The "Rhetoric of the Introduction" at the VFX Bakeoff

This is my report on the Academy VFX Bakeoff.  This year I was accompanied by Jon Snoddy and his friend Allison.  Their presence kept me in my seat for the whole affair, one of the first times that has ever happened.

Here are some notes.

A. Male to Female Ratio

Between Pam Hogarth, Rhonda Gunter, Phoebe Zerouni and the afore-mentioned Allison, all of whom sat close to each other, they substantially affected the M to F ratio at this screening.   I know that Nancy St. John and at least one other woman was also there in the audience, somewhere.  Yes, VFX is still nearly completely male.

B. Elitism

This is the first year that the subsection members had their own private reception, eliminating any unnecessary contact with people in the field who are not part of their group. 

C. Rhetoric

I paid particular attention this year to the rhetoric of the 3-5 minute introduction of each film. I have always noticed a pattern in the past but this year it became completely clear in my mind, probably because I was willing to listen to all 10 introductions (in the past I have gotten bored and gone to the lobby).

The structure seems to be this: (a) express humble gratitude that their film was worthy of consideration, (b) describe the genius and vision of the director and producer of the film and acknowledge that all ideas came from them, without them, there would be no visual effects nor any ideas of merit, (c) state the total number of shots and any special constraints such as deadline, (d) then, with the deadline and total shots in mind, discuss elements of the film that are featured in the effects reel that they believe gives them the best shot at being nominated. If they needed 43 special versions of the stupid talking dog, 3 of them physical, discuss this. If they had to put up 53 projectors in a helix or some other weirdness, mention it.   (e)  acknowledge the facilities that worked on the project, so they don't all kill you later. (f)  make a special last ditch desperate appeal for sympathy because of some horrible thing that happened during production that only other visual effects professionals will relate to (g) ignore the red light, (h) conclude that you really ought to have the nomination because of the brilliance and stamina demonstrated by this reel, and (i)  thank the audience and beg for votes.

D. Projection and Stereo

All films were projected digitally. Three were stereo, seven were flat. The Dolby 3D system was used.

E. Sound

The sound was not excessive this year, and there were less explosions over all.  This turns out to be a mistake.  The subsection has an apparent weakness for and love of the tradition of gratuitous loud noises as demonstrated by the nomination of Iron Man 3.

F. Scope of Work

Many of the films screened claimed to have 1600-1800 shots in their movie. A small effects film might have a mere 700-800 shots. Recall that Star Wars had approximately 300+ shots. The amount of work this represents is amazing.   Some people believe that there is an inverse relationship between the number of shots and the quality of the story.

G. The Year of Albert or Alfred or Something

More than any other year I can remember, the name of the renderer was dropped, and it was "Albert" / Alfred / Whatever. I doubt most of the people on stage would recognize a renderer if they tripped over one.  I believe that the choice of renderer is just as important to the quality of the visual effects as the choice of film stock is to a brilliant photographer: both very important and not important at all.

H. Water, Water Everywhere

But Pacific Rim's water looked much better than everyone else's. Go, ILM.

I. Its not the Effects that Stinks, its the Movie

Iron Man 3 was the canonical, too-stupid-to-live, visual effects for morons sort of movie. Come on everybody, lets hold hands because we can defeat gravity that way ! Well, you wont defeat Gravity or gravity, either one.   But it will get you nominated. 

J. Gravity... the triumph of Lights in Space

Did they composite, or did they rerender the face, only her effects company will know for sure.

K. Best Introduction

John Knoll's for Pacific Rim. Informative, interesting about scale, and within the time limit specified.

L. Dragons

Dragons are difficult and WETA's dragon was acceptable. I think people are confusing visual effects with animation. As an animated dragon it was fine, as a real visual effects dragon, not so much.

M. The Movie vs The Effects Reel

Gravity may be the classic case of where the movie is much more interesting than the effects reel.   The counter example for me was the case of Pearl Harbor, there the effects reel was better than the movie.

N. The Lone Ranger was out by itself

All by itself, The Lone Ranger maintained the traditions of models and physical effects.   The Subsection recognized their efforts with a nomination.   However, I can not understand nor forgive the travesty of the musical interpretation of Rossini's great finale.  Some things can not be randomly fucked with, even in Hollywood.

O.  The Nominees Are ...

Gravity,  Hobbitt/Smaug, Lone Ranger, Iron Man 3, Star Trek.

I will do a post on why I think this is weird.

Los Angeles and the Wages of Sin

El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles, the Pueblo of our Lady, the Queen of the Angels, born in lies and raised in crime, inequity and hypocrisy, known throughout the world for its glamour and its beaches and its women and its economic opportunity, but remember, always remember: the wages of sin is death.

Serious business people could understand the failure to enforce the fire detector laws in buildings whose designs were known to be deathtraps, even though it resulted in the fiery deaths of so many of your citizens. The deaths were only of poor people and minorities, so who really cared, it might affect the profits of the landlords. When freeways destroyed entire communities and you did nothing, you could take comfort in the thought that your actions and inactions had destroyed any chance of a minimal mass transit system to alleviate the traffic that existed and the even worse traffic that was known to be coming. When Beverly Hills sued to keep the subway from coming west of Highland, you bent over in submission to the rich, with barely a whimper. You knew very well who was really going to get fucked, the people you represented, or failed to represent.

