io9.com: Nowadays, when you go see a big movie, you assume everything is going to be computer animation and greenscreen, and nothing is real. But a lot of the biggest, craziest movie stunts, past and present, have been entirely practical. Here are some of the most complicated stunt sequences that were created in reality.
12 comments:
I have seen most of the movies in this article and I cannot believe that most of those stunts were real. I am a huge fan of doing the real thing instead of CGI because I have always thought that you can tell the difference. Even with the best CGI it is difficult to recreate all the elements of what it would look like in real life, especially gravity and humans. My favorite stunt in this article has to be from terminator 2 because James Cameron filmed it himself.
Ah!!! Stunts are so awesome! The fact that so many movies use real stunts is actually really nice to see. You think that now, with all of the technology that we have, that EVERYTHING is done using technology. It's great that not everything is getting consumed into this tech savy world! The fact that there is real danger makes it so much more exciting. I think the general audience is so jaded that even if the stunts are real, they would think it's all special effects.
It's pretty amazing hearing about all the time, equipment, and people that go into making a few minute long stunt. I can see the safety in CGI but the human and mental capability of the people involved in these stunts is incredible. I wish the article had mentioned more how many engineers and crew went into producing these stunts. It was cool to hear that 500 crew members went into the filming of the Inception stunt but I am also curious as to how many were in the Logan's Run stunt.
I think these are super interesting because, as I've said many a time, this is kind of what I want to do. Just more for theatre. Which this live kind of stunting is. I think that there is a huge opportunity to expand engineering into theatre, especially when we want to do amazing live stunts like this. It's true we already have seen a large development in theatrical automation, but I think that as engineering seeps more into theatre, more spectacular stunts can be achieved, and the examples in this article seem to support that.
I love when thinks are done by hand and not faked. All of these stunts that were real and cost tons of money could have been done with CGI, but looses a sense of realness. You should only fake it if you have to, if the money is there then the effect should come off stronger. It reminds me of the laser cutter to some degree, people love to use the laser cutter (CGI) because it tends to be easier and can go a fantastic job making things look nice. However, the laser cutter is not the device that should be used on all projects. When projects are constructed by hand you can appreciate the quality of the product much more than if its something made by a machine. When people find out that a project (movie scene) was created by hand (real action), there is a greater appreciation and respect for the work. In some instances the laser cutter or CGI is a cop out and not using it to its full potential. I was very excited when reading this article to discover that movies are still trying to make scenes look real as possible.
It's really amazing that all of these crazy stunts were actually live action and not CGI. It's nice to know that directors, even though they have the technology to fake all of these stunts, chose to do them live. I did know a fair amount of the movies on the list, all of the Nolan movies and transformers, were done live. I actually know the owner of the rigging company that provided all of the gear for Transformers when it shot in Chicago. Hopefully this trend of choosing live over CGI stunts will continue.
Doing these stunts for real takes the movie to a higher level. I suddenly have way more respect for them then I use to. Actually doing the stunts actually makes the movie loook better too. Sometimes the viewer can see where the real part ends and the CGI part starts, but if all the stunts are real, then there are no gaps to fill between the two parts. For half of the movies on the list, I was convinced that they had faked the stunts, but apparently I was completely off. I hope directors continue to choose real over fake; maybe even the real actors will do all their own stunts.
I've seen a lot of the stunts on this list, and I think it's really cool that they were actually real. CGI has reached a point where at times it can be hard to tell what's real and what isn't, but doing things for real definitely brings a new dimension to films. It's also really interesting to see that some directors try to avoid CGI as much as possible today, but years ago when it was new, and looked really cheesy at times (I was watching Ghostbusters yesterday), they used it much more. Of course, I really like some CGI and I think that some movies, like Sin City, use really well. I found this article to be really interesting, and I think it's great that there are people in the industry who would rather have huge teams and tons of equipment to make a stunt look realistic rather than make them all computerized effects.
This article was fascinating. I think the best reward form actually doing stunts is exactly what Joseph Gordon-Levitt said "There's no substitute for real human energy and performance." I think like everything else actually doing the stunts helps tell the story better and if the actors are doing the stunts helps the actors tell the story better through their character.
I think this is all awesome and i love how this emphasizes the importance of doing things live! I hate it when movies just use cgi for everything because you can totally tell the difference. Also, despite some of the difficulties that they describe, I think with modern machinery and motion control systems, some of these wouldnt actually be as difficult as they describe. I've seen some of these movies and completely agree that their special effects are great, and this article makes me want to see even more. I do however think they should have mentioned the head to tail truck flip in the dark knight, which was also Christopher nolan, because thats pretty intense, and also one of my personal favorites.
Of all the stunts presented in this artical, the one I find most surprising is the hallway from inception.
I just pulled up the clip on youtube, and I feel like the hallway has a very artificial quality to it. Maybes thats because I'm almost expecting to see it as a CGI type effect, but I think it's incredible that actors (with limited stunt training) managed to undertake and master such a feat.
When are we going to see effects like this hit the stage?
I love it when practical effects are used instead of CGI. Seeing a lot of relatively newer movies using these techniques as well is great because I want to work in practical effects after I graduate. Some of the stunts mentioned in this article I had heard of before, such as the Inception hallway, but others are new to me and very cool. One that especially surprised me was the web swinging in the Amazing Spider Man, I can't even imagine how they made an actor swing down a street in that manner.
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