251

(133 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I saw it and the overall feeling was "meh". I felt almost exactly like I felt leaving Oblivion. Not a waste of 2 hours, but I've already forgotten it and I don't really think I'll ever watch it again. Maybe it's just the fact that I am not a comic book reader, and after 3 movies of Iron Man destroying things the novelty has worn off.

But also I hate it when consistency is disregarded just to serve the plot. In the first movie the Iron Man suit is almost indestructible. And in this one the suits are made of cardboard. It takes the movie from "Oh yeah, Stark is in the suit, now to wreck some shit" to "Being in a suit means he can fly, no other advantages".

The main villains are, atleast in my mind, the biggest "oh really?"-moment I've had in a while. Maybe I cannot completely disconnect reality when watching live-action movies, even if they are based on comic books where science and logic sometimes go out the window, but Guy Pearce repeatedly heats himself up to 3000 degrees, enough to melt steel, and yet his pants stay on. And his tattoo on his chest somehow stays intact aswell? Also the justification for being able to heat himself up to 3000 degrees is "something-something-DNA-upgrade". F--- you.

And yeah, the end is rushed, and the "my girlfriend was a firebreathing DNA-enhanced mega-demon for a while, but I fixed her, it's what I do" moment was also incomprehensibly lazy.

Also Tony's anxiety attacks have no bearing on anything. 2-3 times he freaks out a little but it seems to be there literally just to give him some kind of dimension. In the 1st film he became Iron Man, big arc. 2nd one he and his relationship with his father was the focus. Here his girlfriend gets kidnapped and he has anxiety attacks that are used for comedic effect.


I don't know, I think I'm more or less done with these types of movies overall. It seems you need to read the comics or additional material to get a deeper connection with the characters. Watching the movies, after the origins story and the occasional gem of character study and plot structure (Dark Knight, Avengers), there isn't much more to gather from them. Things blow up in slow motion. Seen it.

252

(18 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I saw it a few days ago here in Sweden, 2.35-presentation digitally.

The end feling was a lukewarm 5/10. Unfortunately it is awfully derivative, and there isn't enough substance in other areas to compensate for this. Basically, you've seen this movie before if you've seen Independence day, Moon, The Matrix. Most likely you will be able to guess the plot way before any twists occur.
The score is also your standard Zimmer clonejob. Certain 30-second passages you literally could not tell which was which, even if you had the two side by side. Labelled. No nuance, just string ostinato lines and brass blaring sections from Inception at you.

Visually great, but that also becomes a bit "meh" after a while, after the first 10 minutes you've seen most design elements already.
For me the rotten tomatoes score of 56% seems accurate. I suppose your milage will vary depending on how fresh the story elements feel to you.

253

(469 replies, posted in Episodes)

So far I really like "Friends in your head", because it focuses on the people involved with making the show, which I think is why alot of us tune in regularly. The phrase is also already a part of every show so far, pretty much.

"Creative hindsight" is another favourite. It so aptly describes the point of the show, and it works for just about any discussion about things that exist, since you can then talk about why the thing exists, why it exists in the form it does, etc. "Welcome to this weeks dose of Creative Hindsight" also flows quite well.

"Magic Beans talk" is also great, the concept is often talked about so it is an established part of the show. MBT is a good 3 letter acronym. And the slight intricacy of the name not being immediately obvious is a bonus.

254

(49 replies, posted in Episodes)

Great episode.

As for anamorphic bokeh, They can depending on the lens used be flat on one side, no flaps or other things needed. Lenses can have quite different properties and looks, some will be quite neutral, some will distort bokeh balls in various ways depending on where in the frame you put them, and depending on fstop and focal lenght of the lens behind the anamorphic attachment.

Also, the Monty Hall problem has a pretty simple explanation which better highlights the mechanics of it if you just exaggerate it for clarity.

The solution is that if you get a choice of 1 of 3 doors, and after selecting one, another is shown to be empty, you should change your selection to the remaining one.