Case after case, example after example. Oh you need more? LAX is an ugly nightmare, known throughout the world as one of the most unpleasant airports to arrive at. Dirty, undesigned, stupid. And totally under your control. The Port of Los Angeles, famous for permitting the worst environmental violation, in order to keep prices down, throw people out of work due to globalization, and yet cause a huge percentage of the smog in the area which affects the health and total lifespan of those exposed to it: particularly the children who are raised in it. To damage the lives of innocent children, children in your care, without them even knowing it, can we not call that a sin? The Port of Los Angeles, one of the busiest ports in the world, is totally under your control. Let us look no where else for who to blame, the people to blame are right here, in the administration and government of Los Angeles.

Now the 2020 Commission on Economic Development in Los Angeles, or something like that, has issued a report on some of the problems facing Los Angeles. It is filled with interesting material, the way the City Council knowingly lied about Fire Department statistics for years, and many other tidbits. But it also exudes an unmerited optimism. It thinks it is possible for LA to work its way through the problems. I am not so sure of that. But I do think and encourage everyone who lives here or who might live here to read the report. It is at the bottom of the following link in PDF form. After you have read it, I will continue with some thoughts on how to proceed.

http://www.economicdevelopmenthq.com/blog/los-angeles-2020-commission-report/

Hope lies only in radical change. You see, Los Angeles, it takes time and very serious money to fix the problems you have created for yourself. You kicked the can down the road and the road ended. To fix things now will be 10 times more expensive than it might have been before. Where will the money come from, well I have some ideas. But where will the strength of character come from? I dont know. I see no reason to think that it exists here in El Pueblo.

Ugly as sin, they pump around the clock for their anonymous masters

But here are some thoughts, humble thoughts, for your consideration. First, nationalize the oil wells, and use the profits taken from the ground and people of Los Angeles and apply it to saving the lives of the people who live here. How many active wells are there in the Los Angeles area? 10,000 wells? More? The obscene oil sucking insects pump around the clock in Baldwin Hills without even a veil of trees to hide their obscenities. Second, nationalize the Getty that does precious little for the culture of Los Angeles, and use its assets to pay for reform. Turn the so-called Museum in Brentwood into a magnet school, for example. Third, tax every car driven in Los Angeles that is worth more than $50,000 an extra $5K/year and an extra $1.00 per gallon.  Charge the container ships waiting at the Port of Los Angeles an extra 100K / day (or something) that they sit in the harbor blasting out fumes and use the money to pay for an offshore electrical system, more efficient in terms of power generation than just running their engines and fouling the air.   Won't that encourage ships to go to other ports?  Yes, I certainly hope so.   For once, use price theory to help the world instead of just as an excuse to exalt the rich. (1)

But please, please, please don't tell me that any of these suggestions are illegal. Everyone knows LA is built on violating the law and you should know that best of all. If you say these are illegal, I will say you are a lying hypocrite, which you are. The difference is that these illegalities will help the poor instead of your masters, the rich.

These are just a few ideas, simple and just, to generate income for your rehabilitation. After you have done these, come back, and I will have more ideas for you.

You are very welcome.

________________________________________

1. People have wanted to know if I was actually serious in any way about these proposals, and the answer is "of course".  LA is not going to do anything to deal with the problems at hand, so why not make silly proposals.   Nihilistic?  Sure.

The Visual Effects Bakeoff for 2013

Tonight is the so-called Bakeoff  at the Academy for the Visual Effects nominations. The screening is for the Visual Effects subsection but anyone can attend, space permitting. Ten minutes of each film under consideration is shown, there is a question and answer period which guests can only listen to, and then the subsection members vote on which films will be nominated for visual effects.  This is a very long, very loud night.  I find it annoying but useful.

It is always nice to have an opportunity to see old friends.   And I don't really mind seeing the others as well.  

This year Gravity is going to win the Academy Award.   I have foreseen it with my tremendously expanded mental powers and the use of the esoteric knowledge.

The films which will be screened tonight, in no particular order, are

1. Gravity
2. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
3. Pacific Rim
4. Star Trek Into Darkness
5. Iron Man 3
6. World War Z
7. Oblivion
8. Elysium
9. The Lone Ranger
10. Thor: The Dark World

This is an interesting list. Not necessarily any great films here, but certainly a few entertaining ones. I have seen worse years.

Obviously everyone wants to win. But winning is very difficult so getting a nomination is much more likely and is also incredibly valuable to one's career. If one is trying to be an effects supervisor, to be nominated for an Academy Award is a big deal and explains some of the politics around who gets to be one of the "four" who are selected by the producer to be in consideration.

There is almost always a surprise that comes from seeing ten minutes from all these films at one time, or perhaps from the questions and answers from the effects team. But in advance of the screening, here is my take on why this is a very important year.

1. This is the year of solid state lighting.

This is the first year that the revolution in solid state lighting completely takes over on stage production in visual effects. Its been coming for a while, and many of the ideas are quite old, but the availability of arrays of LED's at reasonable prices has enabled this in a major way. Using film as a projection map was never very flexible, and using normal wheat lights would generate too much heat to be very practical. But using arrays of solid state lights to project environments brings a whole new level of sophistication to the "blue screen" plate photography process.  Now we can integrate live action photography into the visual effects, and visual effects into live action photography, with a whole new level of sophistication and accuracy.

Historical footnote: wheat lights used to be a significant part of model creation. The Bladerunner pyramid buildings, such as the Tyrell Headquarters, were models made with a lot of wheat lights. I saw the famous Las Vegas model made for One From the Heart years ago. Supposedy the lights on the thing either used to blow out the power supplies or melt the thing down from all the heat that the lights emitted.   Although one could and did build grids of this thing, and one could control them with computers, I doubt it was done much.  It just wan't practical.   LED's are now practical and there are lots of good components around to control them.  And you wont have to wait all the time to replace the damn little lights as they burn out.

