it? I'll have to see it to know for sure... but I'm guessing it has something to do with it's stunning visual effects, non-stop intensity, and rumored 17-minute opening shot.

With such stunning visuals, I feel like this may finally be a film worth seeing on the largest screen possible and, dare I say, 3D? I know there are a lot of haters out there for 3D, but if there's an environment that could put it to effective use it would definitely be outer space. It's clear that Cuarón thought long and hard about how to immerse the audience in the beauty and terror of being hundreds of miles above earth.

Before I go any further I recommend you watch the trailer. There have been a few different trailers made, but I think the first one they made is most effective:

DON'T FORGET FULL SCREEN

Not everyone loved this trailer, but it hit me on the spot. When I first saw it I thought it was some sort of space documentary, and I think that's exactly what they wanted. Then all of a sudden BOOM – NOT SO MUCH. Although they have sound effects of destruction in the trailer, I've heard that the film is scientifically accurate and contains no sound because there is no sound is space. All you hear is their voices over the radio and possibly

some dramatic music at certain times. I also think this will be one of the more impressive performances by Sandra Bullock. I know some people are skeptical, and I get that, because how great of a performance can she really give while strapped into a space suit while spinning in circles through space? But when something is stripped down to it's basic elements is when it has the opportunity for huge success. In this case, it's Sandra Bullock's vocals. Curón and Bullock worked for hours on how to capture the terror of flying through space with just the sound of her breath. When I re-watched the trailers with this in mind, I really think she nailed it. And what's so spectacular about it is that it doesn't stand out. I can't see her eyes or the sweat on her forehead but I know she's terrified. I'm not thinking about how I know she's terrified, I just know she IS.

The other element I really like about this film is the characterization of earth. Although it seems like there are only two main characters, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, I see it as three. The earth is moving, living part of the film and it's instrumental to the orientation of the camera. Very few films, if any, have done this before.

So in case you haven't figured it out yet I'm very excited to see this film. It has a fantastic director, quality actors, and state of the art visual effects. I'm quite sure it's box office sales will orbit above everything else this weekend, and it deserves it.

As a final piece to enjoy... The Onion made an entertaining review for the film:

Iron Man 3

Tonight, I was lucky enough to see Iron Man 3 in 3D.  Personally, I thought it was very well done.  I'm not really into the sci-fi kind of stuff, but I really did enjoy this film.

Two parts of the film that I found exceptional were 1) It was very comedic.  There were parts of the film where I found myself cracking up.
and 2) The special effects were amazing.  The (what seemed like) endless names of people who were on the special effects team goes to show that each effect was worked on and perfected by multiple people.

My only critique-- a predictable story line.  You knew who the bad buy was from the very first scene.  If the writing were a little less predictable, that would have greatly helped.

Video Mapping

While I was picking my classes for next semester, I stumbled upon a course called “Experimental video”. I talked to the professor more in depth about it and learned about all different types of filmmaking we’d learn in the course. This sparked my interest almost immediately when she mentioned one type of example, video mapping.

Video mapping is a projection technique that that display an image on any type of surface. For example this past summer while I was in Atlantic City, a building I was walking by looked like the bricks were falling off. There was a huge crowd watching and we quickly realized this image was being projected from somewhere.The images matched the building perfectly so it looked pretty legit. There were also random shapes of all colors on it dancing around to a beat. It was something I’ve never seen before. 

These projections can create fields of depth and optical illusions all matched with music. The possibilities are endless and it’s definitely a very cool and innovative entertainment technique. This is now starting to show in everyday places like Time square and other advertisements in big cities. Next time you’re out, try to see if you can find one.

Hobbit Production and Various Behind the Scenes

After class on Monday I spent one night this week going through all of the production blog posts for the Hobbit. There's 9 parts in all and I'd highly recommend going through and watching them all, even if you're not a fan of the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. Especially for us, it's a valuable glimpse into what we're getting ourselves into.

