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What do you think about Movies today?
Are they changing to fast and leaving your favourites behind or do you love new technolpgy and want them to progress further?
Are they changing to fast and leaving your favourites behind or do you love new technolpgy and want them to progress further?
Police Academy:
Good Guys: Tall guy, funny guy, weak guy, sexy girl, silly girl, gun freak.
Bad Guys: One and his sidekick. Both end up with their heads stuck up a horse's backside.
A classic good vs evil storyline.
Star Wars is another example of this, but without the horse's backside.
(Unless you count Luke Skywalker as a horse's backside.)
Good Guys: Tall guy, funny guy, weak guy, sexy girl, silly girl, gun freak.
Bad Guys: One and his sidekick. Both end up with their heads stuck up a horse's backside.
A classic good vs evil storyline.
Star Wars is another example of this, but without the horse's backside.
(Unless you count Luke Skywalker as a horse's backside.)
meka_dragon wrote:
> FantasyMeister wrote:
>However, someone once said that there
> were only 7 (?)
> different types of story,
I think hes refering to the idea that there are only five different story types... rescue, romance, summint, summintelse, and the last one :)
And that all storys ever made since then can fit into one of those catagories... and as such ther can never be a truly original story ever written again.... ever :)
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever...
> FantasyMeister wrote:
>However, someone once said that there
> were only 7 (?)
> different types of story,
I think hes refering to the idea that there are only five different story types... rescue, romance, summint, summintelse, and the last one :)
And that all storys ever made since then can fit into one of those catagories... and as such ther can never be a truly original story ever written again.... ever :)
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever...
FantasyMeister wrote:
>However, someone once said that there were only 7 (?)
> different types of story,
Okay to prove or disprove this, think of a movie, and think what it's basic story is.
The Matrix - Bloke lives normal live. Realises life isn't what he thought it was, he is a slave of sorts, is part of a group to overthrow thier captors. Rebellion?
So who wants to do Police Academy?
>However, someone once said that there were only 7 (?)
> different types of story,
Okay to prove or disprove this, think of a movie, and think what it's basic story is.
The Matrix - Bloke lives normal live. Realises life isn't what he thought it was, he is a slave of sorts, is part of a group to overthrow thier captors. Rebellion?
So who wants to do Police Academy?
Movies today do the same job they did in the 1900s, they still entertain rather than inform. Today they are just more 'entertaining' because we now have colour, clarity, effects, great acting, great sound, overall the experience has been greatly enhanced.
However, someone once said that there were only 7 (?) different types of story, so eventually all movies will just be repeating the same stories over and over but with different effects and different twists at the end.
Good thing for us we only live for 3 score year and 10 or else we'd get very bored indeed.
However, someone once said that there were only 7 (?) different types of story, so eventually all movies will just be repeating the same stories over and over but with different effects and different twists at the end.
Good thing for us we only live for 3 score year and 10 or else we'd get very bored indeed.
Real application of computer generated effects in movies is still a relevtly new event... with Terminator2 being the first to really make use of them to any effect...
Old style special effects had, reached their boundrys, and really couldnt be developed any further (and to be quite honest, were looking a little dodgy, even in the 80's... the Rankor sequence in Rrtune of the Jedi seemed fake even then)
As a result, CGI effects, despite already begin fantastic are still moving on in leaps and bounds, and can be used to bring in the crowds as novelty films have since... well since the beginning of the moving picture...
However as time moves on... and I suspect due to mass acceptance from the past 9 years, films will use the effect as required within the storyline, and not as the attraction with which to wrap the story-line around.
Although strangly enough, with the new lease of life to fantasy, sci-fi, horror movies that CGI effects have created, complex - plot and character driven moves have become more mainstream, and more frequent than they ever before (Magnolia, American Beauty, etc..)
Old style special effects had, reached their boundrys, and really couldnt be developed any further (and to be quite honest, were looking a little dodgy, even in the 80's... the Rankor sequence in Rrtune of the Jedi seemed fake even then)
As a result, CGI effects, despite already begin fantastic are still moving on in leaps and bounds, and can be used to bring in the crowds as novelty films have since... well since the beginning of the moving picture...