A selection of wheat lamps from Bladerunner and EEG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_lamp

2. This is the second part of the synthetic human breakout

The first element of the breakout was "Benjamin Button". This is the second. There may have to be a third before the tsunami of shit emerges of computer generated lead actors, or this may be sufficient. I am not sure, perhaps I will have an opinion after tonight.

3. Gravity wins and was in part distinguished by its effects

The award is for the film where the visual effects most support the movie and the story.  It is not for the best visual effects per se.  The classic example of that, for me, was the first Matrix movie which was truly enhanced by the visual effects.

For the second year in a row, a movie is distinguished and made notable by its visual effects (last year was Life of Pi). I do not know if this is a good thing or not, but its probably not a bad thing. If visual effects is to be worth all the money, this is a useful thing to have happen. If visual effects people are to rise above being considered commodities, having work that distinguishes themselves and is not just like everyone else's is also helpful.

4. American dominance of this award is completely over

This has been coming for a while.  American companies no longer dominate this award.   No one else beyond ILM or Sony is left except for maybe Digital Domain (I do not understand their status).  This has been true for quite a while now, but this year sets the pattern, I think.   I am less certain what this means for the nationality of the effects supervisor, however.  The award goes to the four people identified by the producer, but the facility that did the work also gets credit in practice.  Every year some films will be done at ILM or SONY, but the vast majority of effects will be done at facilities in London, New Zealand and Canada.

5. The nominations are ...

I think that Gravity and The Hobbit will be nominated.   I am rooting for Pacific Rim to be nominated because I think it is important to have giant mutated sea monsters in cinema from a content point of view.    

I will report back what happens.

Cultural Diversity, the LAPD and my Uncle from Chicago

Cultural tolerance is a term that encompasses and encourages various forms of inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity. Thus, when a physicist is able to talk calmly and politely to a political scientist, this is an example of "cultural tolerance".

Cultural tolerance is understanding that there are different ways of doing things and that if we are to get along peacefully in this world that we must allow for these differences in spite of the fact that our way is always the best way. It would be better for all foreigners to learn to do things our way but it isn't practical to do so when they first arrive. Thus it is important to be patient and tolerant when dealing with visitors and new arrivals from other places. We must explain the way we do things around here and only then throw them in jail or beat them up if they do things differently.

I have a favorite anecdote demonstrating excellent cultural tolerance on the part of a representative of law and order here in Los Angeles, a member of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) a fine institution noted throughout the world for its own special style of corruption and racism. This story demonstrates that they can act with tolerance towards visitors in an enlightened and possibly even humororous fashion. A visitor from a very far away place, the north side of Chicago, came to our fair city and with complete innocence and naivete got himself into serious trouble.

The person was my favorite uncle visiting us and his mother, my grandmother, from Chicago. The time period must have been the mid 1960's. There are many good things I can say about my uncle, he was one of my favorite people in the world: a successful businessman, an intellectual, the president of his reform temple in Highland Park, Illinois, and a very nice man, married to a classic jewish intellectual neurotic woman who was also one of my favorite people in the world.

We were coming back from somewhere, probably to visit my grandmother, when the problems began. He was driving and did so with an enthusiastic driving procedure which consisted of driving at high speeds on the freeway while moving from lane to lane at will and turning his head around to talk to us, his favorite nephews, cowering in the back seat of the car. We were saved from probable death or disfigurement by a police officer who pulled him over and asked to see his driver's license.

And then my uncle got himself into really big trouble.

You see, in Chicago when something like this happens, there is a standard procedure. And that is what my uncle proceeded to do: which was to hand the police officer his driver's license with $100 bill attached. My guess is that he did not give it a second thought. With his driving skills, I figured, he had probably done this many times before in Chicago.

The police officer looked at the driver's license and "honorarium" and said: "Ah, Mr. Hanig, I see you are from Chicago. Put your money away and never do that again and I won't put you in jail this time".

In retrospect, I think that was a very humorous thing for the police officer to say and that my uncle was very lucky. He could easily have spent the afternoon in LA County Jail.

You see, in this town, you do not try to bribe individual police officers. That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. The way it works here, as I understand it, is that you bribe the top guy, the Chief of Police, or the Mayor or someone like that. Then they do what needs to be done.

I cherish the memory of the police officer recognizing that,  being from Chicago,  the driver thought that bribing a police officer was a normal thing to do and making allowances for this visitor from a distant place.   

Repent! The End is Near!

Prophets of doom rarely made a good living in the old days. Prophets of happiness and so forth could count on buying that new goat, wagon, or slave from profits from grateful customers. But prophets of doom, never. They lived in caves and wore sackcloth and needed a bath.

I remember reading all the way through Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" before I figured out what the title meant. (1)

As many of you know, I keep a variety of doctors employed and off the streets. Because of various regulations involving the illegal resale of certain attractive medications, I need to see them every month or so, as the prescriptions are kept on a tight leash. Since I am an outlyer in various ways, it can be problematic to find a suitable doctor and therefore, once found, I stay with them for a while. So I drove to LA to see one of these doctors whom I had been seeing for a decade and they channeled me to one of his assistants whom I knew and liked because, I assumed, my doctor was not available. Well, yes, but not the way I thought.

