KING KONG

I'm sure everyone in the entire world has heard of Peter Jackson. Even if you don't remember his name, you would most definitely remember his films. For example, there was this pretty well known trilogy he did called Lord of the Rings,

definitely something you guys should check out.

So yeah Jackson has made some pretty epic movies not including the Lovely Bones. No, I am 100% serious about this, I know you may think "But it's Peter Jackson, he made LOTR! Surely anything he makes is awesome and even if it's relatively sub par we can forgive it because he's given us one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time.Not to mention his great contribution to the dramatic society of the word, with the dichotomous monologue between Smeagol and Gollum which epitomised the internal struggle faced by an individual(s). NO. This film is unforgivable, regardless of the fact that it has Mark Wahlberg 

This guy.

and several other really well known and respected actors in it. The other one I can think of is Stanley Tucci you know, the gay guy from The Devil Wears Prada and Puck from A Midsummer Nights Dream? No? Okay.

It's hard to imagine this man playing  a crazy murderer, he just looks so cute! 

So now that we've established Peter Jackson's most successful and most horrifically disappointing films, I'd now like to continue onto the other film he did (what?) Yeah, I know right.

Well a few years ago, Jackson attempted to remake one of the most classic films of all time, King Kong. This was an iconic film, originally made in 1933, which was very well received for it's pioneering in special effects such as stop motion animation. 

Nailed it.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. In 2005, Peter Jackson remade this film, with a whopping $207 million dollar budget, into a 187 minute long nostalgia-drama which basically delved into old Hollywood romance, the flapper era, and a contest to see who could pay attention longest before falling asleep. Jackson spent probably 2 hours on character development to build the sexy sexual tension between Naomi Watts, and Adrien brody which I will never complain about. 

Apart from wasting time and money, Jackson also had multiple specifications on how he envisioned King Kong to appear on screen in the final edition. Most of these surmised to him wanting King Kong to look like an ape not a human.. So how did he do this? 

He watched hours and hours of Gorrilla footage in London Zoo to further his understanding and gain an anthropological upper hand in the creation of his Kong. He then decided that he was unsatisfied and travelled to Rwanda to observe wild gorillas in their native habitat....  Andy Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol) was the model that was used to track Kongs Movement, and this was done by filming all the movement Serkis made, by placing him in a body suit, and using the motion detectors as a guide to animate King Kong. 

My Precious

the result was an entirely digitally animated Kong, who was so realistic that everyone thought it was a really tame giant ape. (He wishes)

SO ultimately I think everyone should watch this movie for Adrien Brody because he is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood and I love him.

damn.

THE MATRIX TRILOGY

Film written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers

An introduction to "Bullet Time"

Remember this? 

Bullet time, the visual effects used in the film was used to create a character's control over time and space. Scenes were filmed using cameras that allow them to film in slow much but show on screen what appears to be normal speed. Bullet time effects are often quite complex to film. Using 3D stimulation, they fired camera fractions of a second after each other. This captured every single action, (so about 12000 frames for a 3 second scene) to create the most iconic slow-motion effect.

Various cameras would circle around each other to shoot the scene. The Matrix hired George Borshukov who specialised in this field to edit out the cameras in the background using 3D models that were based on geometry of buildings and even photographs of buildings.

LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION!

The "bullet time" scenes like the ones shown above were The Matrix's most successful and mind-blowing scenes. Adding to a cyberpunk mystique film, the directors were able to bring out intense fight sequences that were remarkable and most of all, rememberable. 

The Avengers - Special Effects

A film that required half a decade of solo prequels to build character ( in the case of Iron Man, literally), The Avengers was released last year to enormous box office success. A movie that combines all of Marvels greatest superheroes in the ultimate culmination of action and geekdom. As the previous movies have already introduced the characters, the film takes off with a running start and incorporates special effects throughout it's entirety very well.

 Seeing as the film is based on comic book heroes with super powers brought to life on the big screen, a large company with computer animated experience was required to provide the special effects. Enter Industrial Light & Magic, a company with a grade A track record of special effects in some of the biggest blockbusters including Iron Man 1 and 2, Transformers 1, 2 and 3, Rango and Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith to name a few.

Using various software tools alongside green screens and live action movement from the actors and actresses, Industrial Light & Magic created a special effects experience like no other that not only caused The Avengers to become one of the worlds highest grossing movies, beaten only by James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic, but also won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects.

One of the biggest challenges in The Avengers was animating The Hulk. A by product of a nuclear radiation gone wrong, The Hulk was perhaps the most difficult character to animate due to his size and nature.

Avatar

Avatar as a film, was pivotal in the fact that it pioneered new technologies in the area of special effects in order to acheive the visual effects that were created in Pandora, and that of the Na'vi people. First of all, if we examine the pure aesthetics that the film contributed to cinema history, which on it's own would have heavily contributed to the films success purely due to the fact that audiences would no longer have to suffer through the inferior technologies of films like Godzilla. 