Instead imagine there being 100 doors. You select one as containing the prize/whatever. 98 of the others are then opened and shown to be empty. One door remains. In this case it is more obvious that the chances of your first choice being correct is not as good as the possibility of the last remaining door being the winner.
The same principle applies to the 3-door scenario, although less obvious.

As for the movie, I don't like it. It feels dumbed down and so simplistic in some aspects. When they are training in the beginning, anyone throwing a knife will always bulls-eye it even when throwing behind their own back. When Katniss shoots the guy in the hand at the end, it gets stuck in the hand, but doesn't penetrate the hand completely and continuing into Peeta. Convenient. These are just petty examples, but they show the type of things I dislike with it.

255

(3 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Went to watch trailer for "The Purge" on youtube. The pre-video ad was "The Purge"...

Also the premise seems to be that crime is almost only recreational, not out of necessity. Unless the criminals manage in 12 hours to amass enough stolen goods and money to last them for a whole year?

256

(211 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I'll bite, go ahead, unless Teague wants to go again since he first fielded the mission patch answer.

257

(211 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Is it stamps?

258

(211 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Is it ever bigger than a normal-sized car?

259

(211 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Is it a glass? (I imagine those haven't been to space since stuff would get everywhere, and you could suck on it to make it work, but normally you just pour out of it).

I suppose for completion sake I'd also add that film and digital are quite different in an area, highlight overload. Generally digital cameras are configured to have middle grey (or basically a "normal" average exposure) situated very high in the digital data, if you will. This means that exposing slightly too much, or just having very bright areas in frame, can peak and clip the digital data, causing loss of information.

http://www.twinlenslife.com/2009/05/dig … 00-vs.html

This site explains it well with great pictures of direct comparisons. Looks like the left of each set of 3 pics is a "average exposure", the middle one 2 stops overexposed (400% of the amount of light of the left), and the right one is 1600% the light of the left at +4 stops). The reason they are not alot brighter is that they have been reduced in brightness in post to see what is still available in the bright areas. This will also give a great example of just the "look" of film as far as highlights go.

Yeah, I believe Adolf Hitler was acknowledged as one of the pioneers or choral singing. He was extraordinary in the same way that Kim Jong Il scored 11 hole in ones the first time he golfed. Very talented people...

262

(13 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Not sure I would ever be that dedicated to anything. Motorbikes generally unnerve me, not sure I would side-straddle one whilst holding a camera. Without a helmet...

263

(13 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Don't let the union see that. smile

What movie is that from btw, my first thought was Mad Max, not sure why.

I thought it was worth sharing. Today we held a Swedish music event, the local Eurovision song contest. Basically pop songs on tv instead of the radio. Bleh.


But last years winner by Loreen, Euphoria, (both in Sweden and then also the european winner) was in my opinion pretty good, and Loreen is an amazing vocalist.

Original for anyone who wants a quick primer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5qURKt4maw (disclaimer: still pop).

Anyways, this version of the song was presented as an intermission in the broadcast while votes were tallied. If you like orchestral film music with choir, this might just sit right with you. It sure gives me goosebumps. As a bonus some nice steadicam work as usual in these things.

bullet3 wrote:

I mostly agree with Gzarra's take on it. The doc seemed very biased towards digital and didn't make a strong case against it. They only had like 2-3 vocal anti-digital people in the doc, and they got maybe a combined 5 minutes. That bugs me, because there are legitimate arguments there about the look of one vs the other.
You look at the 2 biggest film and digital movies just this year, Dark Knight Rises and Avengers, and Dark Knight completely blows away Avengers visually, like it's not even close. Yes digital can look great (Skyfall, any Fincher movie post 2000), but there's an aesthetic look that I'm not certain can be reproduced.

That's the biggest issue with it to me, at a certain point, it won't be about "quality", because yes, we'll have 8k, and 12k, and 16k. The issue is the specific look you get in a Lawrence of Arabia or an Apocalypse Now or a Dirty Harry. Nothing coming out these days looks like that anymore, and it really bugs me. Everything is just super, super clean and flat.

