Film Origination, Digital Destination...Just how does Attack of the Clones...

[BrendaSmith]

Alex,Alex<Alex you Assume to much about a person you don't know > Starwars Looked good because Of GL & the people that worked on it. Story is the key for me!!!!. I never said the camera alone made it good. I just want to know about digital because the cost of is it cheaper then film, that's all there is to it.

I like film better, a lot of people do, a lot don't. Hey it is up to the Filmmaker but I want to learn. I learned about digital and it's Film for me, but I am not closed to using digital.

I think you should stop ASSUMing things, you don't know me. Stop applying what you do. I came here to ask some questions. You gave what I felt I did not ask for. I asked about digital,cgi,finding a crew.

So I had trouble finding a crew in NY, you blew up like I have a problem with NY, NO!!! I just have to place more ads.

I ask about A Camera George Lucas used for Starwars and you try to make it out that I hate the crew. No, I just wanted to know about the camera.

And I like talking about my disabilty, so others with problem know they can reach their Dreams. Just stop assuming things. And I did think Starwars look great, but Three times the film froze for a second, real quick I think it was because it was shot on digital.

BRENDA DIANE SMITH <BDS PRODUCTIONS>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 09, 2002 07:20 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[Alex]

Do I know you? [img]cool.gif[/img]

[BrendaSmith]

We Are Twins !!!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 09, 2002 07:12 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[Alex]

Indeed.

[Mike Buckles]

I agree that the story comes first...without it, you have nothing...but if Hollywood has built itself a reputation for aesthetically superior looking movies, sooner or later a director or studio less concerned with quality is going to start churning out bad looking material. You can't even really call the new star wars episode a "movie" or even a "film"...it's a made for video production...does this mean since it is not a film or movie, that it does not qualify for Academy Award consideration...or are they accepting videos as nominees? I also suspect that, despite their precautions..having an all digital video production is going to lead to rampant pirating...even with all their security codes and precautions in place, someone out there is smart enough to decode and steal the movie while it's shown "theatrically"...with real film, the best they can probably do is take a camcorder in the theater, and we know how good that turns out...I wonder what will happen when studio master quality dvds and tapes hit the black market a few days after the release of one of these video productions..."who's sorry now?"....mike

[notrub225]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Shortend:
The whole progresivness of the digital thing is supposed to distract the film going public from the mediocrity of this movie. But Lucas still will be credited as the first HD Filmmaker and to him that is more important than being a great filmmaker. He is more the technician than the artist. Just my educated opinion.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

If I am not mistaken, I don't think Attack of the Clones was even the first all digital movie. I think Pleasantville and Chuck and Buck were also shot completely digitally, and I am sure there are others as well. (are there??)

[Alex]

Well, I finally saw the tail end of Attack of the Clowns, er Clones, on HBO.

Very interesting.

I thought Christopher Lee's medium shots and close-ups looked really good, probably as good as film.

I thought the "arena" fight was some of the most cartoonish, apish, unrealistic, POINTLESS and completely uninspired filmmaking I have ever seen.

Lucas slightly redeemed himself after the arena fight sequence when the lead actress falls out of the cruiser and the two dudes debate whether to back for her or continue pursuing their nemesis. That moment actually felt like a movie. And guess what, NO EFFECTS WERE NEEDED to create that moment!

The lead actress did look goofy when she got up off of the sand and walked away. Her getting up off of the sand reminded me that we were in George Lucas's Digital Sandbox.

Perhaps the actress wasn't believeable getting up off of the sand because she was actually standing on concrete that was digitally superimposed to look like sand! That's like using soggy grass footstep sound effects when someone is walking on a wooden floor.

I was wincing on every other shot during the arena fight sequence. Never have I seen so many badly and unrealistically combined elements on the screen at the same time in the same shot.

I'm looking forward to seeing the arena fight sequence again to see if it is as bad the second time around as it was the first. I cannot even begin to tell you how many of the motions, movements and reactions were FAKE looking and FAKE feeling.

Misenobscene, thy name is George Lucas's Digital Arena Effects.

The weird thing is if you take away the digital effects, the digital quality is probably equal to film or very close. But at that point, you defeat the major part of the reason George Lucas wants to shoot digital, which is to digitize and sanitize and colorize until your eyes are mesmorized, but not in a good way.

George Lucas's Digital Sandbox is a mess. It may take years and years and several hundreds of millions of dollars to make everyone of those arena shots look real. Perhaps the digital "illusion" works better on a big screen?

All I can say is the digital effects sure are a joke on a 35 inch TV set. George needs to take a step "backwards" and make a non effects laden movie in Digital if his goal is to promote digital rather than relive his pre-teen years.

What we'll probably find is that it is similar to shooting film in every aspect. A new Digital tool perhaps, but not necessarily one that has to spell the demise of film.

Somebody get Lucas a PlayStation!

[Cranium]

Remember when he knew how to tell a compelling story?

THX-1138 was great.

American Graffitti was really good.

It's all been downhill from there.