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Fawk teh tech don't be a whoRE

So ummm... I wrote the script with this screenwriting app on my iphone... then I created the storyboard with this storyboard app on my ipad then I used this other iphone app and this $1000 iphone accessory to take photos of the set with locked gps coordinates to share with the location scout who syncs the coordinates with her blackberry blah blah blah... YEH we shot on the RED... yep thats right 20,000 x 20,000 pixels of mundane ass run of the mill footage....uh huh and we had a 20 drive array to play back the uncompressed files... yeh we edited offline with Final Cut Pro on an 8 core macpro even though final cut only uses one core yep... we're whores...we buy any tech we can and use it in production because we're dumb enough to buy into all teh marketing hype so we believe we need the tech and some how our "film" is better because of it.... I think we NEED to use Autodesk Smoke to online and finish it....

OH it doesn't end there there days...

Yeh so we built seven rich media sites for our film with games, trailers, apps blah blah and we've integrated our facebook page with twitter and our iphone app so when we type all dis boring shit ... everyone all over the world knows about it instantly... cause like we're indie and shet so you should befriend us cause its SO HARD making INDIE films...WAH WAHHHHHH

OK back to normal programming.... So I try to follow and read a bunch of "filmmaking" sites/blogs etc.... but the funny thing is they never talk about the actual making of the film... all they do is talk about the tech... So is this why people don't make films anymore? Is this why there's just a TON of demo reels of "cool looking shots" stuck together passed off as "films" ?  Because all the wannabe filmmakers just became whores to the tech?

Its the same thing in 3d... WOW THAT LOOKS REAL?!? OMG PHOTOREALISM OH NO I JIZZED ALL OVER MYSELF... I don't understand this either.... Ok it looks real... then what? What does that have to do with the story and the mood... the theme? The emotions? The suspense? The drama! The point of it all?!?! Is the point... THIS IS REAL? Ok point made TITE now I'm going to go outside where everything is really REAL OMG amazing?! Let me take a photo! Look at this photo its an image of something "REAL" continue the jizzing ^ ^

Here's a PEFECT example... now this is being lauded as the second coming of teh raytraced Jesus2000

THIS IS A DEMO REEL...it is a fancy display of techniques...

If you showed this to an 8 year old kid who had no interest in 3d what do you think he/she would say or do? WOW this is great is soooo realisitic!!! HELL NAW they would get bored after like 20 seconds.... BUT now show them this...

I bet that same kid would LOVE THIS because it has great ideas!

If you go over to the Vimeo page for that CG video you'll find over 9000 cg tech whores lauding it as the greatest thing ever created.... and why? because it is "SO REALISTIC" Ok yes it looks realistic then what? BUt what about the idea? The idea is... this is realistic... a video/film camera in static environments focusing and defocusing... brightness changes in various environments... The idea behind it is YOU getting your video camera... putting it on a tripod...filmmaking a bunch of static scenes...in normal speed as well as timelapse then editing it together with music.... Yes you turn the camera on and off and its REAL... ok....

I guess what I'm really getting at here is that if all you have is technique YOU WILL ALWAYS BE A MINION... a minion that will eventually be REPLACED by a MACHINE... if you don't focus on your ideas and create great ones you are just another replaceable COG... If you want to be your own boss and make your own films than FOCUS ON YOUR IDEAS! Having great technique is awesome too, you should always be working on that too I just think that without great ideas the technique is worthless UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE A MINION... Machines will always be BETTER at TECHNIQUE than any human... its just a matter of time as the algorithms and AI improves... anyone see "Content aware fill" ? Where will GI and HDRI be in a few years? 3d scanning? Motion capture?

HYPE.... now of course most wannabe filmmakers buy into the tech hype.... and most normal people do as well... So now we have "films" that on they own if you were to strip out the tech are... ABSOLUTELY MUNDANE DERIVATIVE AND THE EPITOME OF SICKENING MEDIOCRITY but with the tech.... TEH BEST THING EVAR apparently....

