节目资讯
刊物:娱乐时尚
日期:2010-03-09
难易度:Medium
关键字:feature film, explosion, be loaded with, convincin
(Music).
Hello, everyone, welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Steve.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to study English with us.
This month, Studio Classroom talks to John Han about his experiences creating
visual effects for movies and TV shows.
Mr. Han has worked on movies such as Spider-Man 3 and The Chronicles of Narnia:
Prince Caspian.
His most recent movie was 2012, which contains a fantastic visual effects moment
- a giant wave crushing over Washington, D.C.
Now, once again with our expert, let’s go behind the scenes and see how movie
magic is really made.
Today’s reading starts on page 22.
Making Movie Magic.
How important are visual effects to movies today?
How important is it that effects look real or believable?
Visual effects have made their way into nearly every feature film you see in
theaters.
A lot of people think visual effects are only used in the mega blockbusters with
robots and explosions.
But one great adage or saying of the business is that the best visual effect is
the one you can’t see.
If you can’t tell that something is a visual effect, then we’ve done our job
well.
Even movies without very obvious effects are still loaded with effects.
Hi, friends, I’m Chip.
And I’m Chelsea.
And we are back for our second day of Making Movie Magic.
Now I love watching movies.
And I’m always so impressed with the special effects that people are able to
create for movies.
And so in this article, we are asking our expert, John Han, exactly how he helps
create visual effects for movies.
And yesterday we learned that he’s worked on a lot of big movies, one of the
most recent being 2012.
And today we have some more questions for him, starting out with the first one:
How important are visual effects to movies today?
And now, I would expect him to say that visual effects are very important, uh,
because a lot of the movies that we see seem to have a lot of visual effects,
and even 3D effects in them.
So how important are these effects?
And, how important is it that the effects look real or believable?
So this is kind of a two-part question: How important are they; and how
important is it that they look real or believable?
And his response is that ”Visual effects have made their way into nearly every
feature film you see in theaters.”.
So we’re talking about feature films here, Chip, and...
Right.
...that’s a specific type of film.
Uh-huh.
So we’re talking about full-length films, or films and movies that are probably
longer than 90 minutes.
And most of the movies that we see in the theaters or the cinema would be longer
than 90 minutes - usually around 2 hours.
So it sounds like visual effects can be found in nearly every feature film.
So, every time you got to a theater to see a movie - whether it’s a comedy or a
horror film or an action film - you are going to be seeing visual effects.
And he goes on to say that a lot of people think visual effects are only used in
the mega blockbusters with robots and explosions.
Now, Chip, when we’re talking about a mega blockbuster, we are talking about a
huge movie.
”Mega” means very, very large.
And a blockbuster is a movie that is very, very successful, and usually makes a
lot of money.
OK, so if we’re talking about mega blockbusters, these are huge blockbuster
movies - very successful, very popular, and very, uh, exciting for people to
watch.
And usually these things might have robots and explosions.
Now if they have explosions, then things are exploding and blowing up, being
destroyed maybe with bombs or with fire, is that right?
Right. An explosion often has fire involved in it, so explosions are kind of
scary.
And we see them a lot in big action mega blockbusters.
But John goes on to say that one great adage or saying of the business is that
the best visual effect is the one you don’t really notice.
So when I go to see movies, I often say, ”Wow! That movie had great visual
effects!”.
But here, he is saying that you can go to movies and sometimes not even notice
them.
And that’s a good thing.
Right, the best visual effects are the ones you don’t see, the ones you don’t
notice,
because a movie is trying to help you believe something that is not really
happening,
and especially, visual effects are trying to... to trick your eyes into thinking
that you’re seeing something real.
So if you can see that it’s not real, then that’s probably not a very good
visual effect.
So John goes on to say, ”If you can’t tell that something is a visual effect,
then we’ve done our job well.”.
And that’s exactly the whole point of visual effects, is to add to the movie to
make it exciting and very visual,
but also to keep that feeling that the movie is real and it’s really happening.
So if all the visual effects look very fake - they were poorly done - well, we
probably wouldn’t believe the movie very much as we watch it.
So that’s I think why he says if you can’t tell that there are visual effects,
then they’ve done their job well.
Right, and John goes on to say something that kind of surprises me a little bit.
He suggests that most movies have visual effects in them.
Even movies without very obvious effects are still loaded with effects.
Now if something is loaded with something, then that means it has a lot of...,
it contains a lot of....
So we might talk about certain foods being loaded with sugar, or certain foods
being loaded with fat.
That means it has a lot of fat or a lot of sugar.
So when I usually think of visual effects, I think of the big mega blockbuster
action films.
But here he’s saying that even movies, maybe comedies or... or romance films, or
any other type of film that you’re going to see...
If you go to see it in the theater, and it’s a feature film, there’s a good
chance that it will be loaded with visual effects, even if you don’t notice
them.
So most of the movies that you see on your TV or at the movie theater have
visual effects.
They’re loaded... Movies are loaded with visual effects.
Well, we want to know which ones do you think are the best movies - the movies
with the best visual effects.
So why don’t you write us and tell us which ones you think have the best visual
effects?
Well, that’s all we have before the break.
We’re going to take a break and come back later and talk to John and hear what
more he has to say.
Before we take a break, let’s visit the Chat Room.
So what are your plans for the weekend, Ashley?
Oh, I have a date.
We’re going to the theater, but I don’t really feel like getting dressed up.
Why do you need to get dressed up for a movie?
Just go in your jeans and a T-shirt!
Oh, no, I’m not going to a movie theater.
I’m going to the theater to see an opera.
Oh, you’re going to the opera house.
That’s right, the theater is the opera house.
But today’s Studio Classroom article talks about feature films we see in
theaters.
The theaters mentioned in the article are not opera houses.
No, they’re not.
They’re movie theaters, which are also called cinemas.
But when we say ”the” theater, we’re referring to the theater where you see a
live performance of a play or a musical.
I see.
What about theater tickets?
Are theater tickets for a movie or a play?
Theater tickets are for a play.
Movie tickets are for a movie.
So, next time when someone invites me to the theater, I shouldn’t show up in my
jeans and expect to eat popcorn?
Right. That would be pretty embarrassing.
Well, thanks for clearing that up.
No problem.
(Chinese).