Really, that shouldn't surprise anyone. The Wachowskis have given us some of the most memorable and compelling visuals of the past two decades in their films—from the bullet-time shots of the Matrix to the textured cityscapes of Cloud Atlas.
Friday, February 06, 2015
Camera Experts Designed a New Kind of 360° Rig for Jupiter Ascending
Really, that shouldn't surprise anyone. The Wachowskis have given us some of the most memorable and compelling visuals of the past two decades in their films—from the bullet-time shots of the Matrix to the textured cityscapes of Cloud Atlas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
When they filmed the matrix, there were a few more cinematic innovations than just the 360° bullet time rig. Their use of combined CGI and live action filming was welcome at the time when everything was becoming more CGI but was not good enough CGI to convince anyone, and in some cases was disturbing or uncomfortable to watch. However, their 360° Camera rig for the bullet time scene was pretty cool. For those that haven’t seen it, it was actually a circle of cameras around the actors, and the shot was stitched together from hundreds of camera taking stills or very short clips. The Steadi-Multi-Cam system that they built for this one is pretty cool too. Just as how CGI was a budget saving tool for movies, this camera was to save budget too. However because of innovation as a result of necessity, it is already changing the way movies are filmed.
I am glad such efforts are being made to preserve and genuinely capture the world a film is trying to present. Instead of using graphics and the almost-infinite capabilities of computers to create the look that is desired, more effort is now being applied to the other end to ensure that reality can be captured and presented the way it really is.
When people set out to tell a story within the frame of a known reality like the city of Chicago, I feel there is a fidelity that is owed to the city and those who have turned the city into what it is today. There is the responsibility of the storyteller to preserve the integrity of the locations they use if they are capitalizing upon the uniqueness of a location in their story. In addition to using the technology to move viewers closer to the reality of a setting, this panoramic camera also has the potential to really revolutionize the way so many movies are shot, boosting efficiency and the kinds of shots that can be captured.
I love that even with a medium such as film we are still able to improve how films can be shot. The way the cameras are able to mimic the way we see things is great. I think I've seen similar devices when I've seen the behind scene features of IMAX films. The more an audience can be immersed into a story the better a story can be told. Although I haven't seen Jupiter Ascending, from what I saw from the clips shown it looks like it could be pretty cool visually, not only because of this camera but because of the special effects with this 3D perspective in mind.I'm interested to see what results would come of seeing this on a 4k Screen as well as an IMAX screen. I think we are finally getting to a point in visual technology where what we see on screen is sometimes better then what we see in reality.
This is so beyond cool! I have always wondered how they filmed aerial scenes, and the difficulty and precision necessary to create these scenes in the air must be incredible. I especially loved the short video clip of the six different camera inputs—watching how the six cameras worked together to create such a quality image was very interesting and informative. I’ve never seen a multi-camera array like that before. I don’t know much about film, but the article explains that to get a high definition image they would usually do multiple passes. How does this array, split up into six different sections of the city rather than six versions of the same image, help them to achieve the higher quality? I would also be interested in learning more about the engineering behind the adjustable mount of the cameras, and how they have managed to cut down on the vibrations from helicopters, etc. Very cool!
Post a Comment