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Explaining the Special Effects Behind Transformers
ntmokey writes "Popular Mechanics has an in-depth look at the special effects behind the Transformers movie, including some exclusive shots from Paramount Pictures. Apparently, using real cars as models presented some interesting problems for the folks at Industrial Light and Magic, who had to figure out how a recognizable chunk of steel can fold into robot. In the end, the solution was the development team getting hands-on in the auto shop. And lots of grease."
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bf1IP8qrsyM This is when Hollywood fails. If you into dancing and ice skating cars - who really needs to see a film , btw these are shown as tv adverts in europe.
The VW story is true - Hasbro also can't use the VW Beetle for any Bumblebee toys - which is why the recent "classics" version of BB is a generic Beetle-esque car.
That's a major problem in a lot of recent movies. It's like some idiot in Hollywood is teaching that "if 95% of the screen moves, people will think it is more actionny."
Agreed. There's basicly two forms of shooting:
1) The "in persona" shooting
2) The "godlike" shooting
The first is great for movies where you're trying to sell someone's story. Doesn't mean you can't overview shots, but that's really more like setting up the scene. E.g. "Saving private Ryan". Here it's perfectly acceptable to be handheld and shaky, lose focus and jump trying to find what to film.
The second is when you're like setting up the shots, with cameras convieniently placed at optimum angles all the time. You can go down the battlefield, but you're still an observer optimally placed. Example: Witch-King battle in LotR.
Then there's the Hollywood version - you're not anyone in particular, but you move and flash around like some crazy guy in "Deja vu" trying to capture a shot before you miss it. What the hell is the point? You're not trying to present one individual's confused view. You're just showing a lot of garbage, that's all.
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Special Effects are on set. Visual Effects are post production CGI, compositing, etc.
A special effect is a car being rigged to explode on set. A visual effect is a giant 4 story CG robot kicking that car.
We're two entirely seperate industries. Thanks for your interest however!
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I get the impression that that scene is actually not meant to be as comedy value as it would seem - that actually happened during the US Invasion of Grenada in 1984 - ground forces were pinned down in the Governor-Generals mansion on the island, unable to contact the fire support aircraft overhead nor other units to request support. In the end, one of the soldiers placed a credit card call to Fort Bragg in the US in order to request a fire support mission and he got the same run around by the operator.
Volkswagen wouldn't allow it. They don't want to be associated with war. Given the origins of the original Beetle, can you really blame them?