Woah...where the heck does one start here on this!?!?!?!
It’s really really really really not looking like Douglas Slocombe did the cinematography...and I mean he DIDN’T so I mean it WONT?...is it meant to???...well, they said that they would try...but I mean lets face it, trying to emulate Douglas Slocombe is going to be very tricky?...yes?...no?...your going to have agendas and so on...OR…if Janusz Kaminski and Speilebrg try to EMULATE Douglas Slocombe what we’ll GET is something thats not Janusz Kaminski or Douglas Slocombe...but a new look....OR Janusz Kaminski has been influenced by Andrew Lesnie OR Speilebrg has been influenced by Peter Jackson….OR George Lucas has been influenced by Jackon and Andrew Lesnie...what is going on??
TRAILER IS OUT OF CONTEXT?
This doesn’t feel like a Spielberg movie...right, so, I'm sure it will when it gets here?...when we see it in context it will...because it IS going to have long takes. I know Spielberg and I know that he always has long takes, when we see the final its going to feel very different from this trailer.
Moving onto something else...Is it a experimental film?...it could be?...we don’t know. It feels like it is a bit. Reason I say that is because of the direction of some of the shots...its got strong, would say, stronger emphasis on comic book than normal seen there in that warehouse stuff.
It also looks like its graded. Some of it is very contrasty for a Indiana Jones film.
I love the look of some of the shots very much, that very brief explosion shot in the jungle sure doesn’t look like CG which is GREAT...LOVE THAT. Loving the look of that....loving the bullets hitting the crates shot….and the waterfall looks amazing. I don’t like the swing with the whip on the lamp shade and crash into the front of the truck with the pause and him speaking to himself for a number of reasons, I don’t know if its CG or not but it FEELS like CG, it feels like the second he jumps from the crates they have merged it with a CG stuntman, to me it feels incredibly fake...and to me personally, my personal opinion on this is unfortunately that I didn’t really want to see that kind of merging. The is however a LOT of miniature work in this trailer too. And its looking absolutely GREAT, all that pyramid stuff and the staircase with the steps that are sliding into the walls looks incredible.
But I do love the hat sitting on the ground and it being put on...though it all feels like a completely new style?...which we have to accept and get use to. This is Janusz Kaminski and Steven Speilberg doing their thing...quite possibly doing a experimental thing...and we have to respect that.
CONCLUSION:
This is OUT of context...this is short rapid fire edited shots that are out of context. I will say this though, it feels very modern. It also feels like its been influenced by King Kong, I know that George Lucas loved King Kong so that is entirely possible. It feels like they just decided to do their own thing here, that’s very stand alone from the first three, go with they’re own cinematography style, and use a massive budget. We have to respect this and accept this.
I’m actually very very excited for the film, particularly about that jungle bit with the jeeps and that explosion. I can't wait to see how the full sequence plays out.
WATERFALLS:
The waterfall shot is truly beautiful and I do believe is 100% real. If they have added anything to that to make it a slightly more fictional place...like painted in something...they have done a truly amazing job.
STAIRCASE:
I love it, absolutely love it, I’m very excited about there being water at the bottom too, I don’t know what it is but I love scenes with water. I was truly over the moon when I saw that behind the scenes shot of them wading around in water.
PETROL EXPLOSION IN THE JUNGLE NEXT TO TANK THING:
ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS...and to me feels 100% real. The colour on that shot is superb, the greens of the jungle and the reds of the fire ball / smoke. It really feels like 1) we are in a real jungle. 2) It’s a real petrol explosion...reminiscent of past that we know and love from say Raiders.
THOUGHTS IN THE MIND GATHERED OVER THE DAYS BROUGHT TO PAPER ON FEBRUARY 17TH:
February 14th trailer was such a array of different shots, I was just totally stunned in my chair with all the styles that I saw in it...I mean at times it feels like its Sam Raimi / Bill Pope (whip swing on light) and at other times it feels like its Peter Jackson / Andrew Lesnie (opening shot and jeeps near cliff shot) then suddenly it feels like its definitely Spielberg / Janusz Kaminski (petrol explosion in jungle)...(which I will add looks very real and extremely nice). It actually reminded me of The Phantom Menace fire ball scene, you know the one?...where the ships go into the fire?...most of the space scenes in The Phantom Menace looked incredible because it was miniatures and real fire. So in essence I was subconsciously there with George Lucas / David Tattersall...BUT the way that the camera is raised as the fire ball goes up I have to say is very very Janusz Kaminski Saving Private Ryan.
Only way I can see / come up with and explain / theorise / speculate is that George Lucas has directed some of it...I know for sure that he was very taken by King Kong when he saw it, at its New York premiere...and I know that sometimes they do direct sequences in each other movies.
Also a shock to me was that it looks like its been digitally graded. Something I did not expect at all.
INDY SWINGING ON THE LIGHT SHADE BIT:
What has to be stated here is that all art is subjective. Some people really don’t mind computer generated effects...they love it, and some really are very much against...add into this, that some people don’t even see what’s computer generated and what isn’t...but some people do, and it bothers them. I personally would never do a CG merging of real live action crossing over into CG stuntman (that was very much a individual big stunt)...ie CG Harrison Ford himself, and put it slap bang in the centre stage / centre of the shot...which LOOKS like what has happened on this whip swing on light shot...that shot FEELS like its been done like that. It may NOT be CG, but to me personally, my personal opinion on this is...that...it IS cg..(may be wrong) (just my speculation)
Now that will bother some, and not bother others...its controversial, of course its controversial. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (at this stage in the speculation) is looking very stand alone...completely new look going on here.
The reasons that the people are against CG are that it takes out that random element, that random human element, it becomes far too smooth, precise, the computer just renders out the animation perfectly along the key frames and to some people, we instantly almost subconsciously spot it straight away. What your looking at is so smooth and I would add even that it almost takes out the suspense too, it takes out the danger of the stunt. Again this is very controversial. None of us want stunt men to end up dead, we all want things to be safe, but you cant deny the fact that when we see the real thing, its all the more impressive...you go “holy crap, that guy really DID jump from that horse to that truck” and it was DANGEROUS. Something to be in awe about...a spectacle.
I’m not saying that we cant be in awe about CG, we can, we occasionally get something that is very impressive like say Gollum for example or Davy Jones.
KEEPING CG SUBTLE:
It’s controversial again...what constitutes as subtle will vary from person to person. I myself have NO PROBLEMS with CG being used the way it has been in quite a few films now, where we see a explosion of fire hitting men, engulfing them in fire. I’ve seen a lot of shots like that, that have worked extremely well over the last fifteen years...maybe because they are usually silhouettes because the light is behind them and also perhaps, because it all happens so fast in a explosion.
Sometimes real things look like cg or a miniature, and sometimes cg things look real or a miniature...it varies greatly. The mordern TV Battle Star Galitica series, the CG in that, for the space ships, is simply AMAZING.
FURTHER ANALYSIS ON THE SHOT:
You know, this is a strange one...I’m beginning to feel that it is indeed real...OR, extremely good CG...it is of course (if it is indeed CG) the very latest CG from Industrial Light and Magic (they have after all created the AMAZING Davy Jones and so things are getting quite interesting) ... but sadly I cant view it on this computer at high res at a decent frame rate. It's very odd how the whip disappears into the computer generated lamp shade also.
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