Get some cool drag & drop VFX here! ► www.famefocus.com/go/getvfx/ ◄
Have you ever wondered why some VFX in older movies, like for example this shot in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 , look far better than the ones in newer, more modern movies, like this one in Black Panther? Even despite the technology being a lot more advanced nowadays, we still often see big Hollywood movies with crummy looking CGI that almost seems as though it's been stuck on with old duct tape as an after thought.
Like the music in this video? I made it!
Support me by getting it on any of these sites :P
Get it on iTunes: ► apple.co/2ENGfu9 ◄
Listen on Spotify: ► spoti.fi/3boTfCl ◄
Buy it on Amazon: ► amzn.to/2QVJZfk ◄
❗️ amzn.to are Affiliate Links. If you buy something through them, nothing changes for you, but you support my work.
Surprising VFX You Didn't Notice in Pirates of the Caribbean
You see, of course, VFX technology has its limitations, and any director or VFX supervisor who respects this, also knows that the best visual effects happen when you use practical effects as the base and digital effects to enhance and augment that base.
This is true for three main reasons which were beautifully demonstrated in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 At Worlds End.
1, Grounding
If we see something in a shot that is obviously real, it makes it easier for us to accept something within that same shot that may not be so.
For example, before the Endeavour gets destroyed, this shot makes us believe that it's being sandwiched between the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman, But in reality, the only real ship here was The Black Pearl!
The Endeavor was actually a 16ft miniature that was shot in front of a blue screen and the pyro elements were shot on a larger miniature on a separate plate. However, The Flying Dutchman, that was 100% CGI.
The other two ships here were used to help frame the shots and to create realistic water interactions for The Endeavour miniature model and The Flying Dutchman CG asset, thus making us believe they were really sat on the same ocean.
So, after cleverly tricking us into believing that The Endeavour was really getting shot at from both sides, they now had to make us believe it was really exploding all around Cutler Beckett, and this again was done by selling us one reality and then adding to it.
First, on a partial set of the deck, they shot the actors and stuntmen abandoning ship,
Then explosions and air cannons full of debris were carefully positioned and choreographed to follow the action and filmed on a separate plate.
Then they did a motion control shot of Beckett going down the stairs and that motion control shot was used to time all the pyro events so that, when both shot were composited, they would follow Beckett precisely as he descended the stairs.
These shots were then composited along with the backgrounds, CG debris and dust and smoke, additional digital explosions and fire, and of course the digital replacement of the banister and its subsequent destruction complete the illusion.
2. Better Acting
The second reason for using practical effects as a base is that they give the actors something physical to work with so their interactions are more realistic and therefore make us believe that what we're seeing on the screen, is really happening.
For example, In this sequence, a mini Jack Sparrow is hanging from one of big Jack's dreadlocks.
In order to give Johnny Depp something to interact with, they actually built a huge set of dreadlocks for him to hang from and even raised one dread in the air in order to give it some movement.
Another example is the crab scene that was filmed out in the Bonneville Salt Flat in Utah.
Obviously, for this scene, they couldn't just haul the black pearl all the way out there (even if they had all of Mr. Greens' relatives to help) but Johnny still had to be able to interact with something physical, so rather than have him mime or fake it they gave him a rope to interact with. Fun fact, it was actually tied to a cherry picker.
The importance the filmmakers gave to these physical interactions really shows in the Maelstrom battle scene.
Because even though the scene would require dozens of actors and stunt people, to interact with dozens of CG characters, in a fight scene with explosions and rain, and people swinging to and fro two different ships, inside a massive whirlpool of CG water...
They still tried to do as much as they could practically.
(...)
The above ActionVFX link contains a Special Fame Focus Discount. We also earn an affiliate percentage of each purchase.
Read more here: www.famefocus.com
Follow us on Twitter: / focusfame