Tech Evolution: The Wild Ambition of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
When director Matt Reeves took the helm on Dawn of the Planets of the Apes, he wanted his apes, which would far exceed their numbers in Rupert Wyatt's excellent 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes, to have an even greater level of emotional reality. Reeves was starting fresh with an entirely new cast of humans, but he retained some crucial actors from Wyatt's film, including performance capture extraordinaire Andy Serkis and two other notable ape performers,
Super Computing: Inside Industrial Light & Magic’s Wonder Emporium
We interviewed three different Industrial Light & Magic employees last week to find out how they helped create the visual splendor that is Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. We got so much out of the interviews we couldn’t fit it all in to last week's interviews, so we've compiled a lot of the hard facts on the magnitude of their computing powers for today's story, which have grown each year to keep up with the increasingly sophisticated computer-generated demands of directors like Michael Bay.
Two Industrial Light & Magic Wizards on Creating Destruction for Transformers
When your film centers around alien robot colossi laying waste to each other and their surroundings, it's pretty crucial that the wreckage look real. Two of the job titles responsible for making Michael Bay's latest carnival of destruction, Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, look realistic (and, in its way, beautiful) are the creature supervisor and the FX technical director, so we spoke to both, Michael Balog and Sheldon Serrao.
“My group deals with anything geometry based,”
Think Like A Man Too & the Greening of Hollywood Films
From a distance, the film industry appears be a well-oiled machine, operating seamlessly and churning out interest pieces for every type of audience. But rarely do we look closer at the process of creating and sharing the films we love. The film industry is modernizing in front of our faces, progressing without audiences noticing.
Behind the scenes, actors, directors, producers, and studios have begun to take note of excesses within the industry and have been on a campaign of self-reform.
CinemaCon 2014: The High-Tech Moviegoing Experience
You’ve heard the logic before: high-definition screens and on-demand content have altered the moviegoing environment forever, creating a home entertainment experience that rivals a night out at the local movie theater. Of course, anyone who saw Gravity in IMAX 3D might beg to differ, but it doesn’t necessarily take a game-changing tour de force to pack an auditorium. Today, the local multiplex has done an impressive job of not just keeping pace but surpassing your trusty living room sofa,
The Digital Camera Company That Oscar Nominated Filmmakers Prefer
Last week saw the release of RoboCop, a slick and technologically savvy re-imagining of the 1987 classic directed by Paul Verhoeven. With it’s combination of 3D holographic video screens and large scale multi-tier HD video screens present in every environment, from the corporate computer labs that assemble RoboCop, to the cable news channel studios that cover his exploits, to the sleek design of RoboCop himself, the new movie acts as yet another reflection of ourselves –
How Matthu Placek Created the Single Take, 3D A Portrait of Marina Abramović
The synthesis of technology and art is at the very heart of cinema. Filmmakers are natural innovators. Whether they're working on a big budget film or a small independent, there has simply never been a film made in which the crew didn't have to surmount obstacles through ingenuity—be it with state of the art technology or a nuts and bolts solution.
The ingenuity, technical daring and beautiful beating heart Matthu Placek's 130919 •
How The Lego Movie Got Its Stop-Motion Look
When the trailer for The Lego Movie came out, the Internet was abuzz. The Lego characters had that signature stop-motion feel to them, moving in a slightly stilted manner. Was the movie filmed in stop-motion or CG animation? “There were a couple arguments that we all found quite humorous when we first put out the trailers. People on the Internet were saying they knew for a fact we were doing stop-motion,”
Ilan Gabai, FX Technical Director of Rio 2, Talks Digital Wonders
Typically, the job of digital effects animator does not require previous experience working with live explosives. But it certainly looks good on a résumé.
Ilan Gabai, an effects technical director (FX TD) with Blue Sky Studios, can claim that experience. The 33-year-old grew up in Israel and served three years in his country’s defense forces where he handled grenades, mortars, and RPGs. “I got to blow up a lot of things during my training,”
I, Frankenstein Digitally Re-Mastered for IMAX Premiere
“I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.” So said Frankenstein’s monster, some 196 years ago in 1818 when Mary Shelley anonymously published her groundbreaking book “Frankenstein” in London. In nine days, her creation will loom larger than ever before when he enters IMAX theaters on January 24 in Stuart Beattie’s I, Frankenstein.
