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Thoughts On Moviemaking-Part Deux

From: Steven Dean
Email: dad1993@gte.net
Remote Name: 63.10.130.182
Date: August 04, 2002
Time: 22:23:59

Comments

Daven (and others)- OK, here's the story. Hollywood always ups the bar. I am a independent video producer myself and whenever I get close to what they can do, they out-do again. The average guy on his home PC will not be soon able to achieve photorealistic imagery suitable for a 35mm reverse negative and 70 mm print. And yes, I have used the Commodore and Toaster years ago. What they used for Babylon 5 was barely suitable for television. That's less than 525 viewable lines of resolution and a relatively low contrast ratio. Film is much, much higher. (The equivalent of 1,200 to 1,500 lines) Notice that every CGI shot of Babylon 5 was essentially a long misty space shot with not much detail, highly backlit with massive added "lens flare". I couldn't imagine the cost of trying to replicate the details of shiny metal, glass and fabric. The technology is coming, yes, but the days of a photorealistic cgi movie with no practicals is just not here. For us, or them. You may say, look at Shrek, or Jurassic Park, for that matter. Looks good, yes, but not perfectly photorealistic. There are mats and layers there and you can try to replicate certain details, but you can never affordably capture the look of a real car crashing into a real gas station, for example. There are details the artist cannot know so he overlooks or overdoes. Ever stare at the sky and think to yourself, If I took at photo of that sky, it would look "too good" and hence fake? Bottom line, professional industry CGI is going up in price, not down. Go get a price quote from Industrial Light and Magic. To model, build, and animate a feature length movie of this scale and magnitude would easily run into the nine figures. Why would they spend this kind of money on one of Stephen King's least loved,lowest performing books and a movie that barely it's scratched 21 million at the box office? Then again, I've seen lesser movies get remade. OK maybe ten. twenty years from now. But not in the near future.

 

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