The State of Hollywood Digital Filmmaking 

Spiely Hangin' with Bruce
With The Day The Earth Stood Still hitting theatres shortly and getting mondo crapo reviews, I wanted to share my thoughts on digital effects in Hollywood filmmaking. But rather tell you that the new Indiana Jones film would’ve been slightly better had George Lucas allowed Spielberg to place emphasis on practical effects rather than digital, I’ll share a quote from Spiely on how Jaws would pan out if it were remade today with digital effects:

I’m as guilty as anyone, because I helped to herald the digital era with Jurassic Park (1993)). But the danger is that it can be abused to the point where nothing is eye-popping any more. The difference between making Jaws (1975) 31 years ago and War of the Worlds (2005) was that today, anything I can imagine, I can realize on film. Then, when my mechanical shark was being repaired and I had to shoot something, I had to make the water scary. I relied on the audience’s imagination, aided by where I put the camera. Today, it would be a digital shark. It would cost a hell of a lot more, but never break down. As a result, I probably would have used it four times as much, which would have made the film four times less scary. Jaws is scary because of what you don’t see, not because of what you do. We need to bring the audience back into partnership with storytelling.

I often tell my students the same thing. Otherwise we keep getting more of this shit.

 
 
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Friday, December 19 2008
 
Filmmaking
 

The Shark is Still Working trailer 


My favourite film of all time, the one that inspired me to make films in the first place (and apparently every young filmmaker working in Hollywood today), the one that marked the beginning of the word ‘blockbuster’ in Hollywood, has got itself a new fan documentary The Shark Is Still Working. If the narrator in this trailer sounds familiar it’s because it’s that of Percy Rodrigues, the man who voiced the original trailer way back in 1975. The documentary features interviews with just about everyone involved in the difficult production, fans, other filmmakers and also delves into the legacy of one of the finest thrillers ever made.

The documentary run for 3 hours and is to be released on DVD as a 2-disc set sometime in the foreseeable future (no release date as of yet). As a Jaws fan, I shall be picking this one up when it’s released but those eager for an early review can find one here.

 
 
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Wednesday, July 18 2007
 
Film General