Showing posts with label Peter Jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Jackson. Show all posts

May 23, 2012

Get Ready For The Eyes Of T.J. Mecklenberg In 3D

Film geeks on the Internet are abuzz today with the release of the first full trailer for Baz Luhrman's epic reimagining of THE GREAT GATSBY.  And it is epic indeed.  It was also shot in 3D and the trailer has a few shots which indicate how this might work (i.e. glittery confetti falling at a party). It also has an anachronistic soundtrack which one would expect from Luhrman, who infused 70s disco into fin de siecle Paris.  But I'm not so sure about the rap and the Gatz mixing here. However, it is common these days for contemporary songs to be used in period trailers strictly for marketing purposes.

While this does look exciting (New York in the '20s...in color!), it also gave me a bit of a sinking feeling as I recalled another N.Y.C. early 20th century epic from another mad movie genius;  2005's KING KONG courtesy of Peter Jackson. That one was pretty to look at but ended up being a snooze.  We'll have to wait until Christmas Day to see if Luhrman's glitzy take on one of the great American novels has more to it than just pretty pictures.

April 25, 2012

Could 48 Frames Per Second Ruin The Magic Of Movies?

There is a bit of a technical tempest brewing this week after Peter Jackson screened footage from his upcoming THE HOBBIT.  Utlitizing a new digital technology that shoots 48fps (as opposed to the 80 year old 24fps standard for films), Jackson hopes to revolutionize cinema with this new look.  However, the screening of 10 minutes of scenes from his highly anticipated pre-quel to LORD OF THE RINGS got a decidedly negative reaction at Cinema Con this week.

As reported on the HuffPost and geek blogs everywhere, many people though the footage looked so hyper-real that it lost the magic that the standard movie image has.  There were unflattering comparisons to the film looking like "a bad soap opera" and the sets looking like....sets.  This sounds a bit like the concern 10 years ago when HD was first introduced and everyone thought actors on screen would look too real, and thus ordinary.  But as HD rolled out, that concern appeared to be overstated. However, given the strong reaction to Jackson's screening, it might be longer and rougher road for the conversion to this 48fps format.