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Grex > Agora35 > #20: Movies, movies, movies, movies, movies, movies, movies | |
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| 25 new of 323 responses total. |
mdw
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response 293 of 323:
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Dec 15 21:40 UTC 2000 |
There's a real problem with costuming especially in SF, but also fantasy
movies, and that is that human actors only come in certain shapes &
sizes. You can write all you want about intelligent 6 legged cats and 8
foot tall blue orcs and awful evil villains with one side of their face
chopped away in a freak sword accident.
When it comes time to actually put these characters into a movie, things
have to change. That 6 legged cat is, well, nearly impossible to do
right; a muppet just isn't going to have much sinuous grace as it leaps
and lopes and lears. Facial expressions are particularly complex:
people have a lot of hardwired programming to recognize faces on
hominoid shapes - so if you have a computer based character, and you
want it to seem "human like", you pretty much *have* to give it a face.
Ok, so maybe people in the future will give computers human shaped
avatars simply so they can interact in a human-like fashion; but what
about aliens, who may either have no facial expressions at all, or may
have faces that aren't hominoid, with expressions that *don't* map well
into human equivalents?
8 foot tall blue orcs present the usual problem of: a 7 foot tall actor
on platform shoes? Stilts? Muppets? Or all of the above?
The evil villain with one side of his face chewed off? Well, human
actors, for some reason, don't *want* one side of their face removed,
even temporarily. Also, their pronunciation really suffers when this is
done to them, insurance costs sky-rocket, and it's not clear if a movie
still qualifies for an R rating with such a hideous face. Also, there
is the facial expression problem, again. It's generally easier to *add*
things to a human actor than remove them. Horns, for this reason, are
really attractive. Various bulges, veins, and so forth also work. It's
possible to do hideous wounds, if care is taken to raise the surrounding
skin profile so that the wound doesn't look tacked on - but it's still
the case that wound is tacked on. The "bulging brain" thing is really
popular, because it's an easy solution for the problem of what to do
with all that hair on an actor's head. A lot of SF costuming is
carefully designed so that the face & eyes are basically left untouched.
That gives the actor a lot more ability to do the facial expression
thing.
This is all changing as computer generated graphics get better and
better. Someday, *someone* is going to do another Marilyn Monroe movie.
It's just bound to happen. Once we have the skills to do that, we'll be
able to do proper 6 legged cats, villains with one side of the face
missing, and 8 foot tall blue orcs. But we aren't (quite) there yet.
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mcnally
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response 294 of 323:
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Dec 15 21:47 UTC 2000 |
Yeah, I'm still trying to digest that one myself..
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mcnally
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response 295 of 323:
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Dec 16 00:09 UTC 2000 |
Marcus's #293 snuck in on me.. The concept I'm still trying to digest
is that "Gladiator" is a movie with major substance and a hardened plot..
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mdw
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response 296 of 323:
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Dec 16 00:53 UTC 2000 |
Glad it wasn't my response, but I take it your one-line response took a
*lot* of thinking and digesting to produce...
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mcnally
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response 297 of 323:
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Dec 16 01:33 UTC 2000 |
More likely you started responding well before I ever saw the response
I was replying to and finished just as I rattled off my deep insight..
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birdy
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response 298 of 323:
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Dec 16 03:21 UTC 2000 |
I agree on the "Gladiator" thing. Cool music, but the movie was a bit...
well... not exactly major substance and hardened plot.
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drew
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response 299 of 323:
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Dec 16 19:25 UTC 2000 |
8 foot tall blue orcs: Hire a standard 6 foot tall actor, put him in the
appropriate makeup, and film his scenes against a blue background. Then expand
those images 25% before merging with the rest of the scene.
Character with half his face sliced away with a sword: Hire someone who has
already had half his face creamed in an auto accident or other mundane mishap.
6 legged cat: Use ordinary 4 legged cats, stretch and add a couple of extra
legs with techniques similar to the blue orc scenes. Expand to whatever size
is required.
