Filmmaking and Effects (THE SCI-FI BOYS DVD)

Effects and Story-telling from the Sci-Fi Boys Additional Scenes

From
Dennis Muren: The Challenge of "The Empire Strikes Back" And the Revolution of Motion Control and CGI 

...And we started to alot of moving camera stuff way back on the Star Wars film. That whole end battle is all moving aerial stuff. Which comes from George just wanting to tell a story, not being hampered by effects. Y'know we had to come up with effects that would tell his story, not the other way around. Not simple effects to tell the story, but just what he had in mind. So the history of that evolving at ILM is pretty rooted in the company; being able to follow a director's vision, and not have it being hampered by an effects limitation. So ... we very much have pursued moving camera shots from the beginning here, so it was not a big leap to say "Let's do it in computer graphics."

So we got into the ... T2 has got alot of hand-held stuff in it, um ... and, Jurassic certainly does. Just realizing: hey, we need to do it. Then we write the program to do it, we train the people to do it, and we can get the work in the shows.

And now see it everywhere. Y'know, now it has really freed the ... the director up, it's freed the camera-man up, it's freed the production team up. 'Cause they don't have to be as ...as careful when they shoot the work as they used to be. So it saves time, and the by-product of that is, if you do it right, it can be alot cheaper shooting it also, and look better on the screen. Because it has a rougher look to it, than the ... than the precious effects shots.

From
Dennis Muren: The Founding and Growth of Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar

Because there are really two sides to these shows, there's the technical side and how do you get the thing done and just organized to bring the director's vision to the screen.

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What happens is usually a script will come in to ILM; and half the time it's already been decided to use computer graphics, 'cause they want, 'cause they just want to do it. They think... The Director's insisting  on it, this is the way to go to do the show. Other times, they  say "Well, well..." They have an idea that  "we'll use computer graphics here, and we'll use robotics here, and we'll use make-up here" or whatever it is.
 
And then we read the script and sort-of see if we agree with all that. And .. and if it fits in ... fits into our schedule and all, and if the money's there for it, to be able to do it, and how much work it's going to be and ... and d'ya ... can we crew up to be able to get it done. Is it going to fit in all the show's that we're doing. We have ... we can have 1200 working here, working on ... Y'know... anywhere from six to twelve shows going on. So they have to kind of slot in when they can.

And uh ... It's ... the next step in is where we read the script or the budget on it and begin, if we get the job, do design work on it, or someone else will do design work on it. And we'll begin making the computer graphic model at the same time, probably, as someone else is making them a kit, or robotics are being made. Uh whatever ... and we all kind of begin the process of seeing the same thing.

From
Steve Johnson on Inspirations, techniques and Synchronisity

But I think at this point, audiences ... I think the ... the only blur they really had, in my experience, that they think everything is digital. As opposed to knowing when something is a blend between digital and ... and practical.

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I created a film ... I just did a short film. um ... and ... I did it basically out of a vengeance. Just to see ... because, Y'know, as I was saying earlier, the whole creative process of creating something, has been kind of robbed by digital technology ... because now, people will typically call up and say, "Can you make an insert hand?" or "Can you make a scan model?", which is ... fine. But it's not what it used to be. So I decided to satisfy my creative muse, last summer, to make a short film. And it's pretty ... pretty amazing. I should actually let you use this so I can show it to you.

Um ... and I'll tell ya, alot of people wondered why it was not done digitally ... and it wasn't, at all. It's amazing. It was all old school techniques, small scale puppets, full scale puppets ... um ... uh ... Created all of the skies with cloud take effects, plastic is made of ... heat shrunk plastic. I'm sorry, the ground is made of heat shrunk plastic. And then we used digital technology to ... resize, to ... composite, to do alot of interesting things with color-timing and that kind of thing. Ummm ... but it was pretty interesting, actually, just getting down and dirty and making something ... and saying "We're not going to be doing it digitally" and I produced the whole thing myself. We're going to try until we can't get it any more, to do it practically. And... it was a  pretty interesting process, but it also taught me why alot of times it is better. Like...like when the characters deteriorate at the end. We made deteriorating models of these puppets, and it just worked out to be a nightmare. And we ended up deteriorating them digitally.

Hollywood and Filmmaking. (INDIGO DVD)

Best bit From INDIGO extras:


From: Conversations with the Filmaker's

Stephen Simon:
Being able to see this films in various different buildings around the world ... that's an extraordinary experience. Because ... we are saying something new about ourselves, to ourselves. That we can make movies for this audience. That we don't have to dumb them down. That we don't have to quote "HOLLYWOOD-IZE" them. We can actually make films from our hearts and our souls. And we don't have somebody sitting over our shoulder "You know what. Maybe you should make that a little bit broader so that everybody could like it."; and what happens is: everyone walks out the theater saying "y'know what ... that was ... okay.".
 