One post in particular stood out to me though. The focus was on the technical aspects of the film. They talk about filming in 3D, and they do a great job at explaining how filming in 3D works. They also go over the logistics of shooting in 48p and how design had to change because of it. I wouldn't have thought filming in a higher frame rate would cause them to completely redesign some costumes with different fabrics, patterns, and colors as well as complete set pieces, but they did.

Definitely watch the video, and all of them if you have time (HA!) It's definitely a good project for over break. They're really interesting.

Also, if you're into the behind the scenes type videos, there's a girl on youtube who has chronicled the process of making her first short film out of college. I've been following her and the process of pre-production, production, and now post production since around October. It's interesting to watch someone who is in the same position we'll be in all too soon. Everything she makes is oddly captivating and I can't wait to see "The Water's Fine." Here's the first video in her playlist for the making of "The Water's Fine." Throughout the whole series she gives you a glimpse into her writing process, location scouting, casting, and more. Check it out.

The new Wizard of Oz!?!

  Walt Disney Pictures recently announced that they will be coming out with a new film called "Oz the Great and Powerful" a prequel to the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."  The story is that of a man named Oscar Diggs a struggling magician for Kansas who is transported to Land of Oz.  Once there Oscar, played by James Franco, is told he has been prophesied to take down the evil witch and must use his powers of illusion and "magic" to defeat her.

  This new film pay homage to the original and directly incorporates aspects and even characters in order to give a fuller understanding of how the Land of Oz from "The Wizard of Oz" came to be.  I personally think that this film has a very interesting storyline and will cleverly tie together the story of "the man behind the curtain" aka Oz, a character who was super important in the original but was very mysterious and never fully developed.  The potential for a solid plot combined with Disney's excellence in special effects and most recently 3D advances are all aspects that could make this movie very good in its own right.  However there is another aspect of this to consider.  Even if this movie is terrible, and I mean awful, I will still make a substantial amount of money primarily because it is tied to the original.

  I think that this movie in all likelihood will be pretty good and enjoyable, although I'm not entirely sure how I like the idea of trying to add to a great and well known film that has stood alone for over 60 years. Regardless of how I feel about this, I will go and see it to check on how it matches up in comparison…something I think almost anyone who has seen the original "Wizard of Oz" will do.  So although I do not know for sure if this movie will actually be good or not I am certain that it will be a box office hit.

The Hobbit

As we get closer and closer to december 16th, all i hear about these days is The Hobbit. It seems that the day this movie comes out Park is going to explode with excited film students ready for the next installment of JRR Tolkiens saga. All throughout production, the crew has been releasing progress video's, showing each step of the process in making this behemoth of a production. As someone who is extremely interested in this as a career path, these video's are like crack to me. In these video's they show a lot. They don't show to much of anything actually finished but they show almost every specific department working. This was incredible. I loved watching the entire crew work. It really made me appreciate all of the work that is going into this film. There are so many people working on this, it is incredible. However there is one thing that bother's me about these videos. A lot of the shots that they show being shot, are done on green screens or done with motion capture technology. I did not mind the fact that they have been using green screen's or mocap technology until i had seen some of the actual scenes. Granted i have not seen much yet because most of the scenes are being held until the actual film comes out but of the scenes i have seen so far, a lot of it looks fake. Now i know this is a fictional universe where there are lots of things that don't actually exist but there are still parts of it that i am not entirely sure about it. I am still planning on seeing the film and i am extremely excited for it but i am a bit worried that in this day and age of hyped up 3D technology and other weird gimmicks coming out with every new film, i am worried about what The Hobbit is going to look like. Hopefully i am not disappointed.

Bringing life to the past again

In the spirit of October and Halloween and zombies, I thought I'd make a post about movies that are being re-animated (no pun intended) and why.  Finding Nemo hits theaters again, but this time in 3D; The Lion King and Titanic, both huge successes originally at the box office, came back for round two with an added dimension.  The list continues on, and the future has even more in store (Little Shop of Horrors, The Birds, Dirty Dancing...see the rest here), both in our regular 2D movie experience and in pay-an-extra-four-bucks-for-glasses 3D.  Why not just make something new, though?