I mean seriously 

 Okay fine... So Godzilla was also immensely influential for it's time and back when it was made the special effects used probably blew a few minds too. However I digress from my original point which is mainly in praise and examination of the awesome techniques which were pioneered by the man who gave us Jack and Rose and most importantly, that sketching scene (you know the one).  So finally, I bring you the breath taking visuals seen in the world of Pandora.

should probably mention that in order to fully appreciate the truly righteous visuals in this film, you need to watch this video in the highest quality that is available (1080p), max your speakers and solemnly nod your head to the soothing tones of Leona Lewis. 

If you look at the actual N'avi  people themselves were created visually through special cameras created by Cameron which  were built into a six inch boom that allowed the actors facial expressions to be digtised which then made it possible for the animations to be edited in post production.

Miss Saldana looking fine as ever.

Other techniques that were used include the new light system that was created in order to light areas such as the jungle in Pandora. A motion capture stage or volume was used which was six times larger than any other known, it also enhanced the picture of the facial expressions of the actors. The main characters who were in the film had to wear skull caps fitted with tinycameras in order to be animated. These cameras were positioned in front of the actors faces, the signals detected by the cameras were then sent to computers where they were then animated

So I think, to wrap this all up, the most conclusive and accurate evaluation of James Camerons success is by looking at the unprecedented box office success of this film which was $2,782,275,172 which seems more like a locker combination than an actual probable figure of tangible money but hey, when you made something like Titanic, the other most successful film in box office history, why not make another film just to beat that record.
Unluckily for Cameron he lucked out in the best picture category, beaten by none other than Katheryn Bigelow, his babe of an ex wife. (Dun dun)

Damn,

Black Swan

The Black Swan
In the scene, Natalie Portman is first experiencing the appearance of the swan-like skin; appearing first on her back and shoulders, creeping down her neck and up her arm. The image is a series of effects, combining feather quills and textured skin, along with dark make up that rapidly spreads across her skin. While this is happening, the camera is sweeping up and down Portman’s arm and torso, while also rotating around her body.

To execute the visual effects on this shot, the team had been working for weeks trying to make it work. The end result had to show the effect starting on her back, neck and shoulders, then continue the transformation process progressing further while tracking around her arms with the camera panning close up. It's a complex 360 degree shot showing the metamorphosis happening, with constant camera motion. And all of the effects had to be tracked to her arm. But the problem was; the team couldn’t lock it down - there was far too much camera movement, and to add to the problem, there were minimal tracking markers on her arms - nothing useful to track to. The team had exhausted their arsenal of tools, but they couldn’t make it work. The timing and movement in the shot were just too fast. And the client was getting nervous - the deadline was fast approaching. There was one option left, however. “Call Buddy!”

The Hobbit 'An Unexpected Journey': Hair & Make Up

With the success of Peter Jackson's trilogy of The Lord of the Rings where he depicted J.R.R Tolkien's characters of Elves and Dwarves of Middle Earth, the extraordinary creativity continues with the newly released film 'The Hobbit'. The hair and make-up crew, including Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane give more emphasis on the dwarves this time round using extreme beard hair styles and layers of bulbous prosthetics. 

Below reveals a detailed sketch of the dwarf character 'Dori'. King's aim for his designs was to ensure that the audience is not to focused on the make-up that they miss the dialogue. He ensures that there is a 'fine balance' whilst avoiding 'distraction' from the character's purpose.

Spider-Man and the Special Effects

When the first movie in the Spider-Man series came out, it created quite a stir due to the over the top stunt sequences and the brilliant graphics that were incorporated into this movie. John Dyskstra, one of the best special effects directors in the Hollywood business at present was hired to do the visual effects of the film. Dyskstra was the one who actually convinced the director to use computer generated images for the dare devil stunt sequences of the lead superhero as well as the villains in the film, because otherwise, these stunts would have been very hard to produce physically and even if they were produced, they would not have the same effect.

The very famous Spider-Man swing from building to building, lovingly described as 'ballet in the sky' by the director was the best work of the special effects team, something that improved further in the next two installments of the series. The effect was created by strapping a stuntman, or sometimes Spider-Man himself, actor Andrew Garfield, to a wire "no thicker than a bootlace" 60 feet in the air, which was connected to a winch on a rail. When they'd jump and reach the bottom of their swing, the winch would move down the rail, giving them a nice clean arc and unquestionably solid underwear.

The brilliant use of special effects is probably one of the reasons why the Spider-Man movies drew so much crowd and went on to become one of the most successful movie franchises of all time in Hollywood. Spider Man is easily one of the top most superhero movies, although the special effects work of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are far more superior to it.