She opened the conversation with "So let me tell you why you are seeing me today instead of Dr. Friedman. Dr. Friedman died last week suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack. His funeral was a few days ago."

Excuse me? Bob Friedman was in perfect health when I saw him about 30 days ago. He looked about 65 years old (he was a few years older it turns out but so what), and was in great shape. Yes, he could have lost a few pounds and I doubt if he spent too much time doing aerobic exercise, but he had years and years to live, as far as anyone could tell.

But when the penalty flag goes down, death appears like a thief in the night and there is no appeal.

And he left some very confused people, including his many employees who would like to continue their practice and keep working together and probably will, but its all a little confused because, sensibly, Bob did not expect to be leaving anytime soon, so nothing had been arranged.

Therefore do not expect to be warned, or rather, take this as your warning. The bell could go off at any time, make good use of the day and see that your paperwork is in order.

This may be the only notice that you will receive.

______________________________________________

1. It comes from something John Donne wrote a few centuries ago. He wrote, 

"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

The custom in Europe (or parts of Europe) was to ring a single bell very slowly to announce the death or funeral of someone in that parish. People would know to come to the church to find out who it was tolling for, if they did not already know.

The Old Religion at the End of the Year

The years go by faster and faster, it seems, and our fate is known and approaches swiftly and inevitably. Yet as horrifying as our reality may be, it is always fun for me to remember that they have put up an evergreen in the center of Manhattan and decorated it with toys and mistletoe again this year. I doubt very much if most of the people who view the tree are aware of the meaning these rituals had to some of our ancestors, but it is impressive that the tradition survives at all.

This is the story of an ancient state religion that survived disaster not once, but twice, and survives to this day in two different forms. And whose fundamental principles you recreate every time you look at a clock or tell the time. But first lets set the stage for what the French historians call the longue duree. (2), or the long view.  It has various other names, but it means to try and take a longer perspective.

So first I indicate how astronomy does not change much in our lifetimes, but does change over a longer period.... so ...

The earth spins on its axis in a somewhat eliptical orbit around the so-called Sun and while it does so, entropy inevitably increases and nothing you or I can do will change that. The universe is by no means static and will change on the scale of the solar orbits, but we won't notice because by that time the trillions of nanomachines partitioned into the various cellular entities that make up our so-called individual physical existence will have collapsed into a soup of decayed matter long before.

I know that is a little depressing, but read on, it picks up.

We call the circle of circles around the solar mass a "year", having picked a point on that ellipse to demark the beginning and the end for accounting purposes and because it corresponds to an inflection point on the curve. This subdivision of a year into 360 circles as the planet rotated and circled the sun was noticed by an ancient people "between the rivers" (== Meso Potamia) many years ago and they developed a "sacred mathematics" to explain what they observed in the sky and all around them and made this a central part of their religion and world view. In fact, it formed one of the pillars of their religion and the rituals that held up the state that they lived in.

Consider what it means for there to be a state religion in a country. It means that certain beliefs that are critical to the legitimacy of the government are built into the fabric of society in a very functional and specific set of ways that has evolved over time. When our constitution discusses "separation of church and state", they did not mean that it was unconstitutional to have religion in our government, it meant that the religious leaders would not be selected by the state, or paid for by the state, or that these religious leaders would be part of government by the very fact of their role in the religion. The specific counterexample for the American Revolution was that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the top bishop of the Church of England, was chosen by the King and acknowledged the authority of the King over the Bishop of Rome (e.g. the Pope).

In ancient times, this relationship was much stronger between religion and governance, though of course there was a huge amount of variation. To give some examples and to simplify to make the point, the heads of religion of the Roman Republic were all members of the leading familes of Rome. The rituals that were performed and how they were performed were considered of the utmost importance to the survival of Rome and its rule in the world. They did not care for the most part what people believed as long as those rituals were performed in the correct way and that whatever else you did or believed did not prevent you from doing those essential rituals.

In many ancient societies that we know of, the ruling class or monarch would consult with various religious leaders before starting a war, or fighting a battle. The Romans certainly did. It was believed that the gods that you worshipped had an opinion about what was the right thing to do in such a situation and by using certain technical arts that the gods would tell you and help you to choose wisely. Or possibly that you could influence the outcome of the situation with proper ritual and sacrifice. The ancient Romans were big on making deals with "god".... you do this and I will sacrifice 100 cows to you, etc.

Although there was huge variation in the ancient world, I think it is fair to say that aspects of the religion of a people was very tighly bound up into the legimacy and process of how they lived their lives, paid their taxes, went to war, and chose who ruled over them and in what way. The more formal a state, with a bureaucracy, taxes, and so forth, the more likely they were to have a formal state religion.

But if the state religion said that the rulers ruled by divine right and were in fact themselves gods, or Gods, whatever, then if they got deposed that was bad for the religion. To say the least. And that is what happened to the Neo Bablylonians when their boys lost the war and the Persians came in about 539 BC.

So what is a religion to do? Well, it adapts. Now instead of the gods being planets and stars and comets, they are more universal forces and archetypes. And you formalize some of the loose influences of the stellar bodies into their archetypal forms. And if you are lucky enough to have Alexander the Great around, you adapt all this to Hellenistic culture and become the dominant way of predicting the future with the cachet of being based on "old Babylonian religion" and there you have it: modern astrology. Based on the former state religion of NeoBabylon.