James Twyman:
I'm really glad you said that, because that so often does happen in Hollywood. And when we set to make 'Indigo', and these other films, it was with the intent of making this with integrity. And ... and what I think is going to happen, is going to expand the natural audience. There are those people who read our books, and people who are in this sort-of field. But there are millions of people who are not, Y'know, being "preached to like the choir". And ... uh ... and I think that movies like 'Indigo' are going to reach out past that natural audience, and touch millions of people that would not normally be touched by these things. And they're going to begin to let them ask those same questions ... and, so I think this is very exciting, this 'spiritual film' genre is going to expand in ways that we haven't even thought of.

Point of the above is that while it's okay to make it a bit outside a small intended audience, it shouldn't try to make everyone happy. When you make it to try to include everyone, it tends to be mediocre.

Things to avoid while filming

Teen's amateur horror shoot turns into personal snuff film

20 May, 02:09 PM

A 16 year-old teenager has accidentally hanged himself shooting an amateur horror film in the Russian city of Kondopoga, Northwest of Russia, Russian website Lenta.ru reports.

The teenager, who has not been named, was rehearsing one of the scenes of his horror film in his apartment on May 16. According to his scrip, the main character had to hang himself because of unrequited love. He put his neck in the noose and then unfortunately fell from the chair he was standing on.

The police discovered his body after two days. According to the medical experts, the cause of boy’s death was asphyxia. There were no other injures on his body.

No criminal case has been opened regarding the death. The investigators believe that it was suicide.

The boy’s friends said that he had been shooting his horror film for three weeks and that he wanted to post it on the Internet.

I'd like your thoughts ...

Was reading an article from moviemaker and the following question popped up.

If you had made a film at 16, what would it have looked like?

My answer:
It probably would have been a post-apocalyptic film. Very dark. That's where I was at that time. It would have been mediocre. The other possibility was a fantasy film, and it would truly have sucked.

Lucas on Star Wars...

If you listen to Star Wars IV: A new hope on DVD, during the Geoerge Lucas commentary. Specically the last chapter (50), this is my transcription:

The first three films I couldn't even have considered at this point and time ... I mean there's no way. This film was very carefully constructed around the technology I had available at the time. It's very, very controlled where we go. It's very limited in what we see. And decisions were made in the storytelling, to say well, I'll only go here and I'll only see this. It'd be great to do all this other stuff, but I can't.

No I can't do that ... like ... in this particular film, well, going to see the Emperor on Coruscant was not a possibility. Psshhtt! No way I could go there. Y'know I kind of knew what the planet was and everything but I didn't... I didn't ... there is no planet. So Y'know I had to create it. I couldn't .. Y'know. Just physically, you can't do that. It's too big. It would take a huge, huge miniature that would be that would be vastly expensive. Y'know on all these films I had limited resources; so I was sort of saying, well, can't do that.

I was very careful not to deal with alot of the other issues that would come up, especially fashion issues and cultural issues. Y'know just enviromental issues that...I was able to do it all in a desert... that kind of looks spacey... and then I'll do a little bit in the jungle. But, Y'know I had ... I controlled my enviroments very carefully, and then...went to the next film. And now we'll do snow...and, y'know, pretty much used up every ... in the couse of these three movies ... every bit of natural terrain that looks exotic, that I could find.

But to go places, to other planets, that were truly exotic, was unthinkable.
And so you couldn't tell a story like that. Like the first three stories .. I mean the first three parts of the trilogy could never have been told using this technology. I mean, it just couldn't be done. So you just don't think about it.

I mean, you could write it as a book or something, but you .. it'd never be a movie. And now ... using digital technology, we're able, esecially in terms of fantasy films, go to places, and make them realistic. That wasn't possible before. That... it's something that was a literary idea. And most science fiction is literary in nature, it's perfect for a book, but it's not ... very good for cinema. It's very easy to create those magical worlds in language. It's very hard to create them ... in a realistic way on the screen... and make them believable. And, the one thing that digital effects have allowed us to do, is to create these alternate realities, in a believable fashion. And tell more fantastic stories, than we were able to do before. Which is, y'know, great for the people trying to put these things into a cinematic medium.

The bold section in the italics is the most important area for Low-budget Indies.
1) Find your limitations, whether financial or technical, and write/shoot within them.
2) Control where the characters go and what is seen, don't build more than you need.
3) It's great to want to do lots of other stuff, but being limited by finances or technology, don't write it in.

It worked in Star wars, he had to keep it tight and personal, because it allowed him to trim expenses. But I think it was why it worked best. You might need a wide-shot or three, but if over-used, it pulls you out of the story.