VFX Retrofitting Star Trek Into Darkness
The Academy Tackles Storytelling in the Digital Age
Like Skyfall, Star Trek Into Darkness is a hybrid of the old and the new in completing its rite of passage reboot. Except that J.J. Abrams has the advantage of time travel, which he introduced in the first movie, for creating a parallel universe that allows him to break the rules of the beloved sci-fi franchise for the 21st century while still honoring its iconic spirit. Read more
Tech and storytelling converged during a fascinating series of discussions at the Academy on May 15 about Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, and Star Trek Into Darkness, hosted by screenwriter John August. Read more
It’s no surprise, given tax breaks and tradition, that production of Star Wars: Episode VII will take place in the UK. This is also in keeping with an earlier report about ILM considering doing the VFX in London. The installation of fiber optic cable in a London office would also allow the work to still be overseen at the Presidio headquarters in San Francisco. Read more
After much speculation about Disney and Marvel teaming up for the obscure Big Hero 6, the studio officially announced that the animated feature directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) will hit theaters Nov. 7, 2014. Not surprisingly, the first superhero collaboration is a lush Miyazaki-inspired adventure about robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada and his robot sidekick Baymax, who join forces with a reluctant team of newbie crime fighters to save the mythical San Fransokyo from destruction. Read more
At Monday’s Adobe Max conference in L.A., Adobe offered a major update to Creative Cloud with a new set of of desktop applications and sophisticated cross-device collaboration and publishing capabilities available in June. Read more
Stop-motion and VFX pioneer Ray Harryhausen passed away Tuesday in London at the age of 92, according to an announcement on the official Facebook page of The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation. The multi-award winner best-known for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and Clash of the Titans, became a cultural legend and an inspiration to every filmmaker that has worked in animation and live-action VFX movies for the last half century, (including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Tim Burton, Phil Tippett, Nick Park, and John Lasseter). Read more
By sheer coincidence, while Disney was in a romantic mood for its Oscar-winning Paperman hybrid breakthrough, Pixar was getting blissed out over its photographic love story between a blue and red umbrella. But of course Pixar is all about using its shorts as a testing ground, and the stunning global illumination tryout from The Blue Umbrella, which beamed on every object with real-world believability, also shined on Monsters University (which open together June 21st). Read more
Shane Black and Kevin Feige talk about an angst-ridden Iron Man 3 in Phase 2 of Marvel’s post-Avengers universe. Read more
David O. Russell’s Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook arrived on Blu-ray this week from Anchor Bay looking its blue collar best and containing an intriguing alternate ending. Production designer Judy Becker discusses collaborating with Russell in creating the Italian-American Philly atmosphere. It’s Good Fellas meets It’s a Wonderful Life. Read more
The Academy continued its informative “VFX Convergence” series last Tuesday at the Dunn Theater with “From Matte Paintings to Full Environments and Set Extensions,” which took us full circle from Méliès to Hugo and beyond. Read more
