12 Months of Films

So 12 months ago (sometime in December) I had a shiny new Cineworld card. I was intending to do monthly reviews but a) I saw far too many films to keep up with that work load, and b) My university work load was incredibly high to the point where some months I didn't leave my room.I have kept all my tickets with the intention of counting them up, but Cineworld saved me the effort by informing me that I have in fact saved £394 this year with my Cineworld Card. How many movies did I see for free? A lot.

So to finish off the subscription on a high, I want to highlight some of the best films I have seen this year, and suggest that you purchase dvds in the January Sales. Just a quick warning, this goes from Decemeber to December, so there may be some 2010 movies in here. Also I have not seen every movie this year, so if I have missed something it is possible I have not seen it!

So to commence.

Best VFX
As a Visual Effects Student, this category is of particular interest to me. There were a lot of movies that stood out this year as the quality gets better and better.

Nominated were:

• X-Men: First Class - human mutations and flying submarine amongst others. 
• Battle: Los Angeles - Shot after shot of battle action.
• Captain America - Incredible matte paintings and compositing.

Winner is Tron: Legacy - for an almost entire CG environment, and the experimental facial replacements.  

Best Actor
Not an easy category as a lot of the films we have seen this year rely on action and VFX rather than acting ability. However a few stood out.

• Ryan Gosling - For two contrasting characters in Drive and Crazy Stupid Love proving a range of skills. 
• Liam Neeson - For his role in Unknown, an experienced actor who can turn his hand to any role.

Winner is Asa Butterfield - Child actors are often the weak links in films, but Butterfield pulled off an incredibly moving role in Hugo that, in my opinion, made him top of my list.


Best Actress
Again, not an easy category. Some reoccurring faces this year were:

• Natalie Portman - In many films this year, varying from the intensity of the Black Swan to the hilarity of Your Highness.
• Michelle Rodriguez - For her role in Battle: Los Angeles.

Winner is Emma Watson - Hermione in Harry Potter. This actress has grown and matured on the big screen in front of our eyes and has become an incredible actress.


Outstanding Animal Contribution
They say never work with children or animals. But what about CG animals?

• Rio - For his great comedy timing and devotion to Jewel. Unfortunately the nasal quality to his voice and those Orange Adverts make him too annoying to win.  
• Hedwig - For his believable and emotional death scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. 
• Po Panda - For his dedication to his training for the martial art sequences in Kung Fu Panda 2. 

Winner is Caesar - For his range of expression and learning to complete simple phrases in his role in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.


Funniest Comedy

In my opinion, if it makes me laugh, then it is probably a good comedy. The nominated movies had me laughing out loud in the cinema, and so have made the short list.

• Inbetweeners - I had never seen the series, and was slightly worried that I would not "get it" but it was simple enough to catch up with and inspired me to watch the TV show... a lot. Very funny, not just for the hard core Inbetweeners fans, and such a shame this is the end of the franchise.
• Megamind - for hilarious use of music and genius comedy timing. It is not often we come down on the side of the bad guy but I definitely love this little blue fellow.

Winner is Bridemaids. Snort your drink and choke funny. I saw this several times once even at the Odeon and paid full price for a ticket! Shocking. If you haven't seen this movie you must. Not just a chick flick and covers all manner of comedy styles.


Scariest Horror

•  127 hours - A psychological thriller more than a horror, certainly terrifying to think this could happen to anyone, and certainly makes you think. I'll never leave my house without leaving a paper trail in my wake again. Great movie.
•  Saw: The Final Chapter - Gore more than horror. Better than some of its predecessors but still not a match to the original. 

Winner is Sanctum. I found this movie incredibly claustrophobic which made me feel uneasy from the start. The idea of being confined in a small space whilst struggling with cold and high waters is terrifying for me, which was accentuated but the use of 3D. Brilliantly tense movie, my buttocks were sore for the week following!

Most Disappointing

I generally dislike rubbishing movies in my reviews, as I argue that all films have something redeeming about them. However there were disappointing movies this year, which had the potential to be something great but seemed to fall somewhere along the line. The ones that spring to mind were.

•  Apollo 18 - The trailer for this looked positively creepy and unnerving. I was expecting something in the same league as Blaire Witch. Unfortunately it seemed quite long winded and dull, and by half time I was fidgeting and bored. Shame really as the concept is good.
•  Green Hornet - There was nothing wrong with this movie as such, the title sequences were brilliant and it was a humorous and easily watchable film, however it lacked the punch that the other comic-book movies seem to pack. I kind of hope they remake this film again someday in the future. 

