stories, films, creative
Los Angeles, CA
Joined April 2012
- Tweets3K
- Following1.4K
- Followers314
- Likes15.4K
Pinned Tweet
Excited to see the new Love Death + Robots Vol. 4 out today on Netflix! Was a blast working as Compositing Lead on Spider Rose with the team at Blur Studio.
After a few years of telling young artists not to make a reel the way I do, I was asked by Blur if they could use my reel as a part of their talk on reels at Mundos Digitales this year. I'm really honored. I do still have some thoughts for young artists.
youtu.be/IP3MzN815is?si=X_qA…
So while I love making more aesthetic reels, and some studios and supers might enjoy them, bear in mind where you're at, what you're presenting about you, and who it's trying to reach.
The kind of nerdy stuff I love.
Brings me back to all the great bts on development through all of the Iron Man movies: fxguide.com/fxfeatured/ben-s…
Yup. To start in 2d alone, I quite literally did just about 10-12 hours a day for around 6 months straight focused almost purely on comp in nuke. That was just enough to be trusted to clean markers on a car commercial, and have enough basic comp to start as a junior nuke artist.
An old high school teacher would call the most important moment of learning the "Oh I see" moment. You might have one in class or at home studying, but that's through an academic-educational lens. Understanding as a working professional artist is different.
Love this. One of the biggest realizations I've had with writing is it doesn't matter how I feel about what I'm writing. Feeling bad doesn't mean the writing is bad. Feeling good doesn't mean the writing is good. Keep writing and keep going.
Great thread. It's framed as intended. You can crop however you'd like. The old Fincher top comes to mind for extracting 2.40 from Super 35mm. If they wanted less head room they could an equivalent to this, but that may not be as pleasant in IMAX.
Keep seeing people post that IMAX 70mm is just 4:3 TV or that the extra top and bottom of the frame doesn't add anything. You just have a misunderstanding of IMAX photography.
To accomodate other formats, Chris Nolan and Hoyte Van Hoytema use ground glass (Pic 1) etched with guides to appropriately frame every shot. This ensures Nolan can mostly center punch for every deliverable.
That's also why IMAX tends to be center-framed (Pic 2). The filmmakers want you looking dead center at what's happening while the rest of the image melts away into your peripheral vision. The idea is that when you're watching IMAX 70mm on a massive 60-100' screen, all you see is the movie. No masking, no screen frame, nothing. It's meant to fully immerse the viewer.
The size of the film negative and use of wide open lenses supports this in intimate moments because of the shallow depth of field. The image is tack sharp exactly where your eyes should be.
For wider shots and action sequences, there will usually be an important object(s) close to center frame that helps guide your eyes to surrounding parts you need to focus on (Pic 3). This is also why Nolan's movies translate well to widescreen formats like 70mm, 35mm, and other 2.39:1 screens.
He's not thinking about the height or width of the image independently, but as one giant canvas.
There's negative space above peoples heads because if you pushed their heads to the top of the frame and the next shot had an important action in the lower third, you'd spend the majority of the movie pivoting your head up and down and across the massive screen (Pic 4). Exhausting.
This is also why Nolan and other filmmakers crop from 1.43 to 1.78 for Blu-ray. The idea with the IMAX sequences is that they expand and use every inch of screen real estate. Pillarboxing 1.43 footage when intercut with 2.39 scenes makes the IMAX images appear smaller since they don't take up the full width of your screen. Footage should expand vertically, just like in theaters.
I get that tons of people watch stuff on their phones and laptops these days, but you have to understand the original intention - the theatrical experience - and not you sitting at home watching the movie on your 15" Macbook, 6" phone screen, or TV that's probably 5 ft too far from your couch.
Apologies for the long rant. 🤘🎞️
