3/19/2023 0 Comments Movie effects in documentarie![]() Of the effects houses left in North America, many have found themselves trying to compete with studios in Canada or even in Asia, which can significantly reduce the budget of a feature film. Overall, the consensus is that the system in which visual effects are crafted, is in dire need of fixing. It was nice to see a piece that did allow those in higher positions to have a say regarding what had happened. The 30-minute film weaves a story from those who not only worked for Rhythm & Hues, but also founded it as well. A sad end to one of many studios that thrived during the uptick of effects-heavy features over the past 20 years. After completing its final assignments, the studio closed its doors for good. Unable to find backers to help keep them afloat, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, laying off close to 300 people. Several weeks before, the company had found itself in a bind when it had run out of money. However, what should have been a triumph, was more like putting the coins over the eyes of a corpse. It was on the night of February 26, 2013, that several of the studio’s crew accepted their third Visual Effects award for their contributions to Ang Lee’s film adaptation, Life of Pi. While they would run the gamut over many different types of effects, they were mostly known for their great work in character animation, notably regarding animals. Founded in 1987, they would have their artistic hands in over 145 feature films, and win three Academy Awards. That win in 1995, would mark the first Academy Award for the production company, Rhythm & Hues. Yes, two years after Jurassic Park wowed us, one of the strangest upsets for the Academy Awards’ Visual Effects awards category occurred, when the Oscar went to: Babe. The movie magic that made DeLoreans time-travel and animated characters interact in our world, had given way to the return of dinosaurs, and…talking pigs!? Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC.Growing up in the 1990’s, the one thing that fascinated me as much as people working on animated features, were those working on visual effects for film. Stanley Kubrick Explains the Mysterious Ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey in a Newly Unearthed Interview How Stanley Kubrick Made His Masterpieces: An Introduction to His Obsessive Approach to Filmmaking Universe will be added to our collection, 1,700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.ġ966 Film Explores the Making of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (and Our High-Tech Future) Hear Rain’s cool, detached narration in Universe, above, and see why this extraordinary film-with the Richard Strauss-like pounding tympani of Eldon Rathburn’s score-would have inspired Kubrick to make what may rank as the most mesmerizingly cinematic, dramatically compelling, of science fiction space films to this day. Kubrick also hired Universe’s narrator, Douglas Rain, the Canadian actor who passed away this past November but who will live on indefinitely into the future as the chilling, affectless voice of the HAL 9000 computer, ancestor of Siri, Alexa, and the many voices of GPS systems everywhere. He did succeed in hiring Wally Gentleman, the special effects artist who brought Universe’s wizardry to Kubrick’s film. ![]() “After studying Universe for much of 1964,” writes Kubrick scholar Michael Benson, “early in the new year Kubrick decided to replicate the film’s techniques.” He tried to hire Low, who declined because of his work on “his own ambitious project: In the Labyrinth,” Lacey writes. The film was in black and white, not the eye-popping technicolor of Kubrick’s masterpiece, but he saw in it exactly what he would need when he began work on 2001. As the credits rolled, Kubrick studied the names of the magicians who created the images: Colin Low, Sidney Goldsmith, and Wally Gentleman. These images were not flawed by the shoddy matte work, obvious animation and poor miniatures typically found in science fiction films. Universe proved that the camera could be a telescope to the heavens. Kubrick watched the screen with rapt attention while a panorama of the galaxies swirled by, achieving the standard of dynamic visionary realism that he was looking for. Biographer Vincent Lobrutto describes the auteur’s first encounter with Universe: “Upon its release in 1960,” notes Liam Lacey at The Globe and Mail, “the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ordered 300 copies.”Īnother of the film’s admirers also happened to be Kubrick. Their short documentary, Universe, may not be much remembered now-and may have been far outshone by both real and computer-generated footage-but in 1961, it claimed a nomination at the 33rd Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Subject.
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