'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.

Look at it from this Perspective

Although the phrase "forced perspective" sounds intimidating, chances are you've already utilized it in your photography. If not, you've definitely seen it used before.

These two pictures use forced perspective in it's most basic form. One subject stands very close to the camera, while the other rests much farther back. This creates the illusion that the subject in the foreground is much larger than the background subject. This exaggerated size is something we love to play with (especially around historic sites).

Some examples of forced perspective in photography:

Still, forced perspective is not confined to photography. I stumbled across this walk through while researching. A small, independent group of filmmakers wanted to create a scene that involved a man discovering a huge block of ice. Unfortunately, there was no room in the budget to create a 6' by 6' block of ice. Not only that, but the weight of said block would be completely impractical; especially since they wanted to load it into a truck. 

So what did they do? Just a little forced perspective magic. First, they got a block of ice. However, instead of the 6' by 6' dimensions they were originally pulling for, the filmmakers settled on a 7" by 7" ice cube. 

Here's the little guy in front of the green screen: 

 And here it is on set:

Then, using the minds of master illusionists, the filmmakers came up with a floor plan that would make the ice block look much larger than reality. Apparently, 216 feet was the magic number.

The floor plan:

Here's a still of the achieved look:

I'll embed the video here but I'm warning you now: it looks low budget. It's not actually very good. But, they did achieve the look they were going for through the use of forced perspective. 

Here it is:

Although primarily used in low budget movies where CGI and other special effects are unavailable, big blockbusters too have been known to incorporate the use of good "old-fashioned" forced perspective. I use the word "old fashioned" very loosely. Nowadays, although it's done physically, moving cameras have caused things to get a little more complicated. 

Take for instance this example from The Lord of the Rings:

So although the rigs are getting more and more complicated, this example proves that CGI doesn't have to be the answer. What I like about the moving rig method for moving camera shots is that although the machinery is semi-involved, the idea of forced perspective remains a simple constant.

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 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.