Film: April 2005 Archives
I attended the sweet premiere of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yesterday, and it was a blast!
Being familiar with some of the books growing up, I had forgotten about most of the main characters except Zaphod and Arthur Dent. Needless to say, if you've read the books you'll be sure and recognize most of the storyline. However, being a film and not a book, they needed to tie up some loose endings so the movie-going public would be satisfied.
I'm quite happy with the creation of Hitchhikers. The actors did a wonderful job at bringing the characters to life, and all of prosthetic, makeup, and visual effects were amazing. It was quite refreshing to see puppetry in action again, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop did some amazing work.
As you see the film, you may recognize the voice talent and acting of certain performers that were in a similar space comedy, Galaxy Quest. Sam Rockwell played Guy, the expendable crew member in that film, and did an excellent job of portraying Zaphod Beebleblox in this one. Alan Rickman did a great job of voice acting Marvin, the manic depressive robot. Alan just has the right voice to say, the world sucks and I'm depressed because of it.
There are some great comedy bits, and it's a great space adventure film for the family, being rated PG.
Overall, I'd rate The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a resounding 9 out of 10.
Even though SharkBoy is a show for the kids, working on it is anything but child's play!
Well, it looks like Shark Boy and Lava Girl are pushing us to the edge!
Approximately 240 hours remain until our May 5th deadline. It's sure to be a crunch, but I seem to work better under these pressures. I guess it's from my time on the discreet boxes, where everything was much faster. So far I've gotten one final shot completed (both left and right eye), and several in progress. As I mentioned before, I have around 21 shots that I'm part of, and I think that just increased yesterday, whether it's just the greenscreen removal, look development, or comping the final shot. It's definitely going to get hectic when we finally get our TD renders and plug them in and see what we need to do to finish the shots.
It's been going around work, but here's a sneak peek at the cover art.
Earlier in the year I saw a great independent film entitled Primer. Here's a quick plot summary from IMDB.
At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more. There is some idea, some mechanism, some accidental side effect that is standing between them and a pure leap of innovation. And so, through trial and error they are building the device that is missing most. However, two of these men find the device and immediately realize that it is too valuable to market. The limit of their trust in each other is strained when they are faced with the question, If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?
What exactly is this film about? On the recommendation of a fellow co-worker, I attended this film with him and two other co-workers. I had no idea what to expect, but he told me it was mind-blowing. It revolves around time travel, yet not in some fancy visual effects type of time travel like The Time Machine or Back To The Future, but barebones, no-budget time travel. Like Time Bandits. Without the midgets.
The story starts out very well, and you're not really sure what is going on. After an accident, the two main characters find accelerated growth in their fancy device which they are inventing, since they know that their error-checking devices are the means to put food on the table. The film actually takes you through what happens in a recursive time loop, which is mind-blowing in itself. What happens if you create a time machine, and make it portable enough to take that machine with you when you travel through time? Can you travel forward (or back) in time and give yourself that same portable time machine? What would happen? Could you have two time machines then? But wouldn't you be giving yourself more than one? Won't the universe crash? I wish I could explain it in more detail, but I can't ruin the film for you guys! It's really great if you're into mind-bending films like Pi or Memento. Unfortunately near the end, the director (who also stars, edits, and shoots the film) doesn't know how to end it. There are a number of voice overs which try to explain what's been happening, but the audience doesn't really know. Which sort of makes sense, since the film itself is recursive.
I give it a 7 out of 10. It would be higher if the director knew how to end the film without resorting to a voiceover explaining the characters motivations and actions. The DVD comes out on Tuesday, April 19th, so I'll be picking it up to watch again.
Yet another update in the span of a week! How crazy is that.
Earlier in the month we got word that a couple of sequences fell into our lap for the upcoming Superman Returns film. I'm not sure of the exact number of shots, but I seem to recall somewhere around 200. Some other shops which will also be working on the show include the Pixel Liberation Front (what an awesome name), Rising Sun (situated in Australia), and Imageworks (Spiderman. 'nuf said).
It looks like all the hard environmental effects work (Matrix Revolutions, Constantine) that the studio has been doing over the past several years is paying off! We're bidding on other shows (isn't every company?), and as soon as it's publicly announced and awarded, you'll know too!
Today marks the three week deadline for The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D.
We're not the only shop working on the show.. Along with The Orphanage, Hybride, CafeFX and ILM, our twenty-one day deadline is fast approaching. We approximately have 40 shots to complete in this timeframe, so everything is going to significantly speed up very soon. Divide our forty shots by six compers, six TDs, several painters and rotoscopers, a plethora of animators and production crew, a large dose of wake up juice, and you can gather an idea of what's required to pull this off.
Hopefully when this show ends in 504 hours, I'll be able to share some of the complexities of comping in 3D.
On opening day, yesterday, I embarked on a graphic journey through Frank Miller's Sin City.
A bunch of Tippetteers and Pixies made up the bulk of the 8pm showing. Despite crappy projection, the film was, in my mind, a great success. The noirish feel of the film was definitely apparent through Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's collaboration. For those of you not in the know, Sin City is a collection of graphic novels created several years ago. It is full of sex and violence, and is told in black and white, with splashes of color to accentuate certain details.
The movie follows the graphic novels almost to a T. All the characters were well cast, with Mickey Rouke doing an excellent job at portraying Marv, one of the main characters in the film. Bruce Willis was also captivating as Hartigan, and of course, all the girls were great. Frank Miller did a cameo as well, as the priest.
Sean, May, Dan, Christina, if you guys are reading, you did a great job! I saw your names, and am wondering what you did for the show!
Overall, this movie proves that comic to film adaptations don't have to end in a PG or PG-13 rating. I'm going to have to give this movie a 9 out of 10, and will be definitely adding it to the collection!
