Guillermo del Toro Says 'Pacific Rim' Started Shooting This Week
             
(latinoreview.com)           

         Guillermo del Toro Says 'Pacific Rim' Started Shooting This Week Director Guillermo del Toro's upcoming Kaiju honoring monster vs. giant robot clash has started shooting this past Monday. The news comes from an interview that Del Toro had with Wired. Asked what he was working on film-wise, he responded:

"We start shooting next Monday [Eds. note: Nov. 14] on Pacific Rim, which is a gigantic production for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros."

Describing the film, he said:

"We are working with actors that I absolutely adore. Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman. It’s really, it’s a very, very beautiful poem to giant monsters. Giant monsters versus giant robots. Twenty-five-story-high robots beating the crap out of 25-story-high monsters. We’re trying to create a world in which the characters are real and how it would affect our world politically, how it would affect the landscape if creatures like this really came out of the sea, etc."

'Pacific Rim' is set for theatrical release on May 10, 2013.




"The Lone Ranger" Resumes Set Construction

(onlocationvacations.com)                   As we recently reported, The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp, is back on after Disney temporarily halted production last summer.

One of readers, Penny, recently spotted crews resuming construction on sets for the movie in New Mexico. She wrote, ” They’re back! The construction crew started back in Grant County south of Hurley. The work shop in up and the porta potties are in.”




Universal Plans Woody Woodpecker

(The Hollywood Reporter)                 Another classic cartoon character looks to be getting the big screen treatment as The Hollywood Reporter brings word that a Woody Woodpecker feature film is in development from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment.

The character, a troublemaking woodpecker with an iconic laugh, first appeared in one of Universal's "Andy Panda" shorts in 1940. He was then voiced by animation legend Mel Blanc. It wasn't long before Woody became the star, his cartoon legacy vastly overshadowing that of Andy Panda.

Blades of Glory writers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky are said to be preparing a script and there's no word yet on whether or not the film is planned as a full CGI feature like Illumination's Despicable Me and the upcoming The Lorax or a CGI/live action blend like their Hop.




CGI: The Death of Special Effects

(thedemiseoffilm.com)                   Okay, so I admit I've been horsing around the past couple weeks not taking on real arguments so I am going to be very blunt with this one: Computer Generated Images (aka CGI) are complete and utter crap. I am tired of just about every filmmaker and their grandma using this BS in their movies. Now, I admit that some films do have awesome CGI but it really has begun to go downhill and has become the poor man's way to do...well pretty much anything.

You want this guy's face to melt off? CGI. You want some blood shooting out of this guy's neck? CGI. You want this reindeer to talk? CGI! You want Jabba the Hutt to talk some trash with Han Solo? CGI! You want this guy to do a back-flip? CGI!!!!!!!! I touched a bit on CGI in my overrated post but didn't give you guys full explanation for why I dislike it so much and it's because it has become the cheap way for anyone to make a movie. It's annoying. I love An American Werewolf in London and thought the effects for that movie were brilliant and this is back in the days before CGI. I love directors that hate CGI and want to do this "for real." I did say I didn't like Inception but the one thing I absolutely loved with that movie was the lack of CGI. Now, don't get me wrong I do like CGI even though I say I hate it. I say I hate it because no one uses it correctly anymore. To me it's like having 3D in every movie or having stunt doubles play every role. We have not only abused it but no one does it nicely anymore. Let's talk about Terminator 2. That movie was awesome. It did CGI so nicely and so beautifully that I didn't mind that the T-1000 was CGI. Jurassic Park topped even T2 with use of CGI and it was amazing, and still is to this day. That is how we should use CGI, to make the impossible, possible. I don't point any blame for the overuse of CGI at anyone, because everyone is kinda guilty. I just think we need to lay off of it. We're using it for blood when someone gets shot, we use it when a werewolf transforms, we use it for so many things and it annoys me. The problem is, most of it looks like crap.

I watch Jurassic Park and even though that movie was released in 1994, I am still blown away by the effects. I think Jurassic Park looks better than any movie that has come out recently. I know people do this because it's cheaper but it's also ugly as hell. I admire guys like Greg Nicotero, Rick Baker, and Dick Smith because these are guys that have honed their wonderful craft. I love make up effects and whenever I get off my bum and make a movie I would love to stick mainly to make up.

 I would only use CGI when it was needed, if I wanted a giant dragon or something. I just feel we're relying too much upon CGI and I'm tired of it. I'm gonna just wrap this up and hope you guys give your input instead of just reading this and nodding. Yeah, I know about you weirdos! Also in the news of Qwikster, Netflix was mad they were losing business so they sent me an email apologizing for Qwikster and saying the change would no longer take place. I'm still thinking about sticking with blockbuster because I haven't gotten a movie that's been scratched to hell and back. When that happens every time I might go back to Netflix.




