Thursday, October 28, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Michael Bay And James Cameron Skeptical Of 3D Conversions
By MIKE FLEMING | Tuesday March 23, 2010 Deadline.com
The chance to charge higher ticket prices has every Hollywood studio rushing to retrofit their 2D spectacles into 3D. Some directors are pushing back, concerned there's an imminent future of cheesy-looking 3D that will stunt the momentum created by Avatar.
“After Toy Story, there were 10 really bad CG movies because everybody thought the success of that film was CG and not great characters that were beautifully designed and heartwarming,” Avatar’s James Cameron told me recently. "Now, you’ve got people quickly converting movies from 2D to 3D, which is not what we did. They’re expecting the same result, when in fact they will probably work against the adoption of 3D because they’ll be putting out an inferior product.”
That certainly didn't happen with Alice in Wonderland, which is grossed huge and gave Disney leverage to shorten the window between theatrical and DVD. The next big test for retro-fit 3D comes with the April 2 opening of Clash of the Titans. The film is tracking well, but also building a buzz that it is an imperfect movie that will greatly benefit at the box office because of its last minute 3D conversion.james-cameron-talking
Hard conversion conversations are being had now at studios on films that include Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Gulliver’s Travels and The Hobbit. Executives are weighing competitive issues and the potential benefits of higher ticket prices against the $100,000 per running time minute that is being used as a rule-of-thumb conversion cost.
Michael Bay And James Cameron Skeptical Of 3D Conversions: "The Jury Is Out"
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Friday, March 5, 2010
Editing for 3D on Alice in Wonderland: JC Bond, Additional Editor, on Wrangling 10,000 VFX Shots for 2D, 3D and IMAX
By Bryant Frazer
February 25, 2010 Source: Film & Video
Working in the editorial department on Alice in Wonderland, JC Bond was the point of first contact for principal photography, assembling scenes as quickly as director Tim Burton could shoot them. He was also the gatekeeper for the film's extensive visual-effects content, which he received and analyzed before it was cut into the movie. Working on a team led by film editor Chris Lebenzon, ACE, Bond made sure thousands of pieces of content fell into place as expected in the editorial pipeline — in stereo 3D, no less. Film & Video asked him about the challenge of managing massive quantities of footage, and found out why Alice might look ever so slightly different depending on where you see it.FILM & VIDEO: You’re credited as an “additional editor” on Alice in Wonderland. What were your responsibilities?
JC Bond: On a project this long, my responsibilities changed during the project. During the shooting phase, my initial responsibility was to assemble the scenes as they were being shot. One of the advantages we had on this project was that the movie was shot digitally for the most part. The bookends, which take place in “the real world,” were shot on film. The stuff in Underland, or Wonderland, was all shot digitally. We were connected directly to the shooting stage through servers, and we were working about 20 minutes behind camera. Right after they wrapped a particular set-up, we would load it into our [Avid] Media Composers and start cutting. My main responsibility during that phase was to assemble the dailies as they came in and have a version of the scene for Tim Burton to look at.
So you were making a rough assembly.
Sometimes that became the assembly. It depends on what happens. Some scenes got worked quite a bit more afterward, and for other scenes, what we got on day one was it.
How did your job change during post-production?
During post, my main responsibility was to receive the VFX shots from our facilities, analyze them, see if the artists were doing what we asked them to do, and cut them into the movie and have them ready to present to Tim Burton. That’s basically the breakdown between our two phases. On a project this long – for me, the job was 17 months, but the shooting was only two and a half months. The rest was all post-production.
So it was an extended process.
In reality, on a project of this size, that was short. We would have liked another year. We would have settled for another six months. We got neither.
How did shooting the film in 3D affect your work?
The reality is that our movie is not shot in stereo 3D. It was shot in 2D and then converted during the VFX process. The majority of our movie happens in Wonderland. In Wonderland, we used computer-generated backgrounds and computer-generated environments so all we were shooting was elements. Our entire main shoot was a gigantic green-screen shoot. The stereo process happened in post-production. We converted every single shot. Because the environment was computer-generated, it was created in 3D, and the elements that were [shot in] 2D were post-converted. We did have to manage stereo media from the moment we started getting VFX back from the facilities, and that was a little over a year of handling. But not during the actual shoot.
Editing for 3D on Alice in Wonderland Read more!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
'Avatar' Footage Impressions
Originally published on August 23, 2009
Avatar is a highly anticipated film.The reasons are obvious: it's the first J.Cameron film in more than a decade, the first since 'Titanic', it's a film, with brand-new technology, that promises to change the way we view cinema.Of course, one of the key factors to the success of 'Avatar' is its promotion.In an interesting move, a global event was organised, to promote the film, months before its release.
When i saw the first trailer, i was kind of underwhelmed, but i liked what i saw.Last Friday, it was 'Avatar' day.Almost 20 minutes of footage were shown in 3D, in cinemas around the world.I was one of the people, who saw the footage (which consists of 4 scenes, with a brief introduction by J.Cameron, and no major spoilers).I was certainly impressed.It seems that 3D is used to add depth to the image, and not as a simple gimmick.The film uses brand new technology internally developed in the director's studio, and the results are evident.You may not realise it, but most of the footage is computer-generated.The landscapes seem real, and you could say the same for the creatures and the Na' avi/Avatars.Pandora is a living, breathing world, and there were some really impressive shots.The purpose of the preview is to introduce us to the film, and to some of the characters, and this purpose is achieved.
It's going to be a long wait until December...
