Film Riot

Film Riot is a YouTube channel that deals with all aspects of filmmaking. If you have not checked them out you seriously should. I have watched hours and hours of their videos and to be honest feel like I have learned more about filmmaking from this YouTube channel than many of my film classes over my four years here.

The videos feature Ryan Connolly, the host, with appearance from his team as they tackle various aspects of professional filmmaking as simply as they can. The videos include the final result of what they tackle, and then through hosted explanation, they explain how they did what they did. They are quite thorough and easy to follow and learn. They also have some DIY videos for making cheap filmmaking gear on a budget. They have a store where they sell a variety of different assets, make gear recommendations, sell merchandise, and more. They are a fantastic and useful channel and I highly recommend you sift through it, you will definitely learn a lot.

Film Riot:

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Pan's Labyrinth - Physical and Digital Special Effects

Pan's Labyrinth has long been one of my favorite films. Premiering in 2006 by director Guillermo Del Toro (who also directed Hellboy and Pacific Rim), Pan's Labyrinth is a beautiful combination of makeup and physical special effects blended with computer effects.

Considering Del Toro has a background in special effects makeup, it's no surprise that he tends to want all effects to be present in the set. While shooting his latest film, Crimson Peak, Del Toro remarked that having a set built, instead of green screen, allowed the actors to give better performances and the final product to have a more lifelike quality.

Some great scenes where the digital effects really bring the fantasy to life include a scene at the beginning where a stick bug emerges from a broken statue, the stones walls of the Labyrinth opening up for the main character as she makes her way through the maze, and a scene in a courtroom of magical people. Another effect that is remarkable is that for the faun, his costume was built, but many aspects of the human anatomy don't mesh with a faun's, so the team had to create green screen wraps for certain body parts and they would fix it in post, creating a creature that looks completely fantastical.

Pan's Labyrinth will always be a favorite of mine and Del Toro will always be one of my favorite directors. His monster's and dark fairy tales are exactly what I want to explore further, and I can not wait to see what he has planned.

Pan's Labyrinth and Special Effects



One of my favorite scenes:

Movie Scenes Before And After Special Effects

I found this really cool blog showing before and after movie scenes that used CGI.  Back in the day, filmmakers used matte paintings, trick photography, etc. to achieve impossible looking cinematic effects. Today filmmakers have almost perfected the art and application of CGI in films.
Click on this link to look at it: http://digitalsynopsis.com/design/movies-before-after-green-screen-cgi/
Enjoy!

Mockingjay part 1

Here's a cool video I found about the making of Mockingjay part 1.

Visual-effects supervisor Charles Gibson, whose previous work includes the Pirates of the Caribbean series, says the 950 effects shots in Mockingjay Part 1 required a different approach given the way director Francis Lawrence wanted to tell the story.
“The films are played through the point of view of our main character, Katniss, and Francis wants a very real, accessible, naturalistic approach to everything,” says Gibson. “So for us in visual effects, it was finding a way to introduce more of a science fiction element in a real context.”
Realism was important, with the action in Mockingjay Part 1 veering far from the futuristic facade of the Capitol and the Hunger Games in the previous films. “The world of the games was always sort of this thing off to the side, where the rules were not really that clearly known and you could do anything you wanted,” he says. “Here, it is the real world, so all the effects had to be extensions of our real world and played as naturalistically as everything else.”
Environment work formed the bulk of the effects work for Mockingjay Part 1.   “The first film is more of a science-fiction film and more of a political film, and the second film is more of a war film. It has more action in it and more scope and more that plays outside, above ground," says Gibson.

Green Screen Edit Tutorial

As most of us are doing our last project I thought it would be helpful to share a green screen tutorial. Here is one I thought was very helpful! Good luck with your editing and I hope this tutorial was helpful to you guys!

Marvel behind the cinematic magic.

I found a really cool video that shows some of the Oscar award winning special effects that were used in Marvel's Avengers. It shows various green screens. It has different layers of the same scene in different processes of the animation/special effects before reaching the final cut. I thought it was very cool. I thought it was super awesome, and you should definitely give it a look. 

Behind the Looks: Marvel.

Have you ever wondered how special effects are done for Marvel? Well now they have a site which will soon showcase behind the scenes of the Avengers, as well as how special effects are used and shot. Isn't that incredible?

