Thursday, August 28, 2014
Here's What Sin City Looks Like Before They Add Any Special Effects
gizmodo.com: It takes a whole lot of special effects to bring a comic book to life on the big screen. So what does a movie like Sin City: A Dame for Kill look like before all the after effects are applied? The answer is basically nothing like the actual film.
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4 comments:
I'm always torn when it comes to movies that are shot mostly in green screen and are essentially made from bits and pieces in post production. On one hand, I think that it does take away from all the traditional film jobs that aren’t needed in this process. Most of the art department, stunts, “real” special effects, etc… see their roles get seriously diminished or even completely disappear. I imagine that it’s less rewarding for the actors to portray their character in the nebulous world of green screen.
On the other hand, it allows for a whole other set of artists and technicians to make the movie in another way. While some film professions are on their way to being considered antiquated and quirky, many other jobs are being created and there is a whole VFX industry that is now able to flourish and grow. I guess it really depends on how one feels about that, and which aesthetic they prefer onscreen. I think that both have merits and that we’re at a really great place in film right now where many movies are using entirely new techniques, while others are making a conscious effort to uphold traditions and do it the old-school way. The green screen approach is definitely appropriate for “Sin City” because the whole concept is that it looks like a comic book, something that is harder to achieve without extensive work in post.
In the end I think there is one thing to keep in mind. This is how movies are made. Piece by piece, shot by shot, in no particular order other than the one that is the most convenient. Often, what happens during filming looks very different from the final product. I spent a month as a PA on a film set this summer, and I honestly had no idea what the movie was actually about until I read the script a couple weeks in. Making movies is weird, disconnected, and post production is a very important part of the process. As such, it’s not that strange to see that phase becoming more and more dominant in certain movies. While I personally really appreciate seeing movies where the original footage is basically the final product, CGI has its merits and uses.
Sin City is one of my favorite movies, and I'm really excited to see the new one. I knew that just about everything in the movie was shot on a green screen, but it was so cool to see who short the takes were and the process behind shooting it. It's so cool to think about the incredible vision that a director, and the whole design team, has to have in order to shoot an entire movie like this. To be able to break an entire movie down into shots, many of which are just a few seconds long, is amazing. I also think that the way that the movie uses CGI is fantastic. I'm usually not a big fan of overusing technology, but in Sin City it really works for setting the movie in a comic book without having it look campy. The first movie was excellent, and I'm looking forward to seeing the new one.
It was very interesting to see how completely different it is to shoot a movie that is being based on a comic book. All of the moments are very physical based and put in a specific spot. It leaves the actors very little room to actually act. They must be too focused on hitting a certain pose for the camera to really listen to each other and share moments. This leads to the blowing up and superficial nature that fits comic books. So though it may not fit captivating acting, it sure makes for a good show when people are shooting guns at each other and delivering "intense" lines to boost up the audiences investment in the movie.
I think this tactic of filming certainly works for filming Sin City, but would fail miserably if it were to be in another film like "Good Will Hunting." Apart from the fact that one movie is about love lost and believing in yourself and the other is a "shoot 'em up" type of movie, the way scenes are done is different. Sin City is much more surface based whereas Good Will Hunting goes into depth about the characters thoughts and relations to each other. This is also a clear way to see that there are simply very different targeted audiences for the two films.
I have to agree with Mr. Brewer in that it is so refreshing to see the behind the scenes takes that show how a movie of this style and caliber comes together. It was enlightening to me to see this as well so that I can know what type of field I am looking into going into. One thing though will all of this technicality is I feel a certain level of truth is inevitably lost. Though movies like this are obviously fictional to the audience that isn't to say that for the characters themselves there should be some validity in feelings and actions. I feel with all of this going on around them that what will eventually suffer is the honest quality that the actors should be conveying.
This being said I think its incredible what this industry can do now and I certainly think it is awesome to see behind the scene on what it takes to mount a piece like that.
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