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Film History & Appreciation | VFX Titans Remember Ray Harryhausen
"When we grieve Ray Harryhausen's passing, we are at least in part grieving perhaps the last living link to the earliest days of movie visual effects," says Creative COW's Debra Kaufman. She spoke to many of today's VFX giants who were inspired by Ray, including Phil Tippett, Richard Edlund, Jeffrey A. Okun and ILM Animation Director Hal Hickel, who says, "Ray Harryhausen's impact on an entire generation (several actually) of filmmakers cannot be overstated, each of them trying again and again to reproduce the wonder they first felt as a child watching Jason fight those skeletons."
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | Iron Man 3, Marvel & The Future of the Superhero
Victoria Alonso, Marvel Studios Executive Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production, began her career in the early days of the digital visual effects industry. We had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Victoria about the Iron Man movies, post production's evolution, remote dailies and coloring on set, 4K & HFR, and keeping the modern superhero movie fresh.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | Coloring Game of Thrones
HBO's Game of Thrones is a rich palette of colour and display. Ireland's Screen Scene Post Production took on the task of enhancing the balance between worlds so vastly different, that colour play was a powerful component to straddling the extremes. Debra Kaufman looks into the slew of talent that brought these fantasy realms to light.
Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | Lawrence of Arabia: Sony's Beautiful 4K Restoration
Sony Pictures Entertainment recently finished a 3-year process culminating in a stunning 4K restoration of the 1962 masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, completed just in time for the film's 50th anniversary. Guided by Sony Executive Vice President Grover Crisp, this massive project engaged cutting-edge technology and expertise from Sony Colorworks DI facility as well as Prasad Corporation and MTI Film, working together on a newly scanned negative. One of the most beautiful films of all time is now more gorgeous than ever.
Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | Behind the Lens: Captain America: The First Avenger
Join Debra Kaufman as she goes behind the lens in the latest installment of her film vfx series, as Captain America: The First Avenger is brought from the realm of comic book imagination and 2D art, to the 3D world with stunning visual effects. Get the inside story of how thirteen VFX houses contributed to this new Marvel super-hero franchise as they share their stories with Debra Kaufman.
Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | VFX Crossroads: Causes & Effects Of An Industry Crisis
The VFX industry is in a crisis. As Life of Pi won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, the venerable facility that created those effects - Rhythm & Hues - declared bankruptcy, and they're hardly the first to close their doors due to financial problems. Debra Kaufman pulls from her 25 years of experience covering the industry to take a close look at how the creators of some of cinema's indelible images are falling prey to dysfunctional business models. Their deep historical roots have also led to visual effects becoming one of the least-profitable areas of film and TV production. How did we get here?
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | 'Children of Paradise' restored to 4K
Children of Paradise [Les Enfants du Paradis] is perhaps the most stunning classic film you've probably never seen. The movie was made in 1943 - 1944, when the Nazis forbade the making of films longer than 90 minutes, and released in 1945. It was last shown in the U.S. 30 years ago, despite the fact that 600 French critics, directors, actors and technicians have voted it as "Best French Film Ever." Join Debra Kaufman as she brings the restoration of this classic beauty to light the story of how Éclair Labs in Paris battled a disintegrating nitrate original.
Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | Sony Imageworks Takes Us On The Yellow Brick Road to OZ
Sony Imageworks provided over 1,100 digital visual effects shots to Oz the Great and Powerful, a movie which explains how a small time magician became the great Wizard of Oz. Featured are two all-digital characters, the 18-inch China Girl and Finley, the wise-cracking monkey with wings, as well as a host of other digital creatures from river fairies to flying baboons. In addition, Imageworks provided environments from the Kansas Circus to Emerald City and effects work that include the magic of evil and good witches and Oz himself.
Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | The Library of Congress Unlocks The Ultimate Archive System
The Library of Congress is working to preserve film for hundreds, even thousands of years. Seriously. In this article from Creative COW Magazine, Ken Weissman, Supervisor of the Library's Film Preservation Laboratory, tells the steps they're taking toward the ultimate archive system, starting with the restoration of films first printed on paper instead of film!
Feature
Ken Weissman |
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Film History & Appreciation | Behind the Lens: Cinesite's magic touch with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
More from our exciting series, Behind the Lens: Creative COW's Debra Kaufman had an opportunity to speak with Cinesite 2D supervisor Andy Robinson and 3D supervisor Holger Voss about their facility's work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. One thing is clear to anyone who's followed the Harry Potter franchise: the movies, which began in 2001, are a visual representation of the increasing maturity of visual effects artists and their technology. It's more than just Voldemort's nose, too, that Cinesite has created. Look behind the lens and unveil the magic.
Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation
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Film History & Appreciation | The VFX Files: Nancy St. John of Prime Focus Vancouver
A pioneer in digital visual effects, Nancy St. John most recently worked on Men in Black 3, as Prime Focus' Executive Producer. Her career has spanned the beginnings of digital visual effects at Digital Productions and Robert Abel & Associates in Hollywood to Vancouver or "Hollywood North." She shares her experiences with Creative COW.
