Whatever you think of Speed Racer, the new alternate-reality VFX fest from the Wachowski Brothers directorial team, you'll have to admit that it doesn't look like anything you've seen before.... »
A major tenet of the production was keeping things real—from the suit to the cameras. By the end of post-production, however, animators at ILM were helping to design shots, including tweaking the camera. “Production drove the bus,” says Academy Award-winning VFX supervisor John Nelson, “but everybody was involved. Jon [Favreau] and I both believe the best idea is going to win, wherever it comes from.”... »
It's been known for a while now (at least since the 2005 release of Chicken Little) that animated films do especially well in 3D versions. But the success of recent 3D projects like U23D, and especially Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour — which opened to a stunning $31 million weekend on a relative handful of digital 3D screens in the U.S. — has many in Hollywood taking another look at the feasibility of 3D for live action, especially on a tight budget.... »
In one key scene, actress Emma Bell gives a terrific performance in a two-minute close-up. The only problem with the shot? No tears. Guava, which was already looking to expand into feature-film work, said it would see what it could do about that.... »
Visual-effects artists at CIS Hollywood worked with Clooney and production designer Jim Bissell to turn a junior-high-school football field in Boiling Springs, SC, a middle-school football field in Travelers Rest, SC, and Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, NC into ever-larger stadiums that they filled with crowds of digital people. ... »
Jason Kohn says he didn't make Manda Bala in order to raise awareness of poverty, or to effect change in Brazil. He says he made it more to challenge what he saw as hopelessly mundane, limiting ideas about what documentary films could and should be.... »
He's not exactly a household name, but movie buffs know Wong Kar Wai as one of the most distinctive stylists working in film today. F&V asked him about his first time working in the U.S., why digital cinema is "too perfect," and the future of film-watching.... »
For Tim Alexander, visual effects supervisor at ILM, The Spiderwick Chronicles marked a career high – the biggest and most complicated film he has supervised so far, with the largest crew, the most creature animation, and a director, Mark Waters, who had not worked on a visual effects film before.... »
“When I first read the script for Semi-Pro, I was struck by the very intelligent story, and that made me laugh out loud every other line,” recalls Shane Hurlbut, ASC. Simultaneously, I was envisioning a look, including textures and colors that evoked the appropriate feelings for this story.”... »
"It is about people becoming reporters," director George Romero says. "I guess there's a collective subconscious. You've got Redacted, you've got Cloverfield, you've got Vantage Point. Everybody seems to be aware of this camera that's on us. It's like, 'I am a camera.' Everybody's a camera these days."... »
