Tuesday 13 November 2012

Lord of the Rings - Visual Effects



By James Collyer

Lord of the Rings (LOTR) first hit the screens as a live action film in 2001. Directed by Peter Jackson with a budget of US $93 million, set in New Zealand, with an epic following, everyone knew it was going to be a hit. The first film alone won 4 of 13 Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, Best Effects – Visual Effects, Best Make-up and Best Music – Original Score. It is ranked 29th on IMDB on the world wide box office lists of all time at US $860.7 million the lowest of the three films and at the time was in the top 10 of all time. The Two Towers in 2002 with a budget of $94 million won 2 of 8 Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing. Currently ranked 20th on IMDB with US $921.6 million, it again broke the top 10 in 2002. Finally The Return of the King in 2003 had 11 nominations in the Academy Awards and won all 11 of them: Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Make-up, Best Music (song), Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects.

The recurring award that LOTR won over all 3 films was Best Visual Effects. This is no coincidence. LOTR had – and still does in my opinion – the best visual effects displayed in a movie.

Friday 2 November 2012

Unbreakable (2000)


By Cameron Hollis


Definitely one of my favourite films, Unbreakable is constantly overshadowed by The Sixth Sense, to the point where it has not received the recognition and credit it deserves.

Firstly, one reason why you should watch this film:  Samuel L Jackson.

The film follows the story of David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who is the only survivor of a train crash and who escapes with no injuries what so ever. He is contacted by Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson), known as Mr Glass – due to a rare disease that makes his bones break easily – who believes that because he is extremely frail, there must be someone who is extremely strong. Elijah proposes to David that he is the kind of person that superheroes in comics are modelled from. He continues to insist that this is the case and eventually David begins to test himself, finding that he is able to lift much larger weights than he previously thought, and that he has never been ill.David begins to develop extra sensory perception, and begins to accept that could be a superhero. He then goes on to use this perception to save a family who have been taken hostage by a sadistic janitor.

The Destruction of a Saga - George Lucas' Greatest Mistake





By James Colvin 

Many films have huge cult followings, but none so more than the Star Wars Saga. The first movie, 'A New Hope', brought in around $400 million in the United States alone, with the entire saga making around $4.5 billion in its box office run (not to mention the $15 billion or so it has made from toys over the years).

But for the purposes of this article, return yourself to 1997, 14 years after the last film, 'Return of the Jedi'. Fans everywhere reel to the news that a new trilogy will be released, showing the fall of the great Jedi, Anakin Skywalker. The first film, 'The Phantom Menace' brings in $924 million worldwide, a huge amount, which is a sign that the film is a hit. The next two come out, and bring in similar amounts.

However, while this is what George Lucas, director of the Saga aimed to achieve, it was not what the saga deserved. The films were to show the fall of Anakin Skywalker, a fabled Jedi Master. What the films failed to show was Anakin as anything more than an arrogant, whiny brat, a character comparable to Top Gun's Maverick in terms of the one-dimension shown.

Throughout the original films, Luke travels from his home, leaving behind all he knows to help this old Jedi, Ben Kenobi, eventually pushing through the struggles of fighting the near invincible foe of the Galactic Empire, and becoming a Jedi Knight in his own right. The story shows the growth of the boy into man, and sets up an unforgettable universe in which many characters develop, fighting for a greater cause. Even more incredible were the sets, created by Lucas and his team, creating a realism never before seen in movies. With ground breaking special effects, the movies achieved their well-deserved cult following from the hard work put into it by both the creative teams and the innovative directing.

However, when it came to the prequels, Lucas took the films in a new direction. He had decided that special effects were the best way to tell the story, and while the effects used were, in most cases, stunning, they were relied upon too heavily. Near all backgrounds were shot in front of a blue screen, creating an environment difficult for actors to react to, as well as looking noticeably unbelievable, retracting from the universe, a fate the originals did not suffer from. Furthermore, most alien characters were achieved through CGI effects, leading to another case where it was difficult for characters to interact with, again pulling the audience away from the realism of the film.