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ILM Showcases "Dead Man's Chest" Effects Work
bonniegrrl writes "The work of ILM folks (including VFX supervisor John Knoll) is being showcased in a site just launched to explore the mind-blowing visual effects of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (heavy Flash). Interactive clips at the site allow you to peel back layers of animation to see what ILM had to start with before transforming actors wearing tracking markers into astonishingly real characters. Test your effects awareness by making the call: what's real and what's ILM, rotate turntable models of the animated characters, and download some goodies." The submitter also claims that there are a few Easter Eggs of footage in there somewhere.
10:15 Moviewreck
'...fun free footage of some whiny voiced special effects blubberbag in a Perfect Storm baseball cap taking us through a wireframe build of the spectacular finale again and again and again and again until the entire sequence is inorexably rendered so mundane and familiar the experience of finally seeing it... .. feels more like a lunchtime repeat of Knot's Landing than the white knuckle climax it would have been before the slickarsed marketing fucks responsble for tossing together this say-nothing advertorial assault on your dignity spoiled it all as part of their ongoing quest to bully the world into galloping down to the nerest multiplex to gawp at tits and explosions like the oblivious victims of a dystopian stupidity virus.'
A pretty decent porno flick.
I work part time in a sex toy store. We can barely keep the Pirates movie in stock. It is a three-disc set with an HDDVD disc and then the DVD movie disc and I assume a behind the scenes DVD disc. We have been selling it for over six months.
Supposedly the movie was good enough (better than most b-movies) that they removed the explicit stuff and made an unrated version that can be viewed by those under 18 depending on where you live. We, do not allow those under 18 to enter our store, but the local Family Video has the X rated version in the back room, while in the main area with all the other movies you can get the unrated version. It probably sits on the shelf right next to Pirates of the Caribbean.
It is always funny to have someone tell me the movie sucks and they ask why we would sell a non porn film in our store. It is then that I inform them that they only watched the non-X version and that they should watch it again with all of the action.
I still say the greatest scene is about midway through the movie (which is 2 hours long) where they are showing a lesbian scene. The two girls are doing their thing on the floor while about 6-9 pirates stand around occasionally yelling in unison "Arggh" or "God save the wenches". One of the funniest moments I have seen in porn in years.
Now all of you can go back to discussing the tech aspects of the site in the blurb. Although the site is interesting I think it is a little short on details, but I guess that is what a 'behind the scenes' disc is for when you purchase or rent the movie.
I'd have to agree with you, buddy.
The first PotC was such an awesome movie because Disney thought it would suck. They half-made it, and tossed it aside. Because they thought it would fail, they let the director and Johnny Depp do their thing - no market droids wanted to touch it.
Then, when it was all wrapped up and finished, they watched it and said "Damn, this is pretty good." But, before they could market the hell out of it and reinsert more special effects, the thing came out.
You could tell Disney's initial plan was to dump it because it was a "builder" - the thing made increasing amounts of money over the summer.
Goes to show how good movies can be if the market droids leave it alone.
In reply to your post, I disagree that the problems with this movie (similarly with the other movies you mentioned) that the problem was "lack of story" or some other such hand-waving. Some of them do indeed suffer from being "too long" or stretched too thin, but others suffer from pacing problems, problems with character empathy, anticlimactic directing, lack of subtlety, and as you alude for Dead Man's Chest, plot motivation. The swamp woman was indeed a cheap plot device that insults the intelligence of the audience. Be careful not to conflate all bad storytelling with "bad story". Many other factors affect the quality of storytelling in movies, games, books, an anything else.
In staying a bit more on-topic, I must say this: When I learned that Bill Nighy would play the roll of Davy Jones in the new movie, I was thrilled. It was an excellent roll for an actor with his ability to play genuinely dark, scary characters. And, he was hamstrung with effects. His face was covered up with digital prosthetics to the extent that his character was more crawly than creepy.
And I didn't get the sense that The Flying Dutchman was artificial; it was certainly no worse than its soul-less inhabitants. As you allude in at least three places in your post, pacing is the true problem with that scene and with long movies in general. (2: swamp woman breaks action; 3: King Kong / Casino Royale / PotC DMC too long) I call BS on "I could tell it was all CGI." There were very few visual mistakes, but many logical cues it was fake. The effects were well-done, but yeah, pal, everybody else could tell it was all CGI too. In that sentence, "tell" means "discern logically" and not "visually perceive". Of course it's not real. Go watch Office Space if you want a pedestrian setting with pedestrian props.
The important thing to see here is that technology is supplanting and not aiding the storytelling process. You might argue that in this case, the filmmakers' goal was to reduce the humanity of the characters in question. Whatever their motive, the result was that they nerfed the characters; they replaced character with nothing. I didn't think any of the bad guys had a soul except Will's dad. The rest, including Davy Jones (and despite great opportunity to show the nature of his tortured soul) were just CGI anti-mcguffins. Bad why? Bad how? Uhh, they just are, so fear them as the characters do.
I'm a different AC, fyi.