Facial expressions: If the alien doesn't have a human face, one is not
*supposed* to be able to see facial expression in them. Likewise, you're not
*supposed* to be able to see the face of an actor in a vacc suit. You wouldn't
see it in "real life", why should it be visible in the movie?
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bru
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response 300 of 323:
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Dec 16 21:26 UTC 2000 |
It will be interesting to see the LOTR movies when they are done. They are
indeed suppode to be either expanding or diminishing the scale of the full
size actors with computers to get the correct effect.
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ric
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response 301 of 323:
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Dec 16 22:55 UTC 2000 |
Adrienne and I saw "Meet the Parents" last night... funny as hell in a number
of parts, though some of the "misadventures" in the middle were getting a bit
tiresome. Still a worthwhile movie.
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aaron
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response 302 of 323:
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Dec 17 08:45 UTC 2000 |
Billy Ellot - B - A very sweet-natured move about a young boy in an
impoverished coal mining town in England, who wants to dance ballet. The
performances are good, and the "it's okay to be different" message is a
bit stronger than one might expect from an English language film, which is
probably what helps the film overcome a relatively formulaic plot and
predictable series of crises and confrontations.
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ric
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response 303 of 323:
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Dec 18 13:56 UTC 2000 |
Watched "Frequency" on DVD last night.. it started out a little slow (the
first 10-15 minutes were pretty dull), until I figured out he wasn't
communicating with his dead father, he was communicating with his live father
in the past and they were able to alter time. Then it became more
interesting.
The rest of the movie was very good. I recommend it.
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jep
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response 304 of 323:
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Dec 18 19:27 UTC 2000 |
I also am a former D&D player who saw "Dungeons & Dragons" and liked it.
I saw it with my 9 year old, and he liked it, too.
The dragons were really awful.
The concept was wrong. Dragons are not like parakeets; they do not and
cannot travel in swarms, they do not cough out fireballs which look like
a promotional toy for Red Hots, and they are not mindless automotons. A
dragon is a major force, like an aircraft carrier. It can take out
cities, it does not get shot in the wing by 1 arrow and then spiral out
of control and impale itself on a cathedral.
The design was awful; a dragon is bigger than a St. Bernard, and also it
should not be designed from pasteboard in the spare time available to a
6 year old.
However, aside from the dragons (which were *not* a major part of the
story), the movie was fine. It had a genuine D&D style dungeon, it had
elves and dwarves and orcs and such; and mages and thieves; it was in a
medieval-type setting; the story was all right. If you like or used to
like D&D, or Conan-esque heroic fantasy, you'll be fine with this movie.
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jep
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response 305 of 323:
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Dec 18 19:32 UTC 2000 |
We got a DVD player as an early Christmas present. The idea was that
we want to collect the classic Disney movies, and don't want to lay out
that kind of money for obsolete VCR tapes.
We watched "The Lady and the Tramp" last night. I had not seen it, but
thought it was a great movie. Ours skipped all over the place, and so I
exchanged it today; it's part of our collection and so we wanted a good
copy.
We got a few other DVDs: Aristocats (my favorite Disney movie), 101
Dalmations (the original cartoon), and -- since we have a 9 year old --
the Pokemon 2000 movie. (Sigh.) (We hear a lot about Pokemon. I'm
pretty tired of it.) If anyone wants to get rid of any of their Disney
classic cartoon DVDs, keep me in mind.
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gull
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response 306 of 323:
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Dec 18 20:01 UTC 2000 |
Is Disney still doing that thing where their DVDs disable the fast-skip
buttons during the previews?
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mooncat
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response 307 of 323:
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Dec 18 20:21 UTC 2000 |
Oooh... Aristocats...
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ashke
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response 308 of 323:
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Dec 18 21:38 UTC 2000 |
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy. I got to see my favorite live-action disney
movie growin up on my dad's digital cable this weekend. He copied it for me,
and will bring it tomorrow (I hope). "The Cat from Outer Space" he's so
CUTE!!!!!
