'Battle: Los Angeles' MakingOf Featurette

'Rango' Buzz: Is This the Year Pixar Finally Loses the Oscar?

via Cinematical 
By Erik Davis (Subscribe to Erik Davis's posts)

Believe it or not, but buzz is already beginning to build for next year's Oscar ceremony. Trust us, we need a period of awards cleansing just as much as you do, but it is important to note that early word has this weekend's release of 'Rango' already being touted as an early favorite for Best Animated Feature in 2011. As of this writing there are only seven reviews posted to Rotten Tomatoes, but they're all positive and the film is currently sailing at 100 percent Fresh. Glenn Heath from Slant writes:

Haunted by the ghosts of Leone, Peckinpah, and Dali, Gore Verbinski's wild animated romp Rango turns an assembly line of classic western themes and iconography into a bustlingly fresh genre ecosystem.

He's just one of many who are already gushing over director Gore Verbinski's latest collaboration with Johnny Depp (the duo teamed on the first three 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies). Via Twitter, UGO's Jordan Hoffman notes,

RANGO has the fresh, innovative spirit that MONSTER'S INC had. It's definitely a gauntlet thrown in the face of a complacent Pixar.

When asked for a little more breakdown on the hype, Moviefone's Sandie Angulo Chen told us that the film may run into trouble in terms of which demographic its actually targeting.

Well it's gorgeously animated, and perfectly performed, but it's not your typical kid-targeted animated movie. That's great news for grown-ups who love animated films but not so much parents who will wonder why they've taken their young kids to a movie about about identity, home, and existential ennui. I loved it but wished I hadn't taken my kindergartner who was really sad during some moments of peril.

We take a look at 'Rango's 2011 competition...

The Best Animated Feature Oscar was introduced in 2001, and since then Pixar has claimed the award six out of 10 times and are currently on a streak of four wins in a row (for 'Ratatouille,' 'WALL-E,' 'Up' and 'Toy Story 3'). But this year Pixar is giving us 'Cars 2,' which, let's admit, is more of a marketing machine than anything else. The first 'Cars' was nominated for Best Animated Feature back in 2006, but lost to 'Happy Feet.' Even so, little boys were instantly hooked, and to this day 'Cars' is easily Pixar's most lucrative property thanks to the non-stop merchandising.

So, from a financial standpoint it makes sense that Pixar would put out a sequel to 'Cars' (they also produced a few 'Cars'-themed shorts), but from an awards perspective, there's not much there. If there was a year to end Pixar's Oscar run, it'd be this one. Question is, which of the following animated films will have what it takes to finally oust the animation king of the past 10 years?

We've already told you about the hype surrounding 'Rango,' but the film that defeated 'Cars' in 2006 also has a sequel arriving this year in the form of 'Happy Feet 2' on Nov. 18. 'Kung Fu Panda' was nominated for the Oscar in 2008, but lost to 'WALL-E.' 2011, however, brings a sequel to theaters as well, on May 27.



Other animated films hitting theaters in 2011 include ...

• 'Mars Needs Moms' (March 11)
• 'Rio' (April 15)
• 'Hoodwinked Too' (April 29)
• 'Winnie the Pooh' (July 15)
• 'The Smurfs' (Aug. 3)
• 'Puss in Boots' (Nov. 4)
• 'Arthur Christmas' (Nov. 23)
• 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked' (Dec. 16)

Out of that list, we could see 'Winnie the Pooh' making an Oscar upset, but as it stands right now it could be a fight to the finish between 'Cars 2,' 'Rango,' 'Happy Feet 2' and 'Kung Fu Panda 2.' Some have tried to slip 'The Adventures of Tintin' in there, but the Academy isn't so fond of motion-capture just yet, and so chances of that film sliding into this category are pretty slim.

Which 2011 animated film do you think has the best shot at next year's Oscars?

Sentinel Prime From TRANSFORMERS 3 Revealed!

Sentinel Prime From TRANSFORMERS 3 Revealed!: via Obsessed With Film

Transformers: Dark Side of The Moon’s biggest new addition, Sentinel Prime has been revealed in the last edition of this month’s Empire magazine.

Described as “a big brother… mentor to Optimus Prime’, Sentinel Prime is the immediate predecessor as Autobot leader. The issue also unveiled a brand new addition to the series, a Decepticon Ferrari called Dreadbox…

Here’s the scans from the issue appearing on the Transformers World 5000 message boards.