Writer/director Beattie’s film,
Talking With Adam Garber, Director of the White House Student Film Festival
The first-ever White House Student Film Festival was announced late last year, a contest for K-12 students for a chance to have their films shown at the White House, featured on the White House website, YouTube Channel and their social media pages. Submissions will be accepted through January 29, and all videos must be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo. For more details, click here.
What they want to see is films that highlight the power of technology in schools.
Looking Back on Some of our Favorite Stories of 2013
When we launched The Credits a little more than a year ago, we aimed to shed a light on the many talented filmmakers who often don’t get much press for their work. While we’ve occasionally spoken to folks who need no introduction (John Waters, for example), most of the filmmakers we’ve focused on have a little less name recognition but a huge amount of talent. We interviewed a lot of people, so the below roundup is really just a taste—there were far too many people to mention in a single post.
Thor-Inspired Contest Encourages Young Women to Pursue STEM Careers
Ten high school students at the top of their science game took a trip to Hollywood to meet the cast of Thor and visit with a host of inspirational women scientists along the way.
When Aurora Hake, a ninth grader at Annie Wright School in Washington, heard about Thor: The Dark World Ultimate Mentor Adventure, she immediately began preparing her video application. The contest—a joint venture designed by Marvel,
Video Featurette: Behind-the-Scenes With the Creators of Walking With Dinosaurs
Ever since June of 1993, audiences have grown to expect a lot out of their dinosaur movies. You can thank Steven Spielberg and Jurassic Park for turning audiences into very exacting judges of what does, and does not, look like a believable dinosaur on screen. Jurassic Park was a huge leap forward in what CGI can do for a film, but for dinosaur fans (which is just about everyone who was ever a child at one point),
The Rose Theatre in Washington State: A Beloved Local Movie House Embraces Digital
If you want to get cinematic about it, you could say that Rocky Friedman is like Humphrey Bogart’s Rick in Casablanca. Both men hold court nightly in neighborhood joints that reflect their refined and idiosyncratic tastes. Like Rick’s café, there’s always action at Rocky’s.
Some of it takes place on screen.
Friedman, 60, is the owner of the Rose Theatre in the tiny seaport of Port Townsend, Washington.
Christopher Nolan and the Increasing Utilization of IMAX Cameras in Film
Camera nerds, film lovers, Nolan-heads and even some regular film enthusiasts were abuzz earlier this week when word spread that Christopher Nolan was up to some wild business (once again) with an IMAX camera. Nolan is probably the format’s most prodigious advocate (he’s part of a tribe of filmmakers who utilize the bulky-but-beautiful technology), and he always seem to be pushing the boundaries of what can (and should?) be done with these cameras. This past Monday,
USC’s Paul Debevec‘s Role in The Matrix, Avatar, Gravity & More
Paul Debevec can rightfully claim that he has helped, in small ways and large, create some of the most technologically groundbreaking films of the last two decades. Debevec leads the graphics laboratory at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, and is a research professor in their computer science department. He is one of the most influential academics in the film world today.
Debevec’s research and technology have been used in The Matrix
Gravity Shines Light on Future of 3D Filmmaking
How do you create a 3D film that’s truly worth the price of admission? If one lesson can be taken from James Cameron’s Avatar, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, it’s that the extra dimension has to be crucial to the narrative itself. It’s not enough to wow people—you need a good story reason for the technology, which all of the above directors had in spades.
3D Serving the Story
Cuarón’s masterpiece took place in space,
Behind AMC’s Curated & Interactive Streaming Service YEAH!
Did you know that Daniel-Day Lewis was almost cast as Vincent in Pulp Fiction? Or that for the infamous adrenalin needle scene, Tarantino filmed it in reverse? Or how about hearing from Wes Craven himself what childhood scare first gave him the idea for Freddy Krueger? Welcome to AMC's new streaming service, YEAH!
It seems like about once a month a new on demand streaming service debuts. This is a good thing.
Target Ticket: The Latest Player in the Video On Demand Service
Target, the discount chain store, has entered the video on demand streaming service realm with quite a bang. Offering 30,000 movies and television shows to download, rent, buy or stream, and with their considerable presence across the country, Target Ticket looks to be a welcome addition to legal, high quality content that you can stream from almost any device.
We spoke to Target about why they created their streaming service, how they designed the site,
