4K filming changing the gam

As the supper bowl is coming our way, many people are excited for the game, the commercials, food, friends, but what a lot of tech geeks are looking forward to is the 100+ cameras (several of which being 4K) they will be using.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that enormous amount of background work that goes into media aspect of such an event. Other than the $3,000,000 30second commercial spots, the technology that will be used to make this showdown is unfathomable.

Unfortunately, we are not at the point where we can film the entire supper bowl in 4K nor are we at the point where we can view it at that quality, but it is coming soon. Many people will not be able to appreciate the picture quality that will come from these cameras because it will be broadcast on television in 1080p and available for streaming in only 720p, regardless, it is quite the triumph to get where we are today. A majority of the cameras being used will be the HDC-1500 and HDC-2500, which will be routed to any of the 5 production trucks used during the game. I am still trying to get a grasp on the FS-100 so it will take some research for me to full grasp the capabilities of the cameras they are using now.

What Fox is trying to do with these cameras is allow for a type of digital zoom the will not degrade the picture quality but allow for cropping on original 4K images to fit a full HD resolution. In essence Fox is trying to improve their picture quality through placing their new cameras along the sideline, goal line, and will be used to improve officials reviews of plays. This new technology is going to change not only football, but all sports, TV shows, and News. Movie theaters have already adapted to the new ways and movies are already being shot and viewed with 4K technology. For instance, “The Hobbit” was beautifully made shot with high-resolution cameras that gave an amazing dynamic to the film.

 All forms of broadcasting are changing rapidly, soon it will be the norm to have only 4K TVs and say bye to 1080p HD.  I am excited for what will be coming next; I heard 8K cameras are in the making…

Movies based off books

This past weekend I had the good fortune of being able to watch Laz Burhman's version of The Great Gatsby, based off the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I personally loved the film because of how over the top it was. I thought the audio was unbelievable and was so well done that I don't think people even caught everything they did unless you watched it twice intentionally listening for things. The one thing that I loved was how the high pitched noise you heard whenever you saw the green light from Daisy's dock was the same exact pitch and most likely derived from the ringing bell of Gatsby's phone. They fade it  together so well at the end that they really over emphasize that it's Daisy he's waiting for to call. It's obvious in the storyline but the sound was just over the top for me. That being said I really enjoyed the movie but my little brother's reaction was completely different. He recently just read the book for his English class and his main problem with it was that it didn't match the book enough for him. Of course I told him that they are two different mediums and it's like comparing a photo to painting and not being happy with the painting because it's not identical to what was really there. This made me think of movies that were based off books and did well and why they did well.









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The first one was Perks Of Being A Wallflower originally a book by Stephen Chbosky who also directed it. That I think was key for it doing so well. The guy who wrote the book was able to be there step by step to make sure the movie did the book justice. I personally thought the book and the movie were pretty similar in quality but that being said it probably isn't fair when the director was the author of the book.

The next one I thought of was the Harry Potter series based of J.K. Rowling's books which had 3 or 4 different directors. To me these movies did not capture the books at all but they weren't bad either. I mean some of them were bad but come one they had 8 movies and for all them to be pretty decent is an accomplishment in itself. I think these movies did well because they focused on the characters and the biggest and most important story in the book, to end the everlasting threat of Lord Voldemort. They did have to cut a lot of minor story lines and scenes out but after experiencing the stress of producing a 16 page fiction one film, approaching a 600+ page book and turning it into a film is daunting.

Finally I thought of the opposite situation of the Harry Potter books and looked at The Hobbit directed by Peter Jackson and based off the book the Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. In this movie they added completely new story lines and reasons for the treasure hunt that the book didn't have. After reading the book I completely understood why they did because to me the real reason they went after the dragon was because they wanted some gold. They weren't looking for their old home but they just wanted money and I guess that isn't a completely good moral reason for heroically fighting dragons in Hollywood. And also they added the white Orc which I thought gave a nice conflict through out the film but there was no such character in the book. If you stuck to the book, I personally don't think the story would have fit a movie screen as well because that story wasn't meant for that medium. Leading me back to my original statement in which you shouldn't think a movie is bad because it doesn't match the book it's based off of. The movie is an artistic expression inspired by the book not an identical recreation.

The Hobbit 3D: An Unexpected Journey

I like many other saw the Hobbit last night at midnight.  I thought it was very much worth it to go see it in 3D.  The visuals were stunning, and it played along well with the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand.

They did a great job creating the underworld caves of the goblins.  It looked just like I imagined it.  It went weaving through the mountain many layers deep and fo course there was the Goblin King.  In this great scene Gandalf slays the Goblin King in true epic fashion.

When Bilbo falls down to the bottom, everyone who read the books knows what was coming.  Probably my favorite scene in the book, the game of riddles between Gollum and Bilbo.  Gollum looks great and it was perfect to see a Gollum still with the ring briefly.

