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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Wachowski Brothers Speed Racer.

Shawn Booth said:
Nope, he's not. Not a rumor because they won't talk to the press. He actually "changed". Goes by Lorna now.
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we don't know, and who cares. how about we stick to speed racer. someone can start a new topic if they HAVE to talk about Larry/Lara.
 
Shawn Nelson said:
Ditto, what is hyper focus? I've never heard that phrase before
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They shot plates of actors (foreground) then midground plates, then distant background plates - all in focus i.e. hyper-focus. Their vfx guy Gaeta (who cobbled together "bullet time") calls it photo-anime ... I think. Read the latest American Cinematographer.

Basically everything thing is in focus in the frame, irrespective of the distances between those objects and the laws of optics/DOF. Which may have partly informed their decision to shoot the F23 with a smaller chip - interesting example of 35mm DOF being deemed irrelevant.

Haven't seen it. Hope it's good. Am not holding out much hope for the script but the eye-candy should be there.
 
Sounds like Speed Racer is tanking at the box office. And getting bad reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes.

(BTW, I don't think it's entirely irrelevant talking about the transgendered status of the director. Just like we might talk about how a director is a Black filmmaker or a woman filmmaker. I know there's some conjecture, because the Wachowski in question seems to have remained silent on the subject (no confirmation nor denial), but it's not JUST prurient interest. I think the point of view of the director(s) is really interesting...even though that POV might not have influenced a film like Speed Racer...or maybe it did.)

Oh yeah, Speed Racer. Who did they think was going to go to this film? The original Speed Racer from the 60s. Not part of my consciousness growing up. Certainly it wouldn't be part of the consciousness of kids in the 2000s. Or am I missing something? As soon as I saw the preview I thought it looked like a dud. Then again Disney's Cars did very well.
 
Greenscreen movies are only cheap if you:

A) Need to shoot some place you can't get for cheapt
and
B) Don't value your time.

If you do true comparative costs green screen is almost always more expensive than just shooting it if it's an accessible set once you factor in artist's time.
 
sky1walker said:
i cant seem to get why 'bluescreen' films like, sin city, 300 , speed racer, takes millions of dollars to produce. apart from the fact you would be paying 'less' for unnamed actor/actress, 'less' for film (red), 'less' for locations, 'less' for vfx and CG (artist working for credit and final cut in profit), what else will make the budget even pass 20 million? or even 10 million? given red one ,bluescreen and a couple of mac pro, i can remake the movie 300 for less than 3 million.
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Would a $3 mil version of 300 come close to the $70 mil version?

It's possible. Gareth Edwards did some impressive work with the BBC film he directed, Attila The Hun. Though his vfx background make it possible for him to do ALL the vfx work himself.

http://www.fxguide.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=463

We all want to have that million dollar look on a $1000 budget, like Stu Maschwitz talked about in his NAB keynote speech.

http://www.filmmakingcentral.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=132&Itemid=1

But unless you plan to take on most of the vfx work yourself, what kind of vfx talent can you get for little $$$ and a promise of possible profit sharing.
(Why dilute your profits by giving it all away instead of paying people)

Little pay and long hours just leads to unreliable work and inconsistent quality.

I've only had rare instances of blue/greenscreen work that didn't require a good amount of roto work or fix-it shots that were never supposed to be fx shots.

A film like 300 had it all on the screen, it was considered inexpensive for what they did by studio standards. They had to create their style based on the source material. That requires a lot of work and experimentation, and some expense I would imagine.

While 300 may not had ground breaking never seen before vfx, it did have an impressive visual style that made it a stand out.

Sure with a Red, a bluescreen, and a few Mac Pros, you can do something impressive and unique, but sometimes if you don't want to spend the next 3-5 years working on it, you have to spend much more money.
 
Hyper focus - gimic??

Hyper focus - gimic??

Ed Blythe said:
They shot plates of actors (foreground) then midground plates, then distant background plates - all in focus i.e. hyper-focus. Their vfx guy Gaeta (who cobbled together "bullet time") calls it photo-anime ... I think. Read the latest American Cinematographer.

Basically everything thing is in focus in the frame, irrespective of the distances between those objects and the laws of optics/DOF. Which may have partly informed their decision to shoot the F23 with a smaller chip - interesting example of 35mm DOF being deemed irrelevant.

Haven't seen it. Hope it's good. Am not holding out much hope for the script but the eye-candy should be there.
Click to expand...

Wasn't a similar idea used for the spaceship battle at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, where everything was in focus? While flashy, isn't this going to be somewhat offputting/fatiguing for the audience as the eye will be tracking all over the screen without a dominant point to direct it?:blink:
 
Draegar said:
Wasn't a similar idea used for the spaceship battle at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, where everything was in focus? While flashy, isn't this going to be somewhat offputting/fatiguing for the audience as the eye will be tracking all over the screen without a dominant point to direct it?:blink:
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Worked out all right in Citizen Kane.
 
Ruairi Robinson said:
Worked out all right in Citizen Kane.
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It did, but there was enough negative space in a given frame for the eye to figure out what it was supposed to be looking at.

From what I can see of the Speed Racer stuff, each frame is so busy my brain is screaming for mercy...everything is sharp, everything is moving very fast, and there's no visual hierarchy. At least not a hierarchy that my feeble brain can figure out in the 20 frames each shot lasts! In addition, I'm not sure if there's any art direction palette other than "crazy saturated".

