"Ghostbuster 3" To Scare Up Young Blood

(comingsoon.net)             

    After years of rumors, it appears that Ghostbuster 3 is finally moving forward and will likely do so with or without Bill Murray's involvement. Dan Aykroyd appeared on The Dennis Miller Show to discuss the project, dropping specific details about the sequel, hinting that the plan is to film in Spring of 2012 no matter what happens casting-wise.

"Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray," he says, "That is our hope. We have an excellent script. What we have to remember is that 'Ghostbusters' is bigger than any one component, although Billy was absolutely the lead and contributive to it in a massive way, as was the director and Harold [Ramis], myself and Sigourney [Weaver]. The concept is much larger than any individual role and the promise of 'Ghostbusters 3' is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood."

The comedian also confirmed reports that the plot will revolve around a new generation of Ghostbusters and hinted at the states of his and Ramis' characters.

"My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can't drive the cadillac," he says, "He's got a bad knee and can't carry the packs... Egon is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that's the promise. We're gonna hand it to a new generation."

As for who might be cast as the new characters, Aykroyd says that, while no decision has been made, he does have a fondness for one piece of prospective casting.

"I like this guy Matthew Gray Gubler from the 'Criminal Minds' show," he adds, "But there's going to be a casting. We're going to see everyone that wants to do it. We're going to need... three guys and a young woman."




VFX Supe To Direct Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Martial Arts Flick

(screenrant.com)                Visual effects supervisor Michael Gracey has been brought onboard to helm Disney’s ‘The Order of the Seven’, a martial arts epic inspired by ‘Snow White’.

With all the talk about next year’s dual Snow White movies, it’s easy to forget that Walt Disney Pictures has been developing its own unorthodox spin on the fairy tale since 2002. That live-action project was previously referred to as Snow and the Seven, but has now been re-dubbed The Order of the Seven.

Francis Lawrence​ (I Am Legend, Water for Elephants) was previously onboard to helm the picture, but has now been replaced by commercials director and visual effects supervisor Michael Gracey.

The Disney® Movie Club
Hurry, For A Limited Time Get 4 Movies For Only $1! Free Shipping.
DisneyMovieClub.Go.com
Ads by Google
The reasoning behind the title change is reportedly because the project has evolved into more of an original fantasy tale. That and studio heads were probably concerned that audiences might be suffering from Snow White​ movie fatigue by the time Order of the Seven reaches theaters.

Here is how Heat Vision describes the project, in its current state:

    In this iteration [of 'Snow White'], the seven are a 19th century-set disparate band of international warriors belonging to a centuries-old order who have lost their way. Their meeting with an Englishwoman being chased by an ancient evil is the catalyst for their redemption. While the project is set in China, the warriors will be from locales near (the U.S.) and far (Russia), and each warrior will have a unique fighting style.




Why Are Studios Canceling Soulless CGI-Infested 3D Movies? 

(startribune.com)                         Yesterday we noted that the “Ouija” movie was cancelled. This article wonders why is Hollywood getting so cheap all of a sudden:

    It's not as if Universal is the only one euthanizing mega-productions these days. Two weeks ago, Disney put the future of the more than $200 million budgeted "Lone Ranger" in limbo, even though Johnny Depp was attached to star and Jerry Bruckheimer was on board to produce. With ancillary revenue sources such as DVD sales constricting, studios throughout town are being forced to dial down the amount of money they spend on theatrical releases.

DVD sales is part of it. For a decade we were encouraged to build our own libraries of movies, so we could watch anything we liked any time - and then hey presto, streaming video comes along. Inferior picture, but $20 per DVD vs. $10 per month? Sure. Also, the economy is horrid, and no one wants to spend fifty bucks to take the family to some soulless CGI-infested 3D movie that beats you over the head and pokes things in your eyes. “Lone Ranger” with Johnny Depp would probably be fine, but they’re not gong to recoup $250 mil selling masks to little kids, and they can’t sell toy guns, so that’s another revenue stream dried up for good.

They might ask themselves why these things are so expensive in the first place. I’ve seen plenty of good little-known Alfred Hitchcock films that were made for the modern equivalent of a million dollars, and while they didn’t have enormous spaceships or people running away from fireballs or anything, they made up for it with curious, old-school tricks like “Acting,” “Script,” and “Story.”

Then there’s this:

    The studio has been in a costly rut in recent years, forced to shoulder costly failures such as last month's "Cowboys & Aliens," which has so far grossed just $108 million worldwide on a $150 million budget. "The Change-Up" was another disappointment, a movie the studio was convinced would be a sleeper comedy hit.

    "They're in a state of shock after 'Cowboys and Aliens,'" said one former studio executive. "They had back-to-back misfires, which reinforced their most conservative instincts. But all of them are playing defensively."

“The Change-Up” cost $52 million. Grossed half as much so far.

So the days of brave, risk-taking, interesting cinema are over? Not at all:

    Universal has some big projects on the horizon such as a sixth "Fast and Furious" film.

See, there’s hope.





King Kong Magic-Maker Teamed With his Father in Early Epics

(theage.com.au)              HARRY Redmond, a special effects artist who worked on the celebrated 1933 film King Kong and became widely sought after, has died aged 101.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Originally conceived by Merian Cooper and British thriller writer Edgar Wallace as a low-budget B-movie, King Kong became an enormous box-office hit, making a star of its female lead, Fay Wray.

A crucial part of the picture's popular appeal lay in visual effects which, though crude by today's standards, were sensational in their day.

Redmond worked with his father, also called Harry, on the technical team assembled for the film by Willis O'Brian, an early master of model animation. Together they combined stop-motion photography and live action sequences projected onto a screen to give a vivid impression of the giant primate rampaging through New York.

Their technological inventiveness enthralled audiences, not least during the film's climax, when Kong climbs the recently completed Empire State Building and tries to fend off an aerial attack from biplanes while clutching a squirming Fay Wray in an enormous paw.

Redmond was born in Brooklyn, New York, and moved with the family to California in 1925.

After finishing high school, he found a job in the prop department at First National Pictures before joining his father to work on special effects for the 1931 romantic drama Chances, set in France during World War I and starring Douglas Fairbanks jnr and Rose Hobart.

In 1932, the father and son team left First National and joined RKO, working together on a series of important pictures, including Flying Down to Rio, Little Women, the hastily produced Son of Kong (all 1933), Of Human Bondage (with Bette Davis), The Gay Divorce, Anne of Green Gables (all 1934); and The Informer (1935), starring Victor McLaglen.

In 1935, Redmond left RKO to freelance, creating some remarkable special effects for directors Frank Capra on Lost Horizon, John Cromwell on The Prisoner of Zenda (both 1937), and Howard Hawks, for Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Howard Hughes asked for him when filming The Outlaw(1943), with Jane Russell, and he worked with Andre de Toth on Dark Waters (1944), and with Orson Welles on his World War II chiller, The Stranger (1946). Redmond also helped ensure filmmakers got exactly the shot they required. On Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window (1944), Redmond worked with the director to achieve the striking transition shot of Edward G. Robinson at the film's end, capturing it in real time, with no cuts and no post-production work.

During World War II, he made training films for the US Army and met several technicians who had worked with his father in New York in the early 1920s. Redmond snr died in 1944.

In 1945, Redmond returned to Hollywood and worked on the Marx Brothers's A Night in Casablanca, followed by Angel on My Shoulder (both 1946), with Claude Rains and Anne Baxter. Two of Danny Kaye's most popular musicals, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and A Song is Born (1948), followed.

During the early 1950s, he met producer Ivan Tors while working on Storm Over Tibet (1952). A long and prolific association ensued, leading not only to Tors's early science fiction films such as The Magnetic Monster (1953) and Gog (1954), but to Redmond's role as associate producer on a succession of popular television shows, including Science Fiction Theatre, Sea Hunt, Daktari and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The pair shared film credits on the popular children's hits Flipper (1964), Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion and Zebra in the Kitchen (both 1965).

In the early 1970s, as films shifted emphasis to big budgets and enormous special effects costs, Redmond became increasingly disillusioned with the industry. But he never completely gave up on Hollywood, often helping young filmmakers on independent projects and giving lectures at school campuses across California well into his 90s.

In 1940, he married Dorothea Holt, a production designer and illustrator. She died in 2009, and he is survived by their son and daughter. TELEGRAPH




Goyer's "Invisible Man" Materializing

(darkhorizons.com)                   He's been developing it for a few years over at Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, now writer/director David Goyer says his new take on the H.G. Wells classic "The Invisible Man" is looking to go broader than originally planned.

“It’s a period film but it’s period like Downey’s ’Sherlock Holmes'. It’s period but it’s a reinvention of the character in the sort of way that Stephen Sommers exploded ‘The Mummy’ into a much bigger kind of mythology. That’s kind of what we’ve done with ‘The Invisible Man'” said Goyer in a recent interview with Hero Complex.

Goyer was set to write the script back in 2007 and many have wondered if the project has since stalled, but he says “It’s still alive. We did some pre-vis tests and things like that that they were very happy with. Now we’re going through the casting process. if they get the right lead, they’ll make it.”

At last report this version is being conceived as a sequel to Wells' original tale, the story centers on a British nephew of the original Invisible Man. Once he discovers his uncle's formula for achieving invisibility, he is recruited by British intelligence agency MI5 during WWII.

Several versions of the character have hit the screen from James Whale's famous 1933 film with Claude Rains, the 1992 Chevy Chase contemporary romance version and several American series on NBC and Sci-Fi. To date the most faithful adaptation was arguably the 1984 British mini-series.




Practical Effects Guru Pulls Back the Curtain on Film Props

(cgw.com)               Siggraph - Los Angeles, Calif. - The Gnomon Workshop's latest instructional video, "Prop Fabrication for Film," takes viewers inside the stellar design and fabrication lab of concept designer, creative fabricator, and practical effects artist Rick Hilgner's Creative Concepts Enterprises to quickly engineer, fabricate, and finish a sci-fi prop weapon using a few materials, common power tools, and a little creative know-how.

Hilgner addresses real-world motion picture prop construction, utilizing his 25 years of experience and the trusted toolset of his own hands. "Prop Fabrication for Film" covers concept design, pre-production, multi-material application and allocation, engineering design and application, base formation, as well as many other important and cost-effective tricks of the trade. Viewers are also walked through multiple phases of finishing, from filling gaps with putty to the addition of dirt, damage, and grime. 

Ever since he was a kid, Hilgner's dream was to come to Los Angeles and work in entertainment building models and toys. After 25 years of being a "hitman" for the visual effects and toy industries, Hilgner has worked on everything from low-budget shockers to massive Hollywood blockbusters--designing, engineering, and fabricating miniatures, props, sets and gadget effects, as well as toy prototypes and themed trade show installations. His company, Creative Concepts Enterprises, now strives to enhance the digital world by incorporating the knowledge of practical, hand-built magic and fun.




DreamWorks Anim Prod President Exits for MediaNavi

(reuters.com)                  John Batter, the president of production at DreamWorks Animation since 2007, is leaving to become CEO for MediaNavi, a subsidiary of Technicolor, TheWrap has confirmed.

Under Batter, MediaNavi will be focusing on emerging content distribution models, with a large consumer launch aimed for 2012. As an extension of DreamWorks Aimation's current strategic alliance with Technicolor, the company is entering the business of 2D to 3D conversion and is working on DWA's "Kung Fu Panda" as its first project.

DreamWorks Animation knows its 3D. All of its recent films have been released in 3D, and the format has found no bigger booster than CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Batter joined DWA in 2006 as head of production operations. Prior to that, he worked at Electronic Arts Inc., as GM of Electronic Arts Mobile, among other positions. And 1995 until 2000 -- before the animation division split into its own public company -- he worked at DreamWorks, where he was, among other positions, chief financial officer of DreamWorks Interactive.




Rise of the CGI = The Demise of the Makeup Effects

(cinemastyles.blogspot.com)                 By all accounts, Rise of the Planet of the Apes looks to be a very good movie. I've heard nothing but good and the critical consensus itself seems to be the movie is above average for a sci-fi thriller. I'm also a Planet of the Apes (POTA) fanatic so I know for a fact I'll be seeing this. And yet, why does it bother me so much that they went all CGI instead of using makeup? I never cared for the Tim Burton version but the makeup was superb. And if you're going to go to all this trouble...

... why not just put the damn actors in make-up?

I've read takes on the film praising the amazing quality of the CGI and yet, when I look at stills, trailers and hi-def clips from the movie, it looks to me, yet again, as fake as fake can be. Why? Why do others see great looking creations while I see elaborate cut-scenes from video games?

I don't know the answer to that, maybe I never will. Maybe I just hate the fact that the loss of great make-up artistry is a loss of great artists whose work took until 1981 to be recognized by the Academy and now, barely thirty years later, it's already disappearing.





"The Wolverine" Filming Begins Next Spring

(darkhorizons.com)                20th Century Fox looks to have pushed back production on "The Wolverine" by several months with filming now expected to begin in Spring 2012, not this Fall in Canada as previously reported (but never officially confirmed).

Deadline says that though the script and story are set in Japan, weather-related considerations has made shooting their a tricky proposition. The location might switch to Canada exclusively or involve a combination of the two countries.

James Mangold remains attached to direct the project which will begin shooting as soon as Hugh Jackman finishes the "Les Miserables" film adaptation.




Not-So-Special Effects

(thevine.com.au)              Having fallen into one of those afternoon internet vortexes yesterday, I found myself reading a terrific list of the 50 Best Special Effects Of All Time. All the greats were present and accounted for: Harryhausen, Baker, Winston, Trumbull, Cameron, Keaton.

The longer I browsed the ins and outs of cinematic magic, though, the more I became dissatisfied with the current state of special effects.

Not that I really needed any more fuel for that particular fire. For a number of years now, Hollywood has been seemingly stuck in a special effects quagmire, bereft of inspiration or innovation. It's a rinse, repeat culture.

(Obviously I'm talking about the general state of affairs; you couldn't accuse, say, James Cameron or the team at Weta of slacking off in the innovation department.)

As I mentioned in my review of Priest, general special effects are suffering from "same old" syndrome that sees certain SFX hallmarks appear again and again, whether they're monsters, aliens, demons, vampires, werewolves or spaceships: there's a distinct sense we've seen it all before. Generally, it's because we have.

It's hard not to see this as being due to Hollywood having reached such a fast turnover while simultaneously shrinking its frame of reference/inspiration that innovation and design has been ditched in favour of easy self-cannibalisation.

There are some obvious "trends" that spring to mind. There are bald, gaping-mawed demon thingies:

Montage of monsters:  http://www.thevine.com.au/blog/clembastow/not-so-special-effects20110825.aspx

And so on and on and on - that's but a shallow skimming of the obvious examples. A deep sense of deja vu pervades plenty more facets of big studio cinema than just sci-fi/fantasy.

Part of the problem seems to be - it can only be assumed, unless we're going to blame the collective unconscious - that SFX teams have stopped looking further afield for inspiration.

Where they might once have explored natural history, fine art, or industrial design, now it feels like they just pop down to Blockbuster and get a five-for-one deal on whatever genre it is they're about to wade into.

Such laziness, you can be almost certain, springs from the studios' lack of trust in their audiences. "We can't design a demon-vampire that doesn't have a bald head, clammy skin and a massive mouth," you can imagine them fretting, pacing around the board-room, "people won't know what it is!"

The problem is, in many cases, that thinking is probably spot on.

SFX has become a handy - read: lazy - shorthand for dunderhead cinemagoers who need everything to be signposted for them. It's the visual equivalent of "as you know, Bob..." dialogue.

Perhaps it's not surprising, given that 2011, as many have noted, will contain the highest volume of sequels and remakes in cinema history. Gawker memorably dubbed it "the end of ideas".

That's why occasional breaths of fresh SFX air are so invigorating - and tend to come from outside the major studios' reaches.

Take Gareth Edwards' 2010 alien road movie, Monsters: the film itself was a bit of a mess, but his aliens - psychedelic squidlike things with tentacles full of fairy-lights - were so original they lifted the movie.

Edwards, who did the special effects himself, reportedly brought the whole movie in for under $500,000.

Neil Blomkamp, another former SFX artist, created a similarly original vision for District 9 (which Monsters is inevitably compared to because, you know, there's that shorthand again).

The multiplex-courting fare isn't a complete lost cause, of course. There are new effects wizards coming to the fore, and the old guard remain as innovative as ever.

Despite the tragic loss of Stan Winston in 2008, many of his contemporaries are still creating brilliant work. Rick Baker is still kicking goals in makeup and creature effects, preparing a menagerie of new alien effects for the upcoming Men In Black III. Brilliantly, when you consider the enormous rant I've just been on, Baker is wittily incorporating Hollywood self-cannibalisation for his MIB3 effects:

"Right from the first movie, I was always saying to Barry [Sonnenfeld], ‘Let’s do aliens that look like aliens we’ve already seen. Let's say that Paul Blaisdell, who did the effects for Invasion Of The Saucer Men, actually had a real encounter with an alien and tried to recreate it on film, so there are saucermen in the Men In Black headquarters. And let's have E.T. in there, operating the phone.’ Barry didn’t like any of those ideas, he thought they were stupid. But when Men In Black III came along and I heard about the time-travel element, I said, ‘Okay, it’s set in 2012, so we’ll have aliens that look like 2012 aliens in that part of the film. But when we go back to 1969, wouldn’t it be cool to have retro aliens? Big brains, bug eyes, stuff like that?’ I thought they should have a totally different, retro feel. And they agreed to it, thank God. So I got to make a whole bunch of cool stuff.”

You see, that's recycling with a point. If only the rest of Hollywood could catch on.





Scotland's Visual Effects Research Network To Open

(digitaldundee.com)               Brian Cox is back in Scotland to open a new post-production facility at the University of Dundee.

A legendary actor, he’s most recently starred in “Rise of the Plant of the Apes” and “Ironclad”.

Part of the EU funded North Sea Screen Partners, the lab has been created to produce cutting edge visual effects and is also the focus for the new Visual Effects Research Network.

The €6 million project aims to help companies produce, shoot, post and learn across all media and the partners had Oscar success this year with “In a Better World” supported by Film Fyn in Denmark. Dundee itself is already a hub for the games industry.  The Lab offers companies the chance to work with the latest technology and the network is helping post-production companies to network and collaborate so they can get involved in bigger projects.

There’s more on NSSP at their website www.northseascreen.eu

Councillor Will Dawson, convenor of the City Development Department at lead partner, Dundee City Council says: [We’re delighted that the Lab has been developed in Dundee and adds to the city’s growing reputation in games and digital media.”]

Director is Peter Richardson.  He started directing music videos in 1990 with the first ever Blur video and went on to bands such as 808 State, The Stranglers and the Happy Mondays.  He’s also directed commercials including global campaigns for Proctor and Gamble, Chrysler Jeep and Pepe jeans.  His latest projects include a commercial for Nike, documentaries for UK broadcaster, Channel 4, and Fox Sports.

The NSSP project is funded by the EU’s North Sea Interreg Programme IVb.




Six Awesomely Bad CGI Sequences in Bigger Budget Movies

In theory, CGI should never break your suspension of disbelief (unless you’re watching a Syfy Original or Birdemic, in which case it was never there in the first place).  In practice, budgets get tight, time gets short, and even mega-blockbusters like Lords of the Rings or Harry Potter will have a couple of crappy looking scenes.

But sometimes movies that don’t even really need much CGI will toss it in for a short sequence, whether it’s just to show off,  save money, or even to mask Bill the microphone guy’s fuck up. Inevitably, though, at least one of those scenes ends up looking like the production company outsourced the job to someone’s Nintendo 64. When big budget movies have bargain basement special effects, everyone wins. And by “everyone,” I mean “no one,” and by “wins,” I mean “is paying attention to the movie anymore because they’re too busy laughing.”

The List:   http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/6-awesomely-bad-cgi-sequences-in-bigger-budget-movies-part-one.php




George Lucas on Steve Jobs’s Resignation

(google.com)                George Lucas and Steve Jobs go way back. In 1986, Jobs bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. from the “Star Wars” creator, a deal that led to the formation of Pixar Animation Studios. So Lucas didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts about the resignation of Jobs when asked on Thursday.

    Associated Press
    George Lucas poses in front of a Stormtrooper exhibit in 2005

“A person like Steve Jobs comes along once in a lifetime,” he said in an email, sent through a spokeswoman. “Steve’s contributions to technology, marketing and design are overwhelming. He has changed America forever — for the good — and has built a strong company that will continue to be creative and successful.”

Jobs, of course, eventually sold Pixar to Walt Disney in 2006 for $7.5 billion, which added to the fortune he made after founding Apple (Jobs’ stake in Disney is now worth more than $4.4 billion.)

He originally paid Lucas $5 million for the assets and team that became Pixar, plowing another $5 million investment into the new company. It took many years and millions of dollars in additional investment by Jobs before Pixar started churning out animated film hits, starting with the original “Toy Story” in 1995.

'Frankenstein' Rises Before Going On A 'Fantastic Voyage'
               
(latinoreview.com)           

   Shawn Levy Likely Taking On 'Frankenstein' Before Going On A 'Fantastic Voyage' Director, Shawn Levy has been attached to the reimagining of the 1966 classic, 'Fantastic Voyage' for some time. Recently, things have hit a snag however, as the director is reported to want actor, Will Smith in the starring role, and if he's not able to have him, he wants an actor of the same status. 20th Century Fox isn't really buying into the idea of the film needing such a renown star as Smith since it already has the selling point of being a remake of a film that has become a part of popular culture.

Deadline reports that while things get sorted out with 'Fantastic Voyage,' 20th Century Fox is trying to line Levy up with another one of their films, 'Frankenstein.' The film has 'Predator' and 'Predators' producer, John Davis attached, with a script from Max Landis. His most recent work is showcased in the horror themed television show, 'Fear Itself' in an episode titled 'Something with Bite.'

20th Century Fox's 'Frankenstein' is just one of many projects based on the novel from author, Mary Shelley that is trying to get off of the ground. The studio hopes to get theirs out first for obvious reasons, so they're shooting for production to get underway by this winter. After the fourth or fifth 'Frankenstein' film, audiences might get a little bored and confused. In reality, many of the projects will likely end up getting canned, so it's kind of a race to the starting gate.

Levy's next to hit theaters is the robot boxing film, 'Real Steel,' which stars Hugh Jackman as a traditional boxer who makes the high-tech transition. Buzz has been solid for the film. It hits theaters in a couple of months on October 7, 2011.




"Pacific Rim" Director Making Rounds With VFX & Design Teams

(comicbookmovie.com)             

Where are you with Pacific Rim?

    GDT: We are in the height of preproduction, scouting locations, finishing the design of the monsters, storyboarding; we are literally two and a half months away from shooting. It’s happening. That’s the movie that, as a director, it occupies my mind entirely. I have no other projects as a director at this time.

How hands-on are you with your special-effects team and your artistic and set designers?

    GDT: I would say incredibly hands-on, unfortunately [laughs]. I try to get involved with anything visually or aurally that comes into the screen — any sound, audio track, color, shape, any texture. So, essentially, if you visited my offices, [you’ll see] they are right in the middle of the concept department. I am right in the middle of the designers because I make the rounds. Or I make them come into my office every hour, every day, around the clock.





KATIE HOLMES: DIGITAL DOMAIN DIVA

(fadedyouthblog.com)                    Flanked by her minders, Katie Holmes was spotted arriving at the Digital Domain Studios in Marina del Rey, CA on Wednesday (August 24).

What could the 32-year-old actress be up to? Well, Digital Domain is a visual effects and animation company founded by film director James Cameron, Stan Winston and Scott Ross. The company is known for creating state-of-the-art digital imagery for feature films, television advertising, interactive visual media and the video game industry.

Full articlet:   http://fadedyouthblog.com/2011/08/25/katie-holmes-digital-domain-diva/




Developing Games: Dream Job or Serfdom?

(zdnet.com.au)                       For many developers, the opportunity to work in the gaming industry seems like a fun-filled and glamorous proposition, but the reality doesn't always live up to the dream.

Working conditions in game studios has received increased scrutiny over the last decade, with the enduring example of the entire discussion arising in November 2004, when an anonymous blog post by the partner of an EA Games developer working on The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth detailed a studio-wide, 85-hour work week.

"The stress is taking its toll," the blogger wrote. "After a certain number of hours spent working, the eyes start to lose focus; after a certain number of weeks with only one day off, fatigue starts to accrue and accumulate exponentially. There is a reason why there are two days in a weekend — bad things happen to one's physical, emotional and mental health if these days are cut short. The team is rapidly beginning to introduce as many flaws as they are removing."

The blog post gained widespread media attention and, later, saw EA settle over US$30 million in overtime to staff at its California studio following three class-action lawsuits. The "EA Spouse" saga, led by blogger Erin Hoffman, shone a spotlight into the dark corners of game development. For the first time, it seemed, gamers were made aware that making video games for a living isn't necessarily as fun as it sounds.

The "EA Spouse" saga centred around the overtime working conditions on EA's The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth.
(Credit: EA)

A similar incident in early 2010, ahead of the release of Red Dead Redemption, saw the "Determined Devoted Wives of Rockstar San Diego employees" publish a scathing attack against that studio's management on industry website Gamasutra and threaten legal action if their partners' working conditions were not improved. It is unclear whether that situation was resolved, although it appears that no lawsuits were filed against Rockstar Games. More recently, Team Bondi, the Sydney-based developer of the Rockstar Games-published L.A. Noire, was revealed to have instigated what former employees referred to as an "ominous crunch" (the intensive period before a deadline) that lasted for years, and a revolving-door staff policy that saw over a hundred employees leaving throughout the game's seven-year development.

Those three games — Battle for Middle-earth, Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire — achieved Metacritic ratings of 82, 95 and 89, respectively. Collectively, they were enjoyed by an audience of millions across the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms. In the grand scheme of things, it's all too easy to sweep a few months — or, in the case of L.A. Noire, years — of long working hours under the rug and bask in the shining glory of the final products. But to do so would be a mistake, argued Kenneth Yeast, who was the engineering development director at Electronic Arts during the Battle for Middle-earth project.

The development team — which consisted of around 100 full-time staff, including management — worked "60-something days straight" until the game shipped in November 2004, said Yeast. Staff were required to be in the office by 9:30am and would go home typically around 9pm — sometimes, as late as 11pm.

"It was insane," he remembers. "[Management] refused to cut any feature, or adjust anything to change the scope of the delivery, in order to fit the deadline. It was rough. I was warned when I was hired that they were expecting to go into crunch. It has its effects. I know I'm getting older, but I felt my eyesight got worse, even during that period of time. It was stressful."

Yeast — who is currently the director of engineering at California-based mobile game developer Bad Juju Games — compared game development to a sausage factory.

"You may like to eat sausages," he said, "but you don't want to see how they're made."

Jason Della Rocca was the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) between 2000 and 2009. The "EA Spouse" incident occurred right in the middle of his tenure. Before that event, he said, the industry had a "blind faith", where the prevailing attitude seemed to be, "We have no clue what we're doing, just work harder! If I code more, things will get worked out!"
You might be interested in:

"It came from the lack of maturity of the industry, of the people, of the art form," said Della Rocca. Since then, "things have gotten better on average". The IGDA moved to establish a quality-of-life "special interest group" and began discussions with game development studios regarding employees' working conditions, "but you still end up with these extreme scenarios like on L.A. Noire", he said.

Despite the revelations, smoke and mirrors still dominate a necessarily secretive industry. As tens of millions of dollars are being poured into each AAA title, and as competition for gamers' wallets grows fiercer than ever, studios and publishers have few reasons to embrace transparency. It's a point not lost on Chuck Hoover, chairman of the IGDA's production special interest group and studio production director at Schell Games in Pittsburgh.

"How can we expect a gamer to know which studio to support, and which studio is churning through their staff with 80-hour weeks?" he asked. "What I would love to see is a world where the game industry sheds light on quality of life, so we can educate gamers on these issues. Something like an IGDA 'good studio' seal of approval based on overtime hours, work-life balance and employee treatment; that's where we need to start."

Full article:   http://www.zdnet.com.au/developing-games-dream-job-or-serfdom-339321115.htm





Why "Jurassic Park" Has Better Visuals Than Nowadays

(rihot.com)                If you look at the latest cgi and jurassic park you will find a big difference in cgi. You can see a big difference in realism. Nowadays there are all over the top cgi stuff.

It all depends on how much money you can spend on CGI effects. And of course how much time you give the people whose working on it to complete it. And remember even seconds of CGI can cost in the millions and millions of dollars because of the complexity of it. So truely some movies just cant afford the best CGI they make do with what they can

Because they had the special effects GOD Stan Winston. Poor guy died last year… :(

And they used a lot more animatronics on the dinosaurs. =)

Source:    http://rihot.com/why-does-the-movie-jurassic-park-has-better-visual-than-nowadays/




Downey Working On "Iron Man 3" While Shooting "Avengers"

(comicbookresources.com)                 Between director Joss Whedon dropping hints as to the group dynamic and photos of Chris Evans in modern Captain America gear hitting the web, it would seem that all the attention of Marvel Studios (or at least their fans) is focused on next summer's "The Avengers" film. But today, one of Marvel's mainstay stars is already focusing on the next phase of the movie universe as he still completes his team player role.

The LA Times Hero Complex blog has a new interview up with actor Robert Downey, Jr. where Tony Stark himself hints that he's already prepping to team up with director Shane Black for "Iron Man 3." A legendary (and legendarily young) Hollywood crime writer whose directorial debut – "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" – was an early example of Downey's comeback potential, Black's signature wit (honed in the early "Lethal Weapons" films) will be on display moving forward...but not as much as viewers may think. “The thing about Shane is that it will be anything but one of those moments,” Downey told the paper of the more madcap parts of "Kiss Kiss," ”unless we come up with something that is so cheeky and character-driven and perfect that it has to be in the movie.

“He’s more than the sum of his parts and he’s also kind of been a sleeper for a long time,” Downey added. “We’re not talking much about [the script] right now because Shane is off writing and we talked before that and when we are talking again the talking is going to be over pretty quick [because we're on the same page]. It’s kind of like we’re fighting on the same side and at the same time we’re circling each other.”

The article purports good will between Downey and previous "Iron Man" helmer Jon Favreau – especially since his replacement comes with such high credentials. ”Bringing in Shane Black to write and direct ‘Iron Man 3′ to me is basically the only transition from Favreau to a ‘next thing’ that Favreau and the audience and Marvel and I could ever actually sign off on...the fun thing is going to be getting Happy [Hogan] in the movie.”





The Art of VFX:  HARRY POTTER -  David Vickery,  VFX Supe – dNeg

(artofvfx.com)               What is your background?
When I left school I enrolled in an Art and Design foundation course, from there I went to De Montfort University to study a degree in Industrial Design and Engineering. 3D was a discipline I learnt to love whilst designing products and when I finished my degree I changed tack slightly to reflect this and enrolled in the MA in Digital Moving Image at London Metropolitan University. Double Negative was my first job in feature film. I joined D-Neg in 2002 as a General 3D Artist and worked my way up to the role of CG Supervisor on films such as BATMAN BEGINS, CHILDREN OF MEN and CLOVERFIELD. I’m currently one of Double Negative’s VFX Supervisors and have recently completed work on Guy Ritchie’s SHERLOCK HOLMES and HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PARTS 1 and 2.

What sequences have you made on this show?
We completed 410 shots for THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part 2, which spanned over 50 sequences! Our team was split into two distinct ‘units’ to make working on the hugely varied content more manageable. The ‘Dragon’ team were responsible for the arrival at Gringotts, the cart ride down to the dragon’s vault and then all the shots with the dragon as it makes it escape across the Diagon Alley roofscape. We also did a large part of the look development and R&D for the multiplying treasure sequence which we eventually handed over to Tippett Studios to finish.

Any time you see the exterior of Hogwarts or the surrounding environment it was handled by our ‘Hogwarts’ crew and we completed all the FX work that goes with it. The shield creation and subsequent destruction, the collapse of the wooden bridge and the massive destruction that was wrought across the school by Voldemort’s army. All of this is D-Neg. It was a huge challenge for us – there were over 50 completely CG shots for the Hogwarts team alone.

About the Gringott ride sequence, how did you choreograph it? Were there a previs or a storyboard for it?
We started pre-production on THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part 2 back in summer 2008 – whilst we were still working on THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE. Kieron Helsdon, one of our environment leads was installed in the production art department at Leavesden studios to begin constructing the previs for the cart ride. David Yates envisaged the sequence as a truly bone shaking, INDIANA JONES style mine cart chase so the shoot had to be planned meticulously to make sure that we got the live action elements that we needed. We spent a long time getting the previs right.
We then had to figure out a way of translating our carefully choreographed previs into live action footage. We used Maya to build a digital replica of the practical cart rig that John Richardson’s’ SFX team had built. Then wrote Maya scripts to transfer all the cart previs animation into a format that would drive the practical rig to move in the same way. We essentially ran the entire cart sequence as one massive motion control shoot.

Can you tell us how you build so huge an environment?
Stuart Craig’s team had crafted a beautiful clay sculpt of the Gringotts cavern. It was huge – measuring 6ft x 10ft and detailed the types of rock structures, location of the dragon vault and waterfall. It even included the helical twisting cart rails clinging to the rocky surface of the vast cavern. Kieron Helsdon went to an area on the west coast of Scotland called Ballachulish and photographed the vast slate edifices there as inspiration for the slate-like rock formations in the cave. These were later interspersed with towering limestone stalactites.

We started out in Maya building a digital replica of the art department clay model. We divided high resolution Lidar scans and manual theodolite surveys into many small manageable sections and rebuilt them as clean low resolution polygonal geometry. These pieces were then textured using a combination of projected photography and hand painted Photoshop textures with Mudbox sculpts to add a fine level of displaced detail. It was built in modular sections to allow multiple artists to work on it concurrently and so that it was more versatile when the composition of shots didn’t work and we had to start moving individual rocks and stalactites around.

How did you design and create the Gringott dragon?
Some of the first concept images we were given for THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part 2 were of the dragon. They depicted an emaciated yet feral looking animal, sprawling in a dank and cavernous environment. We were also given concepts of the creature’s destructive climb to freedom through the foyer of the bank. Individual still images often give you a false impression of an objects shape. When you look around that same object in 3D it suddenly looks very different. We wanted to get the creature modelled as soon as possible to avoid this and really start to understand its form from all angles. Tim Burke envisaged the creature as an emaciated, malnourished, mistreated wild animal and David Yates insistent that the audience needed to emote with the creature – to sympathise with it but at the same time be terrified of it.

We began work on the dragon in summer 2008 with a small team. Two of our 3D artists, Kristin Stolpe and Andy Warren, created a series of 3D Maya models, Photoshop texture studies and Mudbox sculpts using the production artwork as a basis for their work. Even though Tim Burke was working on the THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE and prepping for THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part 1 he still had time to come in and review our work on the dragon. We would show him our designs every couple of weeks. At this early stage the creature went through a lot of changes. We designed shackles, muzzles and harnesses that could be used to restrain the creature and painted high res textures to show how the dragon could be wounded, scarred and disfigured. There were hundreds of subtle tweaks and variations made to the design of the creature during this phase.

We also had Creature TDs scripting lots of new pipeline tools to handle the many layers of cloth, muscle, bone, skin and tendon simulations we knew would be required to create a convincing animal. Later the Dragon team grew to include almost 100 crew; a small army of Lighting Artists, Creature FX TD’s, Compositors, Matchmove and Rotoscope Artist.




Are All Canadian VFX Artists Really Canadian?

(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)                I came across a CBC documentry made in 1980 called Tax Breaks For Canadian Movies. It focuses on the “use and abuse” of Canadian taxpayer dollars for film subsidies.

There are interviews conducted with film commission representatives arguing that while Canadian taxpayers are funding up to 50% of the film costs, the intention is to create a film industry where they will make their own commercially viable films.

30 years later Canada’s film industry is even more dependent on US studios and commercially viable Canadian films are as rare as poutine in California.

The difference then was that the films that were able to win a subsidy had to be Canadian productions. These days most of those subsidies are going to US productions. If you want to have some fun you can play with this Canadian subsidy calculator. I put in $1 Trillion and was able to get $538 Billion back!

Now the subsidies in Canada are meant to be used for Canadian workers but with so many vfx studios opening shop I’ve heard a producer say they can’t find workers. Remember my post on the fallacy of infinity scalability?

I am aware that some VFX studios are able to subsidize the salary of American workers with Canadian taxpayer money by claiming they’re residents even though many of them move after the project is over.




Ouija Goes into Turnaround at Universal

(comingsoon.net)              Universal has put its adaptation of the Hasbro board game OUIJA into turnaround, reports Vulture. The project has McG attached as director and Michael Bay as producer. Simon Kinberg (SHERLOCK HOLMES) penned the most recent version of the script. Bay and McG will start talking to other studios next week.

Three weeks ago the studio dropped the CLUE adaptation. Universal signed a big licensing deal with Hasbro in 2008. As part of that deal, Universal will have to pay Hasbro $5 million for dropping OUIJA project. Universal still has CANDY LAND and STRETCH ARMSTRONG in development and BATTLESHIP will hit theaters next summer.




Coming this December: TRANSFORMERS The Ride Makes Debut at Universal Studios Singapore

(etravelblackboardasia.com)                 Universal Studios Singapore announced that it will debut the world’s first TRANSFORMERS ride this December, allowing its guests to be among the first to experience the blockbuster theme park attraction, aptly named TRANSFORMERS The Ride.

Based on the iconic brand from Hasbro and the popular film franchise directed by Michael Bay, who is also the creative consultant for the thrill ride, it will tell an original TRANSFORMERS tale using realistic high definition 3D media, sophisticated visual effects, and one of the most elaborate roaming flight simulator systems ever integrated into a ride-car vehicle.

Setting a new standard in immersive theme park attractions, TRANSFORMERS The Ride brings to life the story of the battle between the heroic AUTOBOTS and the villainous DECEPTICONS. Guests will be transported into the world of TRANSFORMERS as members of the Human-AUTOBOT alliance called N.E.S.T., giving them the chance to ‘Live The Movies™’ and putting them right in the thick of the action protecting the Allspark from the DECEPTICONS.

Mr. Dennis Gilbert, Senior Vice President of Attractions at Resorts World Sentosa, said: “The extension of the TRANSFORMERS movie franchise into a theme park thrill ride is an exciting part of the natural progression. This blockbuster, which made waves around the world with its stunning special effects and non-stop action, is the perfect recipe for a dynamic, thrilling theme park ride like none before it.”

Mr. Mark Woodbury, President of Universal Creative, said: “This ride is truly one of a kind, pushing the boundaries of hyperrealism. We are proud to continue the traditions of partnering with filmmakers to bring movie magic to our attractions. Working with the immensely talented director Michael Bay as the ride’s creative consultant has been extraordinary. TRANSFORMERS The Ride will tap into the larger-than-life characters and deliver an epic ride experience of a lifetime, thrilling guests from around the world when it opens at Universal Studios Singapore in December 2011 and Universal Studios Hollywood in Spring 2012.”

Licensed from Hasbro, Inc. and in association with Dreamworks SKG, the attraction also enlisted the award-winning Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., which created the visual effects for the movie franchise, to produce ground-breaking visionary special effects and 3-D images exclusively for the ride.





Compare the new CGI Yoda from the Blu-Ray Star Wars Episode One With the Original Puppet

(io9.com)                   Compare the new CGI Yoda from the Blu-Ray Star Wars Episode One with the original puppet Everybody knows that George Lucas loves to change his movies, so it shouldn't really surprise anyone that Lucas has yet again changed something else on the Star Wars Blu-Ray saga release. He's scrubbed out Frank Oz's Yoda puppet from The Phantom Menace and replaced it with a CG monster.

But don't panic, they didn't do it to the original trilogy — yet, anyway. Here are two clips one with puppet, and one sans for your scrutiny. Is it better, or worse?

VIDEO:   http://io9.com/5834189/compare-the-new-cgi-yoda-from-the-blu+ray-star-wars-episode-one-with-the-original-puppet





Oscar Watch: Rango & Winnie the Pooh Likely Contenders In Animation

Every year, UK statistician Andrew Sidhom keeps running charts of the best-reviewed movies of the year (one for US/UK productions and one for foreign productions), using Rotten Tomatoes’ average rating. He also tracks current box office totals and theater counts. Over the past few years, the results closely matched the films that ended up being nominated for end-of-year awards and Oscars in the best picture category, provided that they were box office winners that were not in such Academy-unfriendly genres as sci fi, animation, horror, or sequels. The 2010 chart is pretty impressive: it’s led by The Social Network, Toy Story 3, The King’s Speech, True Grit and Black Swan.

View the mid year chart:  http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/08/24/oscar_watch_best-reviewed_movie_charts/




Flying Tigers 3-D Film Awarded To Identity FX

(awn.com)            Hollywood, CA • Genson Entertainment, helmed by veteran producer Bob Larson ("Coal Miner's Daughter", "Continental Divide", "Gorky Park", "Play Misty For Me") announced today it has entered into a partnership with Identity Studios to begin production on Chennault, the maverick story of General Claire Lee Chennault's Flying Tigers in China during World War II.

The two companies are currently in high-level talks with several industry icons for their participation in the film, from legendary directors to A-List talent, and expect to reach additional agreements in the coming weeks.

The partnership has taken up the torch first ignited sixty plus years ago when General Chennault accepted the daunting task of defending half a billion Chinese from the invading Japanese Air Force. General Chennault died in 1958, but not before collaborating with his fellow China Campaign Veteran, Captain J. Gen Genovese (Gen Genson) on his Flying Tigers' screenplay. Genson promised General Chennault that he would do everything in his power to bring the General's true story to the big screen. Just prior to his death in 2010, at the age of 99, Genson transferred that promise to his longtime friend Bob Larson. "Identity Studios brings a wealth of talent to the project on both the creative and technical sides" says Larson. "General Chennault was a courageous and honorable man, who never wavered from his ideals, and I can think of no team better equipped to help tell his story."

Identity, a Digital Production Studio based in North Hollywood and led by Producer Alison Savitch, Stereoscopic Supervisor Leo Vezzali, and Writer/Producer David Scott Van Woert, is most-recently known for its role as a stereoscopic conversion provider on Namia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Green Lantern, and Conan the Barbarian. The studio opened its doors in 2004 as a visual effects shop and has since garnered more than 80 vfx, title design, and stereoscopic credits.

As a period aviation epic and an account of actual events, Chennault will require strict attention to historical detail. Identity will be taking on the task of bringing to life the vintage aircraft and historic locales necessary for the authenticity of the film. "We feel uniquely positioned to help bring the real story of Chennault to the big screen," says Alison Savitch, longtime Chair of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council. "Our team combines expertise in visual effects, stereoscopic production, and trans-media exposure with a strong sense of storytelling and a passion for World War II aviation."

Legendary reporter Walter Winchell once wrote in his New York column, "General Chennault's place in history is beyond anyone's power to add or subtract." In fact, the Flying Tigers brought about what is widely considered by military historians to be nothing short of a miracle. Utilizing their many years of experience as combat pilots, General Chennault and his fellow Flying Tigers successfully drove the much larger and better equipped Japanese Air Force out of South East Asia, shooting down ten Japanese planes for every one American plane lost.  Larson adds, "Chennault himself has tasked us with the telling of an epic tale of adventure, love, and war - a tale that he not only collaborated on, but personally acted out across the vast stage of World War II in China. We are honored that we have been entrusted with this story and excited by the possibilities our new partnership with Identity Studios brings."



LucasArts Pushes Star Wars Kinect

(eurogamer.ne)                    Star Wars Kinect won't make its planned holiday 2011 release window, Microsoft has announced.

The platform holder told OXM that the game needs a little more development time before it's ready to face the public.

"Microsoft and LucasArts have elected to move the launch of Kinect Star Wars beyond holiday 2011 to ensure the full potential of this title is realised," explained a spokesperson.

"This move applies to both the Kinect Star Wars stand-alone game and the Kinect Star Wars Limited Edition Console. We will communicate additional timing information at a later date."

Eurogamer's Christian Donlan jumped into the Terminal Reality-developed effort last month.




Practical FX Artist Feels Defrauded by Adobe

(drgoresfunhouse.com)                  Tom Sullivan’s career as a special effects artist and filmmaker has spanned over three decades and includes the ‘video nasty’ classic The Evil Dead. Having met Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert at Michigan State University where his wife studied, Sullivan was hired to create the FX for Raimi’s first foray into horror, a thirty-minute short entitled Within the Woods.

When the story was adapted into a feature film, Sullivan was once again brought onboard to help design the ghouls and The Evil Dead was born. The movie’s success allowed him to forge a professional career in the industry and soon Sullivan found himself working on such hits as Evil Dead II and The Fly II. Over recent years he has gained acclaim through his website DARKAGEPRODUCTIONS, creating replicas of his movie work.

Tom Sullivan talks about the innovation of digital effects, his upcoming documentary and his desire to return to the Evil Dead franchise.

In the thirty years since you made your first movie special effects have made several significant changes, specifically with the innovation of CGI. What challenges have you faced adapting to this new technology and how do you feel about digital effects??

“I think Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock sums it up. I haven’t adapted well at all to digital filmmaking. I am okay with Photoshop but hardly a master at it. I bought the Adobe Creative Suite with Premiere Pro and After Effects and other programs ten years ago. The tutorials and instructions were incomprehensible. I bought the Dummy books and I couldn’t even get the instructions to match the screen. I never edited a frame, much less did any effects. Hundreds of dollars down the drain. I feel defrauded by Adobe. Several times I asked their Customer Support what courses I could take in a local college to understand their manual. They never had an answer. Their Premiere Pro manual comes with no glossary so I was lost. Grrrr. I’m not a computer engineer and they can’t explain how to use their product. Not made for each other I guess. With my own failings at digital filmmaking aside, I do love what is being done with digital filmmaking and I wish I could participate.”

Many modern filmmakers have chosen to replace practical effects with fully digital characters, yet the most effective are those that incorporate both. Which movies do you feel have best demonstrated this??

“At one point I’d have said the Jurassic Park films but today’s digital composites are almost impossible to detect. This subject comes up at my convention appearances and the fans and I are in agreement. We prefer the “old school” approach to the digital deluge. Bottin’s Thing comes to mind. I’m curious what the prequel’s approach and reception will be. I’m not as hard as some on the digital FX results. There are clearly many digital FX houses that have the talent, time, budgets and finesse to produce miracles. When I see Weta’s Kong, I see a living, thinking animal. And many more spectacular images and characters are being developed by growing armies of creative artists. That can only be a good thing. I just saw Captain America and Battle L.A., both extensive greenscreen films. I can’t tell where the set ends and the magic begins unless I use deductive reasoning. And that’s cheating.”

Full Article:   http://drgoresfunhouse.com/interviews/tom-sullivan/





Disney Exec Still Pulling for 'The Lone Ranger,' With or Without Gore Verbinski

(blog.moviefone.com)                   First it got shut down, then we heard there was going to be werewolves in it, but despite everything that's happened, 'The Lone Ranger' might still be a possibility. In a recent interview with Deadline's Pete Hammond at Disney's D23 Expo, Disney chief Rich Ross gave his two cents on the status of what could have been Disney's next big Western.

According to Ross, "I'm hoping to do it. I'm certainly hoping. I think it's a compelling story and no one wants to work with Jerry [Bruckheimer] and Johnny [Depp] more than me, so we'll see how it works."

Not only does Ross seem to think 'The Lone Ranger' is far from dead, but he also failed to mention director Gore Verbinski's name alongside producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp who was slated to play Tonto. Considering Ross' long relationship with the director who helmed the first three movies in Disney's 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise, one would assume that Verbinski would earn a mention.





In Defense of Andy Serkis

(dorkmanscott.wordpress.com)                 The recent release of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES — starring a completely digital ape named Caesar, performed by Andy Serkis — has set off another round of what’s become a perennial argument about whether or not an actor should be recognized, specifically by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, for performing a character which is ultimately realized synthetically.

The argument began with Serkis himself, when he portrayed Gollum in THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING. It surfaced again when he proceeded to portray KING KONG, and has since been raised in conjunction with Bill Nighy’s portrayal of Davy Jones in PIRATES 2, Brad Pitt’s starring role in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (for which, it should be noted, he did receive an Oscar nomination), the various Na’vi performances in AVATAR, and now we’ve come full circle back to Serkis for his turn as Caesar, leader of the ape rebellion.

For those not in the film or VFX industry, if the controversy here is not apparent, it’s like this: can an actor really be said to have portrayed a character when none of the actor’s original performance makes it to the screen? It has been interpreted, manipulated, reconfigured and translated into a digital creation, passing through multiple hands — possibly dozens or even hundreds — before arriving on the screen. Does the actor deserve recognition for a performance that has been filtered through so many other peoples’ contributions?

Many in the VFX industry, at least the ones who blog and tweet, say no, and have attacked Serkis for what they perceive as slighting or disrespecting the contributions of the visual effects artists. I disagree with them entirely.

I currently make my living as a VFX artist — in fact I’m writing this post during renders on a big freelancing project I’m in the middle of — but I’ve been an actor. It’s something I enjoy, and for a while I thought I would pursue it as the focus of my career. I decided a few years ago that I was going instead to focus on my career behind the camera, but being a director, IMO, means in large part understanding actors. I know what it is to be an actor, to care about the craft, and I have many friends who are actors still.

So here’s what you’ve got to understand, if you’re not an actor or someone who has a lot of experience with them: actors are not well-respected. Sure, actors have the highest visibility and the greatest potential for fame — when an actor becomes successful, the world will know their name. The only other crew positions that can even dream of becoming household names are the director and the producer, and only the most successful in their respective field — someone with hit after hit after hit — ever get attention outside the industry. Anything else, forget it. The last superstar VFX artist was probably Harryhausen, and only because he was effectively the only guy doing what he was doing. Dennis Muren is a god in the VFX world, and rightly so, but nobody outside of VFX or FX-interested film circles would know his name.

All that to say, acting seems very glamorous and the sky is the limit to the possible rewards. But for the 99.8% of actors who are not Name Actors, it’s not glamorous. You show up and you do your thing and a lot of times if you’ve done it right, it’s part of the tapestry of the film and doesn’t call attention to itself. If you’ve done your job well, much of the time, people watching the film unfold aren’t supposed to realize you’ve done anything. (Sound familiar, VFXers?)

To give a good performance — let alone a great one — you have to reach into yourself, find the part that connects with and understands the character, and bring that up into the open. You have to find the part of you that is that character and show it to the world. When an actor gives a great performance and you can look into her eyes and see the pain of what she’s going through, you can’t fake that. She had to really feel it so you could see it. If she faked it you’d spot it instantly.

A lot of hay is made whenever an actor does a nude scene, and with the exception of the completely classless/tactless it’s understood by everyone that the actor is in a highly vulnerable position and they need to be able to trust that they will not be made to look foolish, that they will be given a certain degree of respect for laying themselves bare.

What is not understood is that an actor who cares about his/her job does the emotional equivalent of nude scenes every single day. It’s easy to dismiss actors as having an easy gig — they get paid well to play pretend all day long — but what they do isn’t easy. If it were there would be no such thing as bad acting. Bad actors aren’t incapable of behaving like human beings. Presumably they do so all the time when the cameras aren’t rolling, most of them anyway. What they lack is the ability to tap into  their emotions at will, and be sad or angry or whatever on cue. For some it’s a lack of ability to imagine being in that moment, or a lack of introspection, but I believe for many it’s because they’re afraid to make themselves vulnerable for the camera.

This goes double for working with VFX. Think of how it has to feel to run and jump and yell and scream and throw yourself around when there’s nothing there. It feels ridiculous. It looks ridiculous. But the actor has to throw himself in with complete abandon and accept the reality of the effect, and trust that the VFX team will hold up their end of the bargain and pay off his investment.

The relationship is symbiotic. If the actor doesn’t give a good performance in a situation where he’s interacting with effects, then nothing the effects team does — short of outright replacing aspects of his performance — will make it work. But if the VFX team doesn’t bring their A-game, he’ll look like an idiot on the screen. They both need the other to be giving their all.

What I’m trying to impress upon my VFX brethren here, who may not have much direct experience with actors or acting, is this: you know how you feel when you hear someone say, of VFX, that “the computer does all the work” and that you “just press the buttons”? How angry and insulted and demeaned you feel? How much of an ignorant asshole you think that person is? That’s how actors feel when they’re told they’re “paid to play dress-up” or, in the case of a performance capture character, they “just provided the reference for the real work.” That’s right. You’re being the asshole now.

I won’t deny the way Serkis described the VFX process — “painting over the character frame by frame with pixels” — was oversimplified and ignorant to the point of being kind of insulting, but I don’t believe he fails to appreciate the contributions of the VFX team at all. He just doesn’t work in that field. If I tried to explain to you how my car works, I’d probably sound like just as much of a tool as Serkis does explaining VFX, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need and appreciate it, or always want and appreciate the best people I can get keeping it in working order. The appropriate response to an ill-informed statement is information. It’s not to make insulting oversimplifications back.

Let’s get real: performance capture adds something valuable to an animated character. If it didn’t, they wouldn’t do it. And we’ve seen the results. Once animated characters became based on actual human actors, and not just talented animators working off vocal tracks, the reality and impact of those characters took a quantum leap forward. I knew it was Bill Nighy portraying Davy Jones, and not because I had foreknowledge of him in the role, and not because I recognized his voice. I recognized his performance. The VFX artists deserve all the accolades and awards for having the skills and artistry to take that performance and translate it into a completely digital character with such fidelity that I could recognize it. No one wants to take that away from them. But it is absurd to pretend that he never contributed the performance at all.

Yes, the performance would have been altered, interpreted, recontextualized to the extent that perhaps some of the most successful moments were flourishes by a VFX animator and not in the actor’s intent at all. But how different is that, really, from the way a brilliant editor can extract a completely different performance in the edit bay than was delivered on the set? No one would argue that the actor was ineligible for awards because the performance that reached the screen is different than what was shot. And few (besides editors) would argue that the editor deserves an award for the actor’s performance. The actor performed, the editor cut, together they made magic; each is appreciated for his or her particular contributions to the magic.

Now, of course, it’s worth asking the question: does Serkis even deserve an Oscar nomination anyway? Is his performance that good? Would anybody be even talking about it if it weren’t filtered through what is a best-in-class digital character’s performance?

Think of it this way. Pretend we’re not talking about a movie about apes at all. It’s about a GATTACA-esque future world where the mentally handicapped are treated like animals, used for science experiments, etc. Then one of them gets smart, and after briefly trying to assimilate in society he realizes that he doesn’t WANT to be part of this world, and rebels. It’s a mute role, for whatever reason.

Serkis plays the role, and delivers the same performance that he did for Caesar. No special makeup or VFX necessary. Does that role earn him an Oscar nomination?

I say if it doesn’t, he’s been robbed.

Caesar, the thinking ape, is magic. That particular version of the character could not have happened without actor and VFX working in harmony. But the performance in itself is a thing of beauty, and would be quite as powerful in a non-ape version just as well. So if you’re going to judge the performance, then judge the performance. And the performance came, primarily, from Serkis.

I think the most asinine comment I’ve seen made has been along the lines of “if he deserves an award, then so do the riggers and the modelers and the guy who programmed the subsurface scattering shader.” Might as well say that if a DP wants to be nominated for best cinematography he had better be the one who designed and manufactured the lights he used. Or that the fact that a colorist made changes in the DI suite likewise makes the DP ineligible for recognition. No one is denying that skill was needed on all fronts of the visual realization of the character, but if we’re talking about the performance, then the rest of that is irrelevant.

We have a category for outstanding achievement in visual effects. Andy Serkis and other performance capture actors don’t want to take the recognition of your achievements away from you, VFX guys and gals. They just want the appropriate recognition for theirs, because right now, as the anti-Serkis VFX bandwagon has so aptly demonstrated, they are not getting it.

I don’t know the guy, but I’d bet anything that Andy Serkis respects and appreciates and in no way intends to denigrate the VFX artists into whose hands he entrusts his performance and, to a large extent, his reputation and livelihood. He’s a fierce and vocal advocate for a cause he believes in, so why don’t we help him believe in ours instead of just attacking him? If he’s ignorant to what we’re dealing with, the answer isn’t to fire ignorance back at him. The answer is education — for both sides. Instead of getting into a cockslapping contest about how each of us feels like we’re the less respected industry, how about we work to start respecting each other more, and that’ll be a small step toward solving that problem?

Yes, actors have it better than us in a lot of ways. They get to be famous in the best cases and they’re paid well and usually treated well with various perks that they can benefit from due to collective bargaining that we don’t have. But I don’t see why they should be punished and demonized because they’ve got their shit together and we don’t. VFX artists need to come together and protect our own, we need to get the respect our work deserves in terms of its contributions to the overall film industry. But what we don’t have to do is try to knock down and disrespect other groups as a way of building ourselves up. This doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game.

Solidarity among VFX is a worthy and important goal, but ultimately the fight for fair treatment isn’t between us and every other organization in the chain. It’s between those who are here to make money, and those who are here to make magic. Instead of seeing enemies everywhere, let’s start learning to recognize our allies.

Visual Effects Society Announces Important Dates For 10th Annual VES Awards

(shootonline.com)            

        LOS ANGELES, August 17, 2011 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | --- The Visual Effects Society (VES), which represents approximately 2500 visual effects artists and practitioners worldwide, is pleased to announce it will hold the 10th Annual VES Awards Show on February 7, 2012 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. The Annual Awards show is where the most outstanding work in 23 visual effects categories is presented and the artists who created them are honored.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE 10th ANNUAL VES AWARDS:

• August 15, 2011 – Rules & Procedures to be posted at www.visualeffectssociety.com/ves-awards

• October 10, 2011 - Submissions open

• November 15 through November 30, 2011 – period for uploading of viewing materials

• November 30, 2011 – Submissions close

• February 7, 2012 – Awards ceremony, Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, California




John Landis Planning A Paris-Set Monster Movie

(cinemablend.com)                   John Landis has directed massively successful movies in his career, practically defining 80s comedy with Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places and Three Amigos. He also dipped his toe into horror at the time with An American Werewolf in London, and seems to be combining the two with his new film Burke and Hare, a comedy about two graverobbers turned murderers in 19th century Edinburgh. The movie isn't getting much attention now that its headed toward release in the U.S., maybe because it's apparently not very good. But don't think that's the end of Landis's horror career.

Bloody Digusting talked to the director by phone recently and, seemingly just to cover their bases, asked him if he planned to make any more horror films. As it turned out, he already had one in the works. As he told the interviewer, he and Alexandre Gavras, a French filmmaker, are working together on a monster movie that they plan to shoot in Paris within the next two years. He didn't reveal much detail beyond that, but the casting process will be a challenge, since the France-set movie will also require English-speaking actors:





2001: Beyond the Infinite – The Making of a Masterpiece

(theronneel.com)               When talking about 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick described what is perhaps his greatest film as “basically a visual, nonverbal experience [that] hits the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does, or painting.” When critics, cineastes and hardcore sci-fi geeks discuss it, they usually refer to 2001 as one of the best, most significant movies ever made.

But what of its making? From conception to release, 2001: A Space Odyssey had a production time of four years, during which boundaries were broken, creative and scientific leaps were made, and innovative special effects technology was developed. Surely there’s a story behind the scenes of one of the 20th century’s major cinematic achievements. Doesn’t the creation of one of cinema’s most influential films deserve a movie of its own? Of course it does. Luckily, Douglas Trumbull, the man most suited to make this film, agrees.

Trumbull was a young effects artist when, unsolicited, he approached Kubrick in the mid-1960s about the director’s upcoming science fiction flick. The ballsy Trumbull was hired onto the 1968 masterpiece as a special photographic effects supervisor, his first major credit, and in the years since has had a rich career as the visual effects supervisor on classics such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Blade Runner, as well as the director of the cult sci-fi favorite Silent Running. But now, over 40 years later, Trumbull is returning to where he began, developing a documentary called 2001: Beyond the Infinite – The Making of a Masterpiece.

After nine years of research, Trumbull is teaming with co-director David Larson to deliver “a documentary that really tells the story of the creation of 2001, not just the technical story but the human story, the personal story, the experiences of people who interacted with Kubrick that is really true to the style and look of 2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Trumbull has gathered “just incredible stuff” from the making of 2001, including behind-the-scenes production photos, conceptual designs, interviews and perfectly preserved Ektachrome transparencies of the film’s major sets. When combined with a green screen, these transparencies will allow a groundbreaking, in-depth look at the creation of Kubrick’s magnum opus.

The preview of 2001: Beyond the Infinite – The Making of a Masterpiece embedded below came out almost a year ago but there’s been no word on the doc since then, so I have no idea when it will be released. But I’m betting Trumbull will eventually deliver, to quote “alien David Bowman,” something wonderful.

VIDEO:  http://theronneel.com/?p=4631




Phil Tippett's Prehistoric Beast

(samuraifrog.blogspot.com)                   When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be Phil Tippett. (And Dennis Muren, and Ben Burtt, and John Dykstra, and Jim Henson, and...) Without him, the formative films of my childhood might have been very different indeed. Today, I watched his 1985 short film Prehistoric Beast, a sort of stop-motion calling card about dinosaurs. It's wonderfully alien; imagine if he and Walon Green had gotten together in the 1980s and shot Green's Dinosaur script this way. You have to watch it on YouTube, but it's just under 10 minutes long and well, well worth it.

VIDEO - Take a look:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaXIRTjNfo




VFX Site "Industry Wages" Releases Android App

(prnewswire.com)                SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With more than 10,000 registered users and over 5,000 wage and salary data points, the Industry Wages' beta website (http://www.vfxwages.com) has proven to be a driving force in promoting wage equality for its creative arts industries over the past two years. Now, Industry Wages has stepped into the mobile realm, releasing its first app for Android devices.

"With the proliferation of Android among mobile devices worldwide, diving into the mobile market was essential to increase our visibility with potential users," says Aruna Inversin, President of Industry Wages Incorporated.

This newly released Wages App allows customizable wage conversions between typical pay scenarios (hourly, daily, weekly, and salary) and also takes into account California overtime. In addition, it gives options for conversion between the more popular world currencies.

"The majority of our website users are based in California, so it made sense to initially provide overtime calculations based on that region," continues Inversin. "However, we do have provisions to remove those overtime restrictions to allow a global audience access to our tools. We also will continually improve the app based on user feedback." An iOS version of the app is in process, and will hopefully be released before the end of summer.

Initial response to the app has been positive and currently there is an ad-supported version in the Android Market, as well as a forthcoming paid version which will contain more features. In the near future, Internet connectivity will be required for the app's currency exchange capability. Visit https://market.android.com/details?id=com.industrywages.wages to install and view screenshots of the app.

About Industry Wages Incorporated

Industry Wages Incorporated was created by visual effects professionals based in Los Angeles who felt wages and salaries were too secretive in the creative arts industry.

The company has made significant strides in acquiring users. However, Industry Wages is looking to expand its services to other vital industries around the world and is seeking investors to increase its visibility and revenue potential. For more information about this company or its inaugural website, visit http://www.vfxwages.com.




SPFX On Set - The Academy Awards Honors Movie Make-up

(blogmusketeer.com)                 Makeup artistry can be a huge aspect of movie-making. In recent many years the Academy Awards Board has elected to broadcast the category of Greatest Make-up reside. The category of Greatest Make-up has gone largely underappreciated and below celebrated. An wonderful oversight whenever you look at what make-up can do for a film. Would we definitely have gone to determine “Edward Scissorhans” minus the particular effects makeup? I do not know how a lot of audiences would felt for that character had he not been so visually appalling. That getting said, the marriage among make-up application, too because the efficiency of the actor is what sets the tone for any believable story line.

Make-up artists have grow to be an invaluable tool for that production staff on any major movie set. Make-up not simply helps to convince and convey characters to an audience, as much as it assists to embody the physical manifestation of any offered character. Make-up artistry serves as a visual and emotional want in the world of make think. Now let’s look at why every single the prior three Academy Award winners have been selected, and the nominees are?

In 2005 the Academy chose “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and also the Wardrobe” as winner from the Most effective Makeup category. This was the primary award for special effects makeup artist Howard Berger, who worked alongside former winner Tami Lane. Lane had noticed previous results with the “Lord from the Rings” trilogy. The two made the incredible creatures from the Narnia books. The fawn, the queen, the little ones, each facet in the characters looked realistic along with the interest to detail makes seemingly mythical creatures appear life-like, as if this globe could exist somewhere in the back of anyones closet. Utilizing each prosthetics and CGI genuinely worked in synchronism to balance the search in the world of Narnia. Not just did these two win over the American Academy, they also earned the 2006 BAFTA award for most effective Makeup.

Not each award that is certainly provided by the Academy is recognized within the total industry, an actually hard win for any artist is always to gain the accolades of your Academy as well as the Academy of Science, Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, but in 2005 the “Chronicles of Narnia” won the Saturn Award plus the Academy Award for greatest makeup.

The fantasy realm of “Pan’s Labyrinth” in 2006 straddled the worlds of reality and imagination. An appear into war and its harsh right after affects, a young girl would like to escape and finds the scary realm from the unknown. Distinctive Makeup Effects Artists David Marti and Montse Ribe had been rewarded for their efforts in Mexico with the Ariel Awards and received a Silver Ariel award for Most effective Makeup, also as an Oscar inside the US. It’s no wonder the Academy chose to acknowledge this film, these artists put creatures on display with out the aide of CGI to present this kind of striking visual representations of your creatures from the script. Incidentally, the two artists have collaborated again for 2008′s “Hellboy II,” an thrilling piece for this kind of inventive artists.

Most recently the Academy acknowledged 2007 film “La Vie En Rose,” which won Best Make-up Artist. Didier Lavergne the head make-up artist on set turned Marion Coittard in to the famous Edith Piaf with fabulous hairstyling from Jan Archibald. That exact same year Greatest Make-up Artist was awarded to Lavergne with the BAFTA awards. Lavergne is no newcomer for the make-up planet, his operate can also be noticed in “The Pianist,” “Le Divorce” and “Oliver Twist” to name some. Just check out a photo with the genuine Edith Piaf and location it up coming for the actress Marion Coittard, it is simple to see why these two deserve the award. It’s no effortless job to turn one woman’s facial anatomy to not simply resemble but embody another person else’s. No CGI tricks aided this duo, but rather accurate artistry and some very well made prosthetics.

Whether creating a non-fictional character to a character plucked through the pages of a children’s novel to creating other- worldly mythical creatures, the Academy in their wisdom have proven us why these artists are so influential in film right now. Make-up has the ability to take audiences to places they have certainly not thought could exist inside the physical type. It will take an excellent deal of patience, arranging, practical experience and experience to be the form of artist worthy of an Oscar. These men and women are innovators that have given the globe some thing to be appreciated for many years to come.



dNeg Lectures Students:  "Be prepared to work really hard."

(sfxhub.com)                  The University of Bolton’s special effects students got a taste of Hollywood recently when Oscar winners, Double Negative, delivered a special guest lecture.

The Academy Award-winning visual effects company was responsible for the mind-bending special effects in last year’s stand-out blockbuster film, Inception. The company, which has also won a BAFTA for the groundbreaking work in this film, came to Bolton to speak about the industry to the University’s special effects students.

This was part of an exceptional day’s events for the students who were also treated to a lecture by Adrian Woolard, the BBC’s Project Lead at its Research and Development North Lab.  The day ended with the students showing off their own work to the industry professionals.

Speaking at the student showcase, Jon, a third-year student, who works on both the physical and computer generated sections of the Special Effects course, said: ‘Today has been really interesting. It’s great to see behind the scenes and the process that goes into making such a film.  Plus, it has been a really good way to meet contacts and build bridges. I’ve got two business cards already.’

Double Negative started as a boutique studio in 1998 with just 15 staff, it now employs more than 900 people and has worked on some of the biggest films of the past decade. Karen Joseph, from the award-winning studio, spoke about employment opportunities in the industry. She said: ‘The UK is a growing player in this market and there are around 5,000 people employed in the visual effects industry across the UK and EU. There are plenty of opportunities to succeed.’

Her co-worker Julian Foddy, CG Supervisor on the recent hit movie Paul, played students the Inception show-reel the Academy would have seen. He then went through several scenes from the film, including the now-famous ‘city-folding’ image, explaining how each one was crafted. Third-year student Claire Ritchie was also impressed with the Inception presentation. She said: ‘Finding out some of the secrets and techniques used to make Inception was fascinating, especially as I’m focusing on the CGI side of special effects.’

But for all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, one key message was apparent throughout: you have to work hard. Adrian Woolard said: ‘The industry is very competitive. You have to think about that and be motivated to succeed. If I had to make one brutal observation about the industry, it would be… be prepared to work really hard.’





FX Supe To Practical Effects Crew:  Get It Right On The First Take

(fearnet.com)                 When it comes to the effects, did you decide to go CG or practical?

The party line on these movies has always been to do as much practically as you can. Len started that on the first Underworld. Len comes out of the art deptartment, so he's used to dealing with pracitcal FX, so that philosphy sort of carried over through all the movies. Since then, obviously, visual effects have gotten progressively better, so the opportunity to do more in CG is there, but for the most part philosophically you sort of stick to the old company line about "Let's try to figure out how we can to these suits practically, and enhance them in CG if we need to." So that's kind of what we're gonna try to do here. Obviously, best intentions don't always pay off. We have a very short schedule production-wise, so things don't necessarily work on the first take. If we don't have time to do a second take, we're gonna have to go back in there and either completely re-create it in CG or fix up something that didn't quite work practically. Obviously, creatures in all the Underworld movies relied on suits to a large degree. With ubers that's not possible. The tunnel lycnas aren't possible, because they're supposed to be quite thin, so no matter who we hired to play the tunnel lycan, we'd be stuck with a human waist, and that just wasn't gonna work with the design that Patrick Tatopolous came up with. So that's gonna be full CG.

Even the lycans, in the past the suits have looked fantastic on close-up. They're completely photo-real. but when the performers started to move we had issues because they have to be seven feet tall, which means you have to put them on some sort of extension and as soon as you have performers on extensions they lose the ability to move quickly and to move organically. So, in this case, we built the suits to the thigh, and put them on these stilts that painters use to reach the ceiling, hoping that that would give them more flexibility to move and to a certain degree it does. They can move faster, they can react more quickly, so a lot of the close-up stuff will be practical and looks quite great, but the ability to actually walk and to run is still going to be the domain of CG. So, in terms of lycans. I think we learned our lesson on the past pictures. We've tried things in the past where the guys were on extensions, on wires, trying to find a way to support them so they can try to run, and we haven't even tried that in this case. We're just really trying to use the suits for what they do best and rely on CG to do whatever else the directors want to do.

On this picture I'm carrying Lidar. It works like sonar, it's using laser to map the geometry of the place and then bring that environment into a workstation with great accuracy. We're doing a lot of that in Vancouver. The architecture of this college is a style that the directors want to use quite a bit in the picture, and he built quite a few buildings in Vancouver. So we're going to those buildings, we're lidding those buildings and creating a library of this kind of arch which we can then bring to set to hopefully give it some more reality. Sometimes, I think films suffer when the extensions look fake, they just don't feel like we're actually in a city. And we're trying to do it in a different way to make it feel authentic and like the rest of the Underworld cities, but also to stay within this Brutalist style that they keep referring to: concrete, hard edges, very Eastern Europe, Soviet-era kind of stuff. Trying to capture that stuff while we're here and then bring it back to the various vendors who do the work and apply it.

It always comes down to werewolves. We look at the picture and you're suddenly like "Ah, I wish we had six more werewolves in this shot and four more in this shot," just to build it out and make it bigger. My suspicion is that's sort of what we're prepping for: the realization in September of "Oh my god, we need more creatures here and there."




How the New Spider-Man Was Designed

(scifinow.co.uk)                  One of Hollywood’s pre-eminent concept artists, Aaron Sims’ CV includes such blockbusters as The Incredible Hulk, Clash of the Titans, War of the Worlds, I Am Legend and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

The son of an artist himself, Sims moved to Los Angeles in the mid-eighties to pursue a career as a makeup FX artist, but it was his innovative design work that drew the attention of such industry giants as Rick Baker and Stan Winston.  It was while working with Baker that Sims was introduced to the fast-growing world of digital design; a technology that he embraced and quickly mastered. A few years later, he collaborated with Winston to create Stan Winston Digital before moving on to form his own firm, The Aaron Sims Company.

Sims’ recent projects have a massive profile – they include Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Thing, The Talisman and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He’s also co-founded White Rock Lake Production with partner John Norris to create his own projects as well. The versatile designer-turned-filmmaker recently sat down to discuss his work in the genre…

Who has the final word on a concept design? If you’re working with a particular director, it’s obviously easier to know what he wants, but what happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen and each of them has their own recipe in mind?

That’s typically the way films are made these days: there are too many voices; too many cooks in the kitchen; a committee of people with their own opinions. After years of working with directors, you definitely have to cater to what they want, more than anybody else. If you don’t listen to them, they won’t be interested in you at all, so that’s the first person I always listen to. If the director wants one thing and somebody else wants something different, I’ll give them both. I will give them exactly what the director wants for his version, and then I’ll give them what the FX house or the production designer wants. On top of that, I’ll try to give them my own version so that allows for everyone to be happy and feel like they’re having their own say. If it was just me doing that, it would be incredibly impossible to do that many versions, but the benefit of my company is that I have other artists working for me that are able to do different things stylistically, as well as adhere to the needs of the different members of that committee involved in the process.

When you’re designing a film based on a long-established comic book property like Green Lantern or the Hulk that has been drawn by dozens of artists over several decades, how do you decide which one to base your work on? Or do you have to create a character that doesn’t look like any of them?

Those are the more difficult shows to work on, because of the nature of their history and again, the committee involved in them, because it’s not only the director but if it’s a Marvel property, they’re involved too. If it’s an old film that’s part of a franchise, everybody who has some history with it has some say in it. So I think, okay, this is a new and contemporary version of the Hulk, that’s only my one opinion out of so many. The Incredible Hulk was almost a two-year process because of that. We had to play with all of the different versions, so does he have short hair or long hair or spiked hair?  Is he green or grey? Which artist is he inspired by?  It was all of the above, so the process involved doing all of them until everybody, not only Louis Leterrier the director, but Marvel and everybody else involved was happy with it. It was one of Marvel’s first gigs as a production company so they had a lot to say and that wasn’t easy, because there were a lot of people at Marvel.

So with The Amazing Spider-Man, which you can’t really talk about yet, if you were hypothetically working on a certain lizard-like villain, how do you decide if you’re going to use the original Steve Ditko version or the modern-day Todd McFarlane incarnation? And what happens when each of those aforementioned cooks in the kitchen have their own personal favourites?

That one was very tough, because it was no longer Sam Raimi so it was a different director with his own vision and an assortment of different layers to get to something that needed to be decided even for Spider-Man himself.  We’ve now seen Sam Raimi’s version, which was very popular and well-received and made a lot of money, so do you break with that and start completely from scratch? People felt if they were revamping it, they had to start from scratch, so that was definitely a long process.

In some way, it was similar to The Incredible Hulk, because there was the film that had come out several years before, which was directed by Ang Lee, so how different do we make this one? And then you’re dealing with all the different variations in the comic books and within the fan base. To some extent, you have to ignore the fans as individuals; you have to look at them as a whole, because you’re never going to make all of those individuals happy. Somebody is always going to say, ‘That’s not the version I wanted to see!’ so it’s a difficult challenge. You never going to make everybody happy, so the main thing is to make the filmmakers feel they’re getting what they want and they’re able to express their own creativity in this process. Hopefully it will be commercial enough that it gets recognized.

If you’re working on a comic book-based project or a remake like The Thing or Clash of the Titans, there is always going to a very vocal fan base that is prepared to dislike whatever you come up with. Do you have to develop a thick skin after a while?

Yes, and that’s always going to be the case.  Luckily I’ve been doing this long enough and after working with people like Rick Baker and Stan Winston as a designer and hearing their critiques as well as everyone else’s, it’s really helped me to be able to grow past that and the fact that you’re never going to make everybody happy. There are going to be insults, and I can completely disagree with some of them, but everybody has an opinion and I just have to allow that to be part of the process.

You also have to have a thick skin to work with producers sometimes who don’t have the nurturing nature of saying, ‘Hey, this is really cool, but could you maybe do something else?’ They’ll sometimes just say, ‘This is awful!’ so I don’t take anything personally. Being a concept artist for the movie industry, I get to be an artist and hopefully have a bit of creative input in the direction of these things, but I can’t look at them as a personal aspect of my own art. It’s not a fine art at all. It’s a commercial art, so I have to get past that. That’s something I tell the artists I hire, because it’s hard for them when they hear a client say they hate something they did. That’s something I try to deal with as an art director with my artists: I have to become the conduit that helps cushion the blow to some extent, and compliment them before an insult.

When you’re designing a creature, do you have to know in advance if it’s going to be done practically or digitally so you can design it accordingly?

For the most part these days, many of the studios don’t embrace the physical aspect of it anymore. They typically feel that digital is the way to go no matter what the budget is, so that’s been the status quo for a while. For the most part, we always start with no limitations. Once the budget of a film is not enough to deal with the digital aspects, we have to figure out how to make that design work either as a guy in a suit or a puppet or something like that. A studio will usually say, ‘Don’t worry about the limitations; just come up with a really cool design and we’ll figure out how to make it!’ It’s always later on when they come back and say, ‘That has to be a makeup now, because we can’t afford it!’ That’s when you have to say, ‘Okay, how can we rethink it now that we’ve created this thing?’ but it’s actually not as difficult as it sounds.

The reason for asking that is I remember one of the makeup FX people on Clash of the Titans saying some of your designs for that film were quite extreme and pretty much had to be redesigned from scratch. But coming from a makeup FX background yourself, surely this is something you would always keep in mind?

It’s interesting that you mention that. A lot of the FX houses don’t want to be manufacturers of someone else’s designs so no matter what, they’re going to try to redesign it unless the filmmaker or the studio says, ‘This is the exact design; do not change it!’ Even if that’s the case, an FX house will come back and say, ‘We had to redesign it because of this…’ because they want to take ownership of it. I’m completely okay with that, because most creative people want to be creative. They don’t want to be a machine, so if they’re told to just manufacture something, they wouldn’t put as much of their own energy into the project if that was the case. So I understand the argument.

Is this job still fun for you?

Oh yeah. As you probably know, I’m doing a lot of things. I’m still designing, but I’m also producing and directing. I was production designer on Insidious as well as co-producer and that was really fun to work with [director] James Wan. I just love every aspect of filmmaking and I don’t want to limit myself to just one thing, but as a designer, I’ll constantly design, I think probably until the day I die.




Let’s Talk About VFX, Baby!

(zombieroom.net)               I’ve been working on a Computer Graphics heavy features for the last 13 years, and set up a company with my friend and colleague Samuli Torssonen & a bunch of others, focusing solely on visual effects for feature films and advertisements, called Energia Productions, in Tampere, Finland. Now that we’re about to step in to the last leg of the big post-production push of our second feature film Iron Sky, I thought about sharing some thoughts on working with a visual effects team, from director’s point of view. It’s good to know that as a director I’m hopelessly inept when it comes to technology of any kind, so I’m helpless and relying totally on the experience and creativity of my team, and of course, the close working relationship with our CGI producer / VFX supervisor Samuli T.

TAXI RIDE TO THE SHADY SIDE

The relationship between a Visual Effects (VFX) artists and the director is not unlike the one of a taxi driver and a customer. Whereas both have the same goal – to get from place A to place B – their approach to the topic is quite different. Director knows where he’s headed, and a skilled VFX artist knows how to get there, but just like with a taxi driver, it’s usually better to let them choose the route, otherwise you might end up somewhere in the shady part of the town with a nasty bill in your hand.

It’s not always easy to find a good working relationship with a VFX team, because the common language is not the same. It bears striking resemblances, but it’s different. Again, both have the same end result in mind, but the ways to get there are completely different, whether you’re a director or a VFX wiz. So it’s good to get to know the VFX team, but let the VFX supervisor take care of running the team. It’s sometimes absolutely irresistible to burst out into a fountain of ideas when watching someone working on a small bit of the movie on the screen, but usually that ends up with you fighting with VFX supervisor, the artist getting confused and/or budget bouncing up and down and producers starting to call you.

So the key is to work closely with the supervisor, but let him/her do their job. See, as a director, you’ll be free to ramble on your artistic visions as much as you want to the supervisor, and his/her job is to turn it into man hours, polygons, choose of programs and so forth. Supervisor knows the budget, knows the resources and knows the schedule, and can tune up the director’s requests to match the given parameters. Sometimes, it might not be possible, but it’s better to hear the bad news from the supervisor sooner than later.

PREVIEWS ARE THE BITCH

What I always find the hardest working as a director on a VFX heavy film are the previews. It’s always a big guessing game trying to get an understanding on what to look at with previews, what not to look at, and how to comment them the most productive way.

See, in the ideal world at least in my mind the process of a shot (from director’s point of view) is as follows: First, you sit down with the VFX supervisor, the DP, the AD etc., and sort out the shot you want to be done. Then, you get to see a rough animatic of it – something to see to determine that the camera movement, the scale, the length and so on are approximately right. Then, you possibly see a concept art of the environment to be able to judge a bit on the lightning and the general mood of the set. And after that, you see a draft of the shot when it’s 20% done, comment it, see another version with your comments implemented and further developed at around 60% done, and then something just before it’s being determined to be final, at around 90%, for the final tweaks. Then the shot is ready, all is dandy and you have what you came in for.

This is how it works in theory. In practice, it’s unfortunately not this structured. All the talk about percents is completely arbitrary and have absolutely no ties to reality, because with a shot there’s only two possible situations: it’s either ready, or it’s not ready. Anything in between can turn into any amount of trouble, regarding what you are asking, and how it can be done. Usually, the biggest problem is that something in the shot just doesn’t look right or real, but the big task is to pin-point what it is. It can be perspective, the shadows on the ground, the chroma key, light setup with shot material vs. computer-generated material, or any number of smaller and smaller details – usually a bunch of them rather than one. And requesting changes – even just small ones – can suddenly push the shot back to the very beginning, because it might turn out it needs to be re-done completely. In the end, all you have in the schedule is finished shots and unfinished shots, and as long as the schedule and the unfinished shots are in some kind of balance things are good.

And when they’re not, people start to sweat. Yes, you included, herr Direktor. And that sometimes leads into situation where you either need to agree to compromise, or start killing other shots to get this one at hands right. That decision is usually the one you’d like to push as far as possible, but it’ll come in front of you, and then the shot is either in or out, or you go out and find more time and money, which are the two luxuries you usually have absolutely none left at the post production phase anymore. All the reserves have been used, all the tricks have been done. It’s just you, the deadline and the decision.

But much more than that, working on a VFX shots is just absolutely rewarding. As a director, you’re not requested to sit around at the VFX house, waiting for renders to finish and artists to get frames ready, but you’ll pop over every once a week and see as the thing you’ve had in your head is starting to come alive, piece by piece. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching something you’ve only been able to describe to people with words suddenly have lines, and colors and shapes instead of an actor in front of a glowing plain green screen.

INSIDE A VFX STUDIO

I’ve been to a bunch of VFX houses, travelling here and there, and there’s two kind of joints I’ve stumbled across to. There are the ones crowded with stubbly-bearded ADs chilling by their Macs, sipping latte, with hot receptionists asking if you prefer your Pellegrino bubbly or still (I always go still). And then there are the unearthed nerd caves with poor air condition, with wires and dust fighting for breeding ground in the corners.

I prefer the latter. Why? Because I’ve grown in that kind of atmosphere. I like to think in my mind that a good VFX team is too devoted to their work to really care about the shit laying around, too deep in their work to have time to take the cups to the dishwasher and too busy to even leave home when the day is over. These joints may not look like much, but they are the real powerhouses, at least in my experience. I obviously haven’t visited Pixar, or any of the big big studios, but I’ve worked at Energia, my CGI production house, and as an aesthetic pedantic asshole I’m usually the one complaining about the mess of the place. Well, I was until I realized it’s not going to change anything, because it’s just better that way. What’s around the screens doesn’t matter, only what’s going on on them.

It’s interesting what kind of people end up in VFX business, and end up being masters of their craft, too. In Energia, we have scientists, musicians, architects, graphic artists, familymen – from France, UK, US, Canada, Finland… all working together, sharing the same enthusiasm – to make the best, the most beautiful film possible. The film you’ve had playing in your head for years and years, these guys are out there to make it real.

(One thing we don’t have, though, is women. Every now and then a girlfriend of some of the guys wanders around at Energia, but they never stay long. I wonder why :)

A good VFX artist is devoted, creative, technically skilled, inventive, able to pay attention to details. But in addition to this, he/she is usually also knowledgeable – it’s amazing how much you need to know about combustion engines, space stations, guns, cartwheels, different types of wood, fabrics, nature, light, history, math, physics… you name it. You never know where you need it, but there will be a day when the detailed knowledge you have about nuclear explosions in the lower earth atmosphere, or how velcro works under water, proves highly important to the task at hands.

Working with the team like Energia is highly rewarding, but you have to be aware of the basics of the difference between a film crew and a VFX team. It’s like working in slow motion film set, where every camera move and lightning change takes days to complete, yet everyone around you is busting their asses to get it done.

It’s weird, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. A good relationship with a good VFX house is crucial. Just look at Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic, or Peter Jackson and WETA. Maybe Energia will one day grow to be a house like them. One can hope!




Disney Fires Marvel Movie Marketers

(comicbookresources.com)                        Everybody is trying to keep this secret. But I’ve learned that yesterday Disney canned Dana Precious, EVP of Worldwide Marketing for Marvel’s LA Studios (she had replaced Doug Finberg at the end of last summer); Jeffrey Stewart, VP of Worldwide Marketing (he’d been brought in by Dana); and Jodi Miller, Manager of Worldwide Marketing. That’s essentially Marvel’s entire marketing department. Marvel redundant jobs were on the line ever since Disney bought the publisher/studio in 2009. And the marketing department even more so this summer after Paramount released Thor and Captain America domestically and internationally, thus effectively ending that studio’s marketing and distribution of Marvel pictures. I’m told that on June 24th, Rob Steffens, who is Marvel Studios’ EVP Operations, met with all of the department at the Manhattan Beach offices in what was described as a “Disney Rules of the Road” meeting. He told staff that there would be no house-cleaning by the mouse, period, so they were not to fear for their jobs and flee en masse. So much for that promise.

The official line on why Marvel’s marketing team was let go is that Disney will be taking over that function and handling the releases of The Avengers and future Marvel movies themselves. In fact I’ve learned that Marvel will bring in someone in a “project management role”. But Kevin Feige’s continued supervision of all things Marvel should resolve any doubts by fanboys that Disney will screw around or screw up the comic book films. Insiders tell me that Precious and her team were not well-loved by Marvel bigwig Feige and other top execs at Marvel or by Disney and Paramount. (Some of the comments I heard today included: “Not up to or have the skill set to release this brand properly”… “Their job was to keep track of the people doing the real work”… “Paper pushers”… ”Would it have killed them to return an email?”… “Disney doesn’t need someone to cut its trailers”…)

Now Marvel staffers wonder whether the firings were really to avoid duplicating efforts with Disney or just petty vindictiveness. If it’s the latter, then jobs are safe. But if it’s the former, then any jobs redundant in terms of Disney’s infrastructure aren’t. Trying to reassure the Marvel folks, one insider tells me today, “If you do your job and are smart and understand the business, you shouldn’t worry.”





Effects Vet Todd Masters:  "Practical is Coming Back"

(fearnet.com)                 How do you work with the visual effects guys to make sure there is an integration between practical and computer effects?

Our shop actually has a computer effects and a practical effects department. We don't believe they are two separate entities. We believe there is one image that needs to be created. I think a lot of shops think about design without how a project will be completed, or about completing the project, without thinking about the design. I think a lot of people are taken out of a film if they see something that looks synthetic - either rubber or digital. The digital generators are getting so good on video games that people are starting to connect with that unnatural perfection. It's all based on how good the artist is.

We are known for our practical effects. When the computer stuff came along, we started taking our real stuff and mixing it with the computer stuff, making a great compositing tool. We really try to make things as realistic as possible, and integrated.

There was a series of Michelin tire commercials we did a few years back. They wanted the Michelin man done digitally. Why would you want that? He's a guy in a tire suit! So we made him a guy in a tire suit, then we just added some digital details. It was the best of both.

Do you do most of your designs in Z Brush?

I do a lot in Z Brush, a lot in Photoshop, a lot just scribbling on napkins. To me, design is a step. When you are presenting designs to a client, you have to show them something polished. But there is so much design that goes into this stuff. For each of the hero characters, we would do a full Photoshop painting that was suitable for framing. We don't like to be limited to one technique. Z Brush is great, but so is Mudbox, so is this or that. Which is why we have brought digital into our shop. They are kind of related. It gives us a much bigger palette of options.

What are some of the biggest advances in the special effects field, and what do you think will be the next big threshold?

Our Los Angeles shop and our British Columbia shop have a really nice friendly competition going. There are a lot of technologies in our world that have really evolved - both practically and digitally. It's fun to see both evolve. True Blood is run by our L.A. supervisor Dan Rebert. Because he is so committed to being fresh to each project, True Blood sees a lot of benefits. They get a lot of integrated special effects.

Last season there was a crazy sex scene with Bill twisting Lorena's head around. Nobody figured out how we did that. Most of it was a puppet head, and a little bit of face painting-out. Dan's team really mixed mediums to bring that together. So we hear about something cool like that, and we want to do something even cooler. Silicone teeth is something else that True Blood has really benefitted from, especially for background actors. A lot of actors we don't see until the day they show up on set. Dan created flexible silicone teeth that could be mounted on anyone. We still do hero teeth in acrylic. Prosthetics used to only be made out of foam latex. Now we use these incredibly translucent flesh-like pieces that actually look like flesh.

People frequently come to us saying, "Digital has evolved into this incredible thing!" Well, practical has evolved as well. You have to be careful where you use each. There's a huge debate going on in the FX world right now, over digital versus practical effects. There are still some people who believe there is a magical button and you just press it to get werewolves in your movie, but there isn't. There is a lot of work that goes into digital creations as well as practical. We build a lot of stuff practically, but we still enhance digitally. We believe there is nothing scarier than something that really gets in your face. Digital has evolved into this amazing thing, but practical has as well. You've got to be very smart about where you use each. In the last ten years we have done things that I could never imagine we could do - and I have a weird imagination.

There is a whole generation of kids who grew up seeing the works of Rick Baker and the like. Nowadays, do you see more kids who are inspired to go more into the computer-generated effects? Is there a worry about keeping practical effects alive?

I think [practical] is coming back. Look at shows like Face Off. Look at shows that obviously use practical makeup, like True Blood and The Walking Dead. It seems like there is now more access to it. People send stuff to me like I used to send to Dick Smith. It's cool. It has come full circle. People are realizing that it's not about that particular device or tool; it's about filmmaking. What is filmmaking but creating cool images that are emotionally connecting with you?





Currency And VFX

(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)                I post a bit about how the falling US dollar indirectly makes it more expensive for US studios and facilities to send VFX work to other countries.

A commenter disagreed:

    You do know that 1 GBP goes a lot further than 1 USD, right? Approximately one and a half times as far in fact…

    Soldier, I know you’ve never left Cali but I’m not going to start explaining exchange rates for you.

Well it seems someone needs to do some explaining.

The Wrap wrote an article called Currency Woes: Why the Weak Dollar Is Helping — and Hurting — Hollywood :

    But for producers of movies like “The Hobbit” in New Zealand, the weak dollar pushes the cost of production higher.

    Warner Bros., like other studios, traditionally locks in the exchange rate when it greenlights a movie for overseas production.

    But as “The Hobbit” faced endless delays stemming in part from co-backer MGM’s bankruptcy, the dollar weakened, which has driven up the cost of the mammoth shoot.

Also this from a VFX facility management blog on how a higher Canadian Dollar is hurting Canada:

    Should we be concern by a higher dollar?

    The answer is : YES.
    Everybody knows corporation are always looking for the best deals. They come to Canada, go to Australia and they’ll go to India or China to save more money. Corporations have been moving factories from one country to an other just to save a few bucks and to generate better income to their shareholders. The entertainment industry is not an exception, at the end they want to make money. The reality Canada is facing is that to keep runaway and any other productions in Canada they will have to offer better tax incentives, the US currency is plunging and will probably continue for the next few years.

The reason why the US dollar has been falling is because of quantitative easing. The federal reserve is expanding the monetary base which leads many to conclude the US is “printing money”.

The hope is that by making it more expensive to go overseas, more inward investment will occur. Critics of this policy argue that this will lead to inflation and higher interest rates.

After two rounds of quantative easing, we have seen interest rates fall and no real increase in inflation. According to some economists, inflation tends to lag and the hope is that the economy will be growing by the time a measurable amount of inflation arrives. In fact, some inflation would actually be good for the US economy.

Whatever the reasons behind this method, it’s an incredibly effective tool. The alternative is much worse: Countries that have adopted the Euro such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Ireland are unable to engage in such a practice because they cannot control the Euro currency. Many of those countries are at risk of default, interest rates are soaring, and now France and Germany are left to bail them out.

Lastly, it looks like things are going to get even tougher for US studios looking to send work outside the US: Predictions are Fed Chief Ben Bernanke will announce a third round of quantative easing this Friday.




Circus Circus to House Chuck Jones Animation Exhibit

The family-friendly Circus Circus in Las Vegas will soon offer another attraction for kids: an interactive exhibit themed after the animator who created the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon characters.

The Chuck Jones Experience opens in October in the 3,770-room resort’s Skyrise Tower near its Adventuredome.

The experience is an offshoot of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity in Orange County, Calif., which will remain open.

The Chuck Jones venues honor the vision of Jones, who died in 2002. The master animator’s official biography says Jones made more than 300 animated films and won three Academy Awards as a director and an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

During what is remembered as the Golden Age of animation, his creations included Pepe Le Pew, and he helped bring to life legendary Warner Bros. characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig.

This is the first Chuck Jones Experience and the organizers hope to someday open more elsewhere in the country and are also contemplating a traveling exhibition.

The Las Vegas attraction, which opens in October, is being developed by Jones’ grandson Craig Kausen, Jones’ daughter Linda Jones Clough and some Chuck Jones fans who believe in his concept of promoting creativity, the experience said in announcing the exhibition.

“My grandfather said that if you provide the right materials and an environment of love, creative magic will come out of young people,” Kausen said in a statement. “The Chuck Jones Experience will provide kids, and animation fans of all ages, with an extraordinary place to not only learn about the art of animation, but to discover the creativity and magic that’s inside us all.”

“We are honored to become home to such a fascinating interactive attraction,” Don Thrasher, president and chief operating officer of Circus Circus, said in a statement. “This experience is unlike anything else in Las Vegas and it is certain to create hours of fun and enlightenment for guests of all ages.”

The Experience will include a classroom where creative art projects will be guided by animation and arts teachers; the Chuck Jones Theatre, designed to simulate a 1930s-style movie theater; a re-creation of Jones’ studio; a room with 3-D characters and information on how characters are developed; and displays of Jones’ fine art work and animation pieces.

There’s also an “Acme Workshop” where visitors can create sound effects and voice-overs for a Chuck Jones cartoon; as well as a gift shop.

The nearly 10,000-square-foot permanent destination, which is being developed at an undisclosed cost, didn’t displace anything as it’s located in what had been unused back-of-the-house space at the hotel.

Admission is expected to be $15 to $20, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.