AFI Fest: Weta Digital Celebrates 20 Years with New Technology

Anne Marie here at the AFI Fest with another special event. Weta Digital, the pioneering VFX company behind some of the biggest blockbusters, including the Marvel franchise, Avatar, and The Hobbit, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. In  “State of the Art: The Evolution of Weta Digital," Visual Effects Supervisor Dan Lemmon gave audiences a peek behind the digital curtain of Weta Digital’s latest film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, to show how the company develops performance capture to assist and augment cinematography.

 Weta Digital is probably best known for its motion capture process (dubbed “performance capture” by James Cameron "because they also capture emotions"). Dan Lemmon explained that this evolved from Andy Serkis filming scenes as Gollum twice for The Lord of the Rings, into a sophisticated system called a “Capture Volume,” a cube of space surrounded by infrared cameras that record the actors’ movements. For Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, director Matt Reeves wanted to shoot the apes on location, so a new “portable” version was developed. The result had a profound effect not only on the technology of performance capture, but also on the look of the film--both digital and real.

Serkis in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Since Avatar won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 2009, each subsequent winner has been a VFX-heavy film, so the unspoken question was how Weta Digital interacted with Michael Seresin, the cinematographer of Dawn. Shooting on location allowed Seresin to light the ape actors as he would real characters. Then, Weta Digital could match that lighting on the pixelized primates. In addition, Seresin and Reeves developed a look book, pulling images from The Godfather and grittier 70s films. Dan Lemmon explained that Weta’s job was to mimic Seresin’s intentions, for instance digitally creating the vertigo-inducing helicopter shot for the climax. However, Lemmon also proudly pointed out how Weta Digital improved on Seresin’s vision, whether it was by manipulating the light to capture a digital ape’s eyes, or by adding fake “flaws” to the helicopter shot in order to make the synthetic image more real. 

The result of Weta Digital’s collaboration with Seresin is undoubtedly remarkable, and pushes VFX to be accepted as an art, rather than a gimmick. Still, Weta's additions to Seresin's work mark a definite change in the visual landscape of moviemaking. As VFX are integrated from pre-production to filming to post-production and digital effects get clearer, the line between cinematography and visual effects is going to get increasingly muddy.

AFI Fest's Young Hollywood Panel on Superheroes, Punching, and Queen Latifah

Margaret and Anne Marie here, reporting from AFI Fest ("presented by [corporation]!"). 

Last night the AFI and the LA Times kicked off a series of panel discussions with its "Young Hollywood Roundtable," whose panelists ranged widely in age and perspective but are all of whom making their mark on the movie business. Jenny Slate, writer/star of critical hit Obvious Child and former SNL castmember, was joined by Jena Malone (Inherent Vice, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay), Logan Lerman (Fury, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), and Joey King (Wish I Was Here, FX's Fargo).

Here are 8 lessons we learned from the Young Hollywood Roundtable:

Anne Marie:

1. Queen Latifah's royal legacy is enduring and eternal. When asked who her inspiration was, Joey King informed the audience that Queen Latifah is underrated. What followed was a 5 minute Latifah love-fest where Jenny Slate promised a detailed list of reasons why Queen Latifah is amazing ("on my personal stationary") and Logan Lerman revealed that his biggest inspiration is... Queen Latifah.

2. Jena Malone has a lot of very intelligent but frustratingly vague things to say about superhero movies. No confirmation from the newly-redheaded actress as to what her role is on Batman vs. Superman, but when Kaufman asked her about the pros and cons of working on a major superhero flick, Malone was frank: "We're artists, but we're also businesswomen." But working on a blockbuster isn't just about money. It has to tell a story as well.

I'm not saying Jena Malone is Robin, but I am saying she's being really evasive and her hair is red. #AFIFEST #YoungHollywood #Batman

— Anne Marie (@WeRecycleMovies) November 8, 2014 

Ruminations on Twitter, higher education, and punching Brad Pitt after the jump.

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Inside the Dolby. AFI Fest Begins!

Anne Marie and I had a stupendous time tonight at the premiere of A Most Violent Year which we were  mpressed by: tense, gorgeously shot, with a fiery Jessica Chastain and an ice cool Oscar Isaac. I'll tell you about it tomorrow. But for now -pics & tweets.

(We got there early and couldn't resist geeking out a bit inside The Dolby, the home of Hollywood's High Holy Night each year, The Oscars. [More photos after the jump]

I am inside the Dolby, land of Hollywood's High Holy Night. Streep is amused.

A photo posted by Nathaniel R (@nathaniel_tfe) on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:46pm PST

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Steve Martin: 2015 AFI Life Achievement Award Honoree

Manuel here with some Steve Martin news.

Did you all hear? Not content with having been pegged for an Honorary Oscar just last year (and a Kennedy Center Honors back in 2007 as well as an American Cinematheque honor in 2004), our favorite silver-haired comedian slash banjo enthusiast has been named the 43rd recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award. This past June, they feted Jane Fonda, only the eighth woman to receive the honor, a statistic that would look surprising if it only it weren’t so familiar. Did you know women comprised 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 (domestic) grossing films of 2013 while females accounted for 15% of protagonists, 29% of major characters, and 30% of all speaking characters of said films? No wonder Reese, Gillian, heck even John Cusack, have been so vocal about this issue lately, following Geena Davis’s example.

But I got side-tracked.

We are here to celebrate Martin’s AFI Life Achievement news which will surely be a raucous affair come June 2015, and a well-deserved one at that. From The Jerk (1979) to Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), from Parenthood (1989) to It’s Complicated (2009), Martin has been delighting big screen audiences for decades. His silky smooth sense of humor, which can be quietly self-deprecating or explosively excoriating, is one of a kind. I’m personally attached to the Father of the Bride films, and while lately Martin has been playing it quite broad (Cheaper by the Dozen, Pink Panther), I can’t be the only one who hopes he has another Shopgirl in him, for those furrowed brows can definitely sell pathos as much as they can barter laughs. That wisp of a film is much too fragile (ever since I first saw it and was enamored by it I’ve been afraid to see it again lest it turn to salt) but it’s the type of small-scale human examination that so much of Martin’s humor can seamlessly tap into.

What’s your favorite Martin performance? Who are you hoping will be tapped to host; may it be frequent AFIer Mary Louise Streep? And who would you suggest AFI look into for next year?

Streep Honors Fonda at AFI

To your left you'll see Meryl Streep speaking about Jane Fonda at the AFI ceremony in her honor which will be broacast on television next Saturday night. (A post birthday weekend treat!)

It's funny because I strike this exact same pose of joyous reverie and 'I can't even believe this exists' prayer-eyes enthusiasm when I speak about Jane Fonda's best work! (In fact, maybe we should do Fonda once we're done with Seasons of Bette?)

Meryl Streep is one of many stars that showed up and there are already several articles floating around about the highlights but I shan't read them because I like to watch these things like a virgin and pretend it's live television and we're all experiencing it together for the first time. But it's true I cheated a little to watch this sneak peek of Meryl talking about her first onscreen appearance in Julia (1977), a debut I've written about previously.

But here's one more Streep photo with the best caption lolz.

The Tribute special will air Saturday June 14th at 9 PM ET/PT on TNT with encores on TCM.