Blog v2.0

Looking at my personal blog post graph, I can see it slide waay down and crash through the charts. Work's been keeping busy, really busy. The current show that am working on is quite epic and there's loads of exciting stuff to do, which has grabbed my entire attention.
I am still quite active on Twitter, posting links and news quite often through the day. Which is easy, as I do it on the move via my mobile device. So what I've decided to so is route my feeds to the blog starting tomorrow (28th Feb) so my blog will get Film\VFX\Media news when ever I tweet-facebook or share my RSS feeds. This way I hope to keep the blog alive and promise write my own posts at least once in two weeks.
Oh! and by the way keep your eyes out for Rango! :)

Comic Con Asia and SIGGRAPH Seoul

Am as guilty as charged - for not updating my blog.

I have been very busy with work over the last couple of months. I was privileged enough to spend close to two months in San Francisco at Industrial Light & Magic, where I got to work on and wrap up an interesting and fun film. My experience at the ILM main office was awesome and deserves a separate blog post on it, which I will put up soon.

Now that am back at ILM Singapore, I have a couple of interesting updates. I will be giving a talk on ILM's work on the IronMan films at the Singapore Games and Comic Convention, which is un-officially  know as Comic Con Asia, on the 11th Dec.

AND

I will also be giving a Nuke tech talk at SIGGRAPH Asia in Seoul on the 15th Dec with The Foundry at their Nuke Geek Talk session.

Some of the press -



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THE FOUNDRY GEEKFEST ASIA - more than a NUKE nerd herd

Are you going to SIGGRAPH ASIA? If so, don't miss out on The Foundry GeekFest Asia on Wednesday 16 December.

• VENUE: Room 317 B, Conference Rooms South 3F, Coex Convention Centre, Seoul
• DATE: WEDNESDAY 15TH DECEMBER 2010
• TIME: SESSIONS START AT 1PM, THROUGH TO 8PM

It's been a very exciting year at The Foundry with technology partnerships resulting in new product offerings. The Foundry team will be revealing what's new as well as providing a sneak peek into the future.

We will be hosting three FREE sessions on 15th December.

Session 1: NUKE & OCULA

We’ve got two fantastic guest presenters to show us how they’ve been putting NUKE through it’s paces in the real world of production. Abishek Nair, Compositor from ILM Singapore will show us their work on Iron Man II & Chris Bremble, VFX Supervisor & CEO from Base FX will take us through their Emmy Award Winning work on HBO’s Pacific.
Our very own Matt Plec will then show off our OCULA toolset - used to help correct stereo issue on Avatar and Tron: Legacy– before providing a sneak peek at the NUKE Product Roadmap and a look at Nukepedia.
There will also be a Q&A session with guest speakers and The Foundry staff
Places are limited and fill fast, so don't miss out REGISTER NOW FOR NUKE & OCULA SESSION.

Abishek Nair, Compositor at ILM Singapore

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Industrial Light & Magic, Singapore

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is a Lucasfilm Ltd. Company located in San Francisco and Singapore, serving the digital needs of the entertainment industry for visual effects. The Academy Award-winning visual effects house was the principle visual effects studio on Marvel’s Iron Man 2. In all, ILM produced over 530 visual effects shots for the movie, including the Stark Expo and the amazing battle scenes. Of the 530, 190 of those shots were done in the Singapore studio.

Do not miss this rare opportunity to meet Digital Artists Phil Pham and Abishek Nair, who will talk about their experiences working on Iron Man 2. Using actual scenes from the movie, learn how the artists created each shot and how all these were put together to create the summer blockbuster that had audiences flocking to the cinemas.


The Iron Man 2 panel will take place during STGCC 2010 on 11 Dec (Sat) from 11 am to 12 pm at the Theatre, Level 3, Suntec Convention Centre. Clickhere for more information.

Inceptions of a different kind.

Its been awhile since I posted something decent, its not that am very busy or anything as such. I've just been lazy. I keep finding so many things that I make a mental note of, thinking I should write a post on it, but it fades away before it can be summed up or I don't feel strongly about it by the time its time to write but then I saw Inception (twice) last week and it blew me out of the water. 

The last time I saw a film that made me want to watch it again immediately, was  The Matrix, mainly because of the thought provoking nature of the film and of course, the film-making process. Inception proves that a film doesn't have to be a sequel, it doesn't have to an adaptation and it doesn't have to a re-make to do well with the audience. I somehow get the feeling that production studios think that the general public are dumb and will not understand something that is complex, hence they pick the easy way out by making sequels to an already established franchise. Christopher Nolan proved that wrong by filling up movie halls for two weeks in a row (still counting) and keeping Inception at the pole in the box office. It demands you to watch it more than once to digest the film and pick up clues that you would have missed on the first time around. This film proves that the audience isn't dumb, you just have to make a good film with the right balance and it will be consumed well.