What I'd really like is to learn about what can be done in terms of faking that look. Obviously you can do stuff with filters, but I'm not convinced you can get it close enough to look right. The argument that one vs the other is now going to be just an "aesthetic" choice is all well and good, but I think Nolan is completely right to question whether that choice will even be available to film-makers in 10-20 years. When the entire production pipeline for film breaks down, guess what, you won't be able to shoot/develop/process film whether you want to or not, and that will be a real shame.

Personally I think the big difference in "look" between digital and film currently is mainly due to the relative novelty of good digital movie cameras, and filmmakers exploring what they can do visually.

For me my preference goes in waves. When the Red One and Arri Alexa are used, since primarily shadow detail is so much better than film, many films have gone for a flat, smooth transition between shadows, midtones and highlights. Basically a low-contrast look. Initially I really loved that look and also applied it alot to my photography. Currently however I am in a phase where I prefer my dark levels to quickly drop off to black/no exposure.

Also as someone who has spent alot of time with digital photography, the main look of film is not at all unattainable. To me the devil is in the details.

As an example, one complaint people generally level against digital is that is looks too smooth or sterile. 90% of that can be fixed by adding a good film grain structure to the images. You'd be amazed the difference in an image when it comes out of the camera extremely clean, and after you add a filmgrain astructure to it. Before you have alot of elements in the picture that just sort of hang around on their own, they are not really "bound" to anything. It looks as though the image is suspended in nothing. With film grain added, suddenly it looks as though the image is drawn on a finely-textured canvas. It looks like a physical structure permeates the frame. It almost is like watching the film through a mildly frosted window.

Example from Gladiator, watch the out-of-focus areas to see the frosted glass effect:

[image]http://images6.alphacoders.com/338/338964.jpg[/image]

Additional artifacts of film include flickering of frame brightness in some areas, from frame to frame, and possibly some very slight horizontal and vertical instability between frames. This can give a slightly more lively appearance, the image is moving and breathing.

These things really to me are easily fixed, byt filmmakers currently are reveling in the clean digital images, and don't necessarily want to contaminate it with adding additional grain to create a certain look. If you want, play a digitally sourced file in VLC media player, and in the video effects of that player, there is a film grain filter. Find a fairly quiet moment, pretty well lit, with lots of out of focus elements, and try turning the effect on and off (use high variance for a higher grain effect). The difference is palpable and quite dramatic, despite it not doing anything to the original images, only adding a fitler on top of it.

Also the other aspect of the film look is dark areas underexposing alot quicker. Also the Dark Knight films have really dropped the black levels even further in post it seems. They are extremely contrasty, particularly TDK. The stark shadow levels on faces sometime look like someone shot a digital camera on the landscape profile where the camers assumes the images are from areas very far away, and thus need alot of added contrast and dropped black levels.
This effect is also easily mimicable in digital. Using curves or just setting the black point, you can drop shadow information into black. Again, currently filmmakers seem to very much want this information there, which leads to the shadows being slightly brighter, which also leads to a flatter appearance of the overall image (even if highlights and midtones are the same).

As for the dynamic range, digital is quickly catching up. Even current gen cameras usually have lots of highlights detail and quite smooth rolloff even in outdoor sunlit scenes. Many filmmakers so far with digital simply have chosen not to intentionally mimic the film look. To reach 80% there, they would need to simply set blacklevels appropriately, and use film grain to create the feeling of structure across the frame.

EDIT: Because I had it handy, I uploaded two images from The Avengers, one of the original frame, and one adjusted only in the VLC player to more approximate a conventional Super35 film look.

Original: http://postimage.org/image/blsopctj7/

Adjusted: http://postimage.org/image/vzoeyhpj7/

Put them in two tabs and switch between to see the differences better.

266

(5 replies, posted in Episodes)

For posterity:

267

(13 replies, posted in Off Topic)

ShadowDuelist wrote:

Part of me just wishes he had faceplanted, because, frankly, that would have been freaking awesome.

268

(13 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Currently we have a godawful european music song contest going, and the Swedish contribution is being selected in a series of extremely longdrawn smaller national contests.