Go Behind the Special Effects of Marvel’s The Avengers

I think this is a great idea, and an interesting way to be able to see exactly how much green screens, and what the sets actually look like before Marvel creates this other world that is entirely different. 

History of Pixar

Pixar Studio, originally a step child of Geourge Lucas has been popping up in conversations around me recently, so I decided I might look into the history of the creation of this animation studio.
Lucas Arts, an American film and television production company, was focused on innovative special effects since it was founded in 1971. Working on major motion pictures like Labyrinth (1986), Indiana Jones(1981), and the Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983) Lucas film had a reputation as one of the most advanced special effects houses in all of Hollywood.

Lucas saw special effects as something to paint your films with. The technologies we had were the colors, and the effects were only the parts that added flourish to the story lines. Lucas had found himself always looking for ways to make his effects better, and cheaper.

Although Lucas was never "interested in computers" his company was one of the first to try using this new color in filmmaking.

At the time, in order to do any kind of digital image processing, you needed to find a way to get your image into the computer. Lucas was trying to solve the issue: "How do you get in and out of the Computer." digital Image processing was the promised land for filmmakers because not only would film scanned-in and manipulated in the computer be free from any generational loss (Negative Quality) but mistakes in the original photography (such as lighting on a blue-screen element that was inconsistent with its background plate) could be corrected without the costs and time delays of reshooting.

Lucas approached Ed Catmull in 1979 and asked him to head up a group to bring computer graphics, video editing, and digital audio into the entertainment field. With funds dwindling from Dick Shoup, a millionaire in New York (The majority of his money from starting the New York Institute of Technology) Catmull was looking for a way to incorporate, and continue research in 3D modeling. Remember at the time 3D was very basic, and thinks like texture mapping, lighting, and polygon manipulation were almost nonexistent. In 1979 Catmull became the Vice President at the seminal Industrial Light & Magic computer graphics division at Lucasfilm.

A few years later (1984) John Lasseter, also joined the Pixar team at LucasFilms after working on Tron (1982). 3D is a very expensive animation style, and at the time George Lucas was in the process of splitting funds with he recently divorced wife, so he was forced to cut funding to the Pixar group.

As Lucas's assets were being disseminated, Steve Jobs stepped in. Jobs had already turned down a position with the pixar team in 1984, and seized this opportunity to acquire the division instead. With new funding, Pixar found itself back on it's feet and became it's own company.

For more information, and a more in-depth timeline see: The Pixar Story

Green Screen Magic

Recently in class, we have been learning how to insert ourselves into scenes from movies and TV shows using green screens. The process has been pretty fun, and it's something that real world productions actually use. One thing that comes to mind is a show I've been watching a lot recently, Fringe. In this science fiction show, the characters have to deal with an alternate universe, including alternate versions of themselves. This often involves scenes where the actors are talking to themselves, sometimes in camera angles that make it nearly impossible to just use a body double.

So they made use of a number of special effects techniques, including green screens, in order to get the actors to appear next to themselves. Sometimes this can be quite the experience for some actors. To get an idea of how working with green screens can be for actors, just take a listen to this interview with Jasika Nicole, who played Agent Astrid Farnsworth.

How they did Forrest Gump

As we get deeper and deeper into after effects with this class I've really enjoyed figuring out how these special effects or movie magic actually worked. One of my favorite movies form when I was younger, Forrest Gump, was one of the films I consistently was stumped by. Between how they hid Lt. Dans legs, Forrest meeting John Lennon, Nixon, and JFK there was a lot to wonder about. But now that we're getting into rotoscoping and splicing ourselves into films it's becoming clearer to me. To confirm some of these curiosities, here is a site explaining each of the special effects in the film and how they pulled them off.

Movie Magic in Forrest Gump

Zach King's Special Effects

Every once in a while over the past year one of Zach King's videos would show up on my newsfeed or I'd see it on Reddit. Most recently I saw him in a Pringles commercial and doing things on Ellen. What impresses me about that is that he started by posting vine videos. I think that in itself is an important factor when thinking about the future of media.

Some of his animations I can figure out now after taking the class but there are some that still have me stumped. If you go back to his early videos you can catch some slips but overall he does a pretty amazing job. Here is a compilation of some videos he has done over the past year.