Image Metrics And Atomic Fiction Announce Joint Collaboration

Image Metrics (OTCBB:IMGX), a leading provider of 3D facial animation technology, and Atomic Fiction, an Emeryville-based visual effects and animation company, today announced a collaboration for upcoming entertainment projects where Atomic Fiction will integrate Image Metrics’ award-winning Faceware™ facial animation software and hardware into its character animation and visual effects pipeline.

Faceware is Image Metrics’ animation software and hardware solution for the video game, film, visual effects, commercial and television industries. The software utilizes a marker-less video analysis technology and artist-driven performance transfer toolset to deliver ultra-high fidelity and truly believable facial animation in a fraction of the time it takes for alternative methods. The software contains unique collaborative workflow features that enable animation teams to achieve significant productivity gains and maintain stylistic consistency.




Kenneth Branagh Gives Patty Jenkins His Blessing For 'Thor' Sequel

(latinoreview.com)           The film industry is highly unpredictable with decisions seemingly coming out of nowhere. One such decision was made last month when 'Monster' director, Patty Jenkins was named as taking on the 'Thor' sequel. The position became available after the film's previous director, Kenneth Branagh chose not to return in favor of other projects.

He explained the situation to Movie Fone, saying:

"[It was] simply timing. I loved doing the movie, I'd love to do another movie for Marvel, and it was just timing. The requirement for me was just to get back in the saddle so swiftly that it wasn't really feasible, but it was a decision [Marvel] understood."

In Jenkins, Branagh believes Marvel has found a fine substitute. He said:

"I, along with a lot of other people, are very excited about the appointment of Patty Jenkins. I think that's a great choice to direct the movie. I know that Kevin Feige and all the people I worked very closely with, who were absolutely parts of the creation of that movie, are keen to produce a great second picture. So it was the right decision for me and for them and I am really looking forward to see how the second one develops."

Jenkins is definitely a choice that comes out of left field, but thinking about it, she may be the right person to kind of humanize the God of Thunder. (Chris Hemsworth) In regards to action sequences, who knows. 'Monster' had action, but it wasn't of a similar nature.

Opting to stay out of the summer heat, 'Thor 2' has a planned release date of November 15, 2013.





DreamWorks CEO: How Animation Will Change Business

(news.cnet.com)                TUCSON, Ariz.--It may seem like creating a top-animated movie has become a simpler process with the advent of computer graphics. Yet in a talk here at Techonomy 2011, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg shared details that show just how tedious the work remains--even today.

"An expert animator can do about three seconds of animation in a week," said Katzenberg, who was interviewed today by moderator David Kirkpatrick.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, right, talks to moderator David Kirkpatrick, left.
(Credit: Paul Sloan, CNET)

Even more challenging is that the designers are working largely in the dark, unable for hours to see, for instance, how exactly a character's leg moves during a dance scene. The complexity of the imaging--which needs to begin as low resolution and then requires an eight-hour rendering process--means that animators are working "almost as though they are working blind."

The result is an enormous amount of waiting.

"Ultimately you have to go through numerous passes to achieve vision," said Katzenberg, who at DreamWorks has produced such hits as "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda," and "Monsters vs. Aliens." "They work without having any real idea of what it will look like."

But to hear Katzenberg describe it, the industry is in the midst of another sweeping change, driven by his company. DreamWorks is in the final year of a four-year partnership with Intel to develop authoring tools and visual technology that's making the process real-time, which, he said, has always been the "holy grail" in animation.

The technology is getting to this point, but there's still more to go. He said the animation software isn't yet up to the task--"It's like having a 1,000 horse-power engine in your car and driving 30 miles per hour"--but he spoke enthusiastically about how the technology DreamWorks and Intel are developing will increase productivity and quality in Hollywood and elsewhere.

"The implications of this are absolutely revolutionary," he said, arguing that any business that uses high-end rendering--whether it's an oil rig builder or aircraft designer--should be able to take advantage of what DreamWorks and Intel are spearheading.

And suddenly, Katzenberg was sounding like a Silicon Valley honcho more than a Hollywood mogul.

When asked about that, he said he fully expects over the next couple of years to repurpose what they're developing-- both in terms of technology and processes--and try to license it others.

"We are at the absolutely intersection between Silicon Valley and Hollywood," he said.

He's also always on the prowl for emerging technologies. "We spend a good deal of time looking over our shoulders and looking into every garage where some kid might be onto what the next thing will be," he said.




Studio Animation Expert to Headline Holiday Mixer  Event

(vcstar.com)               Camarillo, Calif.,CSU Channel Islands’ (CI) Business & Technology Partnership (B&TP) invites members of the community, faculty, staff, and students to an evening focused on the growth and opportunity in the animation industry. The B&TP’s Ninth Annual Holiday Mixer will take place Thursday, Dec. 1, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., in Aliso Hall on the CI campus.

