Archive for the ‘movies’ Category

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Animation-Treasures Not Just for Animators

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

hollywood bg

Hans Bacher‘s blog Animation – Treasures is mostly known for it’s collection of painstakingly recreated backgrounds from the golden era of Hollywood studio animation. There’s lots of great eye-candy for animation buffs here but also more than a few lessons for VFX folks and heck, anyone in the visual storytelling business. Hans covers a plethora of topics from the use of color to composition, using a wide variety of examples. The visuals are just plain splendid so make sure you take the time to browse the site directly and skip the RSS reader.

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Posted in animation, filmmaking, movies, techniques | No Comments »

Five Things To Remember If You Are a Character in Transformers:The Movie

Saturday, July 7th, 2007

imthekingoftheworld.jpg

  1. If you are a robot of African-American decent, make sure everyone can tell by giving yourself a name with cultural connotations like Jazz. For added clarity make sure you talk “street” and throw in a few breakdancing moves. WARNING!! Once you have revealed your heritage, it is now certain you will be killed later in the film.
  2. If you see an object the size and mass of a skyscraper collapse in on itself like a brown dwarf, do not be alarmed. The resulting object (about the size of a shoebox) will magically shed 99.999976% of its mass. This will allow you to carry it under your arm heisman trophy style while you jump from rooftop to rooftop.
  3. If you want to be a computer “Hacker” make sure you stare at the screen blankly and rapidly type random characters on your keyboard. This will allow you enter any computer system no matter how advanced. TIP! It also makes you more intellegent if you are extremely dorky and have a very hot female friend. This is ofter referred to as the “Inverse Law of Attractiveness” or “Bay’s Paradox”.
  4. If you are an pretty young lady hankering for a stroll through downtown Los Angeles, you should dress for the occasion. Preferably in a lowcut sun dress, one like you might wear at the beach. If you happen to come across several large alien robots fighting for the fate of the human race, make your move to the middle of the street and sit relatively motionless on a pile of rubble. That way a robot can step over you in slow motion while you look up aghast.
  5. If you need to start a vehicle that you don’t have the keys for in order to save the future of the planet Earth, DON’T PANIC. Just follow these simple instructions. First, make sure that your father is a car thief, you will need to power of irony for this to work. The rest is easy. Break the driver’s side window with your elbow, then reach inside and open the door. You will see two dangling wires, one red, one blue. They will be pre-exposed for your convenience. Last but not least, touch the wires together. After a bright blue spark the vehicle will start right up!
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Posted in funny, movies, opinion | 1 Comment »

Caligari Redux

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

cailGS.jpgcaliComp.jpg

Studio Daily has an interview with Chris Duddy, cinematographer on the new remake of the 1919 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This version (in English) was shot entirely on green-screen, using scans of the original sets for the backgrounds. Shot in 9 days on $150k budget the film comes across a bit like Sin City on a shoestring. Can’t fault a guy for trying, but you just can’t touch the original.

Link to full article at Studio Daily

Link to clip with audio commentary

Thanks to JM for the tip

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Posted in Uncategorized, compositing, movies, techniques | No Comments »

Unwrapped 2001 Slit Scans

Monday, June 11th, 2007

2001unSlitscan

Here’s an oldy, looks like it was posted in 2002! Some adventurous soul with a little too much time on there hands reverse engineered the Slit Scans from Kubruick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The result is an approximation of the original flat artwork used in the scanning process. Nice!

Link to original post

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Posted in animation, movies, techniques | No Comments »

Nerd Alert! (1982)

Sunday, June 10th, 2007

Geek Monthly.com and The American Cinematheque have put a program together that they call

A Tribute to 1982: Greatest Geek Year Ever

A bold statement to be sure but they do not exaggerate. The program runs at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, Ca June 15 – 17. The slate of films reads like my Junior High Computer Club official list of “Most Awesome Movies Made in the History of Everything Ever!!!!” The Line-up is this

  • The Thing
  • Cat People
  • Dark Crystal
  • Poltergiest
  • Creepshow
  • Tron
  • And of couse Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khaaaaan!

Special guests include the likes of Frank Marshall and Syd Mead just to name a couple. Check out the full details at

www.geekmonthly.com

and

www.americancinematheque.com

Many thanks to Turok for the heads-up!

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Posted in events, movies | 2 Comments »

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