The Deadline Team:
This year’s nominees show how visual effects have spread from summer blockbusters to genres as diverse as superheroes, different flavors of fantasy, more traditional sci-fi territory, and even the art-house film. For each nominee, there’s a moment that makes it worthy of an Oscar nomination. Here, the visual-effects supervisors on the nominated films break down the key challenges and talk about the sequence that clinched the nomination.
Down In Front:
With Rhythm and Hues filing for bankruptcy, the VFX industry is slow-panicking and hyperbolizing. This banner doesn't help, but I felt like being all clever with the R&H logo.
Have a listen. I agree with some of what is being said. But a lot of it is just talk. They kinda contradict a lot of what they say.
5 Years of this is getting old.
By Ian Failes:
One shot in particular from the truck chase became known as the taxi flip, and featured the MRAP bursting through an off-ramp and landing on the back of a taxi cab, causing it to flip onto the ceiling of an underpass. Having created the previs for that sequence, Screen Scene visual effects supervisor Ed Bruce and VFX coordinator Nick Murphy sought to go beyond the usual deliveries by shooting actual elements. “After finding a location on the A55 near Colwyn Bay, North Wales, we headed over to shoot some plates on a couple of Canon 5Ds,” says Bruce. “Once back in Dublin we cut three shots together and began the process of adding the CG MRAP, taxi, additional cars, FX destruction and Moscow backdrop. We used 3ds Max and V-Ray, Thinking Particles, Krakatoa, and Fume to create our CG which was all composted within Nuke after being tracked with SynthEyes.”
Fabian Fischer:
noizze is a waveform generator inspired by the one that came with combustion. You can add as many generators (sine, cosine, triangular, sawtoooth, square and bounce) as you like and combine their outputs. This gives you highly customizable and very precise curves. There is also a simple noise generator based on on the pseudo random python module.
Sure you could write an expression.
Scott Squires:
Actually it is. Obviously studios wouldn't award projects in the past to companies that were just starting up or which there were indications they would fail from the get go.
The risk of making a film has always been there. This is not new. This hasn't changed. Scott, DP's would use the same Panavision camera and lenes to minimize the risk[This pactice was hated buy the studios]. They would do weeks a camera tests to make sure the colors and lenes would work with the talent the director/studio had choosen. Directors would use the same DP's for all their films. Reducing risk. They use the same gaffers and key grips. Why, to reduce risk.
Making a movie is always a risk. Risk in movie making is not new. What's new visual effects. The challenges have changed but the risk has stayed the same.
Have a read while you have your morning coffee.
Michael Zhang:
The resolution charts were mostly used during the 50s and 60s, but some of them may still be used nowadays to calibrate “flying cameras.” They have dimensions of around 50-80 feet and are coated in heavy black and white paint. Here’s what one target looks like from the ground:
Almost as cool as the meteor today.
By Mike Seymour:
As a compositor, I am often asked to shoot elements to match existing footage or stills. Unlike shooting all original elements where camera placement, lens, tilt angle, etc. can be logged and reset in multiple locations. Existing footage and stills most often do not come with camera data. Using a few perspective tools to deconstruct footage can provide a close approximation of camera placement, framing and focal length on set.
By Scott Beggs:
Of course he still has the canon to contend with, but there’s something inspired about starting from the drawing board. In the rest of the interview, he lays out how Lucas has stepped to the side to let J.J. Abrams and others come to the forefront with their visions. In a way, that’s what happened when Lucas hired Kasdan to write what would become the final draft of Empire Strikes Back with Irvin Kershner at the helm, and the result was an amazing sequel that’s surpassed its predecessor in popularity.
We all saw the storyboards for Epo. 1, Right?
I hope to be proven wrong.
By Brent Lang:
Within 24 hours, Rhythm & Hues Studios went from accepting a BAFTA award for its arresting visual-effects work on "Life of Pi" to filing for Chapter 11 protection.