The film itself is fantastic, though the idea and basis of the film isn't entirely new, it does draw its influences from various sources, but its the presentation and the way the film is handled is what makes it impressive. Inception, like most of Nolan's film isn't linear, it takes you through the story from different perspectives and different routes but still grounds the viewer well with in the plot without losing focus, which is quite tough when you handle something as complex a storyline as this film, but Nolan seems to be a master at it, which he proved early on with his films 'Following' and 'Memento'. 

Some folks did find the film constant without any breathing space, to let you assimilate the information being thrown at you, but I felt the pace of the film was good and if there were any plateaus in the story graph it would have lost focus and left you wandering about and thinking of the possibilities of the outcome. Which I liked, because the film doesn't let you analyze, it makes you do the analysis after the credits roll, which in turn demands you to watch it again. That is a tough one for a director and an editor to pull off.

Another interesting comment I heard was that some of them felt the motivation or the cause of the film could have been stronger. As in, instead of dissolving a business empire, it could have been preventing nuclear warfare etc etc. I find this very interesting (mini spoilers ahead). I have noticed a lot of people never see the core of a film they seem to miss out the essence of story entirely. When you speak to a colleague after a film and ask them what they thought about it, its generally about how the Visual Effects looked good\bad or its about how the gadgets in the film looked cool or how car chase in ultra slow motion looked. Its never about the emotion of the film. Never. In the case of Inception it not about the heist, its not about the anti-gravity lobby fight (which looked awesome), its not about the music score (which was phenomenal) its about - Cobb's (DiCaprio) fight with reality, his guilt and longing for his once happy family. That is the essence of the film. The rest is the packaging and layers to support the story. To elaborate - think  about most of Steven Spielberg's films, under all the gimmicks there is a core to the film - Jaws is about a family staying together and kid looking up to his dad as a role model, the shark is a driving force and an important catalyst and if you look at JJ Abrams's Star Trek - Kirk's path to self discovery and leadership. Its all in the story. 

One cant really blame the audience for not looking at a story intricately, our senses have been bombarded and spoilt by the likes of a slew of bad "summer block busters" which were all pretty pictures but no soul.

Considering I work in the visual effects industry, I obviously would need to make side notes regarding that. Over all the effects worked well for me it never took me out of the experience nor did I feel that it was over done. Christopher Nolan is notorious for keeping things practical and using CGI to the minimum and it always works. The avalanche, most of the exploding material during Ariadne's (Ellen Page) training was all shot as practical plates and enhanced only when necessary. 

Two sequences really stood out for me - During her training ,Ariadne echos two mirror reflections, thus creating a bridge in the dream world. This is a really clever sequence, it is so subtle that you're not really sure if anything is really happening until  you realize that everything you've been watching has been an  optical illusion. The crew built a 8-foot x 16-foot mirror that could be swung shut on a hinge, forming a huge reflecting door, in post they got about removing the support rig and crew reflections, adding in the infinite secondary reflections as well as the surrounding environment. 

Another sequence that got me thinking was the anti gravity fight sequence in the lobby. To create the environment, the scene was shot using massive rotating sets that twisted and turned, which took a full three weeks to shoot. The crew built a series of different hallway settings: a horizontal one that rotated 360 degrees, a vertical one that allowed actors to wear wires and another on which the actors were strapped to steel trolleys, which were eventually erased in post.

We can now definitely trust Christopher Nolan to give us quality cinema and thought provoking material.

Football Frenzy

With the World Cup at play, we're bound to see some interesting football commercials. I came across this one; done for Optus, Australia. A really well done commercial showing a secret game between the Australia team and animals from the Serengeti.

A lot of CG replacements in the commercials, cos you know, you cant get animals to act. They are snobbish stars. BUF, handled the VFX on the commercial and they are known for their photo-real organic work. A nice balance between live elements and CGI.

For more info on the commercial head over to FXGuide they have a good article on it. In the meantime watch the spot and the making of.

'Australian Football team's Secret Training'

Making of

Shuttle Scenarios

I came across this video on YouTube, that shows the Space Shuttle in 12 horrifying scenarios. 

Knowing all the while that its a VFX piece, it really got me involved mainly because of the way its presented; the combination of good background music and good use of hand-held\shaky cameras. Nothing warms my cookies when I see the right use of VFX 'gimmicks'. A handle-held approach adds to the realism of this video. It great to see it done well and with the right amount in this video.

What also makes it really interesting that, in most of the shots the destruction doesn't happen in the center of the frame, which makes it look even real because it meant to be a witness camera just recording a routine exercise, where obviously it wouldn't know where something's going to go wrong. Another nice touch is the cool, calculative and creepy voice-over at the end.

Over all a great video by 'TheFakingHoaxer'

Watch on YouTube

An article on my VFX work on IronMan 2 with ILM

Click here to see the actual article

	AnimationXpress.com