Thank you Math, what an in-depth review ;) Thank you Tim, certainly movies you mention are the main reason why many came into VFX in the first place. I just posted this OT thread, because in the end, it doesn´t matter how "bad critics / sensitive ones who can´t let go of old cinema or just new critics with "fan service" mentality" can´t deal with what the movie does in numbers. In the end this is all about a bussiness. I read an article "Hollywod doesn´t make movies for grown ups, just kids" that may be true, but you know...there´s all kinds of categories where they can find resources for a good timeline/storyline (drama, romance, etc..).
VFX cinema pays big time for studios, they know it, yet they let critics throw stones at the industry? That´s where the original thoughts emerged for this post. Cheers. On Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 3:15 AM, Tim Leydecker <[email protected]> wrote: > I think it is a good thing to get an educated critique and honest > feedback, even if it is going to be biased. > > I´d actually hope to see more critics point out that a good story, > regardless of it´s tonality goes a long way > in creating an experience and just because it´s meant to entertain doesn´t > mean one can dumb it down > and ignore the need to first of all get the basics of telling a compelling > story to an audience right. > > Growing up with 80s/90s sci-fi and action movies, Star Wars, Aliens, > Jurrassic Park, Men in Black, > Blade, Terminator, True Lies, Indiana Jones, The Thing, Rambo, Universal > Soldier, Timecop, 48hrs, > Beverly Hills Cop, Escape from New York, etc, etc. did have an effect on > me, too. I´m loving it. > > It took me a few years to also appreciate that there´s this or that odd, > old Woody Allen movie and pick it up myself > and another few years to find out that both directions can have a common > factor, the dedication to their craft. > > It´s a lot easier to spend millions and waste all the people involved than > spending one dollar wisely. > > The ever growing trend of trivialising the actual craft required in doing > something properly just shows... > > > Cheers, > > tim > > > P.S: As a personal pick, here´s a documentary that has great practial > effects, an Inception style corridor scene, > absolutely gorgeous wires work, wonderful art direction and a cast and > crew that got it right. If you don´t believe me, > believe imdb. Also note, the Rotten Tomatoes Rating vs. the IMDB Rating. > > What we do in the Shadows http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3416742/ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Am 25.07.2015 um 01:37 schrieb Mathieu Leclaire: > > Oh boy... are you sure you want to open that can of worms? > > There is this "lets blame the CGI for ruining my experience" trend going > on right now and as a technical artist working so hard on these movies, I > must admit, it's hard not to get offended. But let's face it, most people > love to complain. They thrive on finding reasons to complain about, and > with social medias all over the place, there are easy ways of verbalizing > our feelings without fully digesting our emotions or thoroughly researching > all the information to help us make an informed statement. > > The human brain tends to generalize a lot of information so we can > easily fit our ideas into neat little boxes in our head and label them. > Also, our survival instincts encourages us to agree with the masses so we > can more easily fit in. I have surprised myself many times in changing my > opinion on a movie because I heard/read a lot of negative critics about it. > I started noticing things that initially didn't bother me. All these > critics changed the way I reflected back on that experience. > > I say this because people got conditioned to point the finger at CGI as > the first reason why these movies are not as good as they had hoped. > Everyone else is saying it, so it must be true. > > I'm not sure where it started, but obviously there's been plenty of bad > CG in the past to create this trend. It's usually due to producers who make > bad calls that lead to bad CG. Since you can pretty much do what you want > in CG, bad calls stand out so much more. It's even more frustrating when > most people can't even notice what we've done when we do our job well. As > long as there are bad calls from the clients, I think we are doomed to > always get blamed for bad effect shots. It's like actors. We've seen a lot > of terrible acting from really great actors that where simply misused. Good > for you if you can find good clients, but most of us don't always have that > luxury to chose who we work with. > > Also, our job is to make the impossible look possible. People want to > see new things they haven't seen before, but when you show them something > they haven't seen yet, they have no point of reference to compare it too, > so it tends to looks fake. It's the nature of our job and why we work so > hard to figure out a way to make it look believable. > > This might sound silly, but people who complain a lot are just people > who want to help. They just don't know how to say it in a constructive > helpful way. They believe old techniques are better then newer CGI based > ones (and some times they are absolutely right). They hope that by > complaining enough times, producers will take notice and revise the way > they do things. Problem is, a lot of producers know as little as these > people do and might force an approach that ain't quite the best way of > doing such work. > > I still believe that in the end, it comes down to who you are working > for and how collaborative and flexible they are. Sadly, some of these > decisions are made way before we are even involved. All we can do is give > it our best effort, hope for the best, and ignore all the noise that comes > with it. > > Sorry for the long post. This has been on my mind for a while and it > feels good to write it down. I guess it's the same reason these people > write these type of articles and posts too. > > -Math > > ------------------------------ > -----Original Message----- > From: "Pierre Schiller" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Date: 07/24/15 13:43 > Subject: OT: Jurassic World, Mad Max, Avengers Ultron ... money over story? > > "From the moment is called "FICTION", doesn´t hold on to reality. > Unifying some reality to the spectator is just a NARRATIVE resource". - P. > Schiller > > Based on that premise, all arguments about CG effects (good or bad to make > the story absurd or empty) are debunked. There´s only CGI as a resource for > the spectator. > > Seems that these basic things are forgotten by a lot of cgi-movie critics. > The fact that the VFX/CGI industry has contribute to so much in digital > editing, doesn´t give those critics the right to make themselves into a > critic-director-technical-specialist on marketing-AND movie comentarist as > if they were in front of the orchesta. > > Truly, ignorance is defiant. I wonder if football comentarist feel the > same, making themselves: investors-spectators-technical directors-fans and > commentarists. > So, I took just a simple example to know all of you guy´s points of view > about this: Making more money on the tickets make a better story? Probably > you´ve all read this article: > > http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-expensive-films-end-up-with-crappy-special-effects_p2/ > > > ...and I´m taking notice of how bad news like this spread like wild fire > with no basis to blame the vfx industry. I´ve read the counter article > (here: <http://bit.ly/1DCsfGH>http://bit.ly/1DCsfGH), and some others; so > now I´m just continuing the thoughts here on the list. > > What are your thoughts? > > Cheers. > > -- > Portfolio 2013 <http://be.net/3dcinetv> > Cinema & TV production > Video Reel <https://vimeo.com/3dcinetv/reel2012> > > > -- Portfolio 2013 <http://be.net/3dcinetv> Cinema & TV production Video Reel <https://vimeo.com/3dcinetv/reel2012>
