Your favourite Minitures/CGI effects etc?....

Matt Wells · January 7, 2005

OK, in response to the other thread about CGI and minitures, I though it would be interesting to hear form people which minitures and CGI in films most stick in their minds as their favourite.

For me, I think that there are two Bond films that really stand out.

First, The Spy who Loved Me. There is an enourmous super tanker that swallows submarines. They wanted to rent an empty tanker from Shell and use it to shoot the deck scenes and aerial shots. Shell told them that they had a tanker leaving South Africa and they could use it for free, provided they insured it - this sounded great until they discovered that it would be £50,000 a DAY to insure.

Derek Meddings therefore set to work and made a 20 odd foot replica and mounted an outboard engine inside. It looks amazing, especially the areial shots. So good infact that the Shell executives invited to an early screening wanted to know where they had got the real tanker from.

Second, Moonraker, even with a budget of $38m in 1978, they had to think of a way of shooting the laser space fight scene at the end of the film that was economical. Derek Meddings, again, built a big model of the space station at Pinewood, and floated actors on cables and continiously back wound the film in camera - I think one stip of negative had passed through 98 times. At the end they got a pair of shot guns and blew loads of holes in the model whilst filming it.

January 7, 2005

Derek Meddings in his first two examples- you're doing well Matt! :D

I have to agree, Meddings is a big hero to me, not just miniatures but his whole in-camera biased approach. I have written dozens of articles on Meddings work at Superman CINEMA, the guy was a real genius, as was the even broader talent, Meddings mentor Les Bowie. I love the way thses guys would mix models with process and even blown up stills used as miniatures cycloramas, all incamera.

I am really looking forward to Steve Begg's miniature work on the new Batman film, continuing the Les Bowie legacy having been Meddings apprentice on Tim Burtons Batman.

Edited January 7, 2005 by fstop

Gregor Mac · January 7, 2005

I have to say one film I liked very much was "Clash of the Titans" - go go go plastic giant scorpions!

Also, can you really beat the effects in Flash Gordon? Great film effects for their time and now too.

Anything from TRON on is marvellous to watch once, but not enough nostalgia for me.

David Mullen ASC · January 7, 2005

I'm a big Meddings fan; the Golden Gate bridge collapse in "Superman" was great. All the James Bond stuff too.

I also love Albert Whitlock's matte paintings -- there are some that are so well-done and subtle (because he exposed them onto the original negative using the latent image technique) that I didn't even know there was something in the frame painted. For example, in Badham's "Dracula" there's a shot of Jonathon Harker driving up the beach to see the shipwreck and there's a harbor town painted on the far horizon.

Bob Hayes · January 7, 2005

I really liked the CGI shot at the end of I-robot where the camera complete arcs around will Smith in the Computer Mainframe.

Van Helsing was another great CGI film. Technically it was flawless. But, dramatically the CGI images really grabbed me. I found myself saying wow that was really cool!

Phil Rhodes · January 7, 2005

Hi,

I thought the mdoel work in "Event Horizon" was top hole - great use of little pea lights to create appropriate flare, and good integration with CG elements.

"The Fifth Element", for similar reasons. Fantastic travelling chinese food guy on his boat!

Phil

January 7, 2005

OK, in response to the other thread about CGI and minitures, I though it would be interesting to hear form people which minitures and CGI in films most stick in their minds as their favourite.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Some CGI ones...

Chris Cunninghams "All is full of love" (Bjoerk). One of the most beautiful pieces I've seen in the last few years. No movie caught me like this musicvideo did. Stunning combination of real models (robots) and CGI effects. Glassworks did a beautiful job on this (as on many others).

I'm so said music-television is just dead. Music videos were the format, where for some time you could the see the real innovative images. Now most of the directors went on with making movies and some of them do have an impact but still I tend to prefer their music vids. What is Cunningham doing now? Heard he was reading Maya manuals and tutorials all the time ;-)

-

The planet solaris in Sonderberghs remake. Looks so beautifully alive....

-

A typical Hollywood Blockbuster Rollercoster shot:

LotR II right at the beginning when gandalf and that huge demon fall into that abyss. I would have never imagined someone would actually be stupid enough to try visualizing this.

Usually this common CGI attitude of "we can do everything" miserably fails and annoys me alot. But here it was just so bold and yet perfectly done that I can only fall silent in awe and disbelieve.... :o

-k (sorry for my english)

Mark Allen · January 8, 2005

I'll agree with "All is full of love" in that it is a fantastic combination of live and CG elements which really tell the mood of the moment.

It's difficult picking the best effects because ideally they go by unnoticed - so you end up picking the best CG and minitures that stood out yet also looked good. I, for example, would not pick Van Helsing because I just felt the effects integration was very sterile. I would pick The Matrix because I thought the design (though completely borrowed for the most part) was very freshly integrated. I would not pick Matrix 2 and 3 because they became sterile and self conscious.

K Borowski · January 8, 2005

I'm a big sci-fi buff, no denying it, so I am understandible biased towards sci-fi effects: One of my favorites are the space battles in Return of the Jedi, which are nothing short of spectacular, even moreso since they were done in an optical printer. I also enjoyed immensely the beautiful model ligthing in Star Trek III. It's a shame that the USS Enterprise is lit so beautifully while breaking out of space dock only to be self-destructed at the end :( I also like the pastel, picturesque look to the early CGI shots used in TV programs, with particular honors going to Bablyon 5 and the short-lived Space: Above and Beyond. B5 had a pastel, other-worldly pallette to its CG, whereas Space's CG was cold and dark, owing to the dark nature of the series. Also, the CG in Jurassic Park is tastefully blended with the convincing animatronics also used in the movie. Although they aren't models or CG effects at all, I also wish to tip my hat to Stanley Kubrick in his masterpiece 2001. I simply cannot get enough of the artificial gravity shots of the spacecraft Odyssey, as well as the EVA shots. They are stunning and totally believable, and even more impressive once you learn how they are done. . .

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

David Mullen ASC · January 8, 2005

Maybe this is a little embarassing, but I'm also a "Space: 1999" fan (well, Season One only) and the miniature efx work in that show.

Mark Allen · January 8, 2005

Space 1999 ..... Babalon 5?? Dr. Who anyone?

Well... I think my point is proven... The fact is that there are effects that are for effect and there are effects that are for affect I suppose. Should we call them special affects?