by Lidia Paulinska | Sep 1, 2015
August 2015, Siggraph – Chris Edwards is the Founder and CEO of The Third Floor, the world’s leading pre-visualization studio services up to 40 major studio feature films each year. He is also Co-Founder/CEO of The VR Company. In addition to the two companies, he has extended his qualifications into the content area. Over the last 10 years he has been building a massive database of 3D assets, and servicing the world’s top Directors. He began his career in digital cinematography at Disney Studio and then he worked for George Lucas at Skywalker Ranch. His credits include Marvel franchises like Avengers and X-Men, the new Godzilla and Gravity.
“In the previsualization studio, we are working in real time to create scenes ahead of production, so a director can try one and have other options to choose from” said Edwards. . He explained that his company helps incubate concepts and package production for VR. The studio is experimenting with master layer imagery, which is combining CGI with live action photography for VR.
“Every time you go to see the Broadway play you feel like you are transformed by this amazing experience. We need to bring back that kind of language. Before we had cinema”, he continued, “we had a rectangle on the wall to display, dream, and still entertain us. That was called theater or play or some performance. It usually happened in front of the audience. The actors stayed sometimes on the front, or they go around. When you see Cirque du Soleil they come from above. The director uses all the tricks that work: sound design, blocking the characters and how they move around you, and lighting.”
by Lidia Paulinska | Sep 1, 2015
August 2015, Siggraph – David Karlak, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, sees VR as an extension of the dreams that we have always had. He predicts that beyond VR, there will be additional technologies that will give us more immersive experiences. These experiences will include characteristics and senses from the physical world, such as smell. The opinion of the panel was that VR is not a necessity to be pushing innovation, but it is instead a wish fulfilling technology. For now, access to VR is not affordable to 99% of the world, but over time it will be more popularized and democratized.
Karlak has been exploring the confluence of virtual reality and science fiction cinema. He directed the short film “Candidate” that created a lot of buzz in the industry. Following this success, he raised funds on Kickstarter for his next project “Rise”, a film about a robot revolution in the future, told from the perspective of the robots. He sold the original story concept to Warner Brothers. Soon after sale of “Rise”, he sold a second original pitch titled “Outliers” to 20th Century Fox.
When he talked about VR he reminded the audience about the scene from “Reservoirs Dogs” by Quentin Tarantino. There was a scene in the film where all the characters were sitting on the table and the cameras was on a dolly which was rotating from one character to another. Having that camera calling out the characters in that moment is like having a camera on the table. “It actually make things simpler”, said Karlak . ”There is more emphasis on blocking of your actions in oppose to blocking of the camera. The camera in some ways disappeared leaving the viewer deeply immersed in the dialog and action of the scene.” He sees VR as alternative to Facebook or Instagram. People instead on spending time posting on social media, they will be “physically immersed” and connected in VR.
by Lidia Paulinska | Sep 1, 2015
August 2015, Siggraph – Allen Bolden, CGI artist and visual effects veteran with credits including “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Iron Man” and other blockbuster productions, agreed that everyone has a dream or story in their head. He recently developed a real time intelligence system named Tina to help those dreams or stories to get out to the screen. He worked on that program for the last 10 years and now gets “textual input, visual output”.
“My team”, explained Allen, “took all those tedious things and put it into this simple program. For example, if we type “bowl on the table”, the software creates a CGI image of a bowl and of a table. The beauty is the more you work with Tina, she learns more about you and your preferences. Tina is an intelligent work companion that is handy and works with us towards our goals. People see things in subjective ways, so the CGI image can be different from what they expected. There is a way to change the image and improve program to make the image the way we like it.
by Lidia Paulinska | Aug 28, 2015
Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies brought back to the big screen the most successful movie musical of all time- the story of the 1950’s – Grease. Ted Mankiewicz, host of the television program TCM, in his introduction to the Grease Sing-A-Long that went with the movie event, invited the audience to experience again the story of teenage sweethearts played by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. For those who ask for “Tell me more” and recognized the many hits songs in the movie, the fun in this out in public with a large group event, was the collective singing along in the theater. Grease boasted a world-famous soundtrack including “Greased Lightning’” “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” “Summer Nights,” “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” “Beauty School Drop Out” most of which the audience had a good memory for the lyrics to sing along.
But Grease is not a concert film based on hit songs, it is also a love story and is filled with the dancing modernized but paying respect to the classic musicals of the Black & White film era. The film was an introduction to the world of singing and dancing for a new generation. As John Travolta explained in one of his interviews many years after the film was made, there was natural formula that actors in the 1950s that included singing and dancing. That is why he was able to quickly transition and continue to integrate acting, dancing and singing in his roles, in some memorable scenes as the batman dance with Uma Turner in Pulp Fiction.
It is interesting that Olivia Newton-John was an accomplished teenage singer prior to the film and that she first resisted to take a role in the movie. As she is an exceptionable singer who has her own show in Las Vegas, and until those days of filming the movie Grease, she was not that good of the dancer. The director who wanted her to play character of Sandy made things work. In the scene of vibrant, dynamic dance during the graduation event Sandy broke up with John for a moment and her side replaced some other female dancer.
Grease is fun to watch as the movie is like a glimpse of culture, fashion, hair style of 50s along with the singing-a-long with the stars. It was a full audience participation and group event, and experience that you cannot obtain on VOD at home or on a mobile device – somethings are meant for the collective energy of a group to enjoy, and a fun, light music filled film is one of them.
The Grease Sing-A-Long Deluxe Edition will be available on Digital HD later this summer, invite some friends over and try to recreate the theater experience on a small scale.
by Lidia Paulinska | Aug 28, 2015
Great cast, brilliant dialog and lively scenes fill the new Paul Weitz film “Grandma”. Grandma Elle (played by Lily Tomlin) and her granddaughter Sage (played by Julia Garner) spend the day trying to collect some money for helping resolve an unexpected incident that Sage got into. Unannounced visits to old friends and flames end up rattling skeletons and digging up secrets while they go about solving their situation.
Paul’s Weitz new movie proves that a cinema still can be attractive based on the compiling story and dialog instead of just special effects. The story deals with women and social issues with a lightness that makes the audience laugh sometimes while highlighting the issue at hand, but always leaves the audience waiting for the next scene. Lily Tomlin is wonderful in the seasoned role of grandma. In complement is Julia Garner who is a raising star in her acting career, in the role of the granddaughter.
What I liked about the movie, is that it is taking you on the journey through the back door of the experience by telling you up front what is an issue but leading you through the unexpected alleys and uncovering the secrets of the human relationships that lead up to that experience.
The film opens August 28 at Century 9 and Sundance Kabuki in San Francisco; opens September 4 at Landmark Albany Twin in Albany, Century 16 in Pleasant Hill, Landmark Guild in Menlo Park, Cinema 7 in San Jose and Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.
