ALL SCI-FI

Pow · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:05 pm Post subject:

I have to agree with scotpens comment regarding model work done via wires, Bud.

While there certainly exists poor model work in both film & television, there are some splendid examples of it.

Scotpens mentions the Flying Sub scenes on VTTBOTS as one example of well done model work.

2001: A Space Odyssey is stunning to look at to this day with their outer space scenes.

Like any special/visual effect in existence, you can see shining examples & poor ones depending on the film or tv show.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 1:26 pm Post subject:

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First of all, I'd like to retract this statement, please.

" . . . all FX prior to CGI that involved models on wires that dangled and swung back and forth look phony as hell."

I'll amend it to read " . . . many FX using models on wires look phony."

You guys are correct in saying that there are, however, plenty of good examples.

As for 2001: A Space Odyssey and pretty much anything made after it, those FX weren't done with moving models on wires, filmed by a stationary camera. They were done with stationary models and computer controlled cameras — and all of those FX are gorgeous.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Pow · Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 10:46 am Post subject:

Whoops, you are quite right regarding how 2001: ASO was done without models on wires.

It gets confusing due to that time period. Models on wires were still being employed at the same time as models on stationary mounts.

I believe the Eagles on Space: 1999 may have used both techniques.

Gord Green · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 12:41 am Post subject:

I think I knew about the process of stop motion before seeing this film, but that knowledge didn't effect my enjoyment of it in the least!

There is a certain suspension of belief that is required in viewing ANY genre movie!

If anything, I think the current CGI process is too fast and too complicated for my poor old brain to process!

Bud Brewster · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 9:09 am Post subject:

Pow · Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 11:17 am Post subject:

Fun Fact: The interior set of the spaceship was the set originally used for the US Navy ship from the classic 1954 film "The Caine Mutiny."

I always have found it quite interesting how sets from one movie or tv production are reused for other productions.

The city of Shangri-La from the 70s musical version of Lost Horizon was modified to become the Shaolin Monastery for the television series Kung Fu.

Sets from the Lost In Space TV-Movie/Pilot were utilized for the Battlestar Galactica tv show as the Battlestar Pegasus.

Gord Green · Posted: Tue May 02, 2017 10:39 pm Post subject:

Bud Brewster · Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 9:51 am Post subject:

Skullislander · Solar Explorer Joined: 13 Jul 2016 Posts: 74

Watching that fascinating time-lapse clip there it hits home to me that Harryhausens' very 'life-force' is being sapped from his soul into his cinematic work.

I do not think he actually minded.....

WHAT a legacy, though!

Maurice · Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 3:17 am Post subject:

I hope no one is suggesting there was any kind of computer controlled motion control on 2001. They had some motor driven camera rigs, but nothing on the order of the programmable, repeatable action of the Dykstraflex used on Star Wars. Star Wars and Close Encounters were where computer driven motion control cameras really came into the fore.

A lot of the shots in 2001 were done on animation stands using high-resolution photographic cutouts, notably all the satellite bombs, the Pan Am plane, and many shots of the Aries IB and the Moonbus. Many of the mattes were hand painted, much as on Forbidden Planet.
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"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

Bud Brewster · Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 10:48 am Post subject:

Skullislander · Solar Explorer Joined: 13 Jul 2016 Posts: 74

The approach Kubrick and his team used for multiple passes in the elaborate model shots in 2001 was the same approach as used since the silent era: winding the film back after a masked portion has been exposed, then using the same film strip for a counter-matte in order to record the exact same linear shot again.

They also used projected images front-beamed onto a reflective card I understand, to represent human activity as seen in tiny 'windows' in some of the model shots.

So yes, very different to what followed in the Star Wars era.

Maurice · Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 4:02 am Post subject:

Maurice · Posted: Sun May 28, 2017 12:41 am Post subject:

Bud Brewster · Posted: Sun May 28, 2017 3:17 pm Post subject:

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Thanks for your very kind offer! Very Happy

Actually, no videotape was involved. I simply projected the original 8mm film onto a piece of white poster board taped to a closet door at the end of a darken hallway in my apartment back around 2004 and used this digital camera on a tripod —

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— to make digital videos of the films. Despite the fact that the camera is an old 4 megapixel device, I doubt if a newer one could improve the quality of the 8mm film under the same circumstances.

However, I'm sure a direct scan of the film would be better, and if you'd like for me to mail the original reels to you so you can scan the footage (and mute the annoying projector noise, as well as edit them so that each animation section is a separate video), I would be very grateful! Very Happy

PM me your mailing address and I'll gladly send you the 8mm films. Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)