Masters of FX: Behind the Scenes With Geniuses of Visual and Special Effects
作者： Failes, Ian/ Cameron, James (FRW)/ di Bonaventura, Lorenzo (FRW)
原文出版社：Focal Pr
出版日期：2015/07/20
語言：英文
ISBN：9781138845961
規格：平裝 / 192頁 / 25.4 x 23.4 x 1.8 cm / 普通級
出版地：美國
Masters of FX
Behind the Scenes with Geniuses of Visual and Special Effects
lan Failes
Forewords by James Cameron Director of Avatar, Titanic, Aliens and The Terminator
and Lorenzo di Bonaventura Producer of Constantine, Red and Transformers
內容簡介
It would be rare these days to find a film that did not in some way depend on the magic of visual effects, from the raging computer-generated dinosaurs in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, to the fantastical worlds of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and the photoreal tiger and ocean in Ang Lee's Life of Pi. Through interviews with 16 of the leading effects pioneers from around the world (see list below), author Ian Failes explores the making of some of the most memorable film sequences ever produced, showcasing the shift from practical to digital magic with original behind-the-scenes imagery, shot breakdowns, and detailed explanations of some of the secrets behind the making of cinema's most extraordinary creations. Visual effects artists and films discussed include: Dennis Muren (Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI; Terminator 2: Judgment Day; Jurassic Park; A.I. Artificial Intelligence; War of the Worlds) Bill Westenhofer (Babe: Pig in the City; Cats & Dogs; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Golden Compass; Life of Pi) Joe Letteri (The Lord of the Rings trilogy; King Kong; Avatar; Planet of the Apes; The Hobbit trilogy) Rob Legato (Apollo 13; Titanic; The Aviator; Hugo) Paul Franklin (Pitch Black; Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy; Inception; Interstellar) Richard Edlund (Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Ghostbusters; Multiplicity); Edson Williams (X-Men: The Last Stand; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Social Network; Captain America films) Karen Goulekas (Godzilla; The Day After Tomorrow; 10,000 BC; Green Lantern); Chris Corbould (Golden Eye; Die Another Day; Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy; Inception); Ian Hunter (The X-Files; The Dark Knight; The Dark Knight Rises; Inception; Interstellar) John Rosengrant (Terminator films;Jurassic Park;Iron Man films; Real Steel)
作者簡介
Ian Failes is a freelance journalist specializing in visual effects and animation. Based in Sydney, Australia, Ian has a background in law, but found his passion watching and writing about films and visual effects.
Foreword by James Cameron
Leading Hollywood director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, and inventor
This book celebrates 16 masters of visual effects. I know most of them personally, and seven of them I've worked with over the years. A few I consider close friends. Though they know me as a director, I actually started out in their game, doing visual effects on low-budget movies, so they also know me as someone who talks their language. This makes me both sympathetic and responsive to their needs but also demanding, because I know what's possible Often the job requires knowing not just what's possible. but what CAN be possible, because we are constantly inventing to bring the impossible to life on the screen.
The masters in this book are collectively responsible for some of the most stunning images ever projected on the world's screens. They have transported audiences to realms of fantasy and brought fantastic creatures and characters to life that are o iconic they are indelible parts of our shared global cultural dreamscape. And yet, though most of them are still actively producing astounding imagery, the tools and techniques they use now are not at all the ones they started out with. These masters have also pioneered the very techniques that make movies the dazzling experience they are today.
Just as the age of sail gave way to steamships, and the horse-drawn carriage to the automobile, technology advances relentlessly. In our world what was once novel and bleeding-edge becomes the norm within a few years. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the visual-effects world
I think back to when I was a young VFX practitioner in the early 1980s and compare it to where we are today. At that time we built physical miniatures and photographed them with cameras, which drove strips of light-sensitive film through mechanical movements as precisely machined as Swiss watches. Often we would take those images and combine them together using arcane optical printers that nevertheless often yielded jaw-dropping results. Think Douglas Trumbull's images for Bladerunner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or Richard Edlund's work on Star Wars, if you want to visualize that technique's golden age
We used to paint matte paintings on glass, and combine them in the camera with live action or they would be combined later in the optical printer. Sometimes we would use forced-perspective techniques like foreground miniatures to extend sets, High-speed photography gave the models their correct movement so they would "scale: Blowing up models was my favorite part of the whole process, which is a measure of how much we were all really just kids in grown-up bodies getting paid to stay kids. Since wire removal-and all the other myriad of paint-out techniques-was still over the horizon, we had to keep the wires hidden, using the or monofilament possible thinnest gauges of piano wire or monofilament possible to fly a spaceship or to lash an alien Queen's tail. There was front-screen and rear-screen "process" projection. both now obsolete, replaced by digital greenscreen compositing. Those massive projectors are now museum pieces, or for all I know being used to used to create artificial reefs. Not one of these tecliniques is still widely practiced. Cameras are digital now, with ecliniques no moving parts except the lens elements and the fans that keep them cool Film is arguably gone except for its use by a handful of filmmakers, none of them among the new generation. And certainly film is 100 percent gone for compositing. The optical printer itself has gone the way of the steam engine.
