The Moon-Man of Wellington, CG Fuses With Fraser, & Bye Bye Trek Ride...
Lucasfilm: Easier To Stay Big?
(thescotsman.scotsman.com) George Lucas' enduring interest in Star Wars hints at a lesson that his filmmaking peers have already learned: it is sometimes easier to make big movies than small ones.
As his longtime friend and collaborator Steven Spielberg says: "All of us would like to make these little personal films that sneak into theatres under the radar. Sadly, for George and myself, and others who have enjoyed and endured great success – 'under the radar' has become a no-fly zone."
As he so often does, Lucas takes a lesson from the experience of his friend and mentor Francis Ford Coppola, whose most recent film, Youth Without Youth, received a small independent release that was hardly on the scale of his Godfather movies. "Did you see it?" Lucas asks. "Uh, no. Did you even know it came out?"
Coppola agrees that the films he now makes, and that Lucas says he intends to make, have little chance of achieving blockbuster status. "We make films for ourselves," he tells me. "If no-one wants to see them, what can we do? Emotion does much better at the box office than philosophy."
Other former colleagues of Lucas argue that new Star Wars projects have provided technological boons for the entire film business, yielding Industrial Light and Magic, Lucas's pioneering special-effects company, and EditDroid, the digital film-editing hardware that was a forerunner to the Avid editing system.
"He does it in a way that might begin as self-serving and then, of course, is a bonanza for the whole industry," says Sid Ganis, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who was a Lucasfilm executive during the 1980s.
As Lucas would be the first to remind you, he has proved his detractors wrong many times in his career, from the film executives who thought American Graffiti would work better as a television movie to the industry colleagues who warned him not to finance The Empire Strikes Back with his profits from Star Wars.
When he works on the Star Wars properties he owns outright, Lucas has the freedom to ignore the input of others. In the case of The Clone Wars, he is financing the series himself and charging Time Warner licensing fees to distribute the film and broadcast the show.
"It's much easier for me to just do the show I want, say, 'Here it is, do you wish to license it or not?' " Lucas says. "That's it. There's no notes, no comments. I don't care what your opinion is. You either put it on the air or you don't."
But Lucas's independence cannot shield him from the realities of the film business. He is not planning, at least now, to go head to head with more established animation studios like DreamWorks, Disney and Pixar. The mid-August release of the Clone Wars movie – an unusually late date for a Star Wars film – was scheduled in part to avoid competition with recent offerings from these studios.
It is highly likely that The Clone Wars will be the lowest-grossing Star Wars movie ever; Lucas says he would be satisfied if it made $100 million in the US. Revenge of the Sith, by comparison, grossed $380 million domestically.
Source: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/A--long-time-ago.4258915.jp
Potter Director Grows Fantasy Tree Epic
(blog.zap2it.com) Director Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Donnie Brasco, Love in the Time of Cholera) is set to direct the big screen translation of Terry Brooks' fantasy epic The Elfstones of Shannara.
In the film, an Elvish tree, known as the Ellcrys, is dying. The bad news is that the tree has been the only piece of magic that protects the Four Lands from the Demon World. Amberle Elessedil is the only one who can save the tree. But she has to unlock magic that the Elves haven't used in thousands of years. With the help of Wil Ohmsford, she travels to find the lost magic. But it won't be an easy task.
GPS Meets Motion Capture
(gizmag.com) The development of Fusion Motion Capture (FMC) by Massey University PhD student Matthew Brodie has some broad implications.
The system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System uses sensors attached to the athlete's limbs, helmet and feet to generate raw data from the athlete's movement. The numbers are then crunched with the aid of a computer to reproduce accurate estimates of the position, velocity and acceleration of the athlete's limb segments.
FMC is a general term to describe motion capture when several different streams of data are fused to measure athlete motion. Brodie combines inertial measurement units (IMU), global positioning system (GPS), pressure sensitive insoles, video and theodolite measurements to obtain his raw data though in the future, it's possible that other data might be used from gyroscopes or magnetometers. GPS data is fused with local acceleration data to track the global trajectory.
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/fusion-motion-capture-set-to-revolutionise-biomechanical-analysis/9579/
Moon-Man Joins Dambusters
(stuff.co.nz) With a trademark eye for detail, film-maker Peter Jackson has hired an astronomer to ensure the moon's position in his movie Dambusters is spot-on.
A full moon was key to the May 1943 Dambusters raids, in which Allied planes bombed German dams at night.
