Mesmerizing
February 7, 2010, 8:22 am
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
I had no idea that green screen technology had come so far. I have a lot more respect for the actors–who are expected to create New York City in their heads as they deliver their lines, surrounded in actuality by masses of green vinyl, in the middle of California. Hat tip: Inside Catholic.
This is amazing!
Last year there was a film crew shooting scenes for Ugly Betty in the little park-like area just to the north of the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street where Broadway and Fifth Avenue cross. Now I am wondering why they bothered. For those who watch the show, Betty was dressed as a hot dog in a bun.
I’m so spoiled by the new technology that I can hardly bear to look at movies made with the the old, like the rear-screen shots behind actors in moving cars. It drives me nuts to see the actor move the steering wheel before or after the car has begun to turn a corner. Then, of course, there’s the tendency of the actor driving the car to seemingly ignore the road ahead for seconds at a time.
The one thing they can’t seem to get right yet is the absence of visible breath in scenes supposedly set in cold weather environments. Capra and Welles were among the few directors who paid attention to those sorts of details.
Speaking of old technology, “The Good German”, the Steven Soderberg-George Clooney collaboration, self-consciously used retro technology (it was shot in black-and-white) and special effects.
If you are familiar with the geography of Manhattan many a scene might make you laugh, especially when the same landmarks keep turning up over and over during some interminable cross-town car chase, or characters flee to Westchester by crossing the George Washington Bridge. And those made-in-Toronto- or- somewhere “New York” movies are never quite persuasive. One venue that has long been impossible to fake with ingenious out of town locations is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The scale of the place and the familiar offerings are hard to duplicate. Still, perhaps the new technology will change all that. And after all, movies do depend on illusion, their special charm.