Basically, the only thing I enjoy is the camerawork, which is really top-notch, well-choreographed and the steadicam work is almost undestinguishable from a motion-controlled crane. Incredibly smooth, and whip-pans are insanely accurate.

bullet3 wrote:

I dug it when I watched it on video, because it's very much about "oh shit you're in the chase and things are coming at you and you have 0.5 seconds to react...WATCH OUT THERES A TRUCK COMING".

But on re-watches it really falls apart for me and feels week. Especially if you go back and look at the history of bond and movie car chases, it feels so small scale and forgettable. Its so short, there's very little actual stunt work (like 1 spin and 2 crashes), but they use the editing to fabricate an intensity that isn't really there. They also squander what seems like it might be a good location, because you can barely even tell where the hell they're driving through.

I dunno, when you stack it up against Ronin, To Live and Die in LA, or even the Casino Royale and Skyfall openings, it feels really weak for what is a 200 million dollar movie.


I feel I always mention it in these circumstances, but Fast Five has the best car chase, or indeed action sequence, I've ever seen. It is everything the quantum chase could have been, 10 minutes of pure car on car/object pornography.

Branco wrote:

I will point out that I fucking LOVE the car chase that opens Quantum of Solace.  One of my favorites ever.


- Branco


Ugh. Really? I wish I could, but all I see are flashes of hubcaps, shots that always cut away too quickly, and small sequences where they splice 5 cuts together in a 1-second timespan and expect people to follow the geography and in the scene.

271

(70 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I remember it, but not when he says it.

C-Spin wrote:

I've mentioned here before how I love Quantum of Solace and think it's the best of the Craig Bonds... to the agreement of no one. Part of it, I'm sure, is that I never had any problem understanding what was going on in any of the action sequences. Am I the only one? I've seen review after review and post after post complaining about how incoherent these scenes are, but I never had any problem following them.

That said, it's not my PREFERRED style of shooting action. I like it better than Sam Mendes' action cinematography, which just kind of sat there for me. But I think Casino Royale strikes the best balance on the action front. The camera is frantic and participatory when appropriate, but Campbell also gets back with a wide and lets you know the geography and find your bearings. I think the parkour chase is one of the better action scenes in modern film.

For my money though, nobody does it better than Spielberg in his prime. All three Indiana Jones films are shot perfectly when the action rolls around. Saving Private Ryan, as bullet said. Hell, even Duel. Jurassic Park's action feels a little dull now, but I'm going to chalk that up to technological restrictions.

Casino Royale really is awesome action-wise, and the one big reason is the editing. Pitch-perfect. That plus the choreography being very good makes the stairwell scene feel as one long take just switching from camera to camera, and the geography can be followed to well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAPzMrEXIyA

They just hold on shots 5-6 frames longer than inferior action editing, and that gives you just enough time to follow what is happening, and there is plenty of interspersed 2-3 second shots where you can orient yourself 100%.

And I saw Quantum of Solace in the theatre. 3rd row. You didn't know what was happening at any point of the car chase, or the boat chase. They literally cut every half-second for long periods, as far as I am concerned they can make like a tree. God, now I'm angry just for remembering that experience...

Just counting now, the first 40 seconds of the Quantum car chase has less cuts than the entire stairwell scene in Casino, about 1:40 in length. And when I say counting, try just counting the cuts in QoS. Jesus, my brain almost had a meltdown.
Why it makes me mad is that it has 2-3 very awesome 1 second moments that I really want to love. I love big things crashing into things, so the police car smashing into the house is great, but the greatest one is the bad guys getting shot by bond, and their car flying over the edge of the road. The sound of the impact and the engine revving... Why could I not get that in a better context.

I saw it, it was a very nice insight into details of film that I did not know of.

274

(13 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Dorian wrote:

Oceans 11: How did they get the substitute leaflets that are used to simulate the money into the vault in the first place?

I think the fake swat team brought them in, and then they used those bags to load the cash for the extraction? Long time since I saw it... smile

275

(32 replies, posted in Episodes)

Invid wrote:

Or why he's not a father yet.

...Because he only gets off on girl on girl you mean? smile