People / Interview
Nancy St. John |
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Film History & Appreciation | These Amazing Shadows
An editor's journey through the films that made America (or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love the B-Roll)
Feature, People / Interview
Doug Blush |
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Film History & Appreciation | Method Studios: VFX for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Method Studios was approached by Fox's visual effects team to work on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and were offered some very tasty stuff to solve - a train sequence with burning bridges, full CG fire, all in stereo. As CG artists, this is the kind of meaty work you really want to go after. Randy Goux shared his experiences on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter with Creative COW.
Feature
Randy Goux |
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Film History & Appreciation | Bill Taylor, ASC Commended with the John A. Bonner Medal
VFX pioneer Bill Taylor, ASC has been voted to receive the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which was presented at the 2013 Scientific and Technical Awards. Inspired by Ray Harryhausen and some of the greatest icons of effects history, Bill has achieved feats of his own. We had the opportunity to speak with him about his luminary career.
Feature, People / Interview
Bill Taylor, ASC |
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Film History & Appreciation | What Star Wars Means To Me
Part of the criteria your future spouse must meet is a deep knowledge of the Star Wars Universe and you can quote most of the lines from at least one of the original Episodes, but how did the magic, the action, the VFX (before you even knew what VFX were and it was all oh so real!), and The Force, change you? Mike Cohen answers with what Star Wars means to him.
Editorial, Feature
Mike Cohen |
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Film History & Appreciation | VFX Crossroads Pt. 2: Can The VFX Business Be Saved?
In VFX Crossroads, Part 1, we took a close look at how the seeds of the VFX industry’s dysfunctional business model were planted in its earliest days. Although outsourcing and tax incentives/subsidies are the culprits most often cited in today’s news, we saw that the financial picture for VFX houses is far more complex than that. Here in Part 2, we look at some of the solutions proposed by leading voices in the VFX industry, including a VFX facility trade associations, a union or guild, and ending subsidies. The question is, is it all too little too late?
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | The SciTech Award Goes to... The Lowry Process
On February 11, the Academy will honor John D. Lowry, Ian Cavén, Ian Godin, Kimball Thurston and Tim Connolly with a Scientific and Engineering Award for "the development of a unique and efficient system for the reduction of noise and other artifacts, thereby providing high-quality images required by the filmmaking process."
Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | Depth of Field: Gregg Toland, Citizen Kane and Beyond
Whenever somebody equates "shallow depth of field" and "cinematic look," it's good to remember that the opposite is sometimes true. Gregg Toland, ASC was the first master of extreme depth of field, and movies like Citizen Kane and The Grapes of Wrath forever changed what it is possible for humans to do with cameras. Here's a look at what that means for YOUR shooting.
Editorial, Feature
Tim Wilson |
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Film History & Appreciation | Aaron Sims: Previs and Visual FX Design
Aaron Sims talked to Creative COW about his work on the much-lauded TV series "Falling Skies," as well as summer VFX hits "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter." Sims is also working on a feature-length version of his short "Archetype."
Feature
Aaron Sims |
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Film History & Appreciation | Review: The Hobbit Without An Unexpected Pun in the Title
Not being a teenage Tolkien freak anymore, Kylee Wall was reasonably enthusiastic, but not lose-your-mind crazy like she was when she saw The Two Towers back in the day. She wasn't even dressed up in an elven cloak and holding a bow like the girl that sat next to her. But when the film entered Bag End for the first time with Ian Holm narrating - In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit - Yikes, emotions. Read Kylee's reactions to seeing The Hobbit in all its glory - 3D, HFR, and all.
Review
Kylee Wall |
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Film History & Appreciation | Stereoscopic Cinema: A Discussion & Review of The Hobbit
There is no doubt that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a cinematic work of art, but Mike Cohen looks beyond the technical jargon, remembers some of the first 3D, discusses what HFR 3D is today - something completely new - and gives us a great movie review of The Hobbit.
Editorial, Feature
Mike Cohen |
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Film History & Appreciation | Jurassic Park 3D: A New Dimension For A Modern Classic
If you liked Jurassic Park the first time around, you're going to love it in 3D. If there was ever a movie that cried out for a third dimension, it was this one: T-Rex towering over the teetering SUV? Raptors skittering in the kitchen? Jurassic Park's already edge-of-your-seat scenes get even scarier in stereoscopic 3D. Conversions from 2D to 3D have gotten a bad rap due to a small handful of movies that were not done skillfully. Stereo D- which also did the conversion work for Titanic -- handled Jurassic Park. President William Sherak and Vice President, Chief Creative Officer Aaron Parry talked to Creative COW about their work on Spielberg's dinosaur blockbuster, and why 2D-to-3D conversions are booming.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Film History & Appreciation | The Joy of Filmmaking
People have been understandably speaking about Martin Scorsese's film "Hugo" as a celebration of the life and films of Georges Méliès, but it is also a tribute to those who LOVE to watch films and even to film preservation.
Editorial
Tim Wilson |
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Film History & Appreciation | Academy is the New Home for 70,000 Vintage Hollywood Stills
The trove of still photographs and memorabilia that comprise the Bison Archives, a private collection of film historian Marc Wanamaker, now paint a comprehensive story of the history of film in America, from its earliest days to the present. Creative COW couldn't pass up the opportunity to know more about this impressive collection and the raison d'etre for its existence.
Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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