Former Carter Observatory senior astronomer Brian Carter, not related to the founding Carter family, was asked to research the moon's position over Germany at the time.
"Somebody just rang up. I didn't realise it was for Peter Jackson until later."
Mr Carter has since been made redundant from the observatory and has set up a paid service providing information about celestial events.
Computer software allows him to find where the moon was at any time, anywhere on the globe.
"We can see its position, how bright it was, that sort of thing."
He was impressed by the lengths Jackson had gone to.
"I think these days film-makers like to get things as right as possible. In the past there have been a few bloopers."
The attack took place on May 16, 1943, a date chosen for the full moon, and because the dams' water levels were high.
The moon's dim glow gave just enough light for flight crews to perform the precise task of dropping unique bouncing bombs on the dams, but also exposed them to anti-aircraft fire, meaning they had to hug the ground. A deadly mix of German guns and accidents from low-level flying meant that of the 19 Lancaster bombers and 133 crew taking part, eight planes and 56 men were lost.
Jackson is known as a director who likes to put the stamp of authenticity on his films. For his remake of King Kong he created a mini 1930s New York set in the Lower Hutt suburb of Seaview.
A spokesman for Jackson said Dambusters was still in pre-production. Filming was expected to start next year.
CGI Geniuses Fuse With Brandon Fraser
(suntimes.com) Fraser -- whose summer blockbuster candidate, "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D," opens Friday -- is actually the perfect guy for a little monster mashing.
Fraser is a pro at dealing with CGI requirements in a film, thanks to his work on the "Mummy" series. "I've learned a lot in the 15 years that I've been lucky enough to work on films that were CGI intensive," he says. "Mostly what I know is that you have to forget the tricks and remember that you're an actor. You must believe in what you're doing. That's what helps the CGI geniuses the most. If you really act it, then they can fuse it with their thing."
'Hancock' Bumps 'WALL-E'
(sfgate.com) Los Angeles -- Will Smith's box-office superpowers remain intact.
Smith's "Hancock," the story of a boozing, foul-mouthed superhero who dresses like a street bum, led the Fourth of July weekend with a $66 million premiere, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Hancock" is Smith's fifth movie to open at No. 1 over the Fourth of July, after "Men in Black," its sequel, "Independence Day" and "Wild Wild West."
The previous weekend's top flick, the Disney-Pixar animated tale "WALL-E," slipped to second place with $33.4 million. Its 10-day total is $128.1 million.
The top 12 movies pulled in $158.7 million, down 4 percent from the Fourth of July weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
"Hancock" brought in $78 million more in 50 other countries.
How Many WALL•E's Did Pixar Build?
(features.cgsociety.org) In the end, the WALL•E character required four different versions of the model. There was the model used in most of the shots that had sustained damage from his years of toil. That particular model had roughly 140,000 vertices, and the final Maya file for WALL•E was a whopping 168MB. "The joke on the show was, when I first modeled it, it was a little heavy because each one of his treads had as many points as Lightning McQueen from Cars, so it was like he was carrying around a Lightening McQueen on each foot." There was also what they called "Clean WALL•E" with no damage, "Dead WALL•E" for when the terrain was scattered with broken robots, and a fourth model that Lee wouldn't reveal because it was a spoiler, but turned out to be the most complicated to create.
Much more: http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4581
1932 The Mummy Teaches Monsters 101
(acedmagazine.com) I found the 1932 version of The Mummy fascinating, but not very thrilling or scary. It was a lot of fun to see how early filmmakers made the black and white films and how they had to use make-up and costuming for their special effects. The film is a must for all film buffs and students of film.
I was disappointed in He Who Made Monsters: The Life & Art of Jack Pierce. The film features most of his creations, including Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman and others. The let down comes from expecting to see how the make-up went on from start to finish, but only a couple of clips were provided. Some modern day make-up artists are on hand to applaud the work of Pierce and his artistry. They went on to mention that Pierce didn't have the special mask products of today that make the process of creating a monster convincing in less time. For example, it took some eight hours to make Karloff into The Mummy.
The best feature is called Universal Horror, a documentary narrated by Kenneth Branagh that takes you on a fascinating journey through the making of Universal's most memorable monster films from the 20s through the 50s. From Dracula to The Invisible Man to King Kong, the trip has some very fascinating sequences about how the films were made and the effects on the box office. Even some archival footage of Hitler gets thrown in to give you some idea of what was going on during the release of some of the films.
