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Yeah, don't know what those films were rated in the US - PG-13 I guess for the normal ones, but don't know what the next rating up is (here the ratings go U - PG - 12A - 15 - 18). 12A means under 12s must be accompanied by an adult. 15 = no one under 15 etc.
I need to get out and travel more, don't I? ;)
Using Visual Effects techniques to help tell the story, this short VFX demo says a lot about the importance of understanding how hard it can be to actually distinguish the difference between what is Effect and what is actually caught on film
...and another excellent example
There are many people whom may claim to not particularly care for Effects, while not realizing how many visual effects shots they see in their everyday lifes - on the News, which is almost all visual effects shots to some of the most documentary-like shows seen, to amost anything and everything else.
I do agree that some effects in themselves will come out and look so cool that everybody starts using it and not all attempts work so great. And that can lead to that particular effect getting old and over-seen a bit too quickly. The latest DoF craze has really been getting out-of-hand in many situations that it was actually almost beginning to becoem a turn-off to me at the beginning of Rogue One - a Star Wars Story. I watched it in 3D so maybe it's not quite as dramatically used in the 2D version, I'll see soon when I get the BluRay. But this movie quickly redeems itself as well as that the effect really does work well when it is used... just that I've been seeing it so much lately that it might have just been that fact that made it stand out to me.
Don't get me wrong - I like the DoF effect. But there are a lot of examples these days where it's either being used too harshly or just plain not done very well. I was really liking adding it to my images fr a while there, and I've since backed off quite a bit. Still using it but a lot more subtle and often using the atmosphere to do it for me rather than applying any blur at all.
I don't watch everything these folks do, but I do, on occassion, enjoy one of their shows when they have a topic that really catches my eye. Some of them are incredibly inspirational!
..and why not touch on the other subject, the Story? Here's one along those lines
I've seen Shakespeare performed at the Globe a few times - it's a pretty special place (and the only building in London allowed a thatched roof).
They do say the vest visual effects are the ones you don't notice . . .
Did they use a lot of FX?
By tradition, drama has often used special effects. The ancient Greek way to have the cavalry save the day at the end of the performance was to have a god swoop in to save the day. They used levers and other machines to arrange it on stage. Thus the phrase, deus ex machina means "god from machine," and the phrase is still used to describe stories with a certain contrived ending.
http://www.novel-writing-help.com/deus-ex-machina.html
FX has been around a very long time. Wouldn't be surprised if some of those paleoolithic cave paintings were doctored!
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BTW, thanks for all these video links, Dart - and everyone else. Really enjoying them.
I tried to get to the Globe last Fall when I was in London..couldn't get seats.....Coming back to Anomynous.. Great movie.Its a great demo of mixing 3D with real footage. Incidentally the view of the globe and the shipping in the background... They have the shipping on the wrong side of the bridge..They show the shipping on the up river side instead of in river section known as "the pool" on the other side of the bridge. The abutments of the bridge so restricted the water flow that it was only passable upriver when the tide was favorable. Downriver no problem you could shoot the rapids... Also the ships are of a later period.... However I am nit-picking...I really like this 3D demo.
If you have 8 hours to spare, here is the Joseph Campbell channel.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYpCC-hK59rHBqPPlcOKgg6hRyIKcAKhY
They have a big metal sheet in the attic they rattle to make thunder, and a bellows into flags and streamers for wind, and red ribbons for blood . . .
That's awesome to hear details that aren't quite right from someone who knows! I love it! I really love how they used video footage of flowing rapids to create the water flow around the sides of the ships from the wrong period! Looks great! And I've picked up from that particular means of effect for some of my own work.
VFX for Filmmakers has definitely been my missing link of inspiration and techniques!
I love theater - and I love some of the creativity seen in some of the effects used for live performances like that. So much better than going for true realism.
I think it may have been effects like that which have originally spurred me on to remain somewhat less-than-real in my own stuff. An "Artsistic" form of visual communication.
I had a cool Joseph Campbell playlist saved on my channel but I just recently removed it.
Studying how to write a heroic tale can certainly becoem a life-long endeavor!
The entire first portion of the book is what I really needed for my immediate needs, which guides us on organizing the story elements into the proper order and getting the pacing right. As the book gets deeper, it further helps in many ways, eventually teaching us how to actually format our story into something we can sell as a Hollywood Screen Play. The actual formatting for professional use is of less interest to me, but by using it for my own uses really helps - so I see why the pros prefer to see them this way.
I've actually started looking at all sorts of ways to learn how to write a good story. There's a LOT out there so I have a warning for anyone interested in such a thing: If we cannot already write a good story, learning how can become a huge hole in time into which we pour our money! LOL
I could be wrong. But I'm glad that I feel that I am capable of writing a good story. When I would write songs, I always wrote the music first and then would sing gibberish along to the song to invent the vocal melody to fit the song. For mine, the vocal melody travels a different path than all other instruments. They all compliment each other by each playing something different entirely. Then I use my Gibberish melody to help create words - and by then my emotion into the music has often already painted out a bit of story, which makes the creation of actual lyrics very simple.