Music Video Inspiration

This is the music video for the song Better Than by the John Butler Trio. It's a funky tune, with a pretty cool music video. The video is a bit old, originally being put on YouTube back in 2007, and I have no idea what software was used to make video, but we can do everything featured in the video with After Effects. The video features some spray pain effects, and a camera movement effect that looks very similar to the Sure Target tutorial that we just went through. The effect that is featured throughout the entire video, having John Butler be superimposed onto walls and posters, can easily be accomplished with some chroma effects, and the color changing can be done using an Adjustment Layer. This video may serve as some inspiration for our upcoming Title Sequence project. I know I  got some pretty good ideas from the video. And even you don't get any inspiration from this video, you can still enjoy an awesome musician with dreadlocks playing the banjo, and what can be better than that?

Greenscreens: Swipe Left or Right

It’s fascinating just how effective greenscreens can be when used in filmmaking. It seems that nowadays almost every movie uses a greenscreen at some point. And the unique thing about watching these movies is that we aren’t necessarily taken out of the moment, nor are we completely convinced that what we see is real. It’s a strange mix of wonder and confusion, with a hint of skepticism.

And luckily I was able to stumble upon a wonderful article by Buzzfeed, called “27 Before and Afters That Show the Power of Special Effects.” Put together by Tanner Ringerud, it’s basically a list of 27 films that have heavily used greenscreen in their production process: from The Avengers to King Arthur. But the thing that I recommend most about reading this article, is playing around with the sliding option they have on the before and after pictures. Sliding left or right will reveal exactly what was greenscreened in and what type of effects were put over the final product.

You can see where lighting is set up, and with a bit of staring you can kind of piece together why exactly they chose to go with the choices they made. Likewise, you can see what kind of characters were put into the movie in post. Such as Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s a saying that goes around that claims you can learn a lot just by watching how something is done. Be it from behind-the-scenes to production stills, there’s always something we can learn even if it’s just from swiping back and forth on a picture.

I definitely recommend this article to anyone who’s interested in seeing how important a skill with greenscreens is, from lighting, to blocking, and far beyond. Greenscreens can create galaxies, giant creatures, blood-thirsty zombies, and much more. They are the unrecognized characters in the film-production process. Ones that shouldn’t be overlooked. Because they build worlds. And that’s what filmmaking is all about.

The OMEn Chronicles: Make-or-Break Effects

    Let me introduce The OMEn Chronicles, written by RJ Aguiar and directed by Wren Weichman. The short film takes place fifteen years after the events of the world-famous Harry Potter series. Although not a lot of information is put forth, it can be inferred that some serious business is going down amongst the wizarding community. While the plot and acting leave a little bit to be desired, the main thing I'd like to address are the special effects. Because this wouldn't have been nearly as half as good as it was, if it had not been for the effects. Especially for a movie about magic, the special effects could be argued to have acted as another character by themselves.

   It's always fascinating to me, watching the before and after shots of any film with a high rate of special effects. It really does make a difference between what was initially shot and what came after. In this case, the post-production work that went into the film was something to be commended. Maybe not for its perfect performance, but by its ability to transport this footage into an entirely different type of world: where magic looks just as real as you and me. Even the color-grading that went into the making of this worked to present an atmosphere that was in synch with the tone of the film.
    And like any other filmmaker interested in this field, I love to know just how things were done. Which is why his tutorials are worth it to check out. Much like other tutorials we've experienced, he provides footage so that we're able to follow along as he teaches us. It's not a perfect system, but it's definitely something you can learn from.

    Even if special effects aren't your thing, The OMEn Chronicles are worth it to check out.

Orphan Black: A Story of Clones

If you’re a fan of the Parent Trap (and are still in denial about Lindsay Lohan not having a twin sister), take a seat because I’m about to introduce you to something that will make those effects look like child’s play. Orphan Black is the name, but simple cloning is not its game. Created by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, Orphan Black is a drama aired via the BBC that deals with the concept of clones. And while you may think “making a clone video isn’t that hard,” I’d say to hold off on your judgement just yet. Because Orphan Black brings a new twist to the classic clone genre: these ones can actually interact and appear in the same moving environment as the other. Don’t really understand? It means that one clone can smack the other in the face and not be blocked out of frame with a stand in.