I thought The Hobbit was a great film, even keeping in the flaming pine cones, that I thought might be at risk.  It really is a must see and I would suggest seeing it in 3D.

Trailers: The Amazing and The Deceiving

Have you ever been online and were completely bored? My guess: Absolutely. Whenever I get caught in this situation, I tend to decide to go to the gym, or do homework, or do something reasonable with my life, but finals are fast approaching and my ambition is slowly declining. So, I spent some time on youtube, and watched some trailers for several films that will be released over the next few months.

I never really considered the importance of a good trailer before, yet it is the very foundation for building an audience. When we go to the movie theater as a family, my dad always makes us go about ten minutes late so that we don't have to sit through the previews. When I go by myself, or with friends, I try to get there early because I secretly love the previews. Not all previews, but the ones that are the most intriguing. It's like opening presents at Christmas. I love the feeling of finding the next great movie  to go see.

What makes a great trailer? The music, the cuts, and the parts of the general plot that is chosen to be shown, all come together to entice people to go see the film. Most of all, the trailers that really strike me are the ones that leave me asking, "Wait! What's going to happen next?" or ones that leave me spinning through a "new world" or ones that have me sitting on the edge of my seat, tied down with suspense. Trailers that are not so successful are ones that make me say, "What's happening?" or are completely too realistic. Of course, it is a preference that varies between audiences and people, but overall a good trailer leaves people wanting to know more.

There is nothing worse than seeing an amazing trailer, going to the movie, and walking out completely disappointed. Most of the time I find that the trailer drew me in because they used their best scenes in the trailer. This has happened to me too many times to count. The biggest disappointment that I had was last year when I saw the new adaptation of The Three Musketeers. Talk about being disappointed. This has always been one of my favorite stories, and this ruined it. The acting wasn't the best and the plot just left a lot to be desired. Another film that disappointed me was Snow White and the Huntsman. It was alright up to a point, but again I wasn't really impressed with the plot or the acting as much as I was with the graphics and animation. With the exception of the Queen (whose character was played brilliantly by), I had been expecting so much more. The winner in disappointments was definitely the movie Eragon that came out a few years ago. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini is a great one, and this movie did not do it justice. Nothing really matched up character, setting, or plot wise, and left me feeling like I had entered a completely different world than the one I expected.

I'm hopeful that the trailers for these next films are in-line with what the actual movies will present. Here are some of the trailers (they are good ones!) for movies I'm really looking forward to:

The Hobbit

City of Bones

So, youtube is not letting me upload the others, but you should definitely check out The Host, Oz the Great and Powerful, and  Les Miserables.

~Amber Capogrossi

The Hobbit Review

Last night I attended the midnight premiere of "The Hobbit". I arrived at the theaters at around 11:00 PM to make sure I got a good seat and then waited for an hour for 15 minutes of previews to start. After this the movie finally started and then it finished up at around 3 AM.

Needless to say, it was a long night.

The Hobbit begins with scenes highly reminiscent of "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"; in fact, early on in the movie there is a scene that is an exact recreation of a scene from The Fellowship of the Ring.  This was fun, and people who have been longtime fans of the films will appreciate this.

The introduction to the movie is long. I would guess we don't start our adventure until close to 30 minutes into the movie. I've never had a problem with long introductions, but for some people, this may have been a bit too much. The story progresses very fluidly I felt, but there were so many subplots that you sometimes got lost in all the was happening. Also, this "impending doom" that was coming to Middle Earth was a topic that kept getting brought up, but everyone knows what this is, so I'm not sure why this message kept getting repeated.

Acting-wise, the cast is stellar. I can't think of a single performance that disappointed me. All the dwarves were casted wonderfully, Martin Freeman as Bilbo was perfect, and Ian McKellen returns to play the role that got him an Oscar. There were other cameos that may have been unnecessary in this movie, but their presence pleased fans and added to the story overall.

The cinematography was fantastic. I was drooling over the beautiful extreme wides portraying the landscapes and mountainous region of middle-earth. The fluidity of the cinematography is evident is every aspect of this movie. We seamlessly flow between the wides showing our adventurers traveling and the close-ups showing the true emotions on the character's faces. The film even uses several long takes that really show the great pacing that the actors had, even before they were being cut around.

Peter Jackson did a wonderful job on his latest return to Middle Earth, and quite honestly, I can't picture anyone else making these movies any more. He is really staying true to the feel of the Lord of the Rings movies while also keeping in mind the whimsical nature that is portrayed in The Hobbit.

Overall, I'd have to say this is a must watch for anyone who has been to Middle Earth before. Technically, this movie is almost flawless, and even the slow story is damn good. Go see it.

PS- I watched it in 3D. Really well made and seamless 3D, however, I'd save the extra $5 and watch it in 2D.

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.

Behind the Scenes of The Hobbit.

