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Before there was CGI
18 years ago
I rant about this a lot, but I have to do it again. CGI is overused. Really, I think a lot of times things are much more convincing with other methods. Case in point, and why I'm here:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I just watched the special edition in a movie theater. The clearest you can ever watch it. This was before CGI and it looked incredible. Let me give some specific examples.
-probably spoilers-
The thing that really wowed me at first was the clouds. I'm going out on the limb here and saying the clouds that shrouded the alien ships in this movie looked better than the ones in Independence Day - a movie made about 20 years later (which I haven't seen in about a year, so maybe I'll change my mind). I don't know what they did specifically to make them look like that, but wow. Those man-made clouds actually looked real.
The alien ships themselves looked fantastic. I think the alien ships in the sky looked like moving stars-just like they were supposed to. I admit, the part with the giant mothership emerges behind Devil's Tower looked unconvincing to me, but aside from that they looked pretty damn real.
Now the big part. The aliens. The way they shot them made them look damn convincing. This is the part that really impressed me. The light around them was over saturated, but since it came out of the mothership it made perfect sense. I think the over-saturation is one of the things that makes the scene work. I'm thinking about how cheezy the scene might have been without it. It probably would have been like Mars Attacks, except trying to be serious. Anyway, despite the over-saturation, you are still able to make out what the aliens look like. The close did look like an animatronic, but in the end I'm happy with it. It gave the good close up of the alien communicating. It was all I needed. The shots gave you just enough to see aliens, but not too much. Perfect.
I guess the reason for why I really liked this scene was because of what happens a lot today. Part of me believes if this was shot today, they would have just used CGI, give you cool aliens, and call it a day. They wouldn't have made the effort to shoot this scene creatively because they wouldn't have had to. In the end, this really works better. Because they shot it creatively, it looks far better than it ever could, regardless of what the technology of today can do.
I'm sure it also helps when you have very elite cinematographers working with you and you happen to be Stephen Spielberg. Regardless of whether or not some people feel Spielberg is overrated, he is a household name for a reason.
I know, I might just be talking out of my ass. This probably sounds pretentious as hell, so feel free to call me out on things. However, that's my impression. I feel that if I get wowed by special effects from the 70's, I should say something. Oh, and this is the first time I ever saw the whole movie. The India scene looked familiar, but that's it.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I just watched the special edition in a movie theater. The clearest you can ever watch it. This was before CGI and it looked incredible. Let me give some specific examples.
-probably spoilers-
The thing that really wowed me at first was the clouds. I'm going out on the limb here and saying the clouds that shrouded the alien ships in this movie looked better than the ones in Independence Day - a movie made about 20 years later (which I haven't seen in about a year, so maybe I'll change my mind). I don't know what they did specifically to make them look like that, but wow. Those man-made clouds actually looked real.
The alien ships themselves looked fantastic. I think the alien ships in the sky looked like moving stars-just like they were supposed to. I admit, the part with the giant mothership emerges behind Devil's Tower looked unconvincing to me, but aside from that they looked pretty damn real.
Now the big part. The aliens. The way they shot them made them look damn convincing. This is the part that really impressed me. The light around them was over saturated, but since it came out of the mothership it made perfect sense. I think the over-saturation is one of the things that makes the scene work. I'm thinking about how cheezy the scene might have been without it. It probably would have been like Mars Attacks, except trying to be serious. Anyway, despite the over-saturation, you are still able to make out what the aliens look like. The close did look like an animatronic, but in the end I'm happy with it. It gave the good close up of the alien communicating. It was all I needed. The shots gave you just enough to see aliens, but not too much. Perfect.
I guess the reason for why I really liked this scene was because of what happens a lot today. Part of me believes if this was shot today, they would have just used CGI, give you cool aliens, and call it a day. They wouldn't have made the effort to shoot this scene creatively because they wouldn't have had to. In the end, this really works better. Because they shot it creatively, it looks far better than it ever could, regardless of what the technology of today can do.
I'm sure it also helps when you have very elite cinematographers working with you and you happen to be Stephen Spielberg. Regardless of whether or not some people feel Spielberg is overrated, he is a household name for a reason.
I know, I might just be talking out of my ass. This probably sounds pretentious as hell, so feel free to call me out on things. However, that's my impression. I feel that if I get wowed by special effects from the 70's, I should say something. Oh, and this is the first time I ever saw the whole movie. The India scene looked familiar, but that's it.
Krennar
~krennar
I've seen that movie far too many times, but I know what you're saying. CGI has a great potential for such scenes, but it's always used as a wow factor and almost no thought is put into the shots. They had less to work with back in those days but they always managed to do more with what they had.