It’s a very unique and very complicated process, but the effort put in can really be seen in the final product. I ended up binge-watching almost the entire first season in one night not only because the story was absolutely engaging but because I wanted to see just how far they were going to take these special effects. It’s a strangely thrilling process to watch as they balance tennis balls to save a place for putting in clones, shoot their shots five different ways (and times), and create a whole new element of cloning that I haven’t seen in any digital media for quite awhile.

It’ll make you do a double-take, leave you feeling more confused than satisfied, but it’s an addiction that is not something you’ll regret.

Spare Change?

I realized after watching a video in my Field Production class how few movies nowadays are truly just film. I never knew how much of the movies were a product of post-production. From a technological standpoint, I think that's amazing. But from a "the times they are a changin' " viewpoint, it's scary!

So much nowadays is made in post-production, from color correction to entire CGI scenes. This all developed over such a short period of time, too. In maybe ten years, with the ever-accelerating advanced-ness of special effects, I can see entire movies being made entirely in CGI, without the use of actors. Even now, when humans are made in CGI to look real they look a bit creepy. But in ten years, that probably won't be the case. Humans will be created in CGI flawlessly. Sooner or later, Hollywood won't need actors anymore. There will be a huge shift in the film and television industry. IT will greatly benefit the industry itself but anyone with the dream of making it big in acting will be shit out of luck.

Then the robots will take over the world. But that's another story.

The necessity of layering

MPC Wrath of the Titans VFX breakdown from MPC on Vimeo.

Despite the fact that it's what I do in most of my posts, I'm not a huge fan of discussing topics in a vague, general sense. I'd much rather make a point using specific examples. Well, here's one of those times where I actually know what I would like to discuss, and I have a specific example to make my point. I figured it'd be a nice change of pace. So, assuming that you've watched the above video (if you haven't, please do), let's delve into the complex process of effects layering.

It's no secret that there's rarely one super, awesomely fantastical effect that makes an animation what you want it to be. That would simply be too easy, and if animation were as simple as applying a single effect to a sole layer, everyone would be making the big bucks. And they're not. So, yeah. Point proven.

As I was saying, it's not uncommon for there to be dozens of layers for a single animation. It's the only way for an animation to look and "feel" the way you want it to. I apologize for the painstakingly long amount of time this may add to your current projects, but I can promise you the audience will notice the lack of effort in your final product.

Watching the above video will serve to better understand just how many different layers go into just one animation. Even an erupting volcano requires about 5 or 6 different layers of dust, smoke, and debris, not even to mention the enormous rock-like creature climbing out of said volcano. When the creature is destroyed, there's approximately 3 layers of smoke. Oh yeah, there's about 15 or so other layers that go into the monster and exploding debris as well. It's no problem, though. I mean, I'm sure you could do that. Right?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: VFX Breakdown from MPC on Vimeo.

Boom. Second example. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I happen to believe it's an excellent example of layering. Think about this: when you were watching the final Harry Potter installment (because who hasn't seen it?), were you really paying attention to the visual effects? I seriously doubt it. You were probably just sitting in the theater on the verge of tears as your childhood came to an end right in front of your eyes.

Just in the first shot of the video (also the preview image of the video), there's a layer for the environment (the ground, mountain, etc.), a layer for the people, a layer for the stadium, a layer for the smoke, and a layer for the fire. I'm also just guesstimating. That would be the absolute bare minimum that would have to go into a shot like that. I bet you there are at least two layers for each of the objects you see on the screen. There's usually at least a few layers of smoke to give it more depth or density.

It's pretty interesting to see the orc-like creatures in the "stampede" shots are actually pretty much the only real-life things to be seen. The environment, the people, and the smoke are all added later. It's astounding to realize what may seem to be the most obviously animated aspects of a shot are actually the only things that were shot. Obviously, the specific shot I'm discussing would need at very least 4 or 5 separate layers in order to make it come to life. I'm sure many more layers than what we're shown, though, were actually used.

It'd definitely be an interesting game to try to guess just how many layers go into certain shots of a film.

How much of what we watch is real?

