Fantasy Movie Visual Effects Film Studies Essay

Film, the new form of storytelling, is one of the most entertainment sources in our daily life. It would be very hard to get a movie ticket at the weekends unless you got a reservation. Most of you have preferences to some genre, which keeps you turned on. Fantasy is one of the most fascinating genres, not only in film but in all the forms of art. It helps us to escape from the reality, from all our stress and tensions, for few hours. Most of the fantasy films are adapted from literature. Many would have waiting for your favorite fantasy novel’s movie release as I am waiting for the new Harry Potter film. You got many expectations for a film, might be wanted a great effects or waiting for your favorite part of the story. If your expectations are not fulfilled by the film makers you would probably disappointed.

Film industry is an extremely competitive field with new technologies, creative ideas, and many more things. With the increasing number of new movies, film makers are trying very hard to impress the audience through new stories, visuals, and technologies. Two centuries ago, the famous short film, The Arrival of a Train made the audience to scream and ran out of the theater. The train was that much believable for those people, who were unfamiliar with films. But gradually people started to examine film very observantly. Film makers did everything they can do to make the film much more believable and try to give a new experience to the audience. It is very hard to trick them now, very hard to get their applause. As giant fishes always catch the attraction, some big pictures came and well received by the audience. They are not become success just because of its budget, definitely It would have all the right elements to be a film. In this 21st century, CGI and visual effects become one of the key elements in films. Film makers are using these effects to impress the audience even the story doesn’t demands it. Many films succeed while others become a big visual effects mess.

Statement of the problem

How much the fantasy film influence the development of visual effects

Purpose

Significance of the study

Research questions

1: what is the influence of fantasy genre in film industry?

2: what is the significance of fantasy movies?

3: what is the role of fantasy films in the development of visual effects?

CHAPTER 2: Background

Fantasy:

Fantasy can be defined as the boundless imagination or the liberation of mind from the reality. There is no limit, we can go anywhere, do anything, talk to animals, and if you want to fly a four headed dragon to the moon you can simply do that. Every single person in this world would have been in a fantasy world at least once in their life time, through their dreams or unbounded thoughts. Many wouldn’t have recognized this as fantasy. Among those, some passionate and creative minds travelled lots of distance and found new wonderful stories. Those stories have reached in the real world, preserved for the generations through orally, and later inspired many to write fantasy literature.

Fantasy

Fantasy films:

Fantasy films have been started since the birth of the medium itself. Watching these kind of movies in the silver screen must be a visual feast for the spectators. It would be a real challenge to make these kinds of films at the beginning stage of the film itself because of the visuals which these stories demands. It stands beyond reality so the film makers had to find some innovative cinematic techniques to create the hyper realism on the silver screen. Most of the early films were static shots that filmed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques. They would have used only the ability of the camera to capture image rather than thinking about new cinematic techniques. But before the 20th century few filmmakers have found new filming techniques to create some special effects which give inspiration to others for the invention of many innovative special effects techniques in the following years. With a result of that many fantasy films had born in the silent era of film. The arrival of sound and color in film made an innovative change in the fantasy film genre, which helped the directors to take the viewers more deep inside the fantasy, through emotions and colorful visuals.

Fantasy film genre:

Sub genre:

Sword and sorcery

musical fantasy

light fantasy

dark fantasy

History of fantasy film:

Fantasy film, consists of the elements of magic, supernatural events, fantasy creatures, fantasy world, fairy tales and sorcery, have events which are unlikely to occur in real life. This film genre is considered to be different from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap. The limitations of the fantasy film genre are not well defined.

Early period:

In 1896, Georges Melies, a French film director, considered as the father of special effects, filmed the first fantasy film The Bewitched Inn. This film is about a man who goes through some series of dreadful experiences from an inn. The film runs two minutes, might be the longest running film of that time. Melies used the special effects technique called stop trick, which he accidentally discovered while filming street traffic in Paris. Besides stop trick, they also used some invisible wires to drift up the characters hat and clothes towards the wall. In 1898 Melies directed another fantasy film named The Astronomer’s dream (La Lune à un mètre). This film is about the terrific things happening in an astronomer’s dream. It runs three minutes, lengthier than the previous one. They designed the set very well and it gives more strength to the three minutes narration. In terms of special effects this film mainly reliant on the stop trick but we can see the use of mechanical prop for the moon and a very short stop motion animation on the screen. His experiments were the stepping-stones to further advances in special effects.

Again in the year of 1903 and 1904, Melies came up with two more great fantasy movies The Infernal Boiling Pot (Le Chaudron Infernal) and The Impossible Voyage (Voyage à travers l’impossible). In the film The Infernal Boiling Pot, Melies has shown two green goblins doing some incantation on a burning cauldron which have three girls in it. The film runs 2 minutes and they had hand colored each frame of the film to get a colored film. It helped to create more sinister atmosphere and to increase the impact on the audience. The impossible voyage is considered as one of the greatest film of Melies and the important fantasy film of the silent film era. It is an adaptation of Jules Verne’s play ‘Voyage à travers lHYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voyage_à_travers_l’impossible&action=edit&redlink=1″‘HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voyage_à_travers_l’impossible&action=edit&redlink=1″impossible’. The films running time is about 20 minutes, approximately five times longer than other films of that time. Most films prior to this one, mainly consist of one or two shots and they were short in running time, had not developed in a level to tell a complex story. The impossible voyage tells the story of, passengers boarding a train which takes them on an adventure to the sun and even under the ocean. This film had used the advantages of editing and we can see a dissolve effect between the scenes. Through these type lengthier films with great narration, gradually film turn out to be a medium of storytelling.

After the great fantasy films from the special effects wizard Georges Melies, lots of movies had born in this genre. By the year of 1910 movies were gradually growing into full length movies, an average of 80 minutes of running time, along with the special and visual effects technologies, which encouraged the film makers to produce more complex fantasy films than the previously done projects. It also helped to expand the potential of the genre by strong narration and provided the fantasy ambiance to the audience.

In 1903, Alice in Wonderland, an adaptation film based on the Lewis Carroll’s fantasy novel ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, came out. The film was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow and it is impressive for its use of special effects, including Alice’s shrinking at the entrance Doors and stuck inside of White Rabbit’s home with her full height. Some of the films special effects were achieved through jump cut and trick photography. The film showed only a few portion of the novel, because many scenes were technically impossible to shoot at that time. However, the film would have been impressed the audience because it was the first time they had seen a visual representation of their favorite novel. Later in 1910 the film had been recreated by the Edison Manufacturing Company and directed by Edwin S. Porter in the original name of the book. In this 10 minutes film, Edwin s Porter couldn’t include all the Carroll’s memorable characters from the novel. Again in 1915, W.W. Young an American film director made the third adaptation of this film with fifty minutes of running time. This version goes much deeper in to the Carroll’s novel than prior films, even fifty minutes is not much enough to narrate Carroll’s fantasy story.

In the year of 1910, the most influenced fairy tale of all time, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum”Frank Baum, came into silver screen. This is the first adaptation film based on a novel which had been followed by its sequels. The story happens in a fantasy land called the Land of Oz and Dorothy and her friends are the characters in the story. There is no reliable proof about who directed this thirteen minutes film but many criticizers considered that Otis Turner might have done it. In the same year three more films in this series came out which are Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz, The Land of Oz, and John Dough and the Cherub, and all are considered to be lost films. In 1914, three more films came out in this title, all directed by J. Farrell MacDonald and produced under The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. They are The Patchwork Girl of Oz, the Magic Cloak of Oz, and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz, with an average running time of 60 minutes. Later in 1925, another Oz movie was released by the name Wizard of Oz, directed by Larry Semon. This film changed radically from the novel, introducing new characters and exploits. Along with a completely different plot, the film is all set in a world that is only barely recognizable as the Land of Oz from the books. All these Oz films had failed to make any impacts on the audience. Creating a fantasy world is a very difficult thing, if we couldn’t make the audience to believe in the story, it all would look completely ridicules. Many film makers had failed to achieve this magic, thus make the genre to wait so long to get its triumph in motion picture.

The Sound era:

Technicolor and sound would be another great achievement in film history. Sound effects could make fear and anticipation in fantasy films or even play with viewers’ emotion in happy fantasies. Technicolor gave filmmakers the capability to create stunning special effects that impressed the viewers. The most famous film which made use of the magic of color and sound was the 1939 musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz directed primarily by Victor Fleming. A sudden change from black and white to color gave more fantastic effects to the fantasy world and it allowed the filmmakers to deliver the full beauty of the visuals. The Land of Oz was very spectacular, complete with flying witches, wizards, talking trees and animals and many other fantasy elements. We could find many changes in the plot though the film was far more faithful to Baum’s original book than the earlier film versions. The Wizard of Oz has considered as one of the best loved fantasy film of all time because of its stunning visuals and strong narration, and it became a true classic. This 103 minutes film was produced by MGM and the budget was three million dollars, most expensive production up to that time. The film earned six million from the box office and thirteen million from television broadcast rights. That would have inspired many filmmakers to produce fantasy films.

1——power of narration â€¦taking the viewers along with the story..

Make them to feel the emotions of the characters

Give the feel believable of hyperrealism …

Disney also effectively used a combination of color and sound in many of its fantasy films, both live action and animated. The makers of The Wizard of Oz might have been influenced by the success of Walt DisneyHYPERLINK “http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_Pictures”‘HYPERLINK “http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_Pictures”s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in the year 1937, which proved that a fantasy film could attract an enthusiastic adult audience too, a trick that earlier Oz films had failed to achieve.

Fantasy movies and the film industry:

As a cinematic genre, fantasy has traditionally not been regarded as highly as the related genre of science fiction film. Undoubtedly, the fact that until recently fantasy films often suffered from the “Sword and Sandal” afflictions of inferior production values, over-the-top acting and decidedly poor special effects was a significant factor in fantasy film’s low regard. Even 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, which did much to improve the genre’s reputation in public as well critical circles, was still derided in some quarters because of its comic book-like action sequences and tongue in cheek comedy.

Since the late 1990s, however, the genre has gained new respectability, driven principally by the successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is notable due to its ambitious scope, serious tone and thematic complexity. These pictures achieved phenomenal commercial and critical success, and the third installment of the trilogy became the first fantasy film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Harry Potter series has been a tremendous financial success, has achieved critical acclaim, and boasts an enormous and loyal fan base. Following the success of these ventures, Hollywood studios have green lighted additional big-budget productions in the genre. These have included adaptations of the first and second books in C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia series and the teen novel Eragon, as well as adaptations of Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is RisHYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Is_Rising_(film)”ing, Cornelia Funke’sInkheart, Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, and Holly Black’s The Spiderwick Chronicles. Fantasy movies in recent years, such as the Lord of the Rings films, 2005’s Narnia adaptation, and the first second and fourth Harry Potter adaptations have most often been released in November and December. This is in contrast to science fiction films, which are often released during the northern hemisphere summer (June – August). All 3 installments of the Pirates of the Caribbean fantasy films, however, were released in July 2003, July 2006 and May 2007 respectively, and the latest releases in the Harry Potter series were released in July, 2007 and July 2009. The huge commercial success of these pictures may indicate a change in Hollywood’s approach to big-budget fantasy film releases.

Adaptation

Themes, imagery, and visual elements

Detailed study of developments in visual effects

Case study 1

The lord of the rings trilogy

“My same philosophy applied to digital effects as to the overall design. I wanted the monsters to feel real right down to the dirt under the fingernails of a Cave Troll or the bloodshot, bulging eyes of Gollum.”

– Peter Jackson

The lord of the rings film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson is an epic saga of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books, become a milestone in the history of motion picture. The trilogies, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, all released in the year of 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively. It was a revolutionary movement in the visual effects film making. Both the book and film had given a new birth to the fantasy literature and film genre. The trilogy achieved commercial, critical and phenomenal triumph. Each film of the trilogy had nominated for the Academy Award for Best picture in the three consecutive years and finally the third chapter, The Return of the King won the best picture award, and becomes the first fantasy film ever to achieve this honor. It won a total of eleven Academy Awards including for the ground breaking visual effects, ties up with the classics Benhur and Titanic. Peter Jackson and crew created an entire digital world to give life to the Tolkien’s middle earth.

This film is the best example of high fantasy. The story happened in the Middle earth, the three films follow the quest of Frodo Baggins and the fellowship to destroy the One Ring to defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. In the final battle at Gondor, Ring has been destroyed and Sauron and his powers are vanquished. The story is rich with many fantasy elements such as, wizards, dragons, creatures, beasts, giant talking trees and many more .The success of the film showed the scope of fantasy films and encouraged many production companies to green light new fantasy oriented projects. Thus the first decade of the twenty first century got more than fifty fantasy films on the silver screen. All major behind the scenes works had done by the New Zealand based visual effects company WETA Digital. They would have assembled potential people from all fields of animation and visual effects to dedicate years of their lives to create stunning effects that fulfill this high fantasy, middle earth epic story. All three films got more three thousand effects shots.

WETA Digital had used many visual effects technologies to create the effects and creatures. They have invented new technologies and changed some existing technologies to overcome the challenges in creating some scenes. One of the most exciting creatures in the film is Gollum, who was born like a hobbit named Sméagol, but transformed into something far more frightening as a result of his encounter with the ring. For creating Gollum, they have used very advance motion capturing. Gollum would be the most sophisticated digital character seen at that time.

Visual effects technologies

The lord of the rings trilogy had used many ground breaking visual effects to create the fantasy. WETA Digital is the major effects studio behind the films, but some shorts are also given to the studio Digital Domain. WETA had used many technologies to achieve the effects. Here we are going to look through those technologies.

Massive

Creating the war scenes are one o the most challenges faced by the filmmakers. All films in the trio had more than one war sequence in which thousands of soldiers are fighting. Creating this kind of mass crowd is a big problem that had not been solved in film making. A research to develop a new technology to overcome this problem had conducted in WETA Digital by the technical director of the film Stephen Regelous. It resulted in the creation of new software called MASSIVE (Multiple Agent Simulation System in Virtual Environment). It can easily generate thousands or millions of agents that all act as individuals and can respond individually to its surroundings. These reactions affect the agent’s behavior, changing how they act and controlling motion captured animations to create a realistic looking characters. The software used fuzzy logic to achieve this kind of properties. This technology helped WETA to create the epic war sequences. This technology is a great contribution to the visual effects industry and later it used in many films.

Subsurface scattering

Creating the creature Gollum was another big challenge for the director. This character played a main role in the films. Gollum was brought into life by the combine efforts of computer animation and sophisticated motion capture technology utilizing fluid dynamics. They studied many kinds of anatomy to create realistic joint movement based on actual organic muscle and bone. For getting more realistic look they have applied sub surface scattering shader for the first time.

“WETA developed vast amounts of code to create Gollum,” notes Peter Jackson. “They developed new modeling codes, new skin codes, new muscle codes. He is amazingly life-like and we were able to give him a range of expressions from the evil of Gollum to the sympathy of Sméagol.”

– Peter Jackson

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