In 2009, when ‘Avatar’ came out people were shocked and amazed by the realistic visual effects in the scenes. The CG characters with blue skins and elf ears, the virtual fantasy environments, the CG creatures, which the audiences had never seen before. It has been one of the most influential VFX films around the world. After that, Sci-Fi films are becoming the mainstream in the film industry.

But as more and more VFX blockbusters come out, I found that most Sci-Fi films are getting similar. The films are losing their creative story-line and is jammed with fancy digital effects. Some people begin to feel bored with watching these films. I also found some voices online that the VFX cannot be separated with Sci-Fi films, if there is no VFX there wouldn’t be the great success in Sci-Fi films today. I’m going to find out how VFX affects the films and why VFX is important to filmmakers.

Paul Walker passed away in a car accident during the filming of the movie in 2013. But the film was incredibly finished thanks to the huge contribution of CGI technology. In order to finish the film, more than 200 shots were completed by Walker’s brothers, Caleb and Cody. Their faces were replaced by CGI versions of Walker during post-production.

In the beginning, Paul Walker’s brother’s face was used to be scanned for the reference, but it didn’t work well. The team had to find archived photos and footage of Walker’s from the previous film as reference. And then they tried to craft Walker’s CGI face, but at the same time, they also needed to prevent the effect of uncanny valley. The team spent a lot of time on the CG model of his hair, skin, coloring, and even facial movements. They use Walker’s brothers’ acting as body doubles and place the CGI face of Walker on top of his brothers. The sound editors used audio recordings of Walker from existing dialogue previously recorded by Walker to reconstruct certain scenes, and just digitally cutting and pasting it into the new film. The final result wasn’t flawless but it was very impressive. It took the team tons of money and time to recreate Paul Walker’s face to complete the film.

The same technique has been used in other films too. Such as, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Gollum, ‘The Planet of Apes’ Caesar, and ‘Avatar’. This technology has been applied to more and more films today, many action stars already start to scan their bodies to build some more trickier visual effects.

It is hard to imagine how the team of Fast and Furious 7 experienced and handled all the obstacles caused by Walker’s tragic passing. But they did a really good job on the CG faces to make it look realistic and vivid.

The Matrix and Ghost In The Shell

Both films have a magnificent worldview, and there are lots of cyber punk elements in the films. The visual effects are absolutely fantastic and amazing.

The Matrix was influence a lot by the Japanese cartoon Ghost In The Shell. The film Ghost In The Shell was adapted from the same Japanese cartoon. From the lighting, set designs, the use of color, the cybernetic world, and action designs, they have so much similarities. The low key lighting was used in many shots. And both films have similar robotic machine designs. 

Some unusual perspectives of frame and the position of the camera are also reflected in both films. For example, there are some action scenes are bird-eye views with slow-motion. The eastern action films have a great influence on The Matrix. There are martial actions from Kung-fu in some action scenes. We can find Japanese Geisha, Japanese word characters, and the prototype of Tokyo city in Ghost In The Shell.

Fantastic Mr. Fox-Chemistry

In this scene, there are lots of chemical supplies, such as, test tubes with colorful liquids inside, test tube holder, breakers, alcohol burners, fire extinguisher, and different glasswares. Some notebooks and pencils are on the foreground table. In the background, there is a molecular model on the table. Chemical posters are all over the wall.

All characters are wearing goggles. One of the foxes is wearing dress so the audience know that is a female character. She also has a little bit of makeup on her face. She has eyeliner and longer eyelashes. The other two foxes and another animal characters are wearing male clothes. That’s how they are anthropomorphic in this animation.

There are two groups in the laboratory. In the first group, the male fox has a serious look on his face with a breaker filled with boiled liquid in front of him, he is writing something on the notebook and left hand reaching out to the female fox next to him. The female fox’s hands are overlapping on each other. Obviously, the female fox is the male fox’s partner in this laboratory. The male fox is doing a chemical experiment and the female fox is supposed to pass anything the male fox needs to him. The female fox keeps looking to her left side. And in the next shot, the male fox in the second group looks to his right side. Although they are not in the same frame, they definitely pay attention to each other. After a small explosion in the second group, they have eye contacts and talks to each other. Behind the female fox, the male fox which is her partner is rolling his eyeballs. He is very unhappy about his lab partner appreciating with the other male fox, instead of doing a proper assisting job for him.

This animation is more high key and has warm tone across the frames. Mosts shots are eye-level shots. Four shots are closeup, which is when the female fox and the male fox in the second group having a conversation.

In the music video of ‘Speechless’ by German DJ Robin Schulz, it tells a story about a guy who falls in love with a girl at first sight. But no matter how hard he tries to do everything he can, the girl will not belong to him eventually.

The opening is a medium wide shot which shows the audience that it happens in a small restaurant in India. The music drops until one of the servers turns up the radio. I was impressed by how the music starts with the interaction of the radio. As the camera moves up, the protagonist yawns with a tired and bored look. However, everyone else is so busy with preparing the food. In the next shot, the protagonist serves the food with the same tired face, and the customer is unsatisfied with his attitude. I can tell that he is tired of his everyday life.

As the chorus of the song comes, the girl shows up in front of the protagonist as a customer. He stops his work and stares at her for a few seconds, and he just keeps looking at her. It tells the audience that he is attracted to this beautiful girl at this moment. He gets up to stand on a table and is ready to do something to draw her attention. At the same time, the drop part comes. He tries to impress her in different ways, but it doesn’t work. And then a bunch of people come out to dance with him in front of the girl as the best part of this song arrives. The good news is that he finally gets the girl’s attention. She is surprised and a little bit awkward, and then she laughs. 

Unfortunately, the girl is about to leave in a very unique way. A rope ladder drops from the top, she climbs on and flies away with the helicopter. This is the outro of this song. In the end, the protagonist is speechless to see that. It’s an exact interpretation of the lyric “You left me speechless.”

I’m comfortable with the composition of the shots, some of them follow the rule of third, some shots just put the object in the middle, but it’s well balanced. However, I think some shots are not in a good composition. For example, there are some closeups of the girl in the middle of the music video, there is too much space on the left part of the screen.

From the costumes and props, we can tell that it is a cheap and fast local restaurant in india. It looks simple and rough, nothing fancy in this environment. It fits the protagonist’s current mood and situation. When the girl shows up, I can feel that they are so different from each other. She has makeup on and is well dressed, but the protagonist looks more poor than the girl and he is just a server in this small restaurant. Their worlds are completely different.

The narrative makes me both happy and sad. It shows how two people who live in two different worlds will not be together eventually. Sometimes no matter how hard you try to get someone or something, they will not be yours. I love how every action in this music video interacts with the music. It not only tells a story but also explains the emotion of every part of the song.