On top of that, and not entirely independently, part of that astrology branches off and without the prediction part and morphs into a science of Astronomy. Now the astronomers don't much believe in the influence of the Zodiac, for example, but they do take a lot of terminology and conventions and continue using them: like 360 degrees in a circle, to name one obvious example. And so, too, Astronomy maintains some fundamental beliefs that comes from the Old Religion.

We should only hope that some of our belief systems should be so resilient and last even half as long.

For a good bibliography of Babylonian Astronomy & Astrology, see:

http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/babylon/babybibl.htm

Pepper's Ghost and the Spirit Lodge at Expo 86

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I saw one of the best live / theatrical performances I have ever seen, which is the subject of this post. Like all great live performances, part of the impact that it has on you is that you are seeing something that will never be seen again. No matter how rehearsed, no matter how often they give the exact same performance, what you are seeing is live and those moments can never be recreated.

And what I saw was really well done. It was a story about the freedom of the people and of the tribe and about the love of a man for his family. The setting of the play is a native american lodge of some sort, at night, around a campfire.  Our narrator tells you the story his grandfather told him once, long ago.   We of course are not around a fire in native america, we are seeing this as part of a World's Fair and as part of the General Motors pavilion but, magically, it all still works.

I admit, it is hard to believe that what I saw was or could be as good as I remember it.  But as I have researched this post on the sometimes useful but always annoying Internet, I have come across other people who have a similar opinion about what they saw there in that pavilion.

Perhaps if one saw such events from time to time, then perhaps one could believe in the power of narrative, live theatre and the other theatrical arts to enrich our lives and maybe even improve the world.

But of course that is terribly naive and we know better today.

But in 1986 I was much younger and idealistic and made a last minute decision to attend the World's Fair (1) in Vancouver, Canada, Expo 86 (2), in the final week it was open. It was an impromptu trip and it was so long ago that I barely remember any of the practical details. I think a friend had rented a house so I had a couch to sleep on. I don't remember if I drove or flew to Canada, but somehow I remember having a car so maybe I flew and rented, it doesn't matter. But there I was at Expo 86 in its final week as they were basically wrapping up the park after a successful six month run.

If you have never been to a World's Fair before, as I had not,  it is a combination of theme park and international foreign affairs public relations and trade relations exposition. The park is filled with pavilions from various countries that want you to know about their history and what an attractive place it is to visit, to make investments in, or even perhaps to emigrate to. They will have a beautiful building that somehow represents their country, it is usually very open and large, so that you can walk in and get a passion fruit drink and watch films about diamond mining in S. Africa, or who knows what.

A world exposition is an opportunity for designers, architects, businesses and governments to show off how creative and positive they can be.  When things come together, these Fairs can have an impact for years or decades after their run.   In a few cases, such as Paris 1900,  they are recognized as important culturally for as long as a century or more.  So they spend a fair amount of money, which varies depending on how the world economy is doing and produce a result which serves many purposes, from the level of world government and business down to the individual and his or her family.

Expo 86 was "special format" heaven. Special format is the term we used to use in the world of theme parks to describe unusual film format and projection situations. The Hobbit at 48 fps is a modern example of what we used to call special format. At Expo 86 we had real Imax, stereo Imax, Showscan, Stereo Showscan, and on and on. These are all obsolete but esteemed film formats and terms-of-art from the days before digital projection. (5)

But everyone said that the "must see" pavilion was the General Motors exhibit, which had the odd name of "Spirit Lodge".

Spirit Lodge was very difficult to get in to see.  Apparently the theatre was quite small and could only handle a few people per show and maybe 4 shows an hour, so the show itself was short.   There were no reservations as I recall so you just had to get there early and wait in line.   So I did and thus was able to see Spirit Lodge in its first release and in its proper place.

You were in a small room that I think maybe held about 80 people arranged in a semi-circle around the stage. The stage was at the level of the lowest row of the audience, you shared the same space. Like good close-up magic, part of the appeal of what is about to happen comes from the fact you are so close and not more than a few feet away. There is only one performer, a single older man. No robots, no apparatus that you can see.   Just a small camp fire in the center of a dirt floor.   There were a few props around the stage to set the scene and to provide objects for dramatic shadows during the show.  There was nothing to keep you from walking the few feet from your chair to the center of the stage if that is what you wanted to do.

The lights go down and a man comes out. He is dressed in what I remember as a traditional native american outfit from someplace cold (e.g. like Canada).  He was there that night, he told us,  to tell us a story that his grandfather told him many years ago here in this lodge. It is clear from the context that he is addressing us as if we were his grandchildren.  He talked about his love for his grandfather who has been dead for many years now and he told the story of a magic canoe and how it took the men of the tribe wherever they wanted to go. The meaning of freedom, he said, was the freedom of the people to travel. Without the freedom to travel, whether in a magical canoe or otherwise, then there was no real freedom.

And as he spoke to you, live, right there, magically a few feet away, what appeared to be flames and smoke came out of the stage floor and hovered in the air. As he warmed his hands by this magical and impossible fire, images started to appear in the smoke to illustrate his story of his grandfather and the magic canoe from long ago that let the people go where they wanted. The images appeared to be there, live, in three dimensions, not projected in any way, but real.  He moved his hands above the fire and commanded his memories to appear and they did. They came and went in a dreamlike fashion. But it was right in front of you and a few feet away and it looked completely natural.

