Saturday
Jan102009
Spirit Press: Current TV
Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 6:51PM Gabriel Macht plays The Spirit. His brother Ari is a producer at Current TV. They decided to team up and interview me for a Current Tech piece on The Spirit's visual effects.
As the film's Second Unit Director, I would occasionally get to work with Gabriel, especially when stunts were involved. This meant that for the first few weeks of shooting, Gabriel came to associate me with being covered in mud, strapped into a harness, hung from wires, and slammed in the crotch with a giant wrench.
This video, I believe, is his revenge.
Reader Comments (20)
Ridiculously cool.
Awesome. I have a lot of respect for you and your team. Very inspiring. (love your Rebel book by the way, but that goes without saying)
hehe I did the slamming in the crotch with a giant wrench shot.. I think, my friends, the term for this is 'money shot'.
And I was 100% sure that snowball was CG... damn
That was so awesome!!!
So down for the special features on The Spirit DVD...
I think frank miller has a crush on you! LOL
Very funny!
It's good to see you guys joke around and have some smiles in such a stressful time sensitive job. ^^
How often do you blow steam when the deadline is getting tight and the shots just aren't working out?
Do you ever get mad and let loose?
man... i was waiting to see an after effects UI... but no, it wasn't there, was it fusion? who cares ?...
just a little bumed that you didn't stick to your roots...
have you sold out to node compositing software?
to be honest the only reason i have stuck to AE is because you have praised it so much... dispite everyone saying otherwise...
well should i turn my attention to fusion or nuke now, i wonder!
i second the dream-wish for DVD extras like this when The Spirit goes to disk. I could see this being used in schools as an amazing way and informative way to get students thinking about projects that use these techniques.
Awesome! Cant wait to see this film!.....yes, we i australia are stillle waiting, sigh...
I think is nuke isn't it? why didn't you use after effects for this movie?
That is Nuke, and at The Orphanage we use both Nuke and AE. We had vendors on The Spirit using AE, Fusion, Nuke, Flame, and Shake.
Stu,
You are a friggin' pimp dude.
Amazing work.
-Monty
It was very cool to see the 'behind the scenes' footage of the snowplow shot being composited in Nuke.
Regarding the clamoring about After Effects and 'selling out to node-based compositing software', I'm sure After Effects was used on a lot of shots in the movie, just as I'm sure a multitude of other software was also used.
The software is just a tool. And the tools you use does not matter as much as what you can create with them. Certain software isn't necessarily superior, I would imagine they are just more suited for certain things. For example Nuke was probably used for that shot with the snow-plow because of its advanced 3d system and ease of compositing multi-channel 3d renders.
Anyway, thanks for the post Stu! This was awesome to see.
-Jedypod
with so many vendors working in this project, how did you do to maintain the same look on the film??
by the way I just saw some shot breakdown of http://www.digitaldimension.com/specialty_reels_thespirit_en.html" REL="nofollow">digital dimension's work
(you should put some stuff like this in The Orphanage's website)
So awesome.
Stu, you're brilliant! It was so great to see images of you in your native habitat!
It's truly amazing to see the complexity of what you are able to do with such ease!
Cheryl in N.D.
I wonder, given they get a thorough rebuke from you in the DV Rebel's Guide, if working on "The Spirit" has changed your view of green screens. Or is it that when most laypeople see a green screen in a shot they think that all the compositing work is done?
Great insider view, great blog and great book!
That was awesome, Stu. Congrats on the huge props for this one.
Right On! Stu- To hear Frank Miller give you props is indeed righteous!
Very cool!