Freezing Time

I like this video not only because of the effects, but also because it talks about more than just that.  It talks about so really cool systems that can be used to control the camera.  With these systems shots can be perfectly duplicated and thus allows an editor countless more options with video effects and essentially giving him a free reign.  The coolest part of the video tough is at the end.  What they do is basically freeze time and move the camera around in it.  From what I have been through in animation from this class, I can really appreciate the amount of time, money and effort that must have gone into making this scene.  I currently don’t know how they did it, but trying to figure it out is half the fun! 

Star Wars Green Screen

Below is a short video on the making of Star Wars: Episode 3 and the amount of green screen that they had to use to obtain some of the effects. At one point in the video they say that there was an effect on every scene in the movie and sometimes dozens. You have to appreciate how much work and effort these professionals put in when you are talking about a feature length film. It takes us hours of fine tuning for very short animations and it is hard to image how much time it takes to complete a film like Star Wars. 

I guess I never thought about it before, but I was impressed that basically the whole lava planet was put in through green screen. This means that Lucas had to have the idea in his head of what he wanted for every shot so that the set could be perfect. This just goes to show that you can never overlook preproduction and you can cut down on production times substantially if you have everything mapped out.