The fact of the matter is, even these "classics" are just imitations of other stories that came before, and I'm not entirely sure that such a thing as an "original idea" even exists these days.  It's sad to think of the world of creativity in that way, but really, what are we left with?  Directors, producers, and screenwriters therefore must come up with ways to manipulate the same old song and dance into something that another generation can enjoy, with updated pop culture references, soundtracks, and images.  Plus, with the relatively new frontier of 3D available for exploration, ticket prices rise (in a fair ratio to the increase in cost of making a 3D film, on average about 18% according to the MPAA) to add to the climbing cost of living in today's world.  There has to be something flashy and new to add to the old storyline to attract an audience back to the theater, whether it's in the technology or the talent (you know that you see some movies just for the actors, admit it); otherwise, viewers just won't be pulled back in to see a plot they've watched unfold seven times before in various formats.

I'm not saying that this isn't a decent way to make up for a lack of new ideas; after all, it is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Still, I wouldn't mind seeing filmmakers give a little more effort in the way of creating something at least slightly new, rather than spending more money to jazz up the same shots from the "original."  If you want an upcoming generation to think outside of the box and to try new things, you've got to inspire them through what they see on the big screen, because who doesn't want to be just like a movie star?

Never Too Old For A Children's Movie

Some people say that Disney is just trying to make a quick buck by re-releasing Finding Nemo in 3D this weekend. They might be right, but I don't care. I am still going to see it regardless.

Finding Nemo came out on May 30, 2003. I was an eleven-year-old schoolboy at the time, around 4th or 5th grade. Since then I have seen the film at least ten times. My friends and I, now college students, still quote the movie at each other to this day. It remains one of my favorite movies of all time. That's right, Nemo is right up there with films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Inception. 

Finding Nemo isn't the only movie made for kids that makes it to my unofficial favorites list. Disney classics such as Aladdin, Lion King, Up, and Toy Story. are all there. So are other children's movies like Despicable Me and Rugrats in Paris. 

Some of these movies, like Aladdin, have a certain nostalgia factor to them. I have great memories watching the Disney classic in my living room with my brother, singing along to "Prince Ali," my favorite Disney song to date. They were great when I was a kid, and they are still great today. Other films, like Up, came out when I was in high school. I was not the target audience, and yet I went to see it anyways.

I firmly believe that nobody is too old to go see a nice heartwarming kid's movie. 

I remember going to see Despicable Me with three of my friends. We were something like seventeen-years-old at the time. We went on a day off from school. When I asked the lady at the counter for a ticket to the film, she gave a small chuckle before asking me for my $9.00. Did she think I was a fool for wanting to go see a rated 'G' children's movie on my day off from school? Whatever she thought, I didn't care. The film was great. I laughed and connected with the characters, just like any other good movie.

So all in all, I don't care that Hollywood is getting lazy and re-releasing Finding Nemo in 3D. I find it to be another chance to see a great movie up on the big screen again, even if I need to shell out $11.50.

There's nothing wrong in escaping the hardships of life by returning back into your childhood every once and a while.

Films about films

Since many of you are now actively watching movies, I suggest that if you have not seen it try to see Rango. It is simply an amazing piece of work. Directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) the film pays direct homage to a number of films both in terms of storytelling structure, some memorable characters themselves and even music and lighting.

Needless to say, if you are to fully enjoy this film's homage structure you should try, if you have not done so, to see some of the principal films referenced in Rango.

Films referenced are of course the extraordinary "Chinatown" (by Roman Polanski) which shares the core story of the film, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "For a Few Dollars More" (Sergio Leone), John Ford westerns, "There Will be Blood" (Paul Thomas Anderson) in terms of lighting, and great characters based on such icons as John Huston (in Chinatown), Lee Van Cleef's in For a Few Dollars More, which in Rango is the very bad Rattlesnake Jake. and, yes, Clint Eastwood as "the Spirit of the Desert", poncho and all. Clint Eastwood rose to fame thanks to the Sergio Leone's "spaghetti westerns" known as the Dollars Trilogy.