However as time moves on... and I suspect due to mass acceptance from the past 9 years, films will use the effect as required within the storyline, and not as the attraction with which to wrap the story-line around.
Although strangly enough, with the new lease of life to fantasy, sci-fi, horror movies that CGI effects have created, complex - plot and character driven moves have become more mainstream, and more frequent than they ever before (Magnolia, American Beauty, etc..)
I think it is fiar to say that originality is always going to guarantee a films place in history. On one level there are technological developments. For example the move from silent to 'talkies' and from black and white to colour.
Sci-fi films of the 1970s created visually believable alien worlds for the first time with the likes of Star Wars and Alien and the 1990s has seen the development of digital effects come on in leaps and bounds. Technological innovation is now inextricably linked to the future of film-making because the most spectacular new effects are guarenteed to pull the crowds even without particulaly stunning scripts (e.g. Lawnmower Man, Tron etc. in the 80's). I would agree that Star Wars had such an impact as it broke totally new ground while modern sci-fi efforts, although increasingly spectacular, suffer from the fact that a modern audience has largely seen it al before.
Does this mean that the future of film-making lies with more reliance on plot, character development and script? I would certainly like to think so. Non-technological innovation also can have a massive impact on future film-makers. Look at the huge shifts in sophistication after landmark films like Citizen Kane which created a non-linear plot with clever camrera movement. Without films like this the likes of Resevoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects may never have been made.
Although audiences are increasingly used to SFX there is still a long way to go. The pull of the latest technology is still too great to put the development of technology onto the back burner. It occurs to me that the next real aim for film-makers must be a spectacular visual feast that the audience doesn't even notice is digitally generated.
In the Matrix the special effects are awesome but it is obviously a special efects showcase. Gladiator may be a better indication of the future of technology in film. The digital effects re-create the ancient world in breath-taking detail, actors are digitally added after their deaths and still there is not a single scene in the film which is obviously a special effect. It all seems so real. In this way the audience can be dran totally into the world of the film without ever stepping back realising the action is actually computer tricknology.
In the future technology will create awesome worlds, the like of which we have never seen before, without getting in the way of the great story and engaging characters. Well, hopefully...
Sci-fi films of the 1970s created visually believable alien worlds for the first time with the likes of Star Wars and Alien and the 1990s has seen the development of digital effects come on in leaps and bounds. Technological innovation is now inextricably linked to the future of film-making because the most spectacular new effects are guarenteed to pull the crowds even without particulaly stunning scripts (e.g. Lawnmower Man, Tron etc. in the 80's). I would agree that Star Wars had such an impact as it broke totally new ground while modern sci-fi efforts, although increasingly spectacular, suffer from the fact that a modern audience has largely seen it al before.
Does this mean that the future of film-making lies with more reliance on plot, character development and script? I would certainly like to think so. Non-technological innovation also can have a massive impact on future film-makers. Look at the huge shifts in sophistication after landmark films like Citizen Kane which created a non-linear plot with clever camrera movement. Without films like this the likes of Resevoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects may never have been made.
Although audiences are increasingly used to SFX there is still a long way to go. The pull of the latest technology is still too great to put the development of technology onto the back burner. It occurs to me that the next real aim for film-makers must be a spectacular visual feast that the audience doesn't even notice is digitally generated.
In the Matrix the special effects are awesome but it is obviously a special efects showcase. Gladiator may be a better indication of the future of technology in film. The digital effects re-create the ancient world in breath-taking detail, actors are digitally added after their deaths and still there is not a single scene in the film which is obviously a special effect. It all seems so real. In this way the audience can be dran totally into the world of the film without ever stepping back realising the action is actually computer tricknology.
In the future technology will create awesome worlds, the like of which we have never seen before, without getting in the way of the great story and engaging characters. Well, hopefully...
I think the trouble is with alot of movies these days is that we have be de-censorsized to specials effects, we are that used to them now and expect them especially in the Sci-fi area. So the most important thing to me is the story, you can get a movie with great special effects and a bland story leaving you a overall mediocre film.
As sandman mentioned in the previous post Star Wars (oh god he`s not on about star wars again i hear you all cry) when that came out there was nothing that had that level of special effects, we hadn`t seen anything like this before and blended with a classic storyline of good Vs evil it was a perfect combanation.