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Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Joe Dante: "I think that 3-D has a big future"
Joe Dante, director of Gremlins, The Howling, and Small Soldiers (among others)
"I think that 3-D has a big future, if the exhibitors don’t botch it up. When [James Cameron’s] AVATAR comes out, I think people will say that it looks great. But I believe that 3-D has a bigger future than that. I don’t think it should be relegated to exploitation films or science-fiction. I think that you can do interesting things with 3-D in a dramatic situation. If you look at Hitchcock’s DIAL M FOR MURDER, the drama is incredibly enhanced by the fact that it was filmed in 3-D. And the spatial relationships between the characters, adds so much to it. Sooner or later, some Ang Lee-type guy is going to make a regular movie in 3-D: one that’s not a gimmick picture or a rollercoaster ride. And the 3-D will be a part of how he’ll tell the story. And it’s going to be good.”
From an interview about his new 3-D film, 'The Hole.'
Check also A Career-Spanning Conversation with Joe Dante
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Sunday, August 23, 2009
'Avatar' footage impressions
Avatar is a highly anticipated film.The reasons are obvious: it's the first J.Cameron film in more than a decade, the first since 'Titanic', it's a film, with brand-new technology, that promises to change the way we view cinema.Of course, one of the key factors to the success of 'Avatar' is its promotion.In an interesting move, a global event was organised, to promote the film, months before its release.
When i saw the first trailer, i was kind of underwhelmed, but i liked what i saw.Last Friday, it was 'Avatar' day.Almost 20 minutes of footage were shown in 3D, in cinemas around the world.I was one of the people, who saw the footage (which consists of 4 scenes, with a brief introduction by J.Cameron, and no major spoilers).I was certainly impressed.It seems that 3D is used to add depth to the image, and not as a simple gimmick.The film uses brand new technology internally developed in the director's studio, and the results are evident.You may not realise it, but most of the footage is computer-generated.The landscapes seem real, and you could say the same for the creatures and the Na' avi/Avatars.Pandora is a living, breathing world, and there were some really impressive shots.The purpose of the preview is to introduce us to the film, and to some of the characters, and this purpose is achieved.
It's going to be a long wait until December...
Read more!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
SDCC 2009: 'Avatar' Impressions Roundup
[Photo from the 'Avatar' video game]
-- "25 minutes of Avatar in 3D played, and it surpassed all expectations and anything the guy who gave us Terminator 2 has ever done. What Cameron has done with CGI and performance capture, and making it look photo-real in 3D, is akin to what Miyazaki has done with animation." -- Phil Pirrello, IGN
-- "Basically, today James Cameron walked into a room with 6,000 people and pulled out his dick and slapped it on the table. With an HD camera pointing right at it ... Avatar is really, really, really, really cool. It is not photoreal." -- Drew McWeeney, HitFix
-- "Sorry, folks, but while the most fully realized and wholly immersive CGI achievement in cinematic history probably won't cure peptic ulcers or reverse male-pattern-baldness, it will definitely make you go "whoa" more times than Keanu Reeves on his first visit to the Long Beach Aquarium." -- Seth Abramovitch, Movieline
-- "Cameron proves again that he can combine high-octane thrills with human drama, creating palpable emotional depth both for and between the characters even as he subjects them to physical derring-do that otherwise seems impossible." -- Todd Gilchrist, Cinematical
-- "This is an evolutionary jump, not a revolutionary leap. I didn't experience movies in a whole new way, and nothing I saw on screen left me feeling more than impressed. What the movie represents is someone putting real money into the current CGI and mocap tech and shoving it an extra step forward." -- Devin Faraci, CHUD.com
-- "What I saw were glimpses at a fantastic bit of storytelling, a rich fantasy tale, by a master of the artform, but the CGI creatures and characters are just that. They're amazingly executed, no doubt, but it's not like when you saw your first CG dinosaur and you said, "This is a game changer" to yourself." -- Quint, AICN
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Mind-Blowing 'Avatar' Footage Screened in Amsterdam (CinemaExpo)
Quotes:
"Overall I was really impressed by what I saw. The effects are in a league of their own." ... "It took my breath away. I thought–just like you guys–that I've seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again. These creatures seem so real, that within minutes you forget you're watching an enormous and very blue CGI character. Even the eyes are totally convincing. The characters have real personalities and a soul." -- Coming Soon
"The audience afterwards was stunned. Everyone just gasped, wondered and just couldnt believe what they saw." ... "Until now, all we saw was the base in 3D, mostly humans and now the 2 N'avi Avatars. They look NOTHING like the drawing you've seen. They're living creatures with blue skin, bigger yellow eyes than humans with tails. The avatars even look like their human connectors. You will NOT believe the detail." ..."
The world outside is amazing. It all lives, breathes and works." -- MarketSaw
"It makes me want to create a time machine like Cartman from South Park, so that I don't have to wait till the 18th of December to watch the finished movie. If it's anything like the scenes I saw, it's going to be one of the best movies of the decade." -- IESB
[via SciFi Squad]
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Friday, June 5, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
E3 2009: James Cameron talks about 'Avatar' (Movie and Game)
From the Ubisoft press briefing
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Sunday, May 31, 2009
'Avatar' Concept Art
Avatar tells the story of a paraplegic ex-marine war veteran (Sam Worthington) who's sent to establish a human settlement on the distant planet of Pandora, but winds up in a battle against the planet's indigenous population, the Na'vi.
For full-resolution pics and more info: 'Avatar' Concept Art
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