Winner (or loser?) is Suckerpunch. Ok, this movie I could rant forever about. Such potential, such a great concept and cast, and what an awful outcome. At the end of the day it was more like a showcase for VFX (which were incredible by the way, utterly stunning, particularly the fight sequence on the train with the robots) but had little direction or plot. Such a shame.

Most Surprising
These movies I walked into with low expectations and was absolutely blown away.

• Super 8 - I hadn't really seen a trailer for this movie so wasn't really sure what it was about. I won't give too much away, but my word what a great film. 
• True Grit - I'm not a big fan of Westerns, and though I can spend many happy hour on Red Dead Redemption, I wasn't sure I liked the idea of a Western for a modern audience, but I really enjoyed this film. It followed the traditional storyline of a child looking for justice for their fathers death, but unusually it followed a young girl, who was braver than any lad in the west. A great cast with utterly moving acting. I can't recommend this film enough.

Winner is Drive. Awesome. Up there with Scarface. Not at all what I was expecting, but thrilled that it turned out the way it did!


Highly Commended
Not quite my film of the year, but on my must buy list (in fact, already bought list!)

• Ironclad - For a locally made, relatively low budget movie, this film has great production values. I'm not really sure on the story, but there were lots of fight sequences, castles blowing up and general mayhem. Great film, Assassin's Creed meets something awesome with lots of explosions...
• Attack the Block - What do you expect from Nick Frost, a brilliant look at the ASBO culture with some aliens thrown in for fun. 

Winner is Submarine. As far as I'm aware this film didn't originally make general release, and honestly the only reason I went to see it was because my best mate slept on my floor whilst working on this film. However, I was surprised at how brilliant this film was. A look at teenage angst infused with a dark humour that only us Brits can pull off. Wonderfully touching, go buy it. Now.


Best Film of the Year

There are many contenders for this title. I have seen many many movies, most of which are enjoyable and watchable. I'm not one to over analyze a film, and so the winner of this title is a movie I would see over and over and enjoy repeatedly.

• X-Men: First Class - Awesome VFX, action, and humour, the strongest of the X-Men series in my opinion.
• Captain America - The Marvel movies have been gradually increasing in intensity over the last few installments. What a penultimate episode. Bring on the Avengers.
• Black Swan - Beauty and substance over action. Stunning cinematography, and weirdly twisted storyline. Definitely a strong contender.
  

The Winner is Rise of the Planet of the Apes. What a movie. Enough said. 



I hope you have enjoyed my little award ceremony, I have had a great year at the cinema, and guess what. I got another Cineworld Unlimited Card for Christmas this year! See you in 12 months for another award ceremony!

Matte Painting: Rough Version 1

So I've been working on a matte painting for my opening shot. It is a panoramic view of the city below, with our hero crouched on some sort of high up platform or rooftop like in the computer game. This is pretty much how I want the layout, though the comping is still quite rough. Noise and grain are issues due to the quality of some of the images I am working with.

I have also put together a sketch for a market place type setting which I hope to use for the fight sequence on the ground. However more on that later.

Currently I am researching 3D projection and camera moves in After Effects. I feel I have a pretty good grounding on this already due to a very comprehensive lecture series we had last year. However it never hurts to go back over these things, and after watching a few tutorials I feel I've picked up a few handy tips which will help me on my way with this. My one dilemma is tracking the camera move. I am keen to do a camera move in the studio, and track this to a digital camera in After Effects, however I have yet to work out how to pull this off. 

Update and Research

It's been a while and a hectic week with organisation and planning happening for both this project and the Final Major Project next year. I've been looking at camera angles and scenery in both the Assassin Creed games and also in similar hero style films and TV shows. I've broken this project down into two main matte painting, an eagle view from above of the entire city, and a street view. Perhaps a few smaller paintings will be required, but I'm hoping the bulk of the green screen shots can be composited into these scenes. One thing for certain, is that the images will need to be big high resolution paintings, allowing me the scope to zoom in. I am also considering the need for lots of extras, as the town sequences are always busy, and the idea of a crowd parting for this battle to commence is appealing.

The fight sequence should happen in the same sort of environment that is within the games to connect the two concepts together. I have been looking at images from both high level and street level to get an idea of the sort of scenery I will require.

I really like the idea of the sandstone buildings with wooden stalls and hanging flags, though it may be difficult to source some of these images it is the sort of look I am going with. I also plan to play quite a bit with light, the contact lighting in my previous project worked really well, and I am keen to attempt to use it again. Setting this sequence at sunset will allow me to pull in the oranges and yellows which will contract the greens and whites of the salad cream bottle very nicely.

