Mr. Breathmask
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Posts
18,513 -
Joined
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Days Won
2
Posts posted by Mr. Breathmask
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Sure I will Steef. You're better at offending people anyway.
- Marc
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Ocelot, did the 2 CD set have any artwork? If it were just two raw CD's, it wouldn't be such a big thing (I guess), but if there was completed artwork, it would be quite a different case.
- Marc, who had a thing or two to say to Mr. Thaxton, but will not sink to that low... yet.
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Yeah, wasn't almost the entire Bridge Of Khazad Dum sequence composed from CGI?
Not entirely. The bridge was a model. The actors running over the bridge are digital doubles, but their movements were made by the real actors in motion capture suits. Sometimes their movements had to be sped up or slowed down slightly to give them the right speed so they wouldn't run through the other Companions. The Balrog is completely CG.
- Marc
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I think one of the problems of CGI is about wether you are willing to believe it is real. I think most people, us as an audience in general, very soon get a "been there, done that" feeling, especially with things like special effects. Just because CG creatures have been around for 10 years, doesn't mean it's easy making them look real. And in the meantime, filmmakers seem to be constantly on the lookout for new ways to wow the audience with their eye-candey, which calls for more energy from the FX crew on new innovations.
Let's take the example of the cavetroll for instance. I watched FotR again yesterday, and I've got to tell you, I have no problem with the troll. It blends in practically seemlessly, and the movements look natural and convincing to me. The only thing about the troll that looked fake was the digital double of Orlando Bloom walking onto his shoulders and shooting an arrow on his head, but that would be a problem with the CG Legolas, not the troll.
Yet while this effect looks great in my opinion, there is still that little voice in the back of your head, telling you that trolls don't exist. That it's obviously not a guy in a suit (that would be lame), or an animatronic (wild movements in long shots would be virtually impossible), so you somehow refuse to believe it is real.
While on Jurassic Park, everything was new, and great. I'm not saying these effects aren't good, because I watched JP last Thursday, and it still holds up amazingly well. The lighting is good, the movements are good. But upon closer inspection, you will find that there's still a painted quality on the dinosaurs' skins. This flaw remains even today on a lot of cases, but in this film, you're willing to see through that, because it's part of the story, it's the first time these amazing effects were used, and it doesn't seem recycled.
The dinosaurs in the last JP film looked amazing to me. Even better than the ones in TLW. Yet these effects seem to have completely stayed under the radar, because people just had that "been there already" feeling. This film also featured more state-of-the-art animatronics from Stan Winston, but even though these things are technically amazing, we, as an audience, seem to get bored with old stuff fairly quickly.
Of course, it's up to the imagination and innovation of filmmakers to come up with new ways to use effects, both technologically and storywise. Yet we should bear in mind, that the things we take for granted nowadays, are still the result of a large group of people, pouring all their efforts into making the effects as real as they possibly can, within their limitations of skill, time, and budget.
- Marc
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I'll be getting them all.
- Marc, who has to get on with his TTT transcript.
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Another CE3K fan! You're certainly welcome here...! Not enough of us by a long shot....
How could anyone NOT like Close Encounters?
- Marc, wondering where everyone is.
The Escape from Close Encounters of the Third Kind -
Bye Melange. Hope you have a good journey.
- Marc, who can already see Adam barganing with tribes, using his cassettes instead of pearls. "I come in peace. I bring you music from another world..."
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I agree with you guys (and gal). The HP series need a new director. Now I just hope Steve Kloves comes up with a proper script, and not just the book converted into screenplay format.
- Marc, who got quite annoyed by the hasty screenwriting in HP 1 and 2.
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Well, what bothered me was that the fights didn't serve the plot in any way. They were just there to look cool. Also, with pretty much every character appearing to be immortal, there is little tension in those scenes. A lot of action scenes seem to be there so that Andy and Larry Wachowski tell everyone else in Hollywood they shouldn't even try to copy them.
The use of slow-motion bothered me as well. It was again there to look cool, and not as stylised as in the first film. Sure, a lot of the coolness came from slow-motion in the first film as well, but it was more often used as a 'mind over Matrix'-moment. Now it just looks like a video clip.
Luckily, the freeway sequence has enough wow-moments to forgive them.
- Marc
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[Peter Jackson] has said that he prefers neither version, that the theatrical cuts are the optimal cuts for sitting in a theatre and that it's nice to have some more stuff in the home version.
Hm. I wasn't aware. I know he said on the preview that was on the original DVD that the SE wasn't so much a Director's Cut. ("I'm not very fond of the term 'Director's Cut', because that sort of implied that the preferred version wasn't the one that was released in the cinemas, and in this case it certainly was.")
Well, anyway, I'll be watching three SE's in a row with my friends somewhere around Christmas 2004 anyways.
No Ents at Helm's Deep. But Huorns, hopefully.