What I was seeing, of course, without realizing it, was Pepper's Ghost (3), that famous 17th century stage illusion which uses glass and half silvered mirrors to project a stage somewhere out of sight to the stage in front of the audience.   Using the magic of mirrors gives the perfect illusion of depth and substance like we only approximate with stereopsis. Somewhere in the back, or above me, was another stage that had some combination of film projection, perhaps projection on solid objects, perhaps projection on other transparent screens, and so forth.   Mirrors and glass were used to transmit the image to the center of that little stage with you not more than a few feet away from it.

How they managed to do this in a way that worked for all the different perspectives in the audience that day, and every day of its performance, is a mystery to me. Pepper's ghost is very tricky to execute and yet we had a lot of people sitting around the campfire. But it was perfect.

I have never seen Pepper's Ghost look so good.

I am not sure what this picture is, but it may be concept art associated with Spirit Lodge.

And of course, the context at the time, remember, is 1986 and the world is still divided by the Cold War and the Iron Curtain. And there are many nations where people are not allowed to travel outside their country for fear that they would defect to the West. So, Spirit Lodge, at this international exposition in the pavilion of General Motors was about the freedom to travel, in other words it was a subversive message, tastefully done. Very nice, and unusually well done for a company like General Motors, it seemed to me.  (4)  

It played for the length of the Exposition and, as is the nature of such things, disappeared.

I know that years later a version of Spirit Lodge opened at  Knott's Berry Farm. It may still be there for all I know. But I have never seen it there, and don't intend to, because I know it would only diminish it for me. Part of what made Spirit Lodge what it was, was when and where it was. In Vancouver, much closer to the reality of native america than Knott's could ever be. And it was performed then, during the Cold War, when the concept of transportation as a manifestation of freedom could have the subversive meaning that it had that day.

For more on Spirit Lodge see http://bobbea.com/expo-86/gm.html.

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Notes:

1. A world's fair or exhibition is an event that only happens a few times any generation and is controlled by an international body. In the history of America the 1938 and 1964 World's Fairs are particularly significant. Some believe that the 1964 Fair was the high point of our civilization in its purest most idealistic form. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Fair

2. Expo '86 was held in Vancouver, Canada between May 2 and October 13, 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_86

3. Pepper's Ghost
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost

4. Apparently General Motors is known for doing very nice pavilions at World's Fairs, although I do not know the details of this.  So this was not out of character at all and probably a good investment in their global identity.

5. Deleted paragraphs:

Expo 86 had fireworks every night. But in the final week, they did not just have a fireworks show, no, they had a fireworks show designed to use up their extra fireworks so it would all be gone when the last show was over. And they had a lot of fireworks. I mean hours of fireworks. All overwhelming and filling the sky. It went on and on and on. Fireworks need to be experienced and is not something you can store up and remember, unfortunately. But I have the memory of thinking that I will never see a fireworks show like this again.

There were dozens and dozens of pavilions representing countries from all over the world, and a very entertaining center "walkway" of the history of transportation that was many lifesize sculptures for kids to play on representing transportation through the ages, from horse drawn cart through jet airplane and submarines and space craft.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Subsidies

Part 3 of a series.

When Brian was nailed to the cross in the 1st century Roman province of Judea, a thief is alleged to have told him to cheer up, and remember to "always look on the bright side of life".

With that thought in mind, lets review some of the effects, or affects as it may be, of international subsidies and tax exemptions on the industry of visual effects and try to find our silver lining. Sure, the American industry has been crushed and there is massive unemployment in this country and misery. But its not all bad. Here are a few ideas I have come up with and submit for your consideration why this might have some "socially positive" aspects.

1. The tax exemptions and subsidies may result in better films.

It is possible that many of these movies that are made under this system are better because of these subsidies and tax exemptions. Often movies want more visual effects than they can afford. With subsidies, which result in a lower price for the effects, it is possible that producers choose to spend the same amount of money as before but get more work for their money. In the rare case where visual effects actually contribute to the quality of the film instead of being merely stupid, this could result in a better film. To the extent that you believe that the cinema has a role to play in our culture and civilization, then certainly having better films is good for all of us.

2. The tax exemptions and subsidies may result in more films.

The same argument as above but elaborated to include that some films which may not be completely financed and would not ordinarily be made, but under this system do get made either because the discount given to effects encourages the investors to believe that the film is less of a risk, or maybe just lowers the cost of the effects element sufficiently to make the entire budget achievable. In any case, under this scenario, we would get some films that otherwise we would not see at all under the free market, and if the films are good, then we all, theoretically, benefit.

3.Through adversity, character and moral fiber is enhanced.

How lucky are the poor for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven!   Of course they will be dead by then, as I understand the way this works, but still its something to look forward to.  They will have an opportunity before that to learn new skills and work in new industries!  This is America so anything could happen.  They could learn to clean out old sewage lines while their wife and children work in under-regulated garment production, showing great initiative by working 12 hours a day 7 days a week for less than minimum wage.  You know, like minority groups in this country have to do.  Their children could drop out of school and help support their parents by programming stupid web pages for the Internet.  Anything could happen because this is America and both initiative and hard work are ALWAYS rewarded, I hear.

4. Relentlessly competitive, they live by the sword and die by the sword

The companies that went under were not always the nicest companies, made up of decent human beings, or anything like that.  These are/were fairly vicious competitors in a field that shows or showed no mercy.  So they got outmaneuvered and destroyed by structural elements beyond their control, but some of that is their responsibility for failing to deal with the political issues.  We should not weep bitter tears for them.  These companies were for the most part not centers of idealism, good will or progressive anything.     Most of them were snake pits of politics to say the least.    

