We’ve really come a long, long way when it comes to special effects in movies. It makes sense that today’s movies look great because of all our computer whiz processing power animation software. Back in the old days though? We had to rely on the magic of the movies. Seriously. Turning scale models that look like toys that kids wouldn’t even want into gorgeous, timeless movie sequences takes real magic to pull off.
     |
White Heat is a classic gangster film from 1949, starring James Cagney. It is a thoroughly Los Angeles flick, filmed almost exclusively in the Greater Los Angeles region, including scenes shot at Warner Brother Studios in Burbank. The film is considered a classic for many reasons—but what’s interesting in terms of Gizmodo is its depiction of, at the time, cutting-edge technologies that were adapted by the police to track down Cagney’s gang.
| |
It’s always fun seeing how huge-budget Hollywood films were shot, and what equipment they use. SetLife magazine created a list of just what cameras and lenses were used on each film nominated for 2014 Best Picture and Best Cinematography nominees. It’s not without some surprises.
| |
The Los Angeles Times reports that Paramount Pictures is the first major Hollywood studio to ditch 35mm film and go all-digital for United States theater releases, with The Wolf of Wall Street
| |
It may not look like much right now, but this strip of blown-out, busted-up buildings is usually swarming with celebrities.
| |
Nathan Yau has turned the American Film Institute’s 100 most memorable quotes from American cinema into chart form. Here they are, in all their wonderful geeky glory.
| |
First Google Play Books made its way to iOS. Then Google Play Music
| |
When we watch movies, we pay attention to specific parts of the scene and focus on different actors and look at certain things on the screen. Most of what we see is influenced by what the directors want us to see, our attentions are easy to grab after all. So what if you showed the same movie to computers? What would they see? How would the movies look to them?
| |
When you first look at this painting, you imagine it as two women set against one scene. But then you notice the frames in the picture are a little off and wonder if there’s some Photoshopping or digital manipulation going on but nope, there’s none of that either. It’s just clever use of double exposure in film photography. A perfect blend of combining two pictures into one.
| |
Before a story about toys, before monsters went corporate, before anyone went searching for Nemo, and before twenty seven Academy Awards, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose clients included the government and the medical community. The story of Pixar isn’t exactly full of superheroes, adorable robots, or talking bugs. The tale of the most profitable and critically adored animation studio in the history of the world (yes, by sheer gross numbers, more so than Disney) is one filled with financial difficulties, fired Apple employees, digital printers, and an animated left hand. And it all started with a Mormon graduate student at the University of Utah.
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
