(darkhorizons.com)
Guillermo del Toro is set to produce the Mexican CG animated feature "Day of the Dead" with Reel FX says Heat Vision.
"El Tigre" creator Jorge R. Gutierrez helms the film described as a Romeo & Juliet-style love story set against the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. Gutierrez and Doug Langdale co-wrote the script.
Aaron Berger and Carina Schulze will also produce. The film is aiming for a Fall 2014 release.
Paramount Animation Chief David Stainton Resigns
(reuters.com) David Stainton, president of Paramount Animation, resigned on Wednesday for personal reasons.
Stainton joined the fledgling animation unit in October after 17 years at Disney, where once served as president of its feature animation division.
“We are grateful for the time David spent at the studio and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” Adam Goodman, president of the Paramount Motion Picture Group said in a statement.
Goodman will directly oversee the animation development team moving forward.
Paramount formed its animation unit last year after the success of “Rango,” the Oscar-nominated film starring Johnny Depp. It also helped finance and distribute "The Adventures of Tintin."
'Rango' Wins Editing Award
"The Descendants," "The Artist" and "Rango" each took home an Eddie Award on Saturday night. The American Cinema Editors honored Kevin Tent in the dramatic motion picture category for his work on "The Descendants," while Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius won for best edited comedy or musical film for "The Artist." All three are also nominated for the Academy Award in the editing category.
Craig Wood earned a feature film Eddie for the animated film "Rango."
The 62nd annual awards were handed out Saturday night at a black-tie ceremony hosted by comic and actor Patton Oswalt at the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
'Star Wars: Episode I -The Phantom Menace': Just How Successful Has the 3-D Re-release Been?
(insidemovies.ew.com)Two weeks ago, when Fox re-released Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, many people expected George Lucas’ sci-fi sequel to rake in huge amounts of dollars and easily top the box office. After all, when Disney re-released The Lion King in 3-D in September, the animation roared up a huge $94.2 million, so prognosticators assumed that a Star Wars film had to be at equally successful. But that’s not really how things have played out.
The Phantom Menace scored $22.5 million in its first three days, enough for a fourth-place finish behind The Vow, Safe House, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. It then plummeted 65 percent in its second weekend (a holiday weekend no less!) to $8 million — which put the film in sixth place. All told, the re-release has brought in $35.8 million in its first 11 days.
So is that gross actually any good? “I think some would characterize this as a disappointment,” says Hollywood.com’s Paul Dergarabedian, “[but] to me, to get another $36 million [so far] out of a film that so many people have seen — it’s a good thing.”
Lucasfilm is feeling chipper as well. A rep for the studio tells EW, “It’s exciting to see a whole new generation of fans experience Star Wars on the big screen, the way it was meant to be seen. We look forward to bringing more of our galaxy far, far away to fans in 3D!”
Perhaps Lucasfilm is so excited because their upgraded version of The Phantom Menace came with minimal negative costs. Converting a film into 3-D typically takes about $10-15 million (this is a ballpark figure ascertained through conversations with other studio reps), and we can assume that Fox spent somewhere in the $10-20 million range to advertise the event (again, an educated guess). Thus, while The Phantom Menace, which seems headed for a $45 million finish, won’t turn over a major profit with this theatrical run, it will, according to Dergarabedian, “keep the franchise alive” and set the stage for future box office hauls.
“This is a great warm up,” says the analyst, who agrees with my personal theory that perhaps Fox chose to release The Phantom Menace first to build up excitement for re-releases of the original Star Wars movies — the real draws in this re-release process. “The truly exciting thing would be to see the first Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi in 3-D,” he says. “It’s sort of like saving your big guest for the end of the show so people don’t leave after the beginning.”
It should be noted that this isn’t the first time a Star Wars movie has been re-released — the original Star Wars was currently getting a second run on this very week in 1997 — and it probably won’t be the last. “It’s a license to make money,” explains Dergarabedian, “and this is box office gravy.” Why not cash in?
Pixar Engineers Leave to Build Real World Living Toys
(readwriteweb.com)ToyTalklogo.jpgTeddy Ruxpin, meet Siri.