The Phantom Menace came out with excellent special effects and a story of what happened before, but alot of people panned this film, personally i thought it was great and yes i like Jar-Jar (so there!), but i agree with it wasn`t as good as the first Star Wars trilogy.
But i think that`s why a lot of people didn`t like it because, we seen it all before, we`ve seen the special effects done and in the end it didn`t make as a impact as episode IV.
You could argue and say, what about Gladiator? The Matrix? they used special effects and had great storylines, yep i agree, but they came fresh with ideas, things that hadn`t been seen before and thats what made these new generation of films excellent.
So as long as new fresh ideas and great storylines are in the movies then new films can be as excellent as classics of yester-year.
As sandman mentioned in the previous post Star Wars (oh god he`s not on about star wars again i hear you all cry) when that came out there was nothing that had that level of special effects, we hadn`t seen anything like this before and blended with a classic storyline of good Vs evil it was a perfect combanation.
The Phantom Menace came out with excellent special effects and a story of what happened before, but alot of people panned this film, personally i thought it was great and yes i like Jar-Jar (so there!), but i agree with it wasn`t as good as the first Star Wars trilogy.
But i think that`s why a lot of people didn`t like it because, we seen it all before, we`ve seen the special effects done and in the end it didn`t make as a impact as episode IV.
You could argue and say, what about Gladiator? The Matrix? they used special effects and had great storylines, yep i agree, but they came fresh with ideas, things that hadn`t been seen before and thats what made these new generation of films excellent.
So as long as new fresh ideas and great storylines are in the movies then new films can be as excellent as classics of yester-year.
I think that the question of new technology and movies is a tricky one. With the latest generation of digital techniques it is possible to do stunning things on the screen, these days imagination is a film-makers only real boundry. In this sense film-making today should offer us a wealth of new experiences.
Technology is, however, a double-edged sword. The development of the traditional summer blockbuster means that a fair proportion of big budget movies are somewhat hollow SFX showcases. Also it is too easy to misuse the technology. If digital imaging is used to excess it can look to obviously generated. If you ask me the special effects in Star Wars from the 1970s are as good if not better than many of the films around today as the carefully crafted models give a sense of 3 dimensional solidity that it is tricky to reproduce with computers.
Recent years however seem to have seen a the mainstream move beyond the summer blockbuster with huge commercial successes for the kind of films which may previously been relegated to the small, critically acclaimed indie ghetto. Films like American Beauty and Crouching Tiger... have shown that well crafted cinema can be also be a money-spinner. This, to me, says that modern cinema is in an increasingly healthy state.
Admittedly, American Beauty hardly pushes the envelope when it comes to modern film-making techniques but lets hope we will soon see a wave of well-crafted, thoughtful films that make effective use of the available technology. X-Men is a good example of this kind of movie. It proves that you can combine an interesting and thought-provoking script with the kind of retina-searing special effects that DVD was made for. Let's hope there's more like this to come.
The future of movies? Here's lookin' at you kid...
Technology is, however, a double-edged sword. The development of the traditional summer blockbuster means that a fair proportion of big budget movies are somewhat hollow SFX showcases. Also it is too easy to misuse the technology. If digital imaging is used to excess it can look to obviously generated. If you ask me the special effects in Star Wars from the 1970s are as good if not better than many of the films around today as the carefully crafted models give a sense of 3 dimensional solidity that it is tricky to reproduce with computers.
Recent years however seem to have seen a the mainstream move beyond the summer blockbuster with huge commercial successes for the kind of films which may previously been relegated to the small, critically acclaimed indie ghetto. Films like American Beauty and Crouching Tiger... have shown that well crafted cinema can be also be a money-spinner. This, to me, says that modern cinema is in an increasingly healthy state.
Admittedly, American Beauty hardly pushes the envelope when it comes to modern film-making techniques but lets hope we will soon see a wave of well-crafted, thoughtful films that make effective use of the available technology. X-Men is a good example of this kind of movie. It proves that you can combine an interesting and thought-provoking script with the kind of retina-searing special effects that DVD was made for. Let's hope there's more like this to come.
The future of movies? Here's lookin' at you kid...