But now that I've complained loudly, I will admit that I'm glad somebody is pushing the envelope and doing something that I wouldn't do...the world would be a very boring place if there weren't people intent on ignoring rules.
 
Draegar said:
Wasn't a similar idea used for the spaceship battle at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, where everything was in focus? While flashy, isn't this going to be somewhat offputting/fatiguing for the audience as the eye will be tracking all over the screen without a dominant point to direct it?:blink:
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It's a stylistic choice. On the flip-side, too much shallow-DOF can make the audience feel restricted, IMO...
 
the trailer to this movie itself was so ultimately boring that i would never make it through the first few minutes...another stupid eyecandy flick for mainstream consumption.
 
Brandon said:
we don't know, and who cares. how about we stick to speed racer. someone can start a new topic if they HAVE to talk about Larry/Lara.
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Sorry to go back to this but:

We do know. It's not a secret. I was at the "Reloaded" premiere when Lorna showed up.
 
Everyones linking to that photo on wikipedia but no one is reading the article!

However, in a 2007 interview Joel Silver, the producer of numerous Wachowski films, stated that the rumors concerning Larry's sex change were "all untrue," further explaining, "they just don’t do interviews, so people make things up." Similar statements were made by crew members working on the Speed Racer film, with one employee pointing out, "on the call sheets, it still says Larry."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295909,00.html
 
Tom said:
I hope you guys get a chance to check out Voices of a Distant Star. I cannot say enough about this film.
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Concur! Voices of a Distant Star is beautiful, sad and uplifting all at the same time. Highly recommended for a short anime!

Paul
 
NateWeaver said:
It did, but there was enough negative space in a given frame for the eye to figure out what it was supposed to be looking at.

From what I can see of the Speed Racer stuff, each frame is so busy my brain is screaming for mercy...everything is sharp, everything is moving very fast, and there's no visual hierarchy. At least not a hierarchy that my feeble brain can figure out in the 20 frames each shot lasts! In addition, I'm not sure if there's any art direction palette other than "crazy saturated".

But now that I've complained loudly, I will admit that I'm glad somebody is pushing the envelope and doing something that I wouldn't do...the world would be a very boring place if there weren't people intent on ignoring rules.
Click to expand...

"Crazy Saturated" :biggrin: I like it, I want to request that one day. But that's exactly what I'm wondering about. I'm loving the pushing of the envelope, I guess my reservation, if you want to it call it that, is simply is it going to fatigue the audience and break the cinema spell. The overload of focused visual information (without the space or guidence for the eye - nodding to Rauiri's clear example of where it works :)), becoming a distracting aspect(or worse headache producing) from the story rather than an enhancing factor.

What got me thinking of this was speculation if this might be a successor to the Bourne handheld-frenetic-up-close-in-the-action-its-kinda-blury-and-whirly-was-the-antogonist-punched-by-the-hero-or-the-camera-op-I-couldn't-quite-tell style of shooting that became fashionable for a while, loved by some and caused nausea in others. The next favoured action style.

But the footage will be the answer and I'm certainly curious to find out.

Jeff Kilgroe said:
It's a stylistic choice. On the flip-side, too much shallow-DOF can make the audience feel restricted, IMO...
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Good point! Subjective topic, (more speculation :) ) but do you think with 4k + and the (growing) ability to deliver that image, that its going to remain a styllistic choice or is green screened hyper focus going to be the style pushed as "most suitable" for the technology?

Another example of the technology leading the content rather than the other way around.
-coz
 
CraigWB said:
Everyones linking to that photo on wikipedia but no one is reading the article!

However, in a 2007 interview Joel Silver, the producer of numerous Wachowski films, stated that the rumors concerning Larry's sex change were "all untrue," further explaining, "they just don’t do interviews, so people make things up." Similar statements were made by crew members working on the Speed Racer film, with one employee pointing out, "on the call sheets, it still says Larry."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295909,00.html
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's Joel Silver. The PRODUCER, with every interest in the world in controlling the marketing of a family film. America isn't very comfortable with transgendered people (to say the least!). And Silver ain't lying about the gender, since these matters can be grey, just like the rest of human nature. I know another transgendered filmmaker who worked on sets in androgynous clothing, continuing to identify as a man on set, but she was only doing so under duress. In the rest of her life, she dressed and identified as the woman she was probably supposed to have been all along. The pressures not to be "outed" were huge for her. And she was doing documentaires, not giant $120 million family movies! Again, the discussion is relevant because we're probably talking about the most powerful transgendered director in the world (the Matrix!!!), and there aren't many of them that are out. And it undoubtedly affects the aesthetic and themes of the director's work. How can it not. Even if we're still speculating (given lack of any public statement), it's not a bad thing. Just like we might speculate about the point of view of any director (surely Tarkovsky's point of view as a Russian also influenced his work). In the unlikely event we're totally wrong about Wachowski, what harm is done. It probably raised some awareness, which isn't a bad thing. And given Wachowski's very androgynous appearance of late, I really don't think he'd care!
 
I also saw the trailers and thought, "Maybe when it hits DVD." But then I went and saw it with my 12 year old son (in a theater packed with 9-15 year olds and their fathers). . . it was amazing!!! It got a rousing standing ovation (I do not kid).

Yeah, it was a bit over the top, but so was the cartoon! Cinematic anime. I thought it was a great interpretation.

Actually, I also appreciated the lighting. (On the talent, that is.)

Go Speed, Go!
 
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