BUT I believe this will die down as the tech become so advanced and easy to use the whole "real" thing won't impress anyone let alone cause over 9000 fanboi jizzfests.... then what? People will be like....ummmm.... WAIT.... are the images supposed to do something? Are they supposed to move people or like stand for something or have a deeper meaning? Ummmm.... wait....

I have never forgotten this Syd Mead quote...

"don't assume that technique alone will save your ass. It still is the idea that wins...every time. Remember that elaborate technique and dumb story produces a demo reel, not a narrative"


BUT today when TECHNIQUE ALONE is making billions of dollars and is all that is enshrined around you its tough for someone to not fall into the trap...


So next time you see a film or participate in a discussion about a film or some 3d shet... ask yourself ... what is the idea behind this? Do I like it? Is it original? Is it great?! If not AND you find yourself up in teh jizzfest you are worshiping technique my friend... so then are you simply a replaceable craftsperson with no valuable ideas? Or an irreplaceable ARTIST with GREAT IDEAS?


MARK meh words... the tech will get to the point where ANYONE who can buy it will be able to display the BEST TECHNIQUE... then what will set things apart? Ideas thats right... and if they are remarkable, original, innovative and powerful your going to do all right... Let all the kids have they toys... your NOT here to play with toys and be a tech whore your here to rock thangs mayne ^ ^

Comments

  1. A perfect example of this is that Avatar movie. I went to see it a while back. of course it looked all nice in shiny. Heck some of the backdrops were even cool to look at but the story was WEAK. The whole plot felt like an excuse for the Cameron to take you on a virtual sight seeing trip of his little world. The character development wasn't that great either. Near the end of the film I would see these characters who I couldn't even remember who they were..aside from the main dude, his alien girlfriend and the villein, everyone else was super forgettable.

    I had people telling me that it was the best movie of the decade so I expected a ton more out of it then pretty shots.


    I have played ds games that have better plots then Avatar!

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  2. fuckin mdot.. youre the man.. i have submitted to becoming a tech whore.. its so easy...ive been debating about getting a dslr.. part of me wnats the SUPER TECHY Canon 5D mk2... but.. do i really need that? i really want a decent cam , a cool lens and some lights... a 5d will suck all the money out... but.. yuore right.. its really all about the idea.. what do you do if you feel like ur ideas are shit tho? i feel like i got decent technique down.. maybe tis time to jus focus on the ideas.. how do you go about doin that?

    ReplyDelete
  3. so true about the ideas thing, i actually had a friend say to me dude u should totally watch the third and the seventh you will like it and when i saw it i was kinda where is it i only see a boring demo reel? now that little film u compared the third and seventh to certainly was a lot more entertaining to watch. i've beenwatching a ton of zero punctuation lately and something that strikes me about yatzee's game review animations is how simple they are and still they're WAY more rewatchable than a movie like avatar or 9

    ReplyDelete
  4. i like to sit on my pancakes!
    i love that video when i first watched it it's sti;ll funny the 80th time i watch iot and it still intrigues me

    avatar never began to intriued me from the star
    neither did transformers
    neither did actualy i forgot the names of all of the rest of mainstream whore movies....
    thats how dissposeable they are

    i remmeber watching toy story and gumby and dragon ball z as a kid
    LOVED THEM
    STILL DO ^_^
    i never forgot them even though i was like 5... or somehting
    and let me telly ou this
    WATS archon defender HSM
    will never slip my mind because they made me want more AND I DO

    so hurry the fuck up >:0
    lawl

    ReplyDelete
  5. lol this part made me laugh: "WOW THAT LOOKS REAL?!? OMG PHOTOREALISM OH NO I JIZZED ALL OVER MYSELF" hahahah awesome ^_^

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  6. I actually respect Alex Roman (Third and the Seventh's creator). The guy has a passion for architecture rendering and decided not to make some dumbass walkthrough but rather put some story into it... and I think he did pretty well for something that is clearly not narrative. Considering that he is a tech guy and he probably considers himself that, he took tech to the next level. I wouldn't watch it twice but I did have some 'Oh thats nice' moments.

