Wow see C3PX got what i meant.
Of course i meant that ford spielberg and the film crew had to be there with the A camera. And of course it was a complaint based on the abundance and overuse of cgi in the film that Spielberg was going to do old school and chickened out at the last minute.
The film has that overly bright washed out look to it and is not consistant at all with Douglas Slocombes cinematography on the old film trilogy. It has that prequels look to it. The same butchered recolor job Lucas did to the 2004 trilogy to make it match, crushed whites and Blacks and video game colors.
When is someone going to shoot a film the old school way, and even if it fails i would pay to see it because i like models, motion control and puppets rather than cgi.
Of course it was unrealistic to think no cgi would be used but it could have been used more sparingly and effectively and not drawn attention to itself. That is the problem of the new ILM versus the old ILM. Old ILM cared to keep things consistant and not pull you out of the movie, while the new crew of kids just want jazzed up cgi bubblegum crap that shows the work they have done but does nothing for the plot. This actually goes against a rule Lucas himself made in 1983 documentary from star wars to jedi. If you don't believe me then go watch it.
I dread that word Elements that was in the quote i used. Like When Rob Coleman talked about needing to get all the elements for Jar Jar.
The prequels were not consistant with the original trilogy. I might have cost three times as much to shoot all three on film and use models, motion control, puppets, blue screen, Glass Mattes and composite things optically instead of digitally. But at least Indiana Jones 4 and the new prequels would have remained consistant. That being said the worst part of the new movies was not the overuse of cgi it was a lack of likeable characters a story you cared about or a good script that fucked these movies up.
So you want me to go and say it then fine, George Lucas raped my childhood with cgi. And i am prepared for my star trek memories to be ruined also next year by ILM with the new cgi crap.
Compare and contrast the First ILM Special Effects book with the later into the digital realm. The first one has beautifully crafted shots of models and matte paintings and effects. The second book is filled with cartoon like fake cgi, and should be thrown in the trash. Hey guess which book my library has on file for historical record of motion picture production the first book. They never bothered buying that cgi mess.
I don't want digital millenium Falcons, X-wings or the starship enterprise i want the old models or nothing.
Cgi might be up to snuff barely for cartoons or videogames but is not nearly lifelike or realistic enough for live action movies yet.
These may be fictional stories and not real. But a hand built model can be seen by the eyes to be real, and if at home you build model kits you can feel and touch the models and they are real tactile objects. Not so with 1's and 0's.
People wonder why Lucas does not get a pass like peter jackson who directed lord of the rings which also was abundant with cgi. Because he had real sets, and actually shot on location and they actually built highly detailed models that can be seen on the dvds special features. This stuff could have all been created in the computer but only at the sacrifice of the story feeling real and authentic.
So they built lots of Models and sets for Episode 1. and went to tunisia, and italy. But the way the image is too bright and overly saturated people who watch it think it was all shot on a computer. It was the only prequel shot on 35mm film. The person responsible for the final color grading should be fired. The colors look nothing like 1977 star wars.
I am really surprised some fanedit has not been done to make the colors like the old trilogy. To edit out the majority of unecessary plot or cgi. Maybe it would be a ok movie. Episode II is just a mess. and three is ok but unforgivable that Lucas could not pull off anakins turn into vader and make it believable. But he is not an actors director. Someone like Christopher Nolan could have pulled it off but not Lucas.
And for a film series like 1-3 that could have been serious in tone and Shakeperean in its story, or like a greek tragedy or epic Lucas decided for it to be childish and mostly forgettable, be marketed to the lowest common denominator for profit and happy meals and action figures. There was a good story there somewhere with the right writers and directors, we could have had a trilogy not only match up to the oot but possibly surpass it.
There are films i constantly rewatch and those i don't.
Movies that go into the never watch pile:
Indiana Jones IV
Clone Wars 2008
Temple of Doom
Star Wars episodes 1-3
Batman forever, batman and robin
The redo of THX 1138
Redone American graffiti that had new cgi opening added
Star wars 1997 and 2004 special editions.
Star trek Nemesis
movies i always get around to watching again:
Raiders of the Lost ark
Jaws
Et
Clone encounters of the third kind
The last Crusade
Back to the Future
star wars
The Empire stikes back
return of the jedi
Lord of the rings trilogy
Superman donner 78
batman begins
Original Graffiti Home video release
Original THX 1138
star trek movies 1-6
Almost all modern cinema is pure garbage. There will be only three watchable films this year for me Dark Knight, Iron Man and Quantum of Solace. I wish i could get my money back for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of, the temple of the crystal turd
Narnia 2 sucked as well.
Star Trek next year had better not suck as sci fi is dying for a rebirth after the lackluster prequels.
And as much as trek Fans hate on enterprise is was actually better than Lucas prequels, but the retconning was just as bad if not worse in enterprise than in episode 1.
even the one big draw for even sucky star wars films the lighsaber duels were fucked up for episode 2 especially, and bad to passable in episode 3. While the duel in menace was probably the only thing i liked about the movie. As Ray Park is a real martial artist. Though the duel had to be filmed in slow motion for Ewan to keep up with him. In Three even though Hayden lifted weights and gained muscle for the part he still came off as a wimp, and Ewan was still ok. Though you really could not focus on the duel because the cgi backgrounds were so distracting (ooh look at that fake cgi lava) and the speed of motion was too fast and they had the same color lightsaber.
I know Return of the Jedi was entirely shot in the US, except for the soundstages in London, And Star Wars and Raiders Reshoots were in Death Valley. That a lot of Last Crusade was shot in the usa. The motocycle chase was filmed on Lucas valley road in california and not in germany,lol.
I guess this is typical hollywood stuff though. The sixties batman cave was shot in an old salt mine from what i have heard. And of Course those fake paper mache props and planets were built right under the hot lights on Paramounts sound stage for star trek.
Too bad we owe the era of bad cgi fakery to a mostly entertaining film Jurassic Park. It truly created a monster, made Lucas go gaga for cgi "ooh, ah. Yes that looks faker than it did before i'm sold, how much time and money does it save me."
