Books and Movies. Movie and Books

Books and Movies. Movies and Books

     Recently the movie Brooklyn came out, based on the book by author Colm Tóibín. You may remember the book as that thing you got over the summer before freshmen year and never read....well I read it. I read it because I like to read, and you know what? It wasn't that bad! Until you got to the ending and then it was just plain terrible. It tricked me into thinking it wasn't a shitty book, but oh...it was a shitty book. On the popular website A.V. Club they gave Brooklyn (the movie) an A-! An A- is a pretty good grade for a movie on A.V. Club, and the author just spoons it loads of praise, it's actually sickening to read. Will I see the movie now? Probably not. Is it really as good as they say? Could vert well be. The reason I bring this all up is because I wanted talk briefly about the sin in Hollywood of turing books into movies. And that may not apply to Brooklyn, but just seeing it brings this idea to mind. 

     Today (and yesterday) in a world of 100% unoriginal ideas it has come to the attention of Hollywood scriptwriters everywhere that the easiest way to make a quick buck is to make an "adaptation" of a movie. The stories already written, tried and tested, so why the hell not? 

     

     You've heard the term "Oh well the movie wasn't as good as the book" in every way possible and at this point it comes across as arrogant to the process of filmmaking and storytelling. That's because it's unfair to do so; movies and books are different and shouldn't be compared to one another. My quarrel isn't with the fact that the books are usually better than the movies, which they are, my quarrel is in the fact that today adaptations have become the staple of Hollywood cinema to the point where I just have to say "Hollywood, take a break." 

     I think there's a lot of good adaptation that will (and have) come out this year, The Reverant, Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl, but there;'s also been a lot of bad. And my biggest pete peeve is when they take a short book and make it into three movie to take the poor suckers money who goes to see them. I would love to go into a case study about this but I'm honestly just exhausted of thinking sbout the state of Hollywood Cinema today so I'll quit while I still have some form of judgement about me. Not my finest blog post, but not my worst. 

     

     

'No Animals Were Harmed'

During a break in the filming of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 27 animals died from dehydration or drowning on an unmonitored farm. The Hollywood Reporter talked to John Smythe, a trainer, and they reported, "an AHA (American Humane Association) official told him the lack of physical evidence would make it difficult to investigate. When he replied that he had buried the animals himself and knew their location, the official then told him that because the deaths had taken place during the hiatus, the AHA had no jurisdiction. The AHA eventually bestowed a carefully worded credit that noted it “monitored all of the significant animal action. No animals were harmed during such action.”

Another investigation was on Ang Lee's Life of Pi. An email from an AHA monitor, Gina Johnson, was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. The email stated, "Last week we almost f-ing killed King in the water tank." Although the tiger was created with CGI for most scenes, King, a very much alive tiger, was used when it would work. One of the takes when King was in the water, he got lost and "damn near drowned." Johnson continued in the email, “I think this goes without saying but DON’T MENTION IT TO ANYONE, ESPECIALLY THE OFFICE! I have downplayed the f— out of it.”

Johnson was also intimately involved with one of the high-ranking production executives on Life of Pi. The AHA found out about this relationship and the email. However, Life of Pi was still awarded the "No Animals Were Harmed" credit.

These are only two of the cases out of many. Audiences should not necessarily buy into that credit when it is seen at the end of movies. The AHA has awarded this credit to films in which animals have been harmed, defending this by saying the animals were not intentionally harmed or it happened while the cameras were not rolling.

On the set of Disney's Eight Below, a husky dog was punched repeatedly in its diaphragm, apparently in order to stop a dog fight. During a Kmart commercial shoot, a 5-foot-long shark died after being placed in a small inflatable pool. The list goes on and on. Read the whole investigation by The Hollywood Reporter here.

The American Humane Association is the only officially-sanctioned animal monitoring program. If the AHA is not following their own guidelines and rules, then who is going to protect the animals? I understand that accidents are going to happen. But the AHA is not carrying out what they promised, and that's my problem with it.

Rat Bastard

What a semester it has been! I have to say that I learned a lot from this Fiction Field II class. Each of the assignments were meaningful and got me to think about how I go about shooting and techniques in different and interesting ways.

This past project, Rat Bastard was probably the most stressful but also the most fun. While we didn't leave ourselves much room for error and didn't give ourselves a whole lot of extra time to shoot if we made a mistake, the pressure almost made it more exciting and it motivated us all to work hard. My favorite part of working on Rat Bastard was being able to put Arturo's directing methods to the test in order to get the desired performance out of our actors.