The leap at the beginning of the story board is a major factor, and getting that looking right is very important. I've already carried out tests using the slow motion and I am confident that I can get the effect, but I've been giving it a lot of thought as to how this needs to be framed and edited together. Obviously my actor will not be jumping off anything incredibly high (most likely a table) and so I really need to get a sense of height.

This Batman/OnStar commercial uses a similar idea to what I intend, fast cuts from different angles making it seem that he is falling a great distance. I particularly want a shot from under my actor as he jumps, however, I am not entirely sure how safe this will be in the studio. All I can do is bare all this in mind and get as much footage as I can on the day.

It is safe to say however that one of my matte paintings is well underway and the second in planning stages and looking hopeful. I'll keep you posted.

Interestingly, on my travels through cyber space, I discovered live action filming for Assassin's Creed.

It's definitely interesting to see!

Exciting Times

The pitch for the Design Competitions Project went rather well I thought, though I have yet to receive feedback for this yet.

Scarily, the animators were pitching their Final Major Projects yesterday, and Fin and I decided to go by and pitch an idea for our Final Major Project. I haven't posted much on here about it yet, as it is still several months away and we only have a loose concept to go on. However we know that we want some animated animals and where better to find them than at the animation pitches. 

It went well, I likened our project to "Pokemon meets Sin City" which got a murmur of interest. Fin and I worked all night the night before, putting together a short test to show them as we have in mind a shot, inspired by an sequence in iRobot that will really push us as VFX artists.

This sequence is very very rough, Fin put together the 3D elements and I did the matte painting, compositing and rotoscoping. Again I stress very rough, just one nights work, put together especially for this pitch.

Similar to the Golden Compass, and Pokemon, every character will have a fantasy animal companion. We need CG artists and animators to put together these characters to go with the live action human characters. So far we have had some interesting, this is very exciting times. I can't wait to see what we can do. 

Camera Move Test

Working on a camera move which uses the bursts of speed and slow motion.

Pitch

Tomorrow is the day of the pitch, so I have been working hard on my presentation. Hopefully it will go ok. I'll post feedback when I get it. I'm looking forward to being able to get going on this project.

More Slow Motion tests

Today I've been working on my pitch and slow motion tests. After the results of the previous test being too blurry due to the motion blur, I refilmed with a faster shutter speed to lower the motion blur. This proved to be a good idea, and significantly reduced the blurring at the point of the frozen moment.

I have also been researching fight scenes using this sort of editing. As much of my idea revolves around a fight sequence, I think it important to look at how this method fits into such scenes, and also how they are edited together and framed in camera. I have choreographed fight sequences before, but not for camera. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6y2r_uZNXA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmmXO8-P9N0

After some research I put together a quick test to see if I could pull off similar effects. Looking ok for a first fight sequence test.

My next course of action is to storyboard the sequence, particularly the fight sequence, paying attention to composition and editing. I also need to put together a schedule. The green screen studio is so full even after Christmas, so it will be difficult to get the time in. Once the studio is booked everything will have to be organised around it.

Slow Motion Tests

With the pitch days away, I have been working on some tests. Though I have yet to complete storyboards for this project, I know that I want some slow motion action, and so I thought it necessary to work out how to do this before I moved forward. If this proves too time costuming and problematic, it might be worth rethinking the idea completely.

So after some stress I managed to book out the green screen studio for two evenings to work on some footage for the tests. A small team of us went in to do some jumping shots, which I could then take into After Effects and work on doing a frozen moment at the peak of the jump.

Using the following method on Twixtor, I produced a reasonable slow motion shot.

Obviously, this is not the costume for the real shoot, it will be creams and browns, however I wanted to see how Twixtor dealt with the flowing cape. There are a few issues with this however, most notably the motion blur which means the point of stand still is slightly blurred. My only option it seemed, was to go back into the studio and film with a faster shutter speed to see if I got a sharper image. I shall keep update you on my findings later today.

We also took the opportunity to audition some actors. For this project I require a peasant woman/girl to be saved by our hero. So we met Nicola, one of the actors to answer our advertisements and do some work with her on the green screen.

She was very easy to work with, a great actress and I think would work well as a "damsel in distress"type character. We had some male actors also coming in to audition the following day for the male positions, however due to the strike transport was difficult for most of them and we called it off.

Watch this space for more project updates.