5. The government subsidies may lead to a more stable industry.

Everyone knows that visual effects companies are (or were) flaky.  The studios would brag about how they put their subcontractors out of business.  So why not just use companies that are supported by other people's tax dollars or supported by large corporations?   These companies are likely to be more reliable and they will complain less than the whiny locals.

6. Failure to organize was a strategic mistake and you lost.

The failure of the digital artists to organize and stand up for their rights,  to get the government to pay attention to them the way their British, N. Zealand and Canadian comrades were able to, led inevitably to the doom of the American worker in this industry. See what "not making waves" gets you. To this day the American worker, the so-called "digital artist", still have not organized.  Of course, at this point getting organized probably would not help, but it couldn't hurt.  Compromised, confused,  and unwilling to do the right thing, so now they suffer what the "free market", quote end quote, under Mercantilism (I mean Globalization, excuse me, I must have forgotten), buys them: a one way trip to the unemployment line. (1)

7. Why not emigrate ?

Why not apply for a junior position in England? Sell your house, leave your kids, or uproot them from school, live in a shared, shitty apartment in London.  After spending 20 years of your life working your way up in the field, you are now unemployed and unemployable in an industry that arguably you helped invent.   Why not apply?  What do you have to lose?  You might get the job. Maybe. Probably not, though.

So what is the problem here? Maybe no problem at all. The "free market" (wink wink) just has winners and losers and overall maybe the industry is stronger and the films are better. After all, the government of those three countries are pouring big money into it, putting their wallets where their mouth is so to speak. So if the US of A fails to respond and it screws the little guy, who cares? The big film companies still make money, more money than ever in fact, and if it is at the expense of the worker or of the people who invented the field, well in America that is just too bad.

In Hearts of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, our narrator says to himself, "He wanted no more than justice. No more than justice!"

Grow up, you're in Hollywood now, and this is what we call justice in this town.

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The previous posts in this series are at

Part one: Vast Government Subsidies are as American as Apple Pie
Part two: Recent Events in International Finance and Visual Effects

The Roman Province of Judea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_(Roman_province)

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M

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Notes:

1. A corollary to this is the failure of "magical thinking".  I have had 20 year professionals in the field tell me with a straight face that studios were going to start giving points of their films to visual effects studios "just because".   Thats just crazy, completely disconnected from reality.  Thats my point, the so called digital artists here, who along with the local production companies are now unemployed, are guilty of the worst kind of magical thinking.

Revised 1/12/2014

More Procrastination Ideas: The Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

The Atlas of Historical Geography of the United States was written by Charles Paullin, a historian for the US Navy, between 1912 and 1932 and is considered a classic of the genre. The University of Richmond (yes, Richmond Virginia) has put it online for your enjoyment.

Presidential Election of 1892

You think you know American history?  You think you know where this country came from and how it has acted in the past?   Ha, I say.   Although this atlas will not reveal all the dirt, not by any means, many of the complications and contradictions that make America the great, misunderstood, and completely weird place that it is are present in this atlas, if sometimes between the lines.

There are several areas that are particularly valid for this self-study of your own nation, but lets examine two of them: the section on political elections showing who voted for whom in a presidential election, and the section on the American territories as it evolved.

These maps must be read with a nuanced eye.   Recall that we are a representative democracy, so they say, which means that we elect people to represent us in Washington indirectly, we do not elect the President directly, for example.  Although somewhat true this picture has changed over time and you may wish to review the rules by which the Senate and the POTUS (president of the United States, as it is abbreviated in certain circles) are elected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate

Now, my fellow citizens, go to the Atlas and review the various presidential elections and who voted for whom.   Consider as you do so some of the following: the history of the so-called Blue and Red states, who or what was the Anti-Masonic party, why were there two Democratic candidates in 1860 who split the vote and elected that Republican Abraham Lincoln (yes, the man who "freed the slaves" quote end quote was a Republican, kindof hard to believe, isn't it), what was the Progressive Party and why was Roosevelt running under that Party label?

Notice how many elections the name "Roosevelt" appears.  So far as I know there were only two Roosevelt's in the history of the Presidency, yet between the two of them, Theodore and FDR, we get quite a few elections.   Bully !  Maybe what we need today is a third Roosevelt?

For your information, the "Anti Masonic" Party was our first third party in America and was devoted to exposing and removing the secret influence of "Freemasonry" on our government.  Ha. Obviously, they failed.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Masonic_Party

On a more practical level, and for those who are interested in military history, the Atlas has such gems as the state of the transportation and postal routes right before the War of the American Revolution.  Its remarkably sparse, basically a single route from north to south.

Probably the subject with the most potential for nuance (e.g. hidden crimes) involves the territorial expansion of the United States and the issues of the Native Americans. Or is it the issue of our relations with Mexico?   There are so many to choose from, I don't where to begin.   

So be sure to check out this website and keep your favorite search engine handy for research.  Its for your own good.  Trust me.

States, Territories and Cities, long ago

Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

The University of Richmond

www.richmond.edu

The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond

dsl.richmond.edu

Recent Events in International Finance and Visual Effects

This is part two of a series on recent events in the area of international finance and government subsidies that affect the business of visual effects.   This process has been going on for at least 15 years and it has severely affected the existence and survival of visual effects companies.  The events that I describe here, some of them a continuation of older policies and some of them new initiatives, will have a structural impact on the visual effects industry in the world for years to come.