Judging just by this blog alone, there has been quite a lot of hype around the upcoming film adaptation of The Hobbit. As someone mentioned in an earlier post, the producers have been releasing short clips of how the film has been coming along. Released on youtube just a couple of weeks ago was a featurette that offered some insight into the post production process of the film. As many of us have begun to work on the footage we have shot for our final project, I thought that it would be of interest. 

It was really interesting to see all of the different jobs that are part of the post production team and what they do for the film. Considering the Peter Jackson's film adaptation of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was widely known for its graphics, it is safe to say that The Hobbit has potential to be even better considering that technology has advanced since then. This clip shows the origins of what the animators receive (a title card just describing the scene) and all of the necessary steps they go through to get a finished product, including sound design and visuals.

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.

A Return to Middle Earth

3 months, or 13 weeks, or 91 days. However you want to look at it, December is fast approaching. No, I'm not counting down to what many believe will be the end of the world. Lord of the Rings fans will know exactly what I'm counting down to... the release date of The Hobbit (Part 1)! Exactly three months from today, there will be huge lines in the theaters, with popcorn exploding from the seams and soda slurped up huge, plastic straws. All will be waiting impatiently for the movie to start.

December 14, 2012. A young Bilbo Baggins will be begin his own journey down a dangerous and exciting road. A road that will eventually send fate hurling his own nephew, Frodo, into a perilous journey as well. This is a story that is very near and dear to my heart. The Hobbit by Tolkien was the first fantasy book I ever read. My dad, the source from which I draw my love of everything fantasy and sci-fi, handed Tolkien's book to me when I was eleven and told me that it was a story worth reading over and over again. So I read it, and I loved it. I continued the story by following up with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I was an avid reader since then. I read books that ranged from the Shannara Series by Terry Brooks to Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. At this point in my short life, my refrain had commonly become, "The book is always better than the movie." When I saw The Lord of the Rings directed by Peter Jackson, my whole world was shaken.

Not only was the story preserved in the films, but it was done in such a way that the beloved characters I saw in my mind were there before my very eyes. It is hard to find another movie that can actually sit so close to their paper and ink counterpart. I am still an avid reader and believe me when I say that the only other movie that I have seen is The Hunger Games directed by Gary Ross. In The Lord of the Rings, the whole of Middle Earth was there; it was almost tangible to my imagination. This was such an amazing feat that required so much talent on the part of both the cast and the crew. The acting was so superb, the visuals were perfect, the story was intriguing, character development was fantastic, this movie was and is truly a classic.

I was so drawn into this film, that at the age of fourteen, I watched all of the Behind the Scenes footage that came with the extended versions of the films. Again, my life was utterly changed. I fell in love with everything that is FILM. From learning about the make-up to the intricate creation of the miniatures, to the development of the different cultures through costumes, to the creation of all the magical creatures, to how they actually built the sets, to location scouting, the list can go on and on with how much I absorbed. It opened my eyes to a way to make the worlds I read about in books "come alive" in our reality in some way. It was at this point that I found a dream that resides so strong in my heart that it feels as if my entire being is going to explode. This is how I became so passionate about acting, and from there, about what happens behind the camera too. For the discovery of my passion, I have to thank all who were involved in the making of these fabulous films.

Peter Jackson is and forever will be one of my favorite directors. So many of his films, including King Kong, have kept me sitting on the edge of my seat and allowed me to escape into worlds and times that I can only do through reading books most of the time. Such is the depth with which his films are created. Every detail must be and is as perfect as can be. My favorite book series is the Green Rider series written by Kristen Britain. If anyone ever tries to make these fabulous books into movies, I would  hope that it would be Peter Jackson, because they deserve the best.

I encourage any who have not seen The Lord of the Rings to borrow the film from someone. It is an experience that shouldn't be missed. I can't wait for The Hobbit! Someone said to me the other day, "Yes, but they have a lot to live up to after Lord of the Rings." I agree, but I trust that both the cast and crew will be able to pull it off. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, it is below:
~ posted by Amber Capogrossi

The Hobbit Behind the Scenes

OMG were not the only ones who blog! Apparently so does Peter Jackson the producer of this new little movie coming to theaters soon called THE HOBBIT!(you might know it) I personally am a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and an even bigger fan of the book The Hobbit, so when I heard there was going to be a movie on it, I nearly died! It's like the universe decided to bless me with the best present possible combining two of my great loves film and this written masterpiece.
This video blog goes behind the scenes, where all the magic happens(literally) and it really is absolutely incredible what these guys are doing. The set is like a dreamworld here on our humble little planet earth. Seeing this blog really just made me even more excited for the actual movie to come out, if that was at all possible. I hope you guys enjoy it as well.

The Hobbit

everyone. the Hobbit shooting has finally begun! The video in the title shows you how much goes into the preproduction on this beautiful film. it should be done in about two years and everyone will be patiently waiting. Also, something that is interesting is that they are shooting it at 45 frames per second. check it out though. its so sweet. I can't wait. Peter Jackson is incredible.

word frequency in The Hobbit

In my searching for creative data visualization I found this: