Tag Archives: Cinema

Digital Effects and Contemporary Cinema

Posted on by under Entertainment, Life

The beauty that Weta creates. Photo: Chuck Cook

For anyone interested in digital effects and cinema who hasn’t already seen this website, visit it. It’s an unbelievably brilliant showcase of some of the technologies that are being used by film makers around the world today to produce some of the biggest blockbusters. Here’s an article from the 13th of August on the new Neil Blomkamp film, Elysium. Getting to see some of the best digital effects of the contemporary world unfolded in front of you with excerpts from the experts themselves and the creators behind the fiction (Such as Weta’s Richard Taylor, a favourite of mine). While the articles on fxguide certainly aren’t going to give you a ticket to a job in a film studio, they can provide a great insight into the basic workings of a digital effects company.

While I am often sceptical of Blockbuster films (I have been impressed recently but I have certainly witnessed some big let downs), I think that digital effects is an important part of contemporary cinema and something that it would be silly to close your mind to. We’ve heard all the arguments regarding the over-reliance on technology and the fact that it is more important in some films (seemingly) than the actors, costumes and sets themselves.

As we entered the digital age, effects like this became more prominent, sometimes not for the better. It often seems like filmmakers get carried away with the FX and forget about the substance in films. For me, a big Tolkien fan, when I saw the first shots released to the public from the Hobbit I was a little spectacle. They took a bit of warming up to. But by the time the trailer was released I was already in love. This is a good example of how rapidly the film industry has changed. Just nine years earlier I was on the edge of my seat watching the final instalment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Boxing Day 2003. To jump from these films into the Hobbit was like stepping into a different world. What set the Lord of the Rings films apart was the extensive and thorough detail and grit that was compounded into the films. It made the distant lands of middle-earth and fantastical creatures such as the orcs and elves seem real without second guessing (a lot of what makes those films work is New Zealand itself).

So we go from one end of the spectrum, then suddenly we’re in a fantasy world that’s beautiful, vivid and dream like in the Hobbit. It’s made by the same team, yet there’s a whole lot of fantastic new digital technology (For example, goblins are now digitally created, rather than created using actors in prosthetics), but there’s also new technology involved (Hello HFR cinema). There’s a huge gap between 2003 and 2012 in terms of cinema. This is what we can create now with the technology that we have. What’s even better is that the gorgeous and visually splendid world Jackson was able to create using the new technologies suits perfectly the mould of Middle Earth that Tolkien first imprinted with the Hobbit. The possibilities are endless, to an extent.

For anyone who, like me, has an interest in contemporary digital effects and what the future holds dig your nose into the some of the extensive research that digital FX forerunner Weta has purveyed. Once again we see the competitive edge boosting our progression and advancement. There’s a reason Weta are so well respected and regarded in the world of cinema props and FX.

I love cinema. Almost as much as I love Tolkien. I’m sure you’ve noticed that, and I hope that a little of my passion might teach you something new.

The Cinema

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Beauty, atmosphere and experience. Photo: Andrew Tseng

After being a recluse (a cinema-recluse at least) for most of 2012, the last 10 months have seen more cinema action for me then I have experienced in a long time. Why? Well firstly, my girlfriend’s family bought a new TV with a bonus offer of free movie tickets each fortnight, so I don’t have to pay. But more so I think it is because of a reinvigorated love of cinema. The atmosphere in a cinema can’t be replicated, except for in the best home cinemas (I know of one in particular, which may be discussed in greater detail at a later date), there’s just something special about the gargantuan screen – I love a good dose of Vmax – and the engulfing wall of sound that exists in a movie theatre.

I can’t even remember all the films I’ve watched in the last 12 months, but I’ll do my best to recount some of the more memorable ones for you:

Don’t know about any others. Those were the ones that popped to mind. Interestingly enough, I’d be willing to go on record and say they were pretty much all outstanding films (with the exception of the start of The Wolverine being a little arduous). What’s great is the fact that I have been able to really resonate and think on a much deeper level with a lot of these films then I have previously, thanks to a little bit of enthusiasm and interest. I’ve always loved cinema, but recently I’ve really found its my passion – something that I can understand and relate to.

Red One. The future of cinema. Photo: Neilson Eney

I saw Elysium tonight, and while I agree to an extent that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp might be flogging a dead horse in terms of the conceptual thinking (well some critics seem to say so, personally I really like the thinking, you could call it design fiction), Elysium still stands as a film in its own right and shouldn’t be compared to the more creative and alternatively created District 9. The movie had the right level of emotional depth, politics and story to balance off against the high impact and fast paced violence. I didn’t feel like the fighting and action overshadowed the plot or values the movie projected – like a lot of films do tend to do in our highly fantastic and computer orientated industry.

What got me thinking today however was the relation between how we think of cinema and how we think of the essay. Adrian obviously chose to provide Graham’s article on the essay as one of the week 4 readings for a reason. To me after my deep thinking and speculation for the evening, I really feel that effectively this sort of ideology stands true for the film as well. You’d be hard pressed to find a cinema class at a university that focuses on the future of film – or even current film. We’re stuck in this trend of studying the classics. Learning how the classics work, when really, the cinema is heading in a completely different direction. Sure, the classics are the foundations of cinema and they let you understand how the Classic Hollywood, the French New Wave or the  Soviet Realist works (etc, etc). But what about learning how to understand cinema as it stands today, or how its progressing? The technologies behind it, a greater understanding of effects and digital effects. Are we afraid to admit how great an influence special effects has had on the cinema?

Our good friend Peter Jackson once again has a great idea on this. 48fps is the future. Advancing and progressing the art of cinema through contemporary and future technologies is high on Jackson’s important things to do list. Embrace new technology, respect the past – understand its workings – but most of all keep an open mind and embrace the future. It is obvious that cinema studies is intended to be what it is, to understand the classics and film history. But my question is, why isn’t there ever a course on offer that studies cinema as it is today and into the future?

 

Directing Cinema

Posted on by under Entertainment, Life, Networked Media

Peter Jackson doing what he does best. Directing. Photo: Andy Zeigert

Here’s an interesting read. An interview with Peter Jackson from the DGA (Director’s Guild of America). I have always held most interest in film out of any are of media. I haven’t really set any career goals though, perhaps I am trying to avoid disappointment as it is a very hard industry to make it in. But I guess that’s just life. Nothing comes free, maybe I just need to go and do it. The point is, I love hearing from experts and what they have to say. From their way of life, their upbringings, how they got into the industry and most of all, their job. Peter Jackson has always been forthcoming with this sort of information (6,000,000 hours of behind the scenes content for The Lord of the Rings proves this) and I feel that it’s a great opportunity to get an insight into the industry.

For anyone interested in making films or joining the industry, it could definitely be a worthwhile investment. I love the way Peter keeps himself removed from the glam of Hollywood (what a load of rubbish, at least as removed as humanly possible for a multi-academy-award-winning director), and the fact that he uses his homeland for everything he can, keeping a great work-life balance. I think anyone would love to make the money he does and experience what he does and live five minutes away from their workplace.

Another thing that makes Peter interesting (okay, so what, heaps of directors and film producers are like him), is the fact that he has not gone through traditional cinema education. Maybe it’s for the better:

We didn’t have any film schools. In America they had them, yeah, but I was a kid growing up in New Zealand, and there was no possibility in my mind that I would ever go to a film school in America. It would have been like going to the moon. There’s something about being here in New Zealand, a certain isolation, and back in the ’60s and ’70s, it was even more isolated than it is now.

This sort of attitude is admirable, and desirable. To be able to back yourself and dive into a project or career path without any real “guidelines” of sorts, that’s a credit to you. It also ties into immersing yourself in the world and the experience. Something that ties back a little to the Symposium Mark I and what Adrian discussed:

“OK, I’m going to teach myself. I’m just going to grab a camera and do it. There’s a very go-to kind of attitude in New Zealand that stems from that psyche of being quite isolated and not being able to rely on the rest of the world’s infrastructure.”

I think it’s great. Inspiration. Motivational. Reading things like this really helps to inspire me, I love to immerse myself in things like that and I think it’s something everyone should do when you get a chance. Be passionate, enthusiastic and jump in. Not just on-board.

Disclaimer | Background image: Emma Gawen
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