节目资讯
刊物:娱乐时尚
日期:2010-03-08
难易度:Medium
关键字:artistic, wipe out, vision, composition, visual ef
Welcome back, everyone.
One reason people love going to the movies is to witness something that is not
possible in real life.
For example, it could be a person with superhuman strength, or a fantastic world
of talking animals or evil witches.
Well, today’s expert is one of the many people responsible for bringing these
kinds of scenes to life on the big screen.
John Han was just about to tell us his favorite visual effect, which he helped
create in the movie blockbuster 2012.
Let’s look down at line 12 and find out what it is.
(Music).
Making Movie Magic.
It features the White House getting wiped out by a giant wave and crushed by an
aircraft carrier.
The first thing we did was to work with the director to creatively meet his
vision so we knew what he was expecting to see.
We had to establish a general timing and composition of the shot.
Where should the camera be?
How big should the White House be?
How quickly should the wave approach?
We also tried to establish the mood.
Is it really dark and gloomy, or should it feel lighter and less foreboding?
Welcome back.
We have just found out that John Han’s favorite visual effect scene that he has
personally worked on was from the movie 2012.
And we went on to ask, well, how does this visual effect scene work?
And he now tells us that this specific scene features the White House, which is
of course the main... uh, kind of government building in the United States.
And it features the White House getting wiped out by a giant wave and crushed by
an aircraft carrier.
Now, this seems... kind of like a frightening scene to me.
Right, it does sound like a scary scene, where the White House is getting wiped
out.
That means that in this scene, the White House is being completely destroyed so
that it’s gone.
If something gets wiped out, then it’s removed from its place, and it’s
completely destroyed so that it’s not there anymore.
And it happens to get wiped out by a huge wave.
And on this wave is an aircraft carrier, which is a really, really, really big
ship, that would be in the ocean, that holds airplanes.
So you can imagine this aircraft carrier coming in on this wave and just wiping
out the White House,
which is where the president of the United States lives.
So this kind of project in just this single scene would take a lot of work.
And so John explains that ”The first thing we did was to work with the director
to creatively meet his vision so we knew what he was expecting to see.”.
OK, now, the director, uh, is the person in charge of putting together the whole
movie.
And, he’s kind of the leader of the movie.
So this visual effects team had to meet with that director to understand his
vision.
And when we talk about vision, I think the first thing we... we can think of is
our eyes.
If you have good vision, that means you have good eyesight - you’re able to see
well.
And in this case, in this context, we’re talking about the ability to kind of
see into the future; to imagine an idea.
And so these visual effects people had to get together with the director because
he knew where he wanted this movie to go.
He knew where he wanted this particular visual effect to go, and he had that
image and idea in his head.
And he needed to share it with the people who would actually be putting it
together using computers and animation and all of the other things that they use
to create visual effects.
OK, so this team had to meet with the director and understand his vision,
understand what he wanted to see in the finished product,
and what he was expecting to see when the scene and when this movie was
finished.
And so... we... uh, John explains that his team had to establish a general
timing and a general composition of the shot.
Now if you’re establishing something, here we’re talking about deciding,
or deciding and making secure the general timing of the shot, and also the
composition of the shot.
Right. Composition is very, very important when you’re talking about photography
or... or filming something,
because the composition is just the way that things and people are arranged
within that frame, or within that photograph, or within that shot.
And it’s very important because that gives the overall feel of the... the
visual... umm... techniques and things like that that are being used in the
movie.
OK, so every picture and every shot, or every scene and part of a scene, has a
general composition to it - the way that things are arranged visually.
So in order to establish the composition of the shot, they had asked several
different questions, such as:
Where should the camera be?
That means where should we set it up in order to make it look the most real?
How big should the White House be?
How quickly should the wave approach?
A lot of important questions to ask.
And just think, all of this goes into one specific scene.
There’s a lot of thought that goes on beforehand.
A lot of effort that goes into it.
Chip, I like the part where they have to think about how big the White House
will be.
Right, how big and....
Yes!
So the size is part of the composition.
And also the general timing of how fast or how quickly should this huge wave be
moving.
Uh, so these are all parts of establishing the general composition.
Right. Because they want to make it look as realistic as possible, and so
they’ve got a tough job in order to do that.
So lots of questions that they have to ask upfront, all to create one special
effect.
And this, of course, is John Han’s favorite visual effect that he has worked on
so far in his career.
So, through all of these questions and through the setting up of this
competition, he also tried to establish the mood.
OK, so... some of the questions that he’s asking is: Is it really dark and
gloomy?
Which would mean... uh, which would communicate a very sad and scary feeling.
Or, should it feel lighter and less foreboding?
And that word ”foreboding”, uh, also means scary, or feeling like something very
bad is going to happen.
Well, right now we are going to watch a skit, but we’ll be back more with John
Han and Making Movie Magic tomorrow.
Oh, no! The White House just got wiped out by a giant wave!
The White House?
Yes. Oh, no! It’s being crushed by an aircraft carrier!
Our city is in danger!
Where will the President live? Oh, no!
Uh... don’t worry.
The White House wasn’t really destroyed.
Oh, yes, it was. I just saw it on the news!
No, that’s not the news.
You’re watching a feature film.
That was a visual effect.
Are you sure?
It looks so real to me!
Well, that’s the idea.
Artists combine different techniques to create visual scenes.
Oh.
They used classic drawing and painting skills along with modern computer
animation and 3D.
Wow! It sounds like it takes a lot of work.
Oh, oh, it does.
Before they began, they meet with the director to find out what he expects.
Then, they try to creatively meet his vision.
Hmm... Oh, well, tell me about that scene at the White House.
Oh, well, the artists had to establish timing and composition for the shot.
That’s a lot to think about, huh?
They also needed to decide where to put the camera, and what the mood should be
- glooomy or scary?
Well... That movie was gloomy and scary.
Yeah, I think you’re right.
Oh, look!
There’s another explosion.
And a big fire!
It looks so real.
Wait!
That is real!
Oh, no!
(Chinese).
And time really flies.
Keep up the good work, and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, visual effects are such an important part of moviemaking.
Each year, with the help of new technology like computers, it seems visual
effects become more realistic, more believable, and more amazing to watch.
Tomorrow we’re going to ask our expert to explain, in a little more detail, the
role of visual effects in movies.
What you learn might surprise you!
Friends, please join us tomorrow for day 2 of Making Movie Magic.
And as always, all of us here at Studio Classroom hope you have a greatday !