"An elegant weapon for a more civilized age"

     Reading this far it is not hard to see my love for film.  I wish it was easier to find people to make projects and everyone have an understanding and respect for one another's work.  Unfortunately in today's times it seems that more than ever ideas are running out.  People don't see or feel the need to really branch out of their comfort zone nor do they want to play second fiddle to another "director" on a project.  Imagine though, how cool it would have been to be part of something magical and inspirational.  Something that would have won over the hearts, minds, and imaginations of millions with you being at the forefront of a revolution.  The problem is that if you are going to make an omelet, you're gonna crack a few eggs.
      Ray Harryhausen was a pioneer in special effects, most notably stop motion animation.  Stop motion animation is the same concept as a cartoon except instead of thousands of picture being played in a sequence from drawings it is played by a model that has articulation points.  Harryhausen was considered a master of his craft and he did all of it in his house.  Stop motion is a painstakingly tedious process and Ray Harryhausen was doing it all without the help of a computer.  Everything was done in camera and if it made a mistake he wouldn't be able to see where he messed up.  Of course all changed with Star Wars in 1977.
     Ray Harryhausen kinda felt how cinema and technology were starting to change and was against.  His films along with a lot of films released during the golden era of Hollywood were simple stories about a hero who defeated the villain and got the girl in the end.  Harryhausen didn't like how the anti-hero was starting to be the main focus along with how violence in movies were starting to go beyond what was considered graphic for the time period.  Apparently Harryhausen and his wife never sat through Silence of the Lambs because of the material and the irony is that he was given a life time achievement award the same year Silence of the Lambs won best picture.
     I assume what he was disappointed with was that the magic of storytelling was becoming more grown up and the disbelief was lost.  Sure special effects help with making the impossible a reality, but now people have become immune to it.  Instead of being wowed about how did they do that it's now more of watching a giant commercial or video game on screen.

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Coming Soon to the Small Screen

     In the 1990's I loved going to the theater.  There was something magical about the whole experience of sitting in a dark room and being just blown away by the images on the screen.  I specifically remember seeing Twister and falling in love with tornadoes and Dodge Rams.  As I got older the experience hasn't changed, but the people and prices have.   The economy is and has been in the gutter for a while.  What use to cost maybe $20 to $30 dollars is now starting to be as expense as a trip to Six Flags.  The 3D gimmick has now become a staple with Hollywood blockbusters and in doing so has skyrocketed ticket prices.  This is why the smaller screen is becoming for popular.
     No this doesn't mean that theaters will be going the away like the drive in, but Hollywood has taken notice.  Big stars are starting to make movies for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.  If I told you five years ago that Brad Pitt would be making a movie for purely on line watching it would have sounded like a joke.  Now it is a reality because of how popular streaming movies and videos has become.  If Red Box killed Blockbuster, Netflix is killing Red Box because of the inconvenience of  taking a movie back.  Now for $7.99 a month I can have all the entertainment I want and not worry about late fees.  Watching YouTube is just as entertaining as watching a television show, I don't even turn on the the tv in my room anymore.
     Hollywood is pumping out fewer and fewer movies for the theaters because they are losing money from poor box office results.  Summer movies usually tend to bring in money, but during the down season people aren't going that much any more to the megaplexes.   VOD (video on demand) use to be a feature for sporting events and specialty programming is now part of our culture.  It's crazy how fast technology has consumed our lives.

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Tools for the "REAL" Filmmaker

     When 1080p resolution was starting to became the standard, people really made a big deal out of it.  Now I don't know all the technical details, but having a high definition camera was what separated amateurs from "real" filmmakers.  Now granted it was really just for bragging rights on Youtube at the time and people loved slapping that little "HD" icon on their videos.  That was 2006 and I would have killed to have a camcorder that was reasonably price that could do 24 frames per second much less high definition. Fast forward seven years later and HD is starting to become a thing of the past.  That's not saying that it will go away overnight, but with all this new 4K, 5K, 101010101010K(doesn't exist...yet) people love having the best picture possible.

     I own two camcorders now, a Sony VG20 and CX900, and they are both 1080p.  With doing videos mainly for youtube there really isn't a reason for 4K for someone like me and the billion other people on the website.  Now if I were making a movie that actually had a budget that would be a different story.  The "RED" cameras are starting to become a staple in the film industry and now if you want to be a real filmmaker you need a RED camera.  When these camera first hit the scene they were beyond what a typical American could afford.  Does someone who does video for a hobby really need a $70,000 camera to haul around and watch like a newborn child to make sure that it is protected and cared for?  Or does a $700 camera work just as fine for your needs that you can get from Best Buy gently used?  That is the $69,300 question.

     RED cameras have been around for a while now and are an established company.  Hollywood blockbusters have gone to the digital format for awhile now because of cost saving versus film stock cameras.  Hollywood can record Chris Pratt running by himself in the morning and then start to work on the frame work for the velociraptor in the at night as opposed to filming in the morning and waiting weeks for the film stock to be processed digitally.

     Now $6000 isn't exactly a steal when you think about what niche would really need a 6K camera to make their materpiece on.  I have sat through a number of short films at the local festivals in St. Louis with varying formats from standard definition to I could probably count blackheads on faces clarity.  To me it doesn't matter really matter about the resolution so much as having a coherent story and at these festivals 90 minutes of shorts films back to back starts to make the idea of a sudden heart attack not such a bad thing.  Usually I can fill my time by thinking about what load of laundry I did that morning or reflect back to a time an old fling got topless for the first time in my old Grand Marquis.  Life is full of little moments like that. 

     Having a $70,000 or even $6000 camera doesn't mean that your production will hit all the high notes and bring acclaim from the masses.  But what do I know, I'm not a "real" filmmaker.  

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Death of the VFX Artist

     Animation is what helped start visual effects in Hollywood.  The picture above is from "Fantasia" released in 1940 during the Golden Era of Disney animation.  Fast forward 75 years to 2015 and the world is a much different place.  The paintbrush and canvas has been replaced with a mouse and a computer screen.  What use to take a team of animators in a room now only takes half the man power because U.S. companies can't compete with overseas competition.  This was something that was a problem with working in industry, I know this all too well.  Learning that the VFX community was in the same boat now was pretty shocking.  

     Are times really that hard that it seems that every job is in risk of being sent overseas?  Hollywood is a giant business just like the steel, coal, and automotive industry and the people are always looking to get the most for their money.  Just like how WalMart is blamed for killing the mom and pops businesses by selling items cheaper, the overseas competition is slowly killing jobs across the board.  The people who loved to create anything from imagination now have to use that same brain power to market themselves for their next job.  

     I guess the technology jobs are in jeopardy just like the factory jobs.  Working in the factory environment everyone was in denial about it happening and going back to school was suppose to help me.  Now it's scary in today's job market that nothing seems for sure anymore. 

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