    BUT you see this piece of shit http://www.vimeo.com/10471831 and then see the making of http://www.vimeo.com/7708580 ... I find it unbelievable that people drool over the story, the camera and the characters. I think its one of the worst short I've seen EVER. And there is such a big fuzz around it because 'THE RENDER LOOKS SO REALISTIC' BS.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Ra

    Sup mayne! Yeh its tough today to not get seduced by the tech and think that you need it to do good stuff... I mean I think the way to do it is come up with an idea first then get the tech you need to realize it BUT dont spend so much money on it that you dont have time to work on realizing the idea cuz you have to do extra paid gigs to pay for the gear... as for ideas... I think we just gotta obsess on things... get interested in something like I was in Samurai movies... started watchin em all then got into the philosophy behind them then the history behind the philosophy and shit just gets deeper and sucks you in making your ideas stronger...so I say just obsess on what your obsessed about ^ ^ set aside pure brainstorming time at a cafe er something with no laptop, no phone, no tech... just a sketchpad and a pencil... ive been doin this everyday for years... and its helped me come up with hella ideas....just an hour a day or so makes a big difference...

    @ Carlos

    Yeh that Meline short is like meh... I dont see the point either... seems like the point was just to make it?! and talk about the making of? Cause the short itself is just like huH?!

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Mdot So what your saying about ideas is like..If I was obsessed with...cowboys and I wanted to do a Drainage style western then it may help to immerse myself into stuff relating to that? (Fyi I'm not doing a western...yet?! haha)

    Also funny that the Meline thing came up. I haven't seen the whole thing but I stumbled across the trailer a while back and never bothered to look further into it.

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  9. The first and only time I watched 'the third and the seventh' I was struck by how the architectural design had so much potential to drive an actual plot... however that plot was missing. Almost like he forgot to comp in the characters (and robots.. and explosions) that were in the original script.

    Yeah, too many demo reels and too many trailers for films that will never exist. This isn't anything new, I found this in 2003 when my old Rocketmen vs Robots film played with a bunch of demo reels at the Renderfest festical.

    ReplyDelete
  10. About things that u wrote in this post its my pain ya know
    and I have so much thoughts about that I cant say so much
    and as I have a pain Im afraid to talk so as I start... oh no forget..

    ..but I ll say about one thing....

    "this will die down as the tech become so advanced
    People will be like....ummmm.... WAIT.... are the images supposed to do something? Are they supposed to move people or like stand for something or have a deeper meaning?"

    M dot....yes its true..ofcourse cuz its very logical...but Im...
    ..I'm afraid that it can..can be another way
    U know what? Im afraid that
    when the tech ll be SOOOO advanced as I can only imagine
    imagine M. ...what do 'they' now trying to make?
    Im afraid they'll make tech world...
    U know I cant explain it ... like virtual reality..for whole world..
    that ll be controlled by 'elite'
    and the machines
    as now "people of now" changed the real world on computer games, virtual communication..virtual work..
    cuz its faster and it keeps their life-time...cuz life is very short
    Im afraid then ll be such world from which one they wont turn back


    And ll begin the giant separation among people if nothing change...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Brilliant post. You hit the nail on the head HARD with this one. keep on doing what you're doing. You are right on and I can't wait to see HSM.

    ReplyDelete
  12. the jelly gods will clense the world of the unholy whores and stop the tech jizz fest's
    NO MORE WILL TECHNOLOGY WILL BE CONSIDERED AMAZING PLOT WILL PREVAIL
    .... they're just waiting for the right moment
    those jelly gods must have perfect timing

    ReplyDelete
  13. some examples

    south park: shitty animation, shitty character design, shitty backgrounds BUT a lot of ideas and content

    ant bully/avatar: nice renders, nice SFX, SHITTY CONTENT

    tech people are being replaced by presets..

    we are just some clicks away

    when will the machine replace the heart and soul of the human?

    it's the same in other branches of art.. film students break their heads trying to get that "film look" on their footage, musicians trying to get that "analog sound" and 3d people trying to get photorealistic renders

    we are just some clicks away

    ReplyDelete

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