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ric
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response 309 of 323:
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Dec 19 00:24 UTC 2000 |
re 306- they're not the only ones doing that, don't blame disney.
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gull
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response 310 of 323:
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Dec 19 04:32 UTC 2000 |
I blame Disney for doing it on their own DVDs. ;) They're the only studio
I've heard people complain about. I don't currently own a DVD player, but
some people have cited it as a reason they won't buy one. It does seem
rather annoying that they include circuitry in a device you paid good money
for to allow the stuff you're playing to take it over and disable
front-panel controls.
Has anyone else noticed that the recent white clamshell Disney releases on
VHS have really poor quality tape? First time I popped one in, I thought my
video heads were dirty. Clearly Disney doesn't expect people to know good
video when they see it.
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gelinas
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response 311 of 323:
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Dec 19 05:35 UTC 2000 |
I'm channel surfing. AMC is showing a WWII movie with what looks like
Harrison Ford as a Colonel, apparently an escaped POW. I'd always thought
Star Wars was his first movie, but he looks younger than that here.
Any ideas? (A bit later, I'll probably check this evening's paper,
but its upstairs and I'm down, so let's see what others know. ;)
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gelinas
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response 312 of 323:
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Dec 19 05:43 UTC 2000 |
"Force 10 from Navarone," 1978. A sort-of "sequel" to "The Guns of Navarone."
So even if it is Ford, it's after "Star Wars."
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gelinas
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response 313 of 323:
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Dec 19 06:53 UTC 2000 |
Credits are rolling: Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, and Barbara Bach.
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bru
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response 314 of 323:
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Dec 19 15:13 UTC 2000 |
We noticed a serious degradation tin the quality of the last disney tape we
bought, need to take it back and exchange it.
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aruba
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response 315 of 323:
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Dec 19 15:21 UTC 2000 |
I thought "American Graffiti" was Harrison Ford's first movie, but I was
wrong. IMDB lists these movies, from the one you saw backward:
41.Force 10 from Navarone (1978) .... Lieutenant Colonel Mike Barnsby
42.Heroes (1977) .... Ken Boyd
43.Star Wars (1977) .... Han Solo
... aka Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (1980) (USA: new title)
44.Possessed, The (1977) (TV) .... Paul Winjam
45.Dynasty (1976/I) (TV) .... Mark Blackwood
... aka Americans, The (1976) (TV) (USA)
... aka James A. Michener's Dynasty (1976) (TV)
46.Judgement: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley (1975) (TV)
.... Frank Crowder
47.Conversation, The (1974) .... Martin Stett
48.American Graffiti (1973) .... Bob Falfa
49.Intruders, The (1970) (TV) .... Carl
50.Getting Straight (1970) .... Jake
51.Zabriskie Point (1970) (uncredited) .... Airport worker
52.Journey to Shiloh (1968) .... Willie Bill Rearden
53.Luv (1967) (uncredited) .... Hippy
54.Time for Killing, A (1967) (as Harrison J. Ford) .... Lieutenant Shaffer
... aka Long Ride Home, The (1967) (UK)
55.Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) (uncredited) .... Bell Hop
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tpryan
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response 316 of 323:
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Dec 19 17:24 UTC 2000 |
I got some of the Disney cartoon DVDs also. Now I have some
store bought VHS tapes from previous release cycles I would like to sell.
The list includes Fantasia (original, not issued on VHS for DVD release),
Toy Story (1, again not resissued for DVD release), and Pinnochio, and
Jungle Book. Let me know if you are interested (maybe by e-mail) or
if I should put a more complete list in the classified.cf.
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gelinas
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response 317 of 323:
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Dec 19 20:24 UTC 2000 |
Thanks, Mark. Makes me wonder why he was ready to chuck it all to work as
a carpenter: looks like he'd kept busy for ten years.
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