CG Artists + Google Maps = Revolution?
(forums.cgsociety.org) CGVancouver is going towards a global target objective of making a map of all the studios in the world by using google.map. We are also planning to bring all the cgartists together so that more and more studios will recognize these talented artists and hire them instead of talented artists seeking out the studios. Were planning to revolutionize and change the worlds vision on artists.
Check it out: http://www.cgvancouver.com
S'pore Studio To Roll Out Next Big Star Wars Game
(digital.asiaone.com) The Republic's computer game and animation industry has been given a boost with its involvement in the next big Star Wars franchise, The Clone Wars.
The Singapore studio of Lucasfilm Animation is making the Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance game for the Nintendo DS handheld platform.
It also had a hand in the creation of the Clone Wars TV series. Both will have their worldwide launch in a few months' time.
The Clone Wars is Star Wars creator George Lucas' next project and is set in the period between the second episode of the hit movie franchise, The Attack Of The Clones, and the third, Revenge Of The Sith.
It is a 3D-animation series comprising a movie, a TV series and two video games.
The movie will be released in August; the TV series, which will be shown on Cartoon Network, will be launched in October, while the Jedi Alliance and a game for the Wii console - The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels - will both be released during the year-end holiday season.
Jedi Alliance is a made-in-Singapore product as it was conceptualised, designed and developed by the games division of Lucasfilm Animation's studio at Changi Business Park.
This is Lucasfilm's first studio outside the United States and was started three years ago. Lucasfilm owns the majority of the Singapore studio, although the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Creative Technology also have investments in it.
Lucasfilm Singapore's staff strength has grown to 260 employees from 40 countries. It has several divisions, of which the 72-member games division is one. Half the games team is made up of Singaporeans.
Mr Keh Choon Wee, 32, one of the Singaporean digital artists at the studio, said: "It's a dream come true for me."
In the Jedi Alliance, players control two out of six Jedis who include Anakin, Obi-wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Anakin's new apprentice Ahsoka Tano. It is both a single-player as well as two-player co-operative game.
Mr Feargus Carroll, head of Lucasfilm Singapore's games division, told The Sunday Times that the game will expand on the main storyline from the TV series and promises "stunning graphics".
He said the aesthetics are so good that it is more of a console game like the PlayStation 2 than the Nintendo DS handheld game.
He added that he had to hire a lot of foreign talent because "while there was plenty of raw talent in Singapore, experienced talent was lacking".
"Singapore does not have people who have been making games for like 10 to 15 years. But I think that in 10 years, with games like Jedi Alliance, Singapore will have the talent it needs," he said.
The game may be made for the small screen, but it marks a huge milestone in Singapore's games development industry. This is the first major brand-name games title produced in Singapore for the global market.
The closest success story is Koei Singapore, the local studio of the Japanese games maker which launched the made-in-Singapore Romance Of The Three Kingdoms online game in March for the Japanese market. An English version is being planned for release in Singapore soon.
Mr Manohar Khiatani, assistant managing director of the EDB, said he was delighted with the successful development of the Clone Wars game and that it underscores Singapore's growing position as a location for developing high-quality digital content.
The EDB announced at the end of 2005 that it has committed $1 billion over the next 10 years to boost the digital media industry to a $10billion-a-year industry by 2018.
Star Trek: The Experience Closing in Vegas
(blog.wired.com) EnterpriseOffering a sad commentary on the state of the Star Trek franchise, the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas will shut down Star Trek : The Experience this fall.
Part simulator, part environment, part museum and (of course) part gift shop/restaurant, the Experience opened 10 years ago during the height of popularity for the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies. The exhibit gave fans a chance to examine a Trek time line with a collection of sci-fi relics. Then visitors could talk to a Klingon over a drink after strolling across the bridge of the Enterprise.
But, the exhibit isn't drawing the fans it once did -- just as the franchise is fading off the public radar. While J.J. Abrams is hustling to save Star Trek on the big screen, it's too late to save it in Vegas.
The collection of props, costumed "aliens" and adventure simulators was a welcome, nerd-friendly escape from the hustling sleaze and nonstop pinging of slot machines filling the rest of the town. There's no word what will be done with the emptied retail space in the Hilton, but the museum props, ship mock-ups and other bits of Trek history will be returned to Paramount.
CBS/Paramount statements indicate the search is on for the Experience's new home.
