VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[LaGoosh]

Just now, Chest Rockwell said:

I've never seen any of them as I was really burned out on CGI when the first one came along. But I'm feeling like it's something I should remedy.. 

Definitely do. Also the CGI in all the films is absolutely tremendous. I would use these three films as modern examples of how to use CGI correctly.

[Keith Houchen]

18 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Definitely do. Also the CGI in all the films is absolutely tremendous. I would use these three films as modern examples of how to use CGI correctly.

The best CGI is the stuff that you don’t expect to be CGI. Apologies for the shit clip, but this has some of the stuff I mean. I remember seeing how CGI was used in Ugly Betty for simple “Walking down the street” scenes and was amazed. 

 

[LaGoosh]

29 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

The best CGI is the stuff that you don’t expect to be CGI.

I would say the best use of CGI is when it's used to create something that absolutely should not and could not exist but the CGI is so good that you suspend your disbelief. 

Using CGI to create backgrounds/sets is certainly useful though.

[Keith Houchen]

2 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I would say the best use of CGI is when it's used to create something that absolutely should not and could not exist but the CGI is so good that you suspend your disbelief. 

Using CGI to create backgrounds/sets is certainly useful though.

Yeah but we did that and still do that  with models and stop motion etc. It’s like the old adage of disaster films were better in the old days because they were harder to make. 
 

You are right though, the absolute skill and artistry of CGI should not be taken for granted and applauded and appreciated when it’s brilliant. It’s every bit a vital component of cinema as much as sound or editing is in my opinion. 

[SuperBacon]

I thought everyone would like to know that there is a new Asterix and Obelix film out which stars Zlatan Ibrahimovic. 

 

[Chest Rockwell]

Finally got around to seeing Rye Lane. Say what you will about Disney but I really love being able to see films so soon after they leave the cinema these days, especially as I don't really get the opportunity to go much. 

Anyway, yeah the film was every bit as great as I hoped it would be from what I heard about it.

 

Spoiler

I really liked that, although it followed the romcom formula, they didn't labour the bit where the leads are apart before they eventually get together, and the way they did it served the purpose of the story well so it didn't feel contrived or formulaic, but actually a bit more natural than them bouncing straight into a new relationship off their break ups. 

 

Edited May 19, 2023 by Chest Rockwell

[Loki]

Love the chat about CGI, and I also remember Astro’s comment about early CGI films being people narrowly avoiding getting hit by objects in front of a green screen.

 The next evolution was in some ways even worse though.  Hollywood invested in these larger facilities where you could stage a decent fight scene, and worked out how to comp in bad guys so the heroes would actually interact.  

But those spaces needed careful staging - the green screen backgrounds needed to be far enough away from the action that they didn’t need to be part of the scene.  

What you end up with, and it’s especially noticeable in mid 2000s Marvel movies, is the “fight in the middle of a giant bowl” syndrome.  In the wide shots all the actors will be grouped together in a cluster with no scenery near them, and a huge CGI vista will be wrapped and them like they’re tiny fish in a giant bowl.  

Once you see it you’ll see it everywhere.  There’s a large patch of sand or grass about the size of a tennis court with people in it, and then some hazy empty ground  and then mountains or hills or trees an appropriate distance away.  And it looks dead fake.

It’s the big perspective issue that the new Mandalorian tech has solved.  Now you can stage fights in small spaces with tables and props and the Volume can put a room or complex city around you seamlessly.  It’s a transformative leap forward.

 Edit: there’s a lot of good examples of it on this page although it’s more obvious in moving image

https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/avengers-endgame-pictures-before-after-cgi

Edited May 19, 2023 by Loki

[Lorne Malvo]

45 minutes ago, Loki said:

 

It’s the big perspective issue that the new Mandalorian tech has solved.  Now you can stage fights in small spaces with tables and props and the Volume can put a room or complex city around you seamlessly.  It’s a transformative leap forward.

 

I've usually got a high tolerance for shite CGI, but I'm currently watching Obi-Wan Kenobi (it's crap, btw) and I'm finding the Volume really distracting. There's a big chase scene in Episode 2 which takes place in the type of complex city you mentioned, but it just looks absolutely terrible. The show has never convinced me at all that these characters are actually in a desert/city/etc.

