Tag: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
Most think of film as art form and much is made about those who dazzle at its highest levels, but science has always been a key component to cinema. A group who worked on “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” received early Oscar awards — for science — Sunday night. Those who perform such technical innovation rarely get even a sniff of the spotlight but Simon Clutterbuck, Richard Dorling and James Jacobs were recognized for their work bringing Gollum to life, especially for his skin and movement.
The new tech makes Gollum appear more lifelike in an approach the team calls “Tissue: A Physically-Based Character Simulation Framework.”
“The framework is used to construct and simulate the anatomical components of our digital creatures and characters,” Jacobs, a supervisor for creature special-effects told NBC. (Read the whole article right here.)
Reuters also has a story with details about the Weta Digital winners and others recognized Sunday night.
Congrats to those gentlemen and all of Weta Digital for its mastery of converting Andy Serkis’ performance to screen. TheOneRing.net will celebrate the Oscars, including other nominees for work on The Hobbit, in two weeks featuring on stage Beecake with Billy Boyd. Details to buy tickets are right here.
This morning the now ten nominations for “Best Picture” for the 2010 Academy Awards were announced as as expected, there are plenty of ties to the LOTR community.
“Avatar” with powerful ties to Weta Digital and “District 9,” produced by Peter Jackson and with conceptual design (not an Academy category) also from Weta, are competing in the “Best Picture” category. The two films are also nominated in “Best Visual Effects,” and “Best Editing.” Each film received other nominations as well. See inside for a full list of all nominations and talk about it in our forums. Continue reading “Strong ties in Best Picture race”
Garfeimao writes: The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences has been doing a film series called “Great to be Nominated” which features the film from each year that received the most nominations while not winning one of the major awards. So, 2002 was Fellowship of the Ring, which did win 4 Academy Awards, but none of them in the major categories. The host did mention that the filmmakers were in the unique position of re-dressing that issue 2 years later, when Return of the King won all 11 awards it was nominated for.
Anyhow, the Samuel Goldwyn theater at the Academy is a wonderful room to see a film in. It’s just tops in screen and sound, which makes sense, since it’s an Industry venue. Seeing Fellowship again on the big screen was magical, you pick up on so many details you miss watching it at home. And the sound was amazing, I heard background dialogue I’d never heard before, and I’ve seen the film, well, more than a few times. 😉 Having the Orcs completely surround you, auditorily, was just so cool. Continue reading “Academy of Motion Pictures “Great to be Nominated” FOTR Screening Report!”