I've found myself getting rather stuck on story elements - so I'm glad that I just wrote this. It has inspired me to stop dwelling on the literal story and get some clips finished so I can write the score, which will most certainly paint my story for me. The I can edit in any missing details and perhaps some dialog, if any comes out.
Kind of on the same lines, has anyone here attended the Blackmagic Design press conference?
It starts at 9:25 with a discusion about how they've developed DaVinci Resolve (today released version 12.5.5) from being only a Color Corrector - but a feature film - quality color corrector - into what is now also a very powerful editor. This was why I wanted to attend, but he actually talked very little about the superb software and then went into the incredible panels that are used to operate it ithout the need for a GUI. It sounds like the original DaVinci Resolve had no GUI and relied entirely on the colorist having access to these panels. I've never seen them in action besides very briefly in behind-the-scenes videos. Very cool!
After all of that he continues with an amazing new Camera! This thing has an interchangeable lens mount. By default it accepts Cannon and other lenses and has additional mounts available for Broadcast and other style lenses with one for Nikon coming toward mid-year, This is one amazing camera!
Interesting selection. What comes to my mind is Lester Nygaard, the wimpy protagonist of "Fargo" (TV Series, Season 1). He goes all the way from bullied highschooler to psychologically abused spouse to thinking he can run with the big dog (Lorne Malvo/Billy Bob Thornton). Quite a performance by Martin Freeman.
And here all this time I thought you were talking about Fargo, the movie
Thanks Dart - I really enjoyed those Top Ten lists posted up the page!
I really enjoy an episode or two of CineFix now and again! I find them most entertaining ;)
A great movie: 8.1 at IMDB, 4 Star "Great Movie" by Ebert: "Films like 'Fargo' are why I love the movies." But the TV series (2 seasons so far) is just as good IMHO. The Coen Bros. looked it over and gave it their blessing, although they did say creator/writer Hawley and his team were on their own after that. They did great, 9.0 at IMDB, 2 Golden Globes, .... Most importantly, they had a scene I really like (the gang in the building sent a couple of (now deceased) assassins after Malvo, the two in the car are FBI staking out the gang, the guy with the gun is ... Malvo) (Caution: Language, violence, broken glass, broken gangsters ...)
Just an aside, I've mentioned the 48 Hour Film Contest before, takes place in cities around the world, a 4-7 minute movie in two days given a random genre, prop, character and line of dialogue. Martin Freeman, the protagonist in the first season of Fargo on TV (also Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit", 2012-2014), did a 48 Hour film (London, 2010):
Fantastic!
I must admit, as I was growing up, Ebert and I disagreed more times than not about a good many things. Of course he was coming from a film critic point of view and I've always been an artist stuck in some fantasy realm. If I'd look back on things, nowadays I'd probably agree with have of the things he said then which made me loathe his opinions! LOL
Some fun that I thought might fit into this thread nicely. Again, from Film Riot is this wonderful short - supposed to be shot in two days but a train parking in their way for one of those days caused them to have to come back for a third day.
So we have the short (7 minutes), and the three wonderful Making-of presentations that are equally fun to watch. This was the first thing I've ever seen from Film Riot, as it tied in with the education I was then getting on using HitFilm in my class. Since I started posting links to FilmRiot in this thread, I've become insanely addicted to watching their shows - it's maddening! Prior to that, I just saw the ones I'm showing here and a few others. They really are good!
Portal Combat - the Movie (short)
Making Portal Combat - Part 1
Making Portal Combat - Part 2
Making Portal Combat - Aerial Footage and Sound
...and for those interested, here is a playlist from the HitFilm channel on creating the effects for the film:
Portal Combat - by Film Riot & HitFilm
Reading in my Masters of FX book, Richard Edlund recalls the vfx industry beginning to make the switch from chemical film to digital in the mid eighties. For him, it was the movie Ghost, especially at the end where Swayze's character ascends to heaven. It was done using the then popular vfx software choice: Harry, and was done in a couple days instead of the long tedious process optical printing would have put them through.
FX techniques are getting thoroughly imprinted into my long-term and muscle memory as I continue in my studies. Trying to fiight my way back to Carrara now as we speak. I'm absolutely beginning to realize the importance of understanding the need for VFX processes especially for something like what I'm doing - a fully CG production.
Back to mentioning the Clone Wars, those images are built from the ground up using CG vfx techniques - something I didn't realize when I started studying them for animation ideas. Again... I was trying to ad a lot of the extra elements directly in the initial render. This can easily turn into a nightmare or, even worse, a failed and eventually dropped attempt.
We need to have a main render which either includes the background scenery or not - either way, doesn't matter. If it does not include the background scenery, we need that. If there needs to be animation within that backdrop, we need to get that rendered. So with the Main render along with the background scenery, even if they are still in separate formats, we can consider this the Beauty Pass.
Next we need extra bits that help to fulfill the look of the shot. Do we need explosions or waterfalls? Do we need smoke or fog or rain? These will become separate elements that we composite into the shots as needed. These elements can be rendered with an alpha channel or some other means of separating the effect for compositing (like green screen, etc.,), they could be stock footage we get from another source or even catch on film ourselves, elements created directly in our compositing software, like Fusion, AE or HitFilm, etc., or any combination of these.
I've just learned from Ryan Connolly of FilmRiot (above) that he edits all of his footage bits together before doing any vfx work - so that he's only applying effects to footage that's actually being used in the final cut - which saves a lot of time.
If you've seen the Making Of videos in my above post, you'll also see how Sound elements play a HUGE part in convincing our audience that something is real or not. Crappy sound can be far worse that badly performed fx or film shoot. Something that immediately caught my attention (while not paying attention to details) during the latest Transformer movie I've seen was an absence of sound where there really should be something. The silence might have been trying to convey a purposeful moment of suspense - but certainly fell short because I never judge movies like that.
For those looking to get into filmmaking and editing and whatnot, the cool folks of FilmRiot have an amazing online store called Triune Store
Stuff like sounds, music and stock footage and temporarily revamping to a better means of selling their own shirts and other practical merchandise. Not... I'm not paid to metnion this stuff.. I just think it's a cool store, is all! ;)
This pack, Triune Filmmaker +Complete+ is a bit (quite a bit, actually) out of my budget, buy for what it contains... it looks like something I'd love to have! There are samples and commercials for some of the individual elements on the page if we scroll down a bit. The last one is really cool - starts out demonstrating what the sound effects pack is all about, then he (Ryan) goes on to show us how he made the sounds himself and encourages us to do the same!
I think it's also cool that they sell their movies through the store, complete with extra documentary footage behing the making of the films - something we already know that the team truly excells at!
More, they also have two (what appear to be) amazing educational resources for sale, like Seth Worley's Writing 101
As well as a Guerrilla Filmmaking Class with Ryan Connolly
Pretty cool stuff.
On the importance of music, here is an excerpt from a 2010 interview with Ray Harryhausen
What he loves is to listen to film scores, for which he thinks most contemporary directors lack feeling. The music for his own movies was composed by the likes of Bernard Herrmann and Miklós Rózsa.
The rest of the interview is interesting. Folks in this forum might be interested in his reflections on the emerging 3D film industry at the time.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-life/7593495/Ray-Harryhausen-interview-Stop-motion-animation-Clash-of-the-Titans-Jason-and-the-Argonauts.html
I love Ray. I'm watching this as soon as I get back in a couple minutes here. But wanted to say that, in one of the FilmRiot videos I've posted, (Music and Sound of Ghost House or the one that follows, I think? from this post) he talks about how he always has music in mind as he works on his film, and provides that music as a scratch track for his composer.
In watching more of his videos last night (His older ones) I've discovered that he's a graduate of Full Sail Filmmaking degree stuff, which kind of helps explain his knowledge in so many interesting little parts of the process. Anyways... I'll be back to watch some Ray! Thanks!
A fine article, Diomede!
It is amazing how much good soundtrack music is overlooked by many people who see a movie and just accept it as a backgound dimension. Composers such Max Steiner, Richard Addinsel,l Dimitri Tiomkin, Micklos Rosas, and John Williams, have not just a huge impact on movies, but I am beginning to think a dominant force in the movie. Below are a few samples.
First Domitri Tiomkin, and the Theme from Giant...The movie was ok..but the soundtrack was epic and different as it used the human voices as a symphonic instrument.
Richard Addinsell music from the original "Good bye Mr. Chips" 1939..Not the lackluster 1969 re-make ( why do they make these palid remakes?). His music captures the British Public school of the late 1930s. The school song especially.
Max Steiner, Gone with wind....All the themes from this are excellent... The opening is powerful... The movie would not have had anything like the impact if it did not have this music.
Mickolas Rosas Ben Hur I think captures the ancient power of Rome...Massive and deliberate.
John Williams, Star Wars.......Great epic music.. added majesty to the Sci-Fi genre ..Again the movie would have been anemic without it.
I think all of the above composers not only enhanced the movies they composed for but
Some great themes there! I agree that music can have a profound effect. When I was working on Trick or Treat and the version came back with the music added, it added so much to the atmosphere and drama of the whole thing, I think the guy who did it (Sam Stryke) did a super job.