I think in TTT there's even more chance for improvement than there was in FOTR, with TTT being so focused on the battle and everything, they dropped a lot from the theatrical cut methinks.Right, Huorns. I couldn't remember what it was. I agree with you on the improvement, and that TTT focused a lot on the battle. That's why I said I was fearing too much focus on the battles. But then, I know it's going to be cool anyway, and I'll always have the SE, so to me it wouldn't be something that would break the film.
- Marc,
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Jackson has stated many times that the prefered version of FotR was released in cinemas, and that the SEDE is just an extended cut, mainly for the fans of the books and of the movies.
As for TTT, I can't wait to see all the extra stuff I've been reading about. There will be more Ents. Yay! Fingers crossed for Ents at Helm's Deep.
My only fear for RotK is that the battles may be overdone and might go on for a while, just to be cool and exciting, and it may weaken the storyline. But I have faith in PJ and his crew.
- Marc, who wonders wether there will be "a life after The Lord of the Rings" for Peter Jackson.
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Perhaps he will announce that he will do the last three chapters after all, who knows.
Meh. Lucas'll sooner remake the original films than do episodes VII - IX.
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I think Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor's handling of the VFX for LotR shows that CG technology just isn't advanced as far as we thought. CGI seems to be something really popular, but the best results are often still accomplished by using traditional techniques: set construction and miniatures.
Gollum is another example. He isn't just a CG character like Jar Jar, or Dobby, or Yoda. It's Andy Serkis, completely tracked, facial expressions and all, and then replaced by the shape of Gollum. Sure, not all effects look seamless (which would be very difficult in a project of this scale), and don't get me wrong, the Star Wars prequels boast great effects. The pod race is still amazing. On the whole, LotR just looks more real.
Whenever there's a CG effect, I just don't see any matter. When there's a puppet, or a minuature, you can see that it's there. It may be an optical trick, but it EXISTS, and no matter how good your CGI is, it will never beat that (with the exception of Gollum, where there WAS matter, later replaced with the Gollum character).
- Marc, who thinks WETA absolutely deserved their last two Academy Awards.
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That still looks all right to me too. It's probably just one of those occasions where it looks fake because you KNOW there is no way that could ever be accomplished with practical effects.
- Marc
The Flying Sequence from Superman: The Movie -
I see. It's one of those over-kill movies.
- Marc, who'll probably rent it sometime at the end of the year.
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What's with the Hulk-bashing lately?
- Marc, :?
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I'm looking forward to Cúaron's version of Potter. Although I'm afraid it'll probably make Chris Columbus look even worse. :roll:
- Marc
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Yeah, that's true. Everyone said that the second film was going to end in the middle of a scene, but it was much of an afterthing to set something up for the next film. And it wasn't really integrated into the story as well like Gollum's "we could let her do it" scene in TTT.
- Marc, who thought of that scene for some reason, but isn't trying to make this another LotR thread.
Barnstorming from Close Encounters of the Third Kind -
I hope they are just preliminary shots in the trailer which will look much more realistic when the film is completed.
I had the same hope when I saw James Bond serving in front of a glacier in "The Making of Die Another Day", but noo...
- Marc, who saw a bit of an old version of a Hulk movie on TV sunday night and laughed his ass off.
Forming The Mountain from Close Encounters of the Third Kind -
That's another thing - the 'cliffhanger' ending was extremely anticlimatic for me. I had to think about who the guy was for a sec.
It's the guy who gets taken over by Smith in the matrix, isn't he?
- Marc, who didn't realize it until a friend of his told him.
Barry's Kidnapping from Close Encounters of the Third Kind -
Good to see you're still here, Ren. Hope you don't get stressed out because of all that stuff there is to do. Remember, if it threatens to become too much, just sit back and put on some music.
- Marc, wondering what the hell just happened to the colors. It's some weird orange/pink thing, but only on this thread. :?
Lost Squadron from Close Encounters of the Third Kind -
macrea, isn't there also a scene in the 1977 cut where Gillian is swarmed by the press at a conference, asking her about Barry's disappearence, and then the conference itself, where the existence of flying saucers is denied by the government? If I'm not mistaken, it also features the "farmer" again, talking about the UFO's, and Roy doing a sketch of Devil's Tower on a newspaper so fast his pencil breaks. I don't think this was in the SE.
- Marc, who has an awful copy of the '77 edition on VHS, but there's a part missing from this scene.
Encounter At Crescendo Summit from Close Encounters of the Third Kind 
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I've never seen the whole films, any version.
Justin -Stuck with pan & scan.
I know what you mean. Pan & scam sucks.
- Marc, who gets annoyed by the foolscreen format.
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I've missed her too the past few days. Hope she returns soon.
- Marc, gazing at a wonderful red sky outside while listening to CE3K.
The Visitors/"Bye"/End Titles: The Special Edition from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
AOTC 2CD does exist.
in General Discussion
Posted
Well hats off.
- Marc, bored. 8O