A couple of more references I saw were to "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Terry Gilliam, (And oh, a wink to Star Wars, of course) I am sure there are other direct references I missed, see if you can find them!

In short it is a film fest, definitely watch it! Needless to say the character modeling, animation, environments, shaders and particularly the acting, etc are simply outstanding. Talking about acting, some of the characters are actually played by their actors, (like Johnny Depp) who are not only doing voice over. But the subtlety of their emotions down to the smallest twitches is a pleasure to watch.

Photographs copyright © 2011 by Paramount Pictures

Lee Van Cleef in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", one of the great  so-called "spaghetti westerns"

3D for the rest of us!

I still don't know where I fall on the issue of 3D films, even after writing quite a few posts about them. However, the more knowledgeable I get about the topic, the more clear the future seems regarding them. One very important step in the future of 3D films is getting it to the masses. I wrote last week on the rigs the pros are using, but they can become incredibly expensive and unwieldy. So, after some digging, I found an article that goes through the steps of how anyone can make their own 3D film. Check it out here!

Really, the process is incredibly simple. Just set up two cameras 2 1/2 inches across from each other. Shoot your material, and edit the film with one video feed. Once your done, match up the other side's footage, superimpose it, and color one red, the other blue. This will work fine for anaglyph glasses, which is the old-school flavor of 3D films. If you are interested in polarized 3D, then you are looking at much more expensive equipment, but the process is the same.

The hard part is in mastering the technicalities and subtleties of the format, and using it as part of the story telling rather than the ticket margins. It is increasingly obvious that this is where the industry will be focusing on for quite some time, so it is well worth it to get immersed now. Movie making has always favored the innovators, and there is still a great deal of innovating to do in this medium.

The Lion King 3D

So while I'm home on fall break a friend and I decided we wanted to go out and see a movie. Out of sheer impulse, we decided to see The Lion King 3D. While I do know that Disney rips off folk stories from everyone and their mother, one still can't deny that it's an amazing movie. Amazing enough to spark an award winning musical by the same name. Now I was iffy several months ago because I knew it was just an easy way the industry could make money off an old movie. But surprisingly enough, the 3D was a completely different experience. The subtle use of the 3D on the characters was incredible, but the use of 3D on foreground images was actually very distracting. It was as if there was something two-dimensional coming off the screen that you had to struggle to look past. So yes, it's technically 3D and movie theaters can charge twice as much for it, but the people who work on the use of the 3D technology need to take notice as to where it works and where it's a distraction.

But all in all, still an amazing movie. Not sure if the 3D was worth the 13 dollars, but it's still the same movie, just experienced in a different way.

Funny, But True

While deciding what to post today, I decided to search google for the trends vs. movies and their effects. The first thing that popped up, even though it wasn't what I was looking for, was just as interesting. An article from Cracked, a humor site that often raises some very true points. The title of the article is "5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same."

For those of you feeling too lazy to read the article, I'll summarize it for you.
The five main claims are
5. Movies are color coded (color corrected) by genre
4. Everything else is teal and orange
3. Ramping (everything slows down, then speeds up)
2. Faking the documentary look, even when it isn't a documentary
1. 3D that makes the movie look worse

And the thing is, I can agree with all of these claims. Of course, saying every single movie ever made falls into one of these trends is a bit of an exaggeration, but there is still a lot of truth to it with more recent films. The article provides stills and poster images that clearly prove their points. These are all claims I've overheard in movie theaters, except the claims about the color correction--which the general audience normally doesn't think about.

Just figured I'd pass on this article, the link is posted below.


http://www.cracked.com/article_18664_5-annoying-trends-that-make-every-movie-look-same.html

The Lion King!

When I saw that The Lion King was coming back to theaters for two weeks I just about had a heart attack...I love Disney movies, especially The Lion King, and I know that a lot of my friends do too, so naturally I've already got solid, unmovable plans to go see it this weekend.



Reading this article, I found out that the re-release was to promote another re-release...of The Lion King on Blu-Ray. This turned out to be a much more successful marketing strategy than predicted, grossing almost 2 times what was estimated, surpassing all other new releases this weekend. That is pretty unlucky for the highly anticipated "Drive" with Ryan Gosling.

This all got me thinking about marketing strategies like this one, so I "liked" The Lion King on Facebook and saw all of the promoting they had been doing there, posting pictures and statuses about the re-release and its wonderous 3d magic. "Pre-order your Blu-Ray today!" the website shouts at me...Gee, I just might. That's right cooperate America...you got me. And all it took was the re-release of the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Mother of all Remixes

After watching the Everything is a Remix in class today I though I would talk about one of my favorite recent films. Rango is simply an amazing piece of work. Directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) the film pays homage to a great number of films both in terms of storytelling structure, some memorable characters and even music and lighting.

Films referenced are of course "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Hitchkikers Guide to the Galaxy", "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "A Bug's Life" (based itself in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai), "For a Few Dollars More" (Sergio Leone), John Ford westerns, the extraordinary "Chinatown" (Roman Polanski) which shares the core story, "There Will be Blood" (Paul Thomas Anderson) in terms of lighting, and great characters based on such icons as John Huston (in Chinatown), Lee Van Cleef's in For a Few Dollars More, which in Rango is the very bad Rattlesnake Jake. and, yes, Clint Eastwood as "the Spirit of the Desert", poncho and all. (And oh, a wink to Star Wars and their Tie Fighters!, why not) I am sure there are many other references I missed. Let me know!

John Huston in Roman Polanski's "Chinatown"

In short it is a film fest, definitely go see it in the big screen if you can! Needless to say the character modeling, animation, environments, shaders and particularly the acting, etc are simply outstanding. Talking about acting, some of the characters are actually played by their actors, (like Johnny Depp) who are not only doing voice over. And the subtlety of their emotions down to the smallest twitches is a pleasure to watch.

Lee Van Cleef in "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"

The lighting throughout the film really impressed me the most. The lighting plans were so detailed and intricate and they gave the film a very unique look.

I read an interview with Tim Alexander, the visual effects supervisor on the film. An interesting interview because Tim discussed how Industrial Light & Magic, a company used to working in live action, had to adapt their entire workflow to create an animated feature length film.

Tim said lighting was difficult for them because they are so used to receiving video plates where the lighting in the shot has already been composed by the DOP, in which case they just created their effects based on the existing lighting plot.

Creating an image that was 100% animated was difficult because they had to create the lighting from scratch. To help them with this problem, they hired an experienced DOP, Roger Deakins (Shawshank Redemption, True Grit, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Fargo, Dead Man Walking, etc) to help them figure out lighting designs. I must say the plan definitely worked because the lighting is simply perfect!

Photographs copyright © 2011 by Paramount Pictures

Rango! gotta love your lizard

I just saw Rango last night. Simply amazing piece of work. Directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) the film pays a homage to a number of films both in terms of storytelling structure, some memorable characters themselves and even music and lighting.

Films referenced are of course "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "For a Few Dollars More" (Sergio Leone), John Ford westerns, the extraordinary "Chinatown" (Roman Polanski) which shares the core story, "There Will be Blood" (Paul Thomas Anderson) in terms of lighting, and great characters based on such icons as John Huston (in Chinatown), Lee Van Cleef's in For a Few Dollars More, which in Rango is the very bad Rattlesnake Jake. and, yes, Clint Eastwood as "the Spirit of the Desert", poncho and all. (And oh, a wink to Star Wars, why not) I am sure there are other references I missed!

In short it is a film fest, definitely go see it! Needless to say the character modeling, animation, environments, shaders and particularly the acting, etc are simply outstanding. Talking about acting, some of the characters are actually played by their actors, (like Johnny Depp) who are not only doing voice over. But the subtlety of their emotions down to the smallest twitches is a pleasure to watch.

Photographs copyright © 2011 by Paramount Pictures