It is probably helpful to recall that it is only since the early 1980's that visual effects has been significant enough to attract government attention.  It was Star Wars (1978) that started the process, but it was sometime in the mid-1980's that the scale of the industry started to increase.  It was the tsunami of shit that came from the digital take-over of visual effects in the early 1990's that increased the scope of visual effects and trendiness thereof such that this industry was seen as a likely subject of tax exemptions and subsidies to increase and control employment within a national film community.  Keep in mind, that at various times over the last 15 years, there have been thousands of people paid roughly $100K / year working in this industry.   Perhaps as many as 5-7 thousand people, although this number is not formally known to the best of my knowledge, and it includes to some extent the people who were working in "feature length computer animation" as distinct from visual effects.  Thus, the real numbers are probably not as high as suggested here, but are very substantial.  We are talking about 1000's of people in the Los Angeles and San Francisco area who have lost their jobs as a result of these subsidies.

So keep in mind as you read about these events that the story did not begin this year, but that all of these events probably have a background and history that I know nothing, or very little, about.   Also, we are relying on the popular press to describe these events and so we can be sure that the information is at best incomplete, if not entirely misleading.

All of these events described below have had or will have a very negative impact on the existence and future of visual effects in this country.  However, every silver lining has a cloud and in another post in this series, I will go over some of the reasons that these subsidies and tax allowances can be seen in a positive light, as long as you have no intention of working in the field in America or to make a living here.  Only a very few people in this country should be expected to work unless they are a visual effects supervisor, if then.

1.  The European Union extends rules on subsidies

The European Union has decided to extend and expand their rules on subsidizing domestic film production. Now up to 50% of a film may be financed by that government. Governments may require that 50 to 80 percent of the subsidized amount be spent within the country. A few months ago, France threatened to boycott talks between the US and the EU until this sector was exempted from the negotiations. In other words, they will not permit discussions with the United States in this area. How that boycott fits in with other international trade agreements on economic subsidies will require more investigation.

Read more:

EU Pleases France, Widens Film Subsidy Rules

Film Subsidies Save as Europe Backs Co-Production Friendly Regulations

2. The UK Special Effects Industry gets a tax relief plan

The UK Government has agreed to change the rules to make it easier for American producers to receive tax credit for work done in the UK. I don't believe these are new subsidies per se, but I think it addresses the issues whereby certain producers were not qualifying for the credits even though they were doing some of the work in the UK. The article in the Guardian seems to think that it is primarily the visual effects sector that will benefit.  The amount of rebate seems to be about 25% reduction in taxes for eligible projects, so the kind of numbers we are talking about here are significant.  See

The Guardian: UK's Special Effects Industry Cheered by Tax Relief Plan

3. Jim Cameron receives large New Zealand subsidy for 'Avatar 2 and 3', will do all visual effects work in New Zealand

The Avatar films are huge and would normally be broken up among many facilities. But now that New Zealand has put in a large chunk of cash, both films in their entirety will have their effects done at WETA in New Zealand, at least as large a project as Lord of The Rings was for them.

Read more here:

NY Times: New Zealand Increases Incentives for 'Avatar' Sequels

Article in the Mirror about Avatar Financing

To these events we need to recall that (a) the ongoing Canadian rebates for work done in their country, up to 40% of the amount spent, (b) Other countries such as India and China have made substantial efforts in this area although not formal subsidies to the best of my knowledge (India has very liberal "intern" laws that allows entire crews to be hired and not paid in order to "get the experience"), China has set up a 2,500 person 3D studio in Beijing in order to educate their own workers), (c) special subsidies by the New Zealand government to the Peter Jackson projects, all of which are major visual effects projects done at WETA in New Zealand.

From the point of view of a film producer, this is all good.  Talking some innocent investor out of their money to help finance a film, especially when they get nothing in return (e.g. no points in the film), is part of the Producer's job.  If New Zealand wants to give Mr. Cameron 500 million dollars over 6 years (or whatever the amount will be) why not ?

These events, which all represent long term structural changes to the "free market", means that in the fiercely competitive visual effects industry, any company that lacks one or more of these advantages will not be able to compete.   Which is exactly what we see today.   Asylum, Rhythm and Hues, VIFX/Video Image, The Orphanage, most of Sony Imageworks not to mention many other smaller companies have gone away.   Others, such as Digital Domain and Tippet, are clearly marginal.

ILM is a bit of a mystery to me.  They seem to be hanging in there, and of course they have the new Star Wars films from their parent company, Disney.

Here are some conclusions and questions:

1. The collapse of visual effects in this country is a result of structural changes in the international community which are beyond the ability of any company to deal with.  

2. This collapse has resulted in the unemployment of thousands of people on the West Coast, some of whom have moved to other industries, some have gotten jobs overseas if they could.

3. You should expect this process to continue with more visual effects companies in this country going out of business or moving overseas.

4. Any discussion of unemployment or the "business model being broken" that does not take into account the primary cause of government subsidies and tax exemptions is worthless.

5. Globalization is just Mercantilism by another name.  Our government could do something about this if they cared, but they do not care.

For those of you who believe that there is nothing our country could do to change this situation, please take the time to read any economic history of the last few hundred of years.  There are many things that countries can do in these circumstances, if they care to.

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1. In the early days of computer animation, many of us were not aware that "computer animation" and "visual effects" were completely different industries.  To us it looked nearly the same thing with a tremendous overlap of technologies and skills.  Well, yes and no, but mostly no.   I will write a post on the issues here at some point.  They are not subtle and its an example of how naive some of us were.