It might be less of a Volume issue and more of a time/personnel issue though, because I didn't have the same problem with Mando/Fett.

Edited May 19, 2023 by Lorne Malvo

[BomberPat]

On 5/19/2023 at 10:17 PM, Chest Rockwell said:

Finally got around to seeing Rye Lane. Say what you will about Disney but I really love being able to see films so soon after they leave the cinema these days, especially as I don't really get the opportunity to go much. 

Anyway, yeah the film was every bit as great as I hoped it would be from what I heard about it.

I watched it last night, and bloody loved it, a lot more than I expected. Exactly the right balance of believability and Wes Anderson-ish whimsy. I never found myself getting annoyed by any of the characters, which is a rarity for me in romcoms, and in any film where I'm clearly not the target audience. The family barbecue scene had me in stitches. 

[Lorne Malvo]

Not the best week at the cinema/streaming;

Still: A Michael J Fox Movie - Engaging documentary about the life and career of Michael J Fox. It has a really good use of archive clips from his filmography. These type of documentaries live or die based on how interesting their subject is so it helps that Fox just seems like one of the sweetest and funniest guys around.

Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power - I thought this was a massive missed opportunity. It should be the easiest argument in the world to say that Hollywood is inherently sexist and that the male gaze in turn leads to #MeToo and the wage gap in the industry, but I dont feel like Nina Menkes makes those connections clearly at all and her choice of clips is puzzling at times. A big letdown.

Dead Shot - An action thriller about an SAS officer and an IRA terrorist on the hunt for one another. It starts off quite well (the first 5 minutes are pretty shocking) but gradually gets more conventional and dull as it goes on.

The Mother - A fine mid-level Netflix action-thriller. One of those which reeks of 'made by algorithm' but it's okay and J-Lo makes a decent action heroine.

The Eight Mountains - This looks absolutely beautiful and I found it quietly emotional at times, but it's probably half an hour too long and the story about a man who returns to his childhome home in the moutains each summer makes it feel increasingly repetitive in the last stretch.

[Chris B]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power - I thought this was a massive missed opportunity. It should be the easiest argument in the world to say that Hollywood is inherently sexist and that the male gaze in turn leads to #MeToo and the wage gap in the industry, but I dont feel like Nina Menkes makes those connections clearly at all and her choice of clips is puzzling at times. A big letdown.

I thought it was flawed, but I did think it was interesting. I had some issues with some of the clips - particularly those that are actually using the tropes to subvert what's being talked about, but at the same time, even those doing that are still performing the trope. I also had some issues with how Menkes seems to purely position her own work as the answer. 

But at the same time, it got me thinking - the clip from Mandingo showed how rare it is to see these things with the genders reversed, and it's made me think about the prevalence of it all, and what that means.

So I'm very glad I saw it, and I think more people should, even if there was a better version to have been made about the subject.

[Lorne Malvo]

11 minutes ago, Chris B said:

 I also had some issues with how Menkes seems to purely position her own work as the answer. 

 

I found that quite annoying. It reminded me of a couple of my lecturers at Uni, who would bring up a subject somewhat tenuously linked to the lecture and say 'you can read more about this subject in my book - it's not on the reading list but you can buy it in the University bookshop for £30!'

[Keith Houchen]

32 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I found that quite annoying. It reminded me of a couple of my lecturers at Uni, who would bring up a subject somewhat tenuously linked to the lecture and say 'you can read more about this subject in my book - it's not on the reading list but you can buy it in the University bookshop for £30!'

David Baddiel was your Uni lecturer? Wow!

[SuperBacon]

PSA: The greatest film of all time, Do The Right Thing, is on BBC2 tonight at 11.15pm.

Edited May 22, 2023 by SuperBacon

[Factotum]

16 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

PSA: The greatest film of all time, Do The Right Thing, is on BBC2 tonight at 11.15pm.

Watched it again recently and was amazed by just how vital and alive it seems even now. I find Spike hit and miss at times, but fuck me it still gets you thinking at the end.