Imagine a children's toy designed by the people behind the Toy Story and Finding Nemo movies but connected to the web and chock full of artificial intelligence. Then add in visual tracking, speech recognition and massive network scalability. It appears that's what San Francisco startup ToyTalk is building, based on conversations and information available online.
The company is putting together a powerful team of technologists and creatives from Pixar and SRI (makers of Siri) and is being relatively open about what it's up to. But it has received no press coverage anywhere as far as I can tell. That's going to change once word gets out about who they are and what they're doing. The possibilities in both entertainment and education are amazing.
OrenJacob.jpg
ToyTalk CEO Oren Jacob, photo by Chuck Foxen.
Neilsen announced new numbers yesterday, showing that tablet computers are increasingly being used by children. 70% of US households with both tablets and children under 12 now report that their children use the family tablet computer, up 9% over Q3 of last year.
Imagine the youngest of children using Web-connected toys carrying character-driven chatterbot artificial intelligence programs. If done well, the possibilities for child development, education, language learning and more are awe inspiring to consider. What are the problems that need to be solved? Lovability, connectivity and sufficiently intelligent interactivity. It's that last one that seems the hardest, the least solved. Perhaps if ToyTalk can pull it off, the company can resolve one of the world's most damaging resource shortages, the shortage of engaging time and energy for childhood development.
The Brains
ToyTalk CEO Oren Jacob worked at Pixar for 20 years, where he served as Chief Technology Officer. Then he was the Entreprenuer-in-Residence at August Capital. Now he's assembling a company that includes other ex-Pixar people, a heavy-duty engineer from Internet mega-pipe Akamai and a computer scientist from SRI, the research firm that created the now Apple-owned mobile personal assistant Siri. (Jacob once made a documentary film about competitive grocery bagging; more on him here.)
ToyTalk's Creative Director Bobby Podesta worked on Pixar movies like A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and was a Directing Animator on Cars. Podesta is hiring a mobile UI developer and a creative writer who can build out charecter dialogue.
Martin Reddy, the ToyTalk CTO, is a Computer Science PhD with more than 40 published papers and 5 years of experience building geospatial visualization technology at the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI International, the organization that built Siri.
Now imagine massive data input and output from these toys. James Chalfant, ToyTalk's Director of Scalability, helped build Akamai, a massive Content Delivery Network that serves up 30% of all the web-based content consumed in the world.
Michael Chann built Pixar's animation technology and is now a visual tracking software specialist at ToyTalk. Brian Langner is a Carnegie Mellon PhD and now ToyTalk's "Senior Speech Scientist" specializing in human computer spoken word interaction. Byrne Reese was the Product Manager for Movable Type, one of the world's first major blogging platforms and is now Head of Customer Development at ToyTalk. Renee Adams, head of operations at ToyTalk, spent years working on logistics and retail operations at Apple.
Got that? We're talking about children's toys built by an AI scientist from where Siri was born, that tracks human movement, can interact with spoken words, is connected to the web and mobile by an engineer with a world-beating scalability background, promoted by an early advocate of blog publishing software that changed the world and designed by people behind the most popular children's movies in history.
That sounds incredible. And maybe a little bit frightening.
Could these be the toys that teach your children multiple languages, that help provide some interactivity to neglected children, that save the next generation from passive consumption of non-interactive broadcast media?
Or will they fall into the Uncanny Valley, seem creepy to adults but desensitize children to the true humanity of living people, ushering in a generation of humans so comfortable with robots that the robots proliferate and ultimately... Well, you can imagine. Perhaps it's post-humanity that will feel like Elvis's swinging hips for our generation, so wrong to us but a much-loved part of the future for our children.
Those are the questions I'll be asking when more information comes out about ToyTalk. The company hasn't yet responded to my request for an interview. I hope they will soon.
Green Screen is EVERYWHERE!
(98fm.com) Is nothing real on TV?
It’s just mind-blowing how much stuff they shoot on green screen.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v= 8QIzHbt0dQE
Unpaid VFX Internships In Canada
(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)VFX workers in Ontario, Canada have pointed me to a discussion about job postings by an animation studio called Guru for unpaid internships.
Apparently the post garnered so much outrage in the comments section that the site took the post down and instead put up an article that seems to whitewash the issue:
We’re asking if these interns should be getting paid for their work or not. But therein lies the conundrum. Because they’re not getting paid, they’re not technically employees, and therefore, not covered under the employment standards act. They’re volunteers, pure and simple.
But the commenters continued to take a stand. Here were a few that I feel were compelling:
At least in China, a college grad who can only get a job at an IPad factory gets paid $22US a day.
Canadian animators with college education and “1-2 years experience” are only offered unpaid internships for full time work?
To make matters worse, the province uses taxpayer money to pay the producers to do the work in Ontario. So the students are indirectly paying to work for free:
Isn’t the 20% salary Ontario animation tax credit incentive enough?
Look, it doesn’t matter at all what the law says. Artists in Ontario can easily end this practice by forming a union that sets appropriate standards. Have the employers sign a collective bargaining agreement that sets wage minimums for all workers.
I personally feel internships should be banned. I find it disgusting that after going to school for years in VFX training that you are expected to “pay your dues” and take an unpaid internship for a project that exists for a profit. Wasn’t paying thousands of dollars in tuition enough?
The excuse by employers for unpaid internships is usually to assess if you’re a competent and good worker but isn’t that true for all jobs that are paid? No matter how experienced or how well you are paid you are being assessed everyday. If you aren’t cutting it you get fired. The only difference is with an unpaid internship the employer gets free work. Of course they know you’re a competent worker, why would they want you to waste their time if they knew you couldn’t do the work for them?
One thing is for sure, hats off to the artists in Ontario for speaking out against this. Remember almost a year ago when these kinds of things would happen in Canada and workers were too scared to speak out? Know hope.
Employers, if you want charity, go to a church.
Calling for a Collaborative Performance Oscar
(hitfix.com) With many grousing that the Academy's technophobia deprived Andy Serkis of an Oscar nod for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," Matt Zoller Seitz makes a case for a compromise honor: a new Oscar category for Best Collaborative Performance, for characters created by heavily altered actors in conjunction with motion-capture artists, animators and makeup wizards. Serkis aside, performances Seitz suggests could have won here include Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly" and Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- though his notion that anti-FX bias cost Pitt the 2008 Best Actor Oscar is an empty one when you consider his competition. Overall, It's an intelligent suggestion, though it would surely hinder the possibility of such performances cracking the main acting races.
20th Century Fox Live-action/CGI Hybrid KING KONG Feature Moving Forward
(dailyblam.com) 20th Century Fox is currently pushing forward with a re-imagining of the long standing pop culture character is animated form. The latest news on the project reveals that it sill in the very early development stages.
king-kong-019.jpg
King Kong, last seen in the 2005 live-action/CGI hybrid film by director Jackson, will get a revamp of sorts with a new animated film. The story will be told from Kong's point of view, and Fox Animation (Ice Age, Rio) has tapped relative unknowns Christian Magalhaes & Bob Snow to develop the screenplay based off an already written story from Mike Weber.
Producer Shawn Levy recently offered a few words concerning the project, stating that it is still in the early stages of conceptualization:
“It’s an animated movie for Fox Animation and it’s a retelling of Kong as a family animated comedy… It’s in script stage; so no it’s not yet at the point where you’re doing those animation tests.
"It’s moving forward in that Fox Animation really likes it, I really like it, I think that when Fox Animation gets it right, almost always through Blue Sky, they get it really right. I’ve got a couple with them, and that’s the one that I think I’m the most bullish on.”
Unscene Heroes: Weta Digital
(eatsleeplivefilm.com)More-often-than-not, films rely on special effects. From the smallest, subtlety of a moving duvet in Paranormal Activity, to the epic battle scenes for Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings; a lot of movies nowadays depend on the talents of visual effect artists to achieve a vision that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
Developments in the special effects world have aided films in their quest to impress and astound audiences as they bring to life the wildest, most fantastical aspects of a director’s imagination. Arguably The Lord of the Rings set the modern benchmark for SFX with its numerous breathtaking moments of CGI, but since then even more developments have been made with the technology that was so effective in bringing Gollum to life. I am of course referring to motion capture, as well as the advancement of animation in general. Examples of just how far technology has come can be seen in the shape of Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and more recently the motion captured, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
The ones at the forefront of such technological advancements are Weta Digital. Named after a species of 70 insects from New Zealand, Weta is a company that was founded by Richard Taylor, Jamie Selkirk and Peter Jackson in 1993, and took charge of the special effects in the latter’s film, Heavenly Creatures.
To date, the company have won 5 Oscars for Best Visual Effects for efforts on each of The Lord of the Rings movies, as well as for King Kong and Avatar.
Weta are responsible for developing and creating new technology and programmes such as MASSIVE, which is a piece of software that allows hundreds of moving characters to perform individual, independent actions all one screen simultaneously. This was used predominantly for LotR in the battle scenes that heavily feature, and looks stunning with the amount of creatures on display together.
They also came up with CityBot, which is a programme that can build an entire city, shot-by-shot, and was used in order to recreate 1933 New York for King Kong. Not only that, but for Kong’s fur they had to devise completely new modelling and simulation software in order to realistically re-create the beast. In fact, a staggering 460 billion strands of fur made up the giant ape in order for it to believably interact with different surfaces. MASSIVE was further developed for Avatar, with the help of senior visual effects artist, Joe Letteri, which was by in large a mo-cap, CGI and animation heavy affair of a movie.
In total, Weta Digital have worked on an impressive 30 films since their debut 19 years ago, including Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, which is out December of this year, as well as 2013’s Man of Steel and second Hobbit instalment.
They’ve also had a huge part to play in films such as I, Robot, District 9 and X-Men: First Class, too, with Rise of the Planet of the Apes being the film to really showcase their capabilities in the next step of motion capture. For years, including sequences in the multi-Oscar winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy, motion capture has been achieved under close supervision and within the confines of a studio. However, for Rise, Weta Digital evolved their technology and captured the desired character movement and data unrestricted, whether it be on a set or on location; it opens up a number of possibilities for motion capturing action in a wide open space.
This year Weta are yet again up for Best Visual Effects for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and would be an injustice for them not to win it considering how life-like Caesar et al look in the film.
It’s no secret that Weta Digital are industry innovators, with an amazingly talented team to make it all possible in the first place. They have proved a massive influence on the film industry with their combination of motion capture, SFX and exquisite animation that their films will be the cornerstone and model example for years to come, especially when we look back as perhaps we have done with the likes of Blade Runner and more recently, Jurassic Park, for its special effects and ground-breaking visual impact.
Shared Costs Aids Canadian VFX Shops
(variety.com) With their data storage costs on the rise as visual effects companies render more and more work, vfx and animation houses are finding a silver lining in a shared cloud.
And while the idea of basing render farms in the ether has been around for a long time, it's only recently that faster and higher-capacity transmission capabilities, plus greater assurances of security, have enabled the technology to take hold.
In Vancouver, where many vfx and animation houses have set up shop to service the region's growing film and TV production business, three of the city's top shops -- Rainmaker, Digital Domain, and Image Engine -- among the converts that are switching over to a cloud-based media storage and rendering system, eliminating the need for each of them to maintain a costly inhouse system of their own.
The facilities were all facing the same issue, says Image Engine head Jason Dowdeswell. Each time they tackled large-scale projects they were forced to purchase more storage and rendering capability. However, once a show was done, there was no way to scale back down.
So the studios -- partners in the Vancouver Studio Group, a 16-member association formed in 2009 to identify production efficiencies -- looked into a way to share rendering computers. After entertaining various proposals, they decided to go with RenderCloud, from Toronto-based technology firm Scalar Decisions, and set to launch Feb. 15.
The technology allows users to share a hub of high-performance off-site servers that are controlled, managed and maintained by a third party. Rendering takes place via a high-speed connectivity. This sharing of resources lets the studios take on larger projects and become more competitive in attracting more 3D, animation and vfx work to Vancouver.
Scalar Decisions has invested more than $4 million to launch the service, and already has better than 1,000 servers in place; it expects to expand to 1,500 by summer. In addition to Vancouver, Scalar will market RenderCloud's services in Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles.
Great Northern Way Campus -- a joint venture between the U. of British Columbia, Simon Fraser U., Emily Carr U. of Art + Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology -- is a partner in the initiative, which turns an 18-acre industrial site in the heart of the city into Vancouver's "digital district."
Rainmaker, Digital Domain and Image Engine are RenderCloud's first customers and have each signed three-year agreements. The three studios are the founders of the initiative, but Dowdeswell says that they're also inviting other local animation and vfx shops to join in. "We're all looking out for each other. We all recognize that the more we help each other, the better off everyone's going to be. As independents, we all want to remain competitive, but we all also want to eliminate the common issue that we have, which is having to spend cash on systems that (often) sit dormant."
Darren Sharpe, Scalar's general manager for Western Canada, says the company's ability to provision resources collaboratively is what sets it apart. Although the studios will be accessing a common location for rendering through RenderCloud, their work will remain secure. Each facility's activity will be controlled by and visible only to that facility.
"We were at a crossroads where we had to decide to either build out yet another server room on our premises that might give us another year or two of expansion or find another long-term solution like RenderCloud," Dowdeswell says. Now as the company expands, instead of buying more rendering capability, it will be renting it from Render Cloud and paying as it goes.
Image Engine will be using the new technology for all productions starting with Sony Pictures Entertainment's "Elysium" and Universal Pictures' "R.I.P.D".
Dowdeswell is confident that RenderCloud offers the kind of flexibility and scalability that is needed to meet production demands as animation and effects continue to grow in Vancouver. "Directors and clients now have the expectation that they can be working on every shot right till the bitter end," he says. "The only way that we can support that type of service is to have the quickest, easiest way to expand our capabilities."
High capacity and fast connectivity "ensure that there are no latency issues," says Sharpe, referring to the possibility of an annoying lag in rendering time.
Although many facilities with existing rendering capability might find it difficult to consider switching over to cloud technology and decommissioning their servers, Sharpe says that there's not just the hard cost of hardware to consider, but also soft costs like power and manpower. He suggests that studios look into scaling out gradually. "The (return on investment) of no longer having to expand their render capability is impressive," he says.
And while Sharpe admits that RenderCloud can be susceptible to lines being cut or major outages, he insists that the "connectivity we offer is very much in line with that of major telecommunications and Internet providers."
Nonprofit government org BC Film + Media is assessing how studios from outside Vancouver can take advantage of British Columbia's tax credits for post-production when they use RenderCloud.
Pixar In Danger
(thedeletedscene.wordpress.com) It has happened countless times, from Lucas to Shyamalan, as success too early in a career seems to impede creative growth and promotes the perpetuation of cinematic flaws. Now, another cinematic powerhouse seems to be in danger of losing self-awareness, and it is not just one filmmaker but an entire group of them.
Pixar has enjoyed almost unparalleled success both critically and financially, it is no wonder it enjoys almost complete artistic freedom. They answer to no one but themselves, and this is when filmmakers like Lucas ran into problems. When you no longer have to answer to anyone, because of earlier success, the problems you have can be glossed over as you lose self-awareness.
Over the last 20 years, Pixar has delivered some of cinema’s best films. Its own unique brand of intelligent, whimsical, family films have set the bar almost impossibly high. Since their first film, Toy Story, the owners and filmmakers at Pixar have been fighting to create a home for complete creative freedom. And while they have successfully done so, Pixar’s recent disappointment, Cars 2, may be a sign of a larger problem than just a failed film.
The first Cars film, directed by John Lasseter, was seen as simply a mediocre film in an otherwise brilliant filmography. It was a major financial success for the already profitable studio, and it is no wonder why they decided to move forward with a sequel. Some believed that the sequel could be a redemption for the franchise, however Cars 2 turned out to be an even bigger disappointment. The basic concept of the films is inherently flawed, as the world is both creepy and clichéd. This is clearly reflected in the negative critical reception of the film.
The issue is not that Pixar made a mediocre film, but rather that they did not recognize and correct their mistakes. The first film did not work, it was an OK animated feature but certainly not at the level of quality that Pixar has set for themselves. It is worrying that they moved forward, and revisited the Cars universe without accepting its failure. More so, with Pixar dominating the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars virtually every year, it was a noticeable change of pace this year with Cars 2 not receiving a nomination. Several members of the Pixar team have spoken out, defending the film.
It should be noted that I am a huge fan of Pixar, and I believe they have one of the best track records of any studio around. That does not mean they are not in danger of losing self-awareness. In fact, it appears they may have already. They hold themselves at such a high standard with such a great catalogue of films, yet they do not seem to realize that the Cars films simply do not work. They may be acceptable for another studio, but Pixar should know better.
Maybe this is overreacting, or maybe it is just John Lasseter’s fault. He is the creative force behind the Cars films and he seems to genuinely love the universe he created. Pixar, as a whole, could still fall prey to the Lucas-syndrome. Pixar is in a situation that all filmmakers wish they could be. They answer to no one but themselves, and while in most cases this has allowed cinematic greatness, it also has allowed cinematic mediocrity.
Lucas had success too early, and because of that, became blind to his own faults. Pixar has done the impossible and pushed themselves to allow for the creative freedom they currently enjoy, let’s just hope they take advantage of that freedom and leave the Cars universe behind.
How Do I Get Into the Special Makeup Effects Industry?
(makeup.ohamor.com)
Please be aware that it is competitive industry (name one that isn’t) but a broad skill base means there are a number of avenues to pursue.
A great many ‘Hollywood’ films are made in places other than Hollywood. In the UK, I have been fortunate enough to work on The Mummy, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator-all full of UK crew and extras. European locations are often used (Prague and Budapest were popular) and Morocco is often used for desert locations so it may be necessary to travel if you get involved in that area.
Many successful makeup effects artists did not go through conventional makeup schooling-rather they misspent their youth making monsters for fun and gradually honed their skills over time. They were doing it for fun, making mistakes and enjoying it long before it paid their bills.
Most people are freelance, as the nature of the work arrives in peaks and troughs so you’ll need to sustain yourself with your earnings while the going is good, and accept there will be quiet times of the year.
A lot of prosthetic work takes place in a workshop environment rather than the set, which is a completely different world. It is messy, smelly and often long hours-not at all glamorous. But if you like sculpting, painting and making monsters then it should be your natural habitat!
Many makeup artists will be expected to do some ‘special effects’ such as straightforward casualty makeup, illnesses and subtle aging. Specialist makeup effects departments step in when the skills needed are more extensive.
If you can’t find what you want near you, I suggest getting a good book, and spending the money on some kit and practice. Good books include:
* Character Makeup by Make-up Designery (ISBN-13: 978-0974950006)
* Special Make-Up Effects by Vincent Kehoe
* Special Makeup Effects for Stage & Screen: Making and Applying Prosthetics by Todd Debreceni
* Stage Makeup by Richard Corson
Some courses can be expensive ways to learn unless you are totally set on doing it as part of a career move. The best teaching will come from those who make their living from it, and naturally there will be emphasis on film quality work.
I also teach in the UK, and a lot of people from all over the world travel to learn. If you were successful in the trade, you would most likely need to travel all over the world when you work, so if you don’t like travel or working away from home, you may limit what work you can do.
Family commitments often hold people back in this way, and a lot of good artists who start early in their lives work all over don’t settle down.
You may not be able to travel to learn, but know that your competition will-it is a very competitive industry if you want to make a career out of it.
Check http://makeupmag.com/faqmain/. They also host trade shows (check http://www.makeupartistshow.com/) It is worth going, so you can meet and speak to people face to face about your intentions. It is great meeting like minded souls, and most of the big schools are there giving demos and often have show offers and discounts.
Whoever you go with, check them out online, see if anyone has anything bad to say about them. If you want a career in film and TV I also suggest you run the tutors name through http://www.imdb.com/, and see what credits they have to their name. Many teach it although they haven’t actually done it themselves in industry.
Kind regards
Stuart
mail@learnprostheticmakeup.com
2012 Academy Awards Odds: Betting On Best Visual Effects
(gambling911.com)When it comes to the 2012 Academy Awards betting odds, WagerWeb.com has one of the most complete wagering menus available. Here, Gambling911.com takes a look at some of the more obscure odds including “Best Makeup” and “Best Sound Effects”. You’ll notice quite a few of these categories feature competitive pricing.
Best Achievement in Visual Effects is offered at a decent price with nominal risk for the favorites.
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
5170
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
+300
Bet Now
5171
Hugo
+275
Bet Now
5172
Real Steel
+4500
Bet Now
5173
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
-400
Bet Now
5174
Transformer: Dark of the Moon
+3000
Bet Now
Harry Potter VFX Supe Talks Changing Voldemort's Death in Deathly Hallows: Part 2
(snitchseeker.com)Tim Burke, visual effects supervisor of the Harry Potter series beginning with Chamber of Secrets, recently discussed some of the changes and special effects used for key moments in the finale of the saga, Deathly Hallows: Part 2, including the Gringotts ride, dragon, and Hogwarts during the final battle.
Of particular note was the fact that Voldemort's death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was changed from its initial filming to what is seen in the final cut (shown below), which was altered mere months before the July 2011 release of the movie. Some may recall a promotional still released online featuring a very different ending for Voldemort, where Harry stood above his dead body. Burke recently won the BAFTA film award for his work in Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and is up for achievement in visual effects for this Sunday's Academy Awards.
On changing Voldemort’s death:
Tim Burke: We were designing end shots for the death of Voldemort a couple months before we delivered the film. There were certain areas of the film unresolved and because of the virtual environments, [David Yates] realized we could recreate shots quickly.
The key thing that changed was the death of Voldemort. That happened after we had locked cuts. We had done some screenings and realized we needed a more epic ending. So we redesigned the sequence and thankfully with the digital assets we could recreate the environment.
We projected some elements of Ralph Fiennes onto geometry of him and added those to the shots, and for a couple shots had to use a full CG Voldemort. It happened way past the 11th hour. The shoot had finished 12 months earlier, so it was long past the point of pick-up shots. We had to take materials from other shots and recreate him.
On the shield (force field) protecting Hogwarts:
Tim Burke: As Voldemort arrived with his army on the hillside, the teachers went into the areas of the courtyard and created a magical shield that enveloped and protected the school. It took a long time to create the magical shield. Then Voldemort bombarded the school and destroyed the shield. We wanted to give that an epic scale.
We referenced the Hindenburg airship disaster, when it went up in flames, to get the scale of the flames and burning materials. That was the reference for pieces of cloth-like fire that dropped down onto the school. It was magical – not in a Harry Potter sense. It was beautiful and shocking at the same time. Those shots were completely CG and had a big design aspect, which is rewarding.
On the Gringotts dragon:
Tim Burke: We had to emphasize and feel sorry for this 60-foot dragon through pure performance. We found reference from badly treated real animals and translated that body language into our character. He was trapped. Unable to fly. Partially blind. And he had been down there his whole life. It was important to emphasize that so you wanted him to escape and when he did, he flew with majesty and pride. That was a lovely story to roll into the character of the dragon.
On the decision to create a virtual Hogwarts:
Tim Burke: We didn’t use any miniatures for Hogwarts. It was the first time we did away with the 24th-scale model. We used a third-scale viaduct for the sequence with the giants. We scaled the architecture they were running on to make the actors look taller. But we didn’t use miniatures to recreate Hogwarts.
It was a big change, a big decision that we made before starting the film. We were still working on the sixth film [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince] and in discussions with the director and producers. All we had was the book. No script. We realized how much a part of the film and the story the school had become. David [Yates] wanted the freedom to fly the camera outside the school, inside the windows, explore the school as part of the developing battle.
Having worked with miniatures in the past, one big 24th-scale and bespoke models at different scales for key areas, we knew it would be a daunting task to build all those miniatures and nest them into wider shots. Double Negative had technology that we had used successfully on Half-Blood Prince to rebuild the whole of London. It was time to throw away the model.
Order the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 DVD and Blu-ray sets, out today in the U.S. and December 2 in the UK, at the Amazon links below, or through the official Warner Bros Shop.
WALKING DEAD VFX DISSECTED
(98fm.com) I love all the VFX videos that are coming out these days. It seems Stargate Studios are the main dudes!
This one is all from The Walking Dead, which is SUCH an amazing show. Season 2 Part 2 has just started up on FX on Friday nights at 10pm. Don’t miss it. It’s AWESOME!
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKao6wZklec&feature=player_ embedded
Pixar’s Star Wars?
Or would you prefer to see George Lucas’s Up? I’ve accepted droids, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable flying an X-wing that talked. Through a mouth. Andrew Chesworth composed this image for Star Wars Day — you know, May the Fourth.
Take a look: http://andrewchesworth.blogspot.com/2011/05/may- fourth-be-with-you.html
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