Keynote speaker Drew Tolman will present “Innovation in Animation: The Art and Science of Visual Effects.” Tolman is a post-production supervisor for The Walt Disney Company with more than a decade of experience making family blockbusters and reporting to some of Hollywood’s most successful executives and producers. She has worked for Disney, Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. in both development and production in 2D animation, 3D animation and VFX/live action. Tolman helped build three animation studios and managed nearly every studio department during her career. A believer in nurturing new talent, she recently founded the family entertainment company Beach Plum Media to produce animated projects with teams of professionals and student interns.

Tolman received a master’s degree in film studies with a concentration in children’s films from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, and a bachelor’s degree from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The event will also showcase projects from CI students who are studying digital media arts, animation, visual effects and related art and technology disciplines. In recognition of the growing influence of new technology in entertainment, CI is steadily expanding its program offerings to help prepare students for jobs in the field. In addition, it recently opened Mike Curb Studios, which offers students hands-on experience with the latest state-of-the-art technology in film and video production, post production, visual effects, animation, gaming, and music.

Proceeds from the Holiday Mixer benefit the B&TP’s scholarship fund. Sponsors include Ocean Law, Sheeler Moving & Storage, Pacific Coast Business Times, Go Green Mobile Power, and the Ventura County Star.

Tickets for the event are $35 for B&TP members and their guests; $50 for non-members; and $20 for Alumni & Friends Association members, faculty, students, and guests. Those who join or renew their B&TP membership for $150 will receive two complimentary tickets. Tickets can be purchased online before Nov. 29 at https://csuci.wufoo.com/forms/b-tp-ho....




Modern Warfare 3 Earns Record $775M Worldwide in 5 Days

(Activision)                   The impressive numbers keep coming in for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Activision announced this morning that the game has set a new five-day entertainment record grossing more than $775 million worldwide. It has become the best-selling video game launch of all time at each of the top five retailers in North America and has established a new Xbox LIVE record with 3.3 million unique online players in one day. Here's the full release:

Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., announced today that Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 has shattered theatrical box office, book and video game sales records for five-day worldwide sell-through in dollars. The game established an all-new five-day worldwide sell-through record of more than $775 million , exceeding the record of $650 million set a year ago by Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops and $550 million two years ago for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® 2, according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information.

The Evolution of Visual Effects, Good and Bad

(kinographics.blogspot.com)                   The lines get a little blurry when discussing what constitutes as a good visual effect in movies and what constitutes as a bad one. Often times, people dislike a particular movie and then have a bias towards most of the effects used in the film. Other times however, due to a limited budget or not enough time and/or resources, an effect truly comes out as terrible as people make it out to be and unfortunately the movie suffers because of it.

Some poor special effects as noted in the article 'Top 24 Worst Special Effects of All Time' include: the light speed effect in The Shape of Things to Come, the wolf-out effect in Van Helsing, when the shark breaks through the deck of the ship in Jaws, the hyena attack in Exorcist: The Beginning, the head split in Total Recall, and many more interesting, but unfortunately unbelievable (literally) effects.

Some of the best special effects must also be noted, simply because the strides we have made in what can be achieved via visual effects is truly amazing. As noted in the article, 'Best Sci-Fi Effects of All Time', some notable effects are: the aliens in Men in Black, the 1954 original Godzilla, the bullet-time rig in The Matrix, the two faces of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, the Dumbledore vs. Voldermort battle in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the upside down fight scene in Inception, all the destruction in Independence Day, the aging effects in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the character of Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen, almost all of the visuals in Pan's Labyrinth, most of the CG effects in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the monster in Cloverfield, and many more.

Though many of these selections are from movies of the past ten years, not all of them are. Which means that visual effects evolve into the amazing creations we see in movies today without some equally amazing older effects of the past to fall back on. Below is a video documenting how effects have evolved and changed over the past 100 years:

Take a look:   http://kinographics.blogspot.com/2011/11/evolution-of-visual-effects-good-and.html




Sci-fi 'Hugo' Q&A: James Cameron & Martin Scorsese

(hollywoodreporter.com)                 After a screening of Hugo at L.A.'s DGA Theater, THR sat down with a laudatory James Cameron, who was in the audience, and Scorsese for an exclusive discussion of the movie and its use of 3D.

Marty, this is your first foray into 3D moviemaking. How did you use 3D to enhance the storytelling in Hugo?

Martin Scorsese: I found that the setting of the story lent itself to using the element of space and depth. It had a lot to do with the machinery of 3D, which creates something beyond itself, the movies that could bring people together. They create images that go up on the screen, and once they're experienced, they're gone. But the emotional impact stays with you.

James Cameron: I found the film to be very emotional. I felt like the audience was right there with the nuance of every moment.