Through many hours of YouTube scouring and fact searching, I can confidently state one thing: so much less of what we think is real in movies actually is. My mind has been sufficiently blown by the countless examples of where visual effects have replaced what I truly though had been shot on-set. Usually, one can tell what can be realistically recorded on a camera and what is produced by a computer. Well, as it turns out, that's not entirely true.

Take The Avengers for example. Now, clearly very much of the film is computer-generated. It's obvious. Unless there was actually an alien invasion that recently happened in New York City that I wasn't aware of, I think it's safe to say that the large majority of this invasion was created through the use of visual effects. What I had no idea, though, was the fact that pretty much the entire city itself was also created after the original shooting of the film. Seriously, take a look:

It's unbelievable to think that some of the only real-life things in that entire video are a couple actors in front of tiny green screens. You'd think at least some of the city landscapes would be shot on-scene, but nope! Not at all!

The Lone Ranger is another prime example of this sort of visual effects use. Now, personally speaking, I feel like the large-scale use of effects is much more noticeable in this film, even though the animators did an excellent job with it. I'm really not quite sure how to explain why I feel this way, but there's just a feeling you get when you watch the film. Here's a highlight reel of The Lone Ranger:

I had another video that was a much better example, but it decided that it didn't want to be posted. Anyway, you can see in this video that, in many scenes, the only real things are the actors themselves. Sets seem to be becoming obsolete when they can be replaced by green screens and special effects.

Here's the link to the actual video I want you to watch.

NOW you can see how ridiculous The Lone Ranger is when it comes to special effects. While the effects aren't necessarily the most realistic-looking you've ever seen, you've gotta hand it to the animators. Led by VFX Supervisor, Gary Brozenich, the visual effects company MPC created over 550 individual shots for the film. These include anything from CGI canyons and forests to horses and scorpions.

It's crazy just how much of a film can be attributed to the countless animators who you've never heard of and exactly how much of what you're seeing on screen was actually shot on-set.

The Magic of Ender's Game

Warning: Contains Spoilers

A few weeks ago, thanks to Ithaca College's Student Activities Board, I had the opportunity to attend a free screening of the 2013 film Ender's Game. Directed by Gavin Hood, this film follows the journey of  Ender Wiggins, played by Asa Butterfield, as he works his way through Battle School, a military academy designed to train young men and women to fight alien invaders. As a core part of the training offered at Battle School, students are broken up into teams that simulate a battle against one another in battle school. Although Ender enters the school as an outside, he quickly rises through the military ranks and becomes a commander for his own battle squad. After proving his unparalleled leadership and ability, Ender is told to assembly a squad for a final simulation. In this simulation, Ender is to destroy the Formics, the rival aliens, and their home planet. After completing this mission, Ender is told by Colonel Graf, played by Harrison Ford, that the simulation was an actual battle and that Ender has eliminated the Formics. Ender's Game ends on a cliff hanger when Ender discovers a single alien egg, has a change of heart, and races of to recolonize another planet with it. 

Although I enjoyed the plot of Ender's Game, what really impressed me were the special effects and CGI. Set in the future, this film relied heavily on CGI to create the technology seen throughout the film. In particular, I was impressed by the intense action sequences that took place inside the battle room. According to the above video, a single shot in Ender's Game may contain upwards of 20,000 layers. This video helps to explain the inherent challenges of creating a gravity-free environment. Although the actors were placed on wires, the special effects team for Ender's Game mainly sculpted the entire environment, including the characters bodies, around the faces of the actors.  By doing this, they are able to create bodies that react in a realistic way with the physics of zero-gravity. All this is just one example of the effects in Ender's Game, there are many others that demonstrate that this film is at the forefront on visual effects technology. 

After Effects? What about good ol' Practical Effects?

 

What did we do before the wonders of After Effects and post production possibilities? Directors and film-makers alike used what's known as Practical Effects! Practical effects are basically special effects done in real life. So what that means is, if you want a head to explode, you need to find a way to make something look like a head, stuff it with blood and guts, and actually explode it in front of a camera.

It takes a certain amount of creativity and know-how to get some of these special effects done, but when they're done, man do they look good. There's something about practical effects that just leaves viewers with a lasting impression. After watching the stomach teeth scene from The Thing (#1 in the top 10 video above), I don't think it would look as disgusting and horrifying if it were done in post-production. While practical effects are becoming less and less common, I think they should still have a place in movies today.