The reason I think our final project turned out so successful is because we all shared a vision on how the final product should look.  The project was very much a collaborative effort from Lindsey, Dave, Sam R, Sam M, Chris, Tori, and me. Another great thing throughout the shoot was that even though people more or less had set tasks, we were all open and receptive to each other's ideas and suggestions to improve the shoot.  In addition, we made sure to keep the shooting environment fun and not too serious. I think that the process of shooting should be an enjoyable, fun one though it can be stressful sometimes. Based on the behind the scenes of The Hobbit video we watched in class the other day it sure seems like everyone on that production had lots of fun and worked equally as hard. Thanks to my great group for keeping it fun and creating a great final result. Good luck to everyone in their future filmmaking endeavors!

The Hobbit in 3D

The Hobbit, produced by Peter Jackson, is a one of the most highly anticipated 3D films yet. Using a total of 48 RED cameras, mounted on special rigs, The Hobbit will be shot in 5k resolution (over 6 times 1080p) at 48 frames per second. This allows for an incredibly sharp image and a very wide depth in the scene. Since the lenses are so large on the RED cameras, they have to use mirrors and have one camera bounce off of it in order to shoot in 3D. The rigs allow the crew to add depth to all access of the movie, they shot in the same style as they would a 2D movie, with dollies and handheld, getting the perfect shot. They allow the audience to feel part of the scene by using a unique set.

The resolution changes the way they create the characters as well, since it is so sharp and intense, they have to recreate a natural skin color on top of the characters skin, adding tones of red. They have to be incredibly careful with the colors as well. This movie seems unique because the 3D planning was done all the way through. Even in pre-production stages, the concept art and designs were all done in 3D. Peter Jackson is a big fan of 3D, even keeping 3D pictures from all of the past Lord of the Rings movies, "the reality is, it's not that difficult to shoot in 3D. I love it when a film draws you in and you become part of the experience, and 3D helps immerse you in that film".

The Hobbit

Everyone has a movie or show that they are really looking forward to watch. For me I really want to see the Muppet Movie...it looks fantastic. But what I am really excited for is The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I am a huge Tolkien fan like a HUGE Tolkien fan. It is probably the nerdiest part about me. Peter Jackson has been posting video journals about the production and his most recent one focused on the technical side of making the movie.

I enjoy these videos and I hope you guys do too.

The Secrets of the Hobbit 3D

We all know the Lord of the Rings and the genius behind the movie empire, Peter Jackson. What we don't always know is the genius inside of Jackson and on the set. However, now we are able to take a sneak preview into this wonderful world of 3D that will be the Hobbit. This should be released sometime in December 2012

On the Hobbit Blog, Peter Jackson's latest post takes viewers on a tour of the set and of how they are shooting the newest edition of this trilogy. He takes us on specific tours of sets cameras, equipment, and many other things.

The first half consists of the obstacle they found shooting the intense action scenes and elaborate CGI scenes of this movie. He explains that the problem with shooting 3D is that you need two cameras. This is because in order achieve the 3D feel that audiences crave, you need to replicate the view of the human eyes and interocular distance between them. This allows for the feeling of being right in the movie. They explain how because of the large size of the lenses they use, it is difficult to get the two cameras to shoot close enough together where the images overlap. So to my surprise, they actually shot one camera straight on and the other camera from above and bounced it off a mirror so that the interocular distance was perfect and the 3D effect was perfect.

Another amazing aspect of this film is the top of the line equipment they are using. Before watching this video I hadn't heard of Red Cameras. I think this is because I have never seen one and they range in price from $10,000-$40,000 a piece. This movie has 48 of them in use everyday!!!!!!!!!! Just think if we had the budget they do and the equipment. I think I speak for everyone to say we would be in heaven. All that aside, whats also amazing is that the resolution that normal HD movies that aren't 3D, are shot in is usually 1080p. But since this is 3D they are shooting in 5k resoulution!!!!! Now thats just unheard of and I almost couldn't believe it. But remember they are using 2 top of line cameras for every shot. This footage is going to be insane to see. They are also shooting with 48 frames per second which is also going to add to the 3D world that this movie will create. The human eye sees in 60 frames per second, so the fact that this movie is so close, this will allow for the clearest, most amazing image on the screen.

Click Here to see video. Sorry couldn't find the embed version.

I cannot wait to see this movie, not because I am a fan of Lord of the Rings, but solely based on the fact that this is going to be one of the greatest 3D viewing experiences much like that of Avatar.