Scorsese: What happened is that, rather than 3D being used in a way that I used to enjoy, too -- with the camera flying around -- I was trying to take the audience and put them in that world. And bring the children forward. Because seeing the kid [actors] every day first thing in the morning, I'd grab them and hug them and kiss them. And that's what I wanted the audience to feel like.

And you felt like the 3D would bring the audience in closer?

Scorsese: We discovered it. That's what we felt, saying, "Why's it better this way?"

Cameron: But the beauty of what you did is that you reacted to the 3D instinctively. You saw it and you said, "Oh, I can do this, and I can do that." You weren't waiting for some 3D guy to tell you what you can and can't do.

Scorsese: That was the key thing. It was [DP] Bob Richardson, and [3D stereographer] Demetri Portelli was really good on the I/O. Intraocular -- that's the lens for the right and one for the left. And if you take it too far apart, that hurts. You would hear me scream.

Cameron: We made up a term: "brain sheer."

Jim, were there things that you saw in Hugo that you felt the 3D really enhanced?

Cameron: It doesn't serve the film to talk about the 3D as if it's a separate thing. I mean, of course it's a lead story that a filmmaker of Marty's stature and pedigree is working in 3D. Because it's sort of breaking down this idea that 3D is for just hyper-commercial films. What you did was you integrated it with the color, with the composition, with the camera movement, with the acting. Everything. I would say it's like a 16-cylinder Bugatti firing perfectly on every cylinder. It's absolutely the best 3D photography that I've seen. It's constantly supportive of what you're doing artistically and never detractive.

Scorsese: The big stigma is the fashion to say it's a gimmick. You gotta understand, when moving images first started, people wanted sound, color, big screen and depth. The Lumiere films, two of them are in 3D. And Melies was already going there.

Cameron: Your film is about the very first days of the magic of cinema. And in its execution, the medium is the message. The movie is magical to watch. So you've exactly closed the ellipse in such an amazing, artistic way.

Scorsese: They were going there anyway.

Cameron: Can you imagine Melies today with digital tools? The guy would be going crazy.

Scorsese: Well, he was a genius. He was also a great magician. So he understood the illusion. And then he figured out how to do the illusion with film.

Cameron: It's all tricks.

Scorsese: It's all tricks.

Does Hugo bode well for more live-action 3D movies that are not in traditional genres?

Cameron: I've been saying for a long time that drama is being overlooked for 3D. People are thinking the obvious knee-jerk way that it should be action or science fiction. Something like this, where you have a great artist that's created this, I think it's gonna break some doors down in the minds of Hollywood of what's possible.

Scorsese: Every subject can encompass this medium. Really. Shakespeare in 3D. What Time Warner should do is take Dial M for Murder and make a transfer to digital. Remaster it into 3D. That'll show it's a dramatic film, it's 3D, and it works.

Is there a takeaway for the industry and other filmmakers?

Cameron: I can just tell you my reaction, which was it was a joyful film for me to watch to see a great artist embracing the new tools of 3D so perfectly. You're going to have to brace yourself for talking about 3D a lot now.

Scorsese: I like it! It's such an exciting chance for the medium to expand this way. Everyone's getting on board.




Unsung Heroes:  Stan Winston's Creature Workshop

(culturedeluxe.com)            Even after eighteen years, many people think that the dinosaurs of the Jurassic Park films are solely CGI creations, ushering in a new dawn and signalling the death knell of old school movie effects magic.  They are wrong, of course. If anything, it is the outstanding animatronic creature performances of practical effects and make-up genius Stan Winston and his dedicated team that so successfully sell the reality of a prehistoric theme park gone pear-shaped.

The late Stan Winston was an award winning make-up, creature and visual effects artist who once said “I don’t think of myself as a special effects guy; I create characters.” He confidentally told Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg that he could create live, animatronic dinosaurs that would interact convincingly with the human actors on set and location. Winston began with highly detailed, well researched sketches from his talented team, and then built fifth scale, then full scale sculptures, or maquettes, as they are now known. The smaller sculptures were sliced into segments, so that when they were copied and enlarged with the internal armature, the team had a good idea of how detailed the final skin would have to be to maintain the precision movements beneath, giving the illusion of a living, breathing dinosaur.

A variety of methods were used to create the dinosaurs motion; cable-actuation, radio-control, and hydraulics. For certain close-ups, the top half of the T-Rex was attached to a flight simulator, nowadays a gimble would be made. Detailed legs and a head were created for close-ups. Movements of a mini-replica of the full scale T-Rex operated by a puppeteer were replicated in real time in the full scale animatronic beast. The Raptors were variously rod puppets, cable and radio-controlled, even men in suits.

Take a look:    http://www.culturedeluxe.com/2011/10/unsung-heroes-stan-winstons-creature-workshop/