Great stuff as always Furious. I'm not a constant reader. Just come by every so often and binge myself senseless. For the first time I started from the beginning of your posts.
Regarding the Canadian government's destructive interference in the Canadian Movie and TV industry. Bureaucracies reward failure, with increased budget, headcount and power. Understand that and more of business, and almost all of government, makes sense. The K-12 education system of the USA is a perfect storm of exploiting this.
I think you hit upon a critically overlooked factor when discussing the 2007-2008 writer's strike. Regarding the importance of the Academy Awards in keeping the money men happy.
"[T]here's nothing that impresses a mutual fund manager from Dusseldorf and convince him to invest with your studio than an invite to ... one of the lavish all-star after-parties.... Xenu only knows the number of contracts signed because some money man got to shake hands with Angelina Jolie. So the companies promote these events, heavily, ... to keep the ever precious money flowing."
That's the real ranking of A-listers and movie stars. They're the ones that can convince the investors to keep the money flowing in. The ability to put bums in seats is nothing if the movie never gets made due to lack of funding.
Seen from that angle, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman may be the apex of Hollywood A-listers. They may not be movie stars, but they play them to investors.
Almost two years ago you wrote about this article.
"Hollywood's top stars face devaluing of A-list currency" http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i9fd76a66aebe6d4c1aa6faf82d19eb74?pn=1
I think we're at the point now where showing humans as the star of the movie is actively detrimental.
Five of the Top Ten highest grossing 2009 movies at http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2009&p=.htm
Transformers, Avatar, Up, Monsters vs Aliens, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
That's a list that should strike fear into both the SGA and AFTRA.
"Will Avatar put actors out of work?" http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1345589/
Trivia from S1m0ne http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/trivia
"After seeing the photorealism of the computer generated actors in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the producers started to lean toward the idea of having Simone actually be a computer generated actress. However, after heavy opposition from the Screen Actor's Guild, claiming in so many words that replacement of actors in ALL movies would be the next logical step, the idea was scrapped."
Finally, if you're unaware of machinima, or just like hilarious movies, watch Red vs. Blue by Rooster Teeth productions on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAM9fgV-ts
Since it's done using videogame footage, 99% of the art and character is in the script and voice acting. Which rocks.
I've heard of Machinema, and I've even seen sone Red Vs Blue, but I'm still doubtful that CG will completely replace actors. Despite the success of the CG animated films like Ice Age, Avatar, etc. there are the ones that creep people out like Xmas Carol, Polar Xpress, etc.
People like to see people, it's a very natural thing. The folks who should be worried the most are the stunt performers, who are already supposed to look like other people and can be replaced by cheaper, safer, and more obedient CG characters.
As for the other things you brought up, I'm actually working on a lot of that for my "Hollywood Babble On & On" book, that's currently in progress.
I agree, I have not had the interest to see Avatar, because if I want to see CGI people for 3 hours I will play Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 instead.
With VG's or a pixar cartoon I can accept the CGI.
Every time a big studio tries to CGI living creatures it ends up in a plastic looking floppy FAIL. navi or jar jar, both make mt nostalgic for the puppetry of the classic star wars or the Farscape Series.
They are calling avatar such an achievement when in COD the cgi people and stuff actually looks far more real than the blue smurfs of Avatar.
Call of Duty also is the only place where I can see actually action starts who look like they are capable of dishing out whoop ass not the preening pretty boy's Hollywood tries to push off as action stars.
Here's where I got it from.
Great stuff as always Furious. I'm not a constant reader. Just come by every so often and binge myself senseless. For the first time I started from the beginning of your posts.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Canadian government's destructive interference in the Canadian Movie and TV industry. Bureaucracies reward failure, with increased budget, headcount and power. Understand that and more of business, and almost all of government, makes sense. The K-12 education system of the USA is a perfect storm of exploiting this.
I think you hit upon a critically overlooked factor when discussing the 2007-2008 writer's strike. Regarding the importance of the Academy Awards in keeping the money men happy.
http://dknowsall.blogspot.com/2009/01/hollywood-babble-on-on-220-too-many.html
"[T]here's nothing that impresses a mutual fund manager from Dusseldorf and convince him to invest with your studio than an invite to ... one of the lavish all-star after-parties.... Xenu only knows the number of contracts signed because some money man got to shake hands with Angelina Jolie. So the companies promote these events, heavily, ... to keep the ever precious money flowing."
That's the real ranking of A-listers and movie stars. They're the ones that can convince the investors to keep the money flowing in. The ability to put bums in seats is nothing if the movie never gets made due to lack of funding.
Seen from that angle, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman may be the apex of Hollywood A-listers. They may not be movie stars, but they play them to investors.
Almost two years ago you wrote about this article.
ReplyDelete"Hollywood's top stars face devaluing of A-list currency"
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i9fd76a66aebe6d4c1aa6faf82d19eb74?pn=1
I think we're at the point now where showing humans as the star of the movie is actively detrimental.
Five of the Top Ten highest grossing 2009 movies at http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2009&p=.htm
Transformers, Avatar, Up, Monsters vs Aliens, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
That's a list that should strike fear into both the SGA and AFTRA.
"Will Avatar put actors out of work?"
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1345589/
Trivia from S1m0ne
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/trivia
"After seeing the photorealism of the computer generated actors in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the producers started to lean toward the idea of having Simone actually be a computer generated actress. However, after heavy opposition from the Screen Actor's Guild, claiming in so many words that replacement of actors in ALL movies would be the next logical step, the idea was scrapped."
Finally, if you're unaware of machinima, or just like hilarious movies, watch Red vs. Blue by Rooster Teeth productions on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAM9fgV-ts
Since it's done using videogame footage, 99% of the art and character is in the script and voice acting. Which rocks.
There's still a ton of talent out there.
I've heard of Machinema, and I've even seen sone Red Vs Blue, but I'm still doubtful that CG will completely replace actors. Despite the success of the CG animated films like Ice Age, Avatar, etc. there are the ones that creep people out like Xmas Carol, Polar Xpress, etc.
ReplyDeletePeople like to see people, it's a very natural thing. The folks who should be worried the most are the stunt performers, who are already supposed to look like other people and can be replaced by cheaper, safer, and more obedient CG characters.
As for the other things you brought up, I'm actually working on a lot of that for my "Hollywood Babble On & On" book, that's currently in progress.
I agree, I have not had the interest to see Avatar, because if I want to see CGI people for 3 hours I will play Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 instead.
ReplyDeleteWith VG's or a pixar cartoon I can accept the CGI.
Every time a big studio tries to CGI living creatures it ends up in a plastic looking floppy FAIL. navi or jar jar, both make mt nostalgic for the puppetry of the classic star wars or the Farscape Series.
They are calling avatar such an achievement when in COD the cgi people and stuff actually looks far more real than the blue smurfs of Avatar.
Call of Duty also is the only place where I can see actually action starts who look like they are capable of dishing out whoop ass